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Author Topic: Lightzone 2.something  (Read 3365 times)

Pete JF

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Lightzone 2.something
« on: December 11, 2006, 07:20:41 pm »

Who's using this application? Raise your hands and say what you like or hate about this program.

It has some appeal to me because it is a raw converter as well as an image editor...for some things.

Is it worth it?

Some say it is old dog slow, some say it is great and worth the smell of the old dog...
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BernardLanguillier

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Lightzone 2.something
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2006, 08:01:40 pm »

Quote
Who's using this application? Raise your hands and say what you like or hate about this program.

It has some appeal to me because it is a raw converter as well as an image editor...for some things.

Is it worth it?

Some say it is old dog slow, some say it is great and worth the smell of the old dog...
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=89947\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I have started to use it on a Core 2 iMac, and I find it to be fast enough for typical usage.

The workflow it offers is good, with some cool features. The really sad thing is that Lightroom is somewhere between a DAM and a simple RAW converter. It lurks you into key wording your files, but then doesn't give the possibility to easily work with different raw converters. I have written this before, but this is a central flaw for people like me who use different raw converters for different images.

If you see it as just a raw converter or like to work with one tool only, then it is a great offering. Its conversions will probably never be the absolute best, but it is likely to be close and offer a great level of convenience.

If I am not mistaken, as of Beta 4.1, it is still using the ACR engine, which I personnally think has now been overtaken in terms of conversion quality by softwares like Raw Developper, Silkypix or DxO to cite a few.

The GA version of Lightroom is said to integrate some of the RSP conversion technology and should get back into the leading pack. Lightroom will be a free update for registered RSP users like me, so why not give it a try?

To summarize, it has good potential for general shooting, but does IMHO not target fine art shooters looking for the best conversion on a per image basis while having to deal with large amount of raw material.

Regards,
Bernard

wolfnowl

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Lightzone 2.something
« Reply #2 on: December 11, 2006, 09:00:20 pm »

Sorry, Bernard... are we talking about Lightroom or Lightzone?

I downloaded the 30 day trial of Lightzone and have used it a bit.  Some features of it I like, others not so much.  Like anything, it's best to try it and see for yourself...

Mike.
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Pete JF

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Lightzone 2.something
« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2006, 09:02:13 pm »

Ha, Bernard, I do believe you are talking about LightROOM...as opposed to LightZONE.

I was reading your response and wondering if you were talking about LightZONE and referring to it as lightROOM.

Anyhow, my query was about Lightzone by a company called Lightcrafts (not rafts). It is a Raw converter/editor and it also lets you work on Tiff, Jpeg and some other file formats...



edit: oops, didn't mean to be redundant, simultaneous posting with wolf up there
« Last Edit: December 11, 2006, 09:03:35 pm by Pete JF »
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BernardLanguillier

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Lightzone 2.something
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2006, 09:08:27 pm »

Quote
Ha, Bernard, I do believe you are talking about LightROOM...as opposed to LightZONE.

I was reading your response and wondering if you were talking about LightZONE and referring to it as lightROOM.

Anyhow, my query was about Lightzone by a company called Lightcrafts (not rafts). It is a Raw converter/editor and it also lets you work on Tiff, Jpeg and some other file formats...
edit: oops, didn't mean to be redundant, simultaneous posting with wolf up there
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=89970\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Argh... my mistake. You are right, I mis-read your post and commented on Lightroom...  Sorry about that.

Sorry, no info on Lightzone on this side of the moon.  

Cheers,
Bernard

Hermie

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Lightzone 2.something
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2006, 05:08:58 pm »

Quote
Who's using this application? Raise your hands and say what you like or hate about this program.

It has some appeal to me because it is a raw converter as well as an image editor...for some things.

Is it worth it?

Some say it is old dog slow, some say it is great and worth the smell of the old dog...
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=89947\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I believe it's worth it. It offers a very intuitive approach to image editing.
There are some features that I would like to see incorporated though.
Love the ZoneMapper (offers the best control over tonality) and the selection tools with built-in feathering.

It isn't the fastest RC around. In that context I would like to add two quotes from LZ developer Fabio Riccardi posted on another forum:

"LightZone does very well with 650M with typical high-end DSLR images. If you need medium format resolution (20-40MPixels) you better assign 1GB to 1.5GB to LightZone. More than that doesn't really help."

"Performance issues are not due to Java, quite otherwise.

LightZone is the most complex and advanced image editor out there, you have no idea of the complexity of the imaging pipeline we built. If it wasn't for Java we would have never managed in the same time frame.

Maybe you noticed that LightZone is the only application that allows non destructive image editing with layers, masks and blending modes. The only other app with layers and masks has been developed over a time span of more than 20 years... and it is quite a bit clankier and destructive...

Light Crafts is a small company and we are constantly under the pressure of releasing new features that our customers ask for, we don't have the luxury of having a year long release cycle... QA is suffering a bit. Now that 2.0 shipped and most features we decided to implement are there, reliability is going to be our next big milestone.

Give us some time and LighZone will fly."

You'll find several workflow articles about LZ on Digital Outback Photo.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2006, 05:15:48 pm by Hermie »
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phojonick

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Lightzone 2.something
« Reply #6 on: December 22, 2006, 07:29:04 pm »

I downloaded the free trial of the RT version of LightZone. Which is just the editor without the browser.

I love the program. I bought it after only a couple days playing around with the thing.

I've never really liked Photoshop, too techy for me, never fully understood what the program was doing to my photos.

LightZone, on the other hand, is extremely intuitive. It took me a little bit to get the hang of it, but that's only because I've used PS for so long and LZ is so very different.

All the photos on my blog (http://f8andbethere.blogspot.com/) from Dec. 20 forward were worked with LZ. I could not have done what I did with PhotoShop.

LightZone is awesome.
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