Recommendations for Lightroom alternatives

[Hoag]

It looks as though I will be shifting away from Lightroom for my photo editing for both above and below the surface.

I currently shoot a Sony A6000 (my underwater camera and my backup body) and have a Sony A7iii on pre-order that will become my primary camera for above the surface. I expect that I will be picking up my A7iii very shortly. (I am making the shift from a Canon 6D to the A7iii as my primary camera.)

I am looking for a way to not only edit my images, but also a way to vet/filter them. The latter is a feature which Luminar currently lacks, but has promised as a free update. All of the others should meet my basic needs, but I wanted to reach out to see if anyone uses and could recommend any of those listed and why you like it.

I realize that none of these editors currently support the Sony A7iii, but I expect that each of them will with their next update.

Edited to add: I will be using this on an iMac. (I will likely have to upgrade my computer too to meet the minimum requirements for any of these.)

 

[Stoo]

I think Aperature has a similar indexing feature to Lightroom, but that is a Mac app only I believe.

I still fall back to Photoshop for serious post production, in part because I can convert to the CMYK colour-space which I need for publication work.

 

[lucca brassi]

Photo Filtre Studio X , small and powerfull at work (microscopy)

PhotoFiltre Studio

ACDSee Photo studio @ home

ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 | Ultimate Creative Freedom

 

[dave42]

If you have a Sony you might give Capture One a try. Lots of my land photo friends use it.

 

[sea_ledford]

Out of curiosity, why are you moving away from Lightroom?

And I thought Aperture died a few years ago. Did Apple bring it back?

-Chris

 

[Hoag]

Out of curiosity, why are you moving away from Lightroom?

And I thought Aperture died a few years ago. Did Apple bring it back?

-Chris

Chris,

Yes, Aperture was phased out a few years ago and it was replaced with Photos.

I am moving away from Lightroom because I currently run Lightroom 4.4. My Canon 6D was supported, but my Sony A6000 was not. To edit any of my A6000 images, I would have to convert the RAW file to a .dng file and then I could edit the images. It was a nuisance with one camera, but after I pick up my A7iii, then neither of my cameras will be supported by my version of Lightroom.

I want a stand alone photo editor (not a subscription based one) for many reasons. One reason is that since the subscription price is based on USD, and I live in Canada, the monthly fees for any such subscription will fluctuate with the exchange rate on the date of monthly billing. Another reason is that within about a year or so, I will have paid more for the subscription (to Lightroom) than I would have paid to purchase a stand alone editor as a one time purchase and then I will have no further costs until such time as I upgrade my camera gear beyond what the editor (and its updates) are able to support.

 

[gstrek]

I went through the same exercise and decided to stick with Lightroom 4.4.1 (perpetual) on my a bit older MacBook Air and W7 PC after reading about performance and other issues with the newer revisions of LR perpetual.

I have evaluated Luminar, Capture One (Sony) and On 1 and found that they are slower than my version of LR, the ability to cull images is not as good or missing as compared to LR . I prefer the LR interface that I am fairly adept at. The alternatives have their pros and cons, learning curve being one of the cons.

Although LR 4.4.1 does not support my newer Sony, Adobe does have a Raw to DNG converter that works pretty well for me as a hobbiest photographer. It is an extra step and there is additional storage but it does work and Adobe seems to keep it updated to include new cameras.

 

[sea_ledford]

Yeah, not a fan of the subscriptions myself. I'm still on LR 5.7 and will be until I tech out like you have.

Converting will be a nightmare since i have 3 different libraries with 3-7,000 images in each.

 

[Pearlman]

For a preliminary look and processing of raw images, organizing them and filtering Take a look at Corel Aftershot Pro 3, speedy (I love how quick and efficient it is), works on win and linux and mac. For the rest of detailed post-processing convert from raw to tiff and you are better off with other tools from Adobe or any others ...

P

 

[Chris Ross]

Capture one is a great raw converter and it can replace lightroom with its asset management features and editing tools. With Sony you get a free version, so it's worth trying for that alone, It is a once off purcahse if you decide to upgrade for additional features. This link is the the Sony version and there is a link to compare what is in the Sony version vs the pro version.

Capture One Sony 11 Imaging Software | Phase One

I bought C1 Pro when I bought my EM-1 MkII and I like the job it does on RAW conversion. The learning curve is a little steep but there are plenty of tutorials explaining the various features available.