Month: June 2024

The LightRoom replacement is not as easy as I hoped it would be. All alternatives are lacking. In fact, so is LightRoom in its own way, but I am used to that so I don’t notice as much. Also It is not easy to predict which shortcomings I can live with, and which will drive me mad.

CaptureOne:
Seemed like a good alternative, and in many ways it is. But there are also drawback to it.

Good stuff:

• Excellent DAM when using it in catalog mode (with referenced images)
• I really like how projects work, and how smart albums are contained within.
• Smooth interface
• Good for culling and rating images
• Nice local adjustments using layers and a fairly good masking tool

Not so good:

• Shitty Raw processor.
• Noise reduction is a joke
• Lots of little snags and hickups (becomes unresponsive now and again)
• A bit outdated. They don’t develop modern features very fast.
• Expensive.

DXO Photolab:
This very different to C1. All the features that are good in PL is bad in C1, and visa versa.

Good stuff:

• The best Raw processor
• The best noise reduction
• The best lens correction
• Some very nice modern processing features for exposure and dehaze
• Ok local adjustments. No AI masking, but for what they are, the masking tools work pretty well.
• Pricing and licensing

Not so good:

• DAM and organizing is terrible.
• It uses a sort of database, but it is rather brittle.
• You can’t see pictures in sub folders when browsing.
• Undo doesn’t work very good.

Conclusion

So, is there a conclusion to all this. Not yet. I still have 22 days left on the trial versions. For many reasons, not all of the technical, I tend to prefer DXO, but I need to sort out a few workflow issues first. Mainly related to organizing the images. I don’t think I can trust the database, which also holds the collections. It would be a real drag if I have to dump and rebuild the index. I may want to use keywords to embed all this information in the sidecar files. In that way, it will be more future proof as I can reconstruct even if I change the software in the future.

I just flipped the table over, screamed and yelled at everyone around and ran out of the room. Metaphorically speaking. I just stopped my Adobe subscription.

Even though LightRoom is fairly priced, and technically very good, I really don’t like Adobe. This has been brewing for many years now, and when they recently changed their end user agreement, I had enough. Event though it doesn’t really matter to me since I don’t store anything in the cloud, I think it is wrong to grab the rights to all their customers content the way they have done now. So I told them the only way I know, with my wallet.

I have used LightRoom ever since version 1. I did have a short run with Aperture, but that product was discontinued, and not long after I flipped the Apple-table and rage-quit that ecosystem due to Apples hostility towards repairs. So now I’m in the marked for a new DAM and Raw processor. I have looked at most, and I really wished there would be a decent alternative for Linux, but there isn’t. Darktable and RawTherapee doesn’t cut it for me. Currently I am down to 3 alternatives. On1 Photo Raw, DXO Photolab and CaptureOne. Not sure what I’ll end up with yet.