From my experience, it’s “normal” people who use LR. Most of them use LR because they don’t know other software.
E.g. if you want to make a license or any kind of certificate in photography, it’s LR that you have to know.
I like Open Source software, but politically, I am not in the left or any kind of “alternative” spectrum. I used to be left but I have grown older.
As I am writing this, I am actually downloading LR again. I am too curious.
I know several (semi)-professional photographers who absolutely do not use any Adobe software, and simply make great photographs and get recognised for that. So I really guess it’s really up to each personal preference.
And LR is good in many things, and definitely appeals to a large audience who doesn’t want to tinker with the many options RawTherapee, darktable and others have. This, again, is up to personal preference I think. Also, each software (and each camera) has its own ‘default’ mode of operation. It’s something to learn how to work with. I get the feeling you are looking for a ‘one size suits all’ or ‘golden solution’ to get that perfect RAW processing. But it just doesn’t work like that…
I am pleased to say, none of my images for probably the best part of 10 years have ever touched LR, Photoshop etc. I am a 100% open source photographer and have the upmost respect and admiration for the developers who build these awesome tools. I am a Rawtherapee, darktable, GIMP and GMIC photographer.
The pixl forums can get a bit technical sometimes but they are a great resource for information and probably my first port of call for when I have an issue, as I am the only open source photographer in the real world community of photographers I am involved with (local camera clubs).
Actually I gave 1 photo in 2016 to my friend who edited it in PSE / Nik on a practical night at our camera club !
When I mention RAW noise to Adobe users they look at me gone out !!! I’ve sometimes exploited the RAW noise to leave a bit of noise on my monochrome image, to give them a retro / film feel
Hallo Morgan_Hardwood,
Isn’t that exactly the right approach in RT? “Using a proper camera input profile (ICC/DCP), one tone curve, and optionally the HH and LH curves”?
What does “Doing this is generally a waste of time and missing the point” refer to?
micha
If you’re asking me to clarify what I meant in something I wrote in 2016, well I probably meant that the point of processing a raw file is to do a better job than the OOC JPEG.
thanks for the info.
There is a dcp from Adobe and one from or in RT for my Panasonic DC-G9. I can use both in RT, the color of RT seems to be a little bit better. I think you made this dcp with my test shots.
If I have chosen the right input profile, does it make sense to work without Tone curve? This tone curve makes the shots as bright as the camera. Is it better to do without it anyway?
@micha back in 2016 there was no automated tone-curve matching, so matching the raw file to the JPEG required considerable effort. Now, however, matching is done by RawTherapee and happens automatically, so it requires no effort. As such, you might as well start with a matched tone curve, and reset or modify it if you want to improve upon it.
