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OK decision time CC or NOT ?


MikeMc

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Found a few spare $$ in the PS budget. I am always thinking to update software, with those thoughts I went and looked into CC PS 2014 ...($9.95 a month upfront..$120.00.)....downloaded the 30 day trial..I just didn't get that warm fuzzy feeling??? I said what I really need is to calibrate these monitors. After a search both here and ..out there I popped for a Spyder4 Express Should be what I NEED and will let you know what I think when it arrives in the brown truck later this week.
 

iDad

Guru
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If you use the program it's worth it.
 

MikeMc

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If you use the program it's worth it.
I really didn't see much more than I have with CS5.5 Quicker access to RAW stood out...For me as a photographer ...not yet.
 

Sierraccr

Power User
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I've pretty much come to the same conclusion, but for me it's also because although I do occasional photo restoration work for the local ServiceMaster folks (the ones who come in after a fire or flood), I certainly don't make enough to justify a monthly expense and honestly aside from some of the fun things the upgraded Camera Raw will do I just haven't seen enough of an upgrade to make the switch.

I have recently acquired CS6 from a buddy who bought it but switched to CC. I like some of the toys and the content aware fill but in truth probably would not have spent the money to buy it new.

I spent the money on a good 27" monitor instead. :)
 

egosbar

Guru
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2.50 a week , ive had it since it started , if it remains at that price ill have it for life , the way i see it 120 per year , i use ps a lot so i would be upgrading id think every few years anyway so this way im always up to date and i think id save money
 

egosbar

Guru
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new cc 2014 , just done my first lesson on new features
select focus area , combined with refine edge pretty handy i like it
onto lesson two
 

Tom Mann

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Like you, Mike, I use PS mostly for photos. When I'm working on large numbers of images for an event, my first (and possibly only) pass through them will be in Lightroom, not PS. This has tremendously sped up my work flow for several reasons. First, it allows one to group the images that need different raw conversions into groups (eg, outdoors mid-day front lit, outdoors midday back lit, dusk with fill flash, dusk backlit without fill flash, etc.) and then, with a single mouse click, apply different raw conversion presets (identical to ACR presets) to each subgroup in the set.

The second way LR has sped up my photo processing is at the output stage. It tremendously reduces the labor involved in generating, say, from a set of a few hundred images, a few web-sized jpgs, a different bunch of full rez JPGs, print out a few others, and then export a select few as PSD files for further work.

Unless you are doing things like compositing, skin retouching, slenderizing / body-reshaping, text efx, etc. that can't be (easily) done in LR and specifically require PS, you may never need to use PS.

However, if you frequently do such things, there are some nice features in the more recent versions of PS that are *very* nice. Unfortunately, I forget exactly at what point these features were introduced, but I think that features such as the various content aware tools, puppet warping and improved liquify filters, anti-shake filter, the new ACR adjustment layer, improved text tools were all introduced after CS5.

If you are considering upgrading PS, but haven't yet taken the time to familiarize yourself with LR, I would do that first. Allow enough time as the basic paradigm is a bit different than PS, so there is a bit of a learning curve, but, IMHO, it's well worth it.

BTW, while one has to "import" files into LR to work on them, doing so doesn't modify your original files or directory structure in any way. Also, one does not have to use the image database management tools built into LR if you don't want to (... I don't). OTOH, if you don't already have a good system for image keywording, image search and retrieval, etc., LR is quite competent in this area as well.

Just my $0.02,

Tom
 

MikeMc

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Thanks for that Tom....I use bith Bridge and ACD for viewing and sorting. I have yet to get to batch processing, and I love my CS5.5.

I do think the Value is there at $120.00 per year, but as I own CS5 I will stick with it for a bit longer...I think that the calibration of my monitor is more needed now to improve my work.
 

egosbar

Guru
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have you guys ever used photo mechanic , its very good , you can edit in either lightroom or ps from there , its purely a system for categorising images , i watched a tutorial from jeff cable who i think is a great inspiring pro , he mentioned most pros use it over lightroom as its faster , they still edit in raw , lightroom and ps but for categorising etc its very very good , worth looking into , if you love shooting after dark check out jeff cable after dark utube its very good
 

Tom Mann

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Hi Ego -

Yes, like lots of sports photographers and PJs, I've been an absolutely fanatic fan of Photo Mechanic since I first ran into it around 2001 or 2002. IMHO, it is, by far, the best, most painless way to add keywords to files.

If you've been reading the concurrent thread here in PSG where I've touted the utility of Lightroom to Steve for processing large numbers of raw files into JPGs, you'll see that I also mentioned that one does not have to use the keywording and image database features in LR, and that I use LR primarily for the ease with which one can quickly assign raw conversion presets to groups of pix.

To elaborate on that comment, when I'm shooting an event (ie, with large numbers of pix involved), my workflow is actually to start with Photo Mechanic to transfer the files from my camera to my computer, adding keywords, stars, and color ratings as I go.

Next, I use LR to do the raw processing and exporting various versions of the image, as required (eg, full rez JPGs, PSDs in ProFoto for follow-on, detailed editing in PS, thumbnails, etc.).

Finally, for retrieval of images from my long-term archive, I then use either Picasa (for simple searches - stable, very fast), or Extensis' Portfolio (for complicated Boolean searches, but flaky because not in active development, so it doesn't handle modern file formats very well).

After trying many different things, I find that the Photo Mechanic - LR - Picasa combination of software works best for me. In contrast, if I'm spending hours on a single image, I'll replace LR with ACR and PS in the above workflow.

Tom
 

egosbar

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yeah i was glad i found it , its great , dont use lightroom now , just had so much to learn on photoshop but im not bad at ps now so ill have to have another go at it

used to use picasa i just keep my files in my pictures folder and view them in photo mechanic if i need too
, im pretty picky so i dont keep thousands of them , then i back up on the cloud and also on my hard drive and using drop box update my other computer , lost a few photos hopefully never again
 

Tom Mann

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Ego: "...dont use lightroom now , just had so much to learn on photoshop but im not bad at ps now so ill have to have another go at it..."

FWIW, I only use LR if I have more than a couple dozen relatively similar photographs to get out quickly. In such cases, it is an absolute god-send. However, if I'm dealing with under a dozen or so shots, I usually just go straight to PS.


Ego: "...I'm pretty picky, so i don't keep thousands of them..."

Shoot a couple of sporting events or weddings and you'll be up to a thousand high quality images before you know what hit you, LOL.


Ego: "...used to use Picasa i just keep my files in my pictures folder and view them in photo mechanic..."

Manually browsing through images is manageable if you only have a small number of images in your archive. But, when you have thousands or hundreds of thousands of images and absolutely need to find an old one for a client, you will need some method to search for them other than just the folder name. Then, you'll fall in love with Picassa (or something similar) again, LOL.

T
 

egosbar

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all true mate , i steer away from weddings etc im more of landscape and nature then portrait and im only amatuer so i dont have clients im needing to find images for , i do use perfectly clear which is a very good start point in most cases , if u havent tried it then do yourself a favor and have a go, i have f2 as a short cut and you can batch process them with the software no problems
 

Tom Mann

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Funny you mention that. About a month ago, I actually downloaded a trial of Perfectly Clear to try to help speed things up when I'm working with lots of images. I didn't think it came close to completely replacing LR/ACR, and for my way of working, I found that it produced much more consistent and better results if I used it after I did a first quick pass over each image with LR (or ACR), rather than using Perfectly Clear 1st in the sequence.

I'm still sitting on fence about it, tho. I can't make up my mind whether the speed-up is worth it to me or not as I can do everything it does by pushing some sliders around in LR or ACR. OTOH, it's fast and it does suggest improvements, that when I'm tired, I might not think of, or might not have the energy to bother with.

Maybe I'll give it another look. Thanks for mentioning it.

T
 

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