Recommendations for Lightroom alternatives

[Attonine]

For editing down/selecting there’s really only one choice: Photo Mechanic. It’s what all the photojournalists who are out in the field use, the conflict and sports guys. Photo Mechanic lets them get their shots culled and set off quickly.

I haven’t checked the current version, but I think lots of image editing features have been added so it’s pretty much a one stop shop now.

Camera Bits, Inc.

 

[Hoag]

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.

Capture 1 is definitely one of the front runners. Its RAW capture is considered to be one of the best. (It was originally developed to support the Phase One Medium Format digital cameras.) I was somewhat surprised though that they did not have the converters for the A7iii ready when the A7iii was released this week.

As things currently stand, the only RAW converter out there (that I am aware of) for the A7iii is Adobe DNG Converter 10.3.0.933 (which I downloaded yesterday).

1. Until the A7iii is supported by other editing software (and I imagine that will happen very soon), I will continue with a workflow of:
   Copy .arw files to hard drive
   Convert .arw files to .dng files and save the .dng files
   
2. Import .dng files to Lightroom (4.4)
3. Cull / vet images in Lightroom
   
4. Edit the culled / vetted images (in Lightroom and/or Luminar)
5. Export final edited versions of images to Hard Drive
6. Upload images to "Smugmug" page

I actually really like the editing capabilities of Luminar, and they are planning to release a free update "sometime in 2018" that will include a cataloging function. Having said that, I did take a look at Photo Mechanic as was suggested by @Attonine and it does look very impressive and won't require a computer upgrade.

Thanks for the help everybody. Please keep the advice coming.

 

[Attonine]

I don't know which system you're using, Windows or OS X, but I think there's an issue with Luminar on OS X. If you buy through the Mac App store, because of sandboxing, you cant use plugins with Luminar. To get round this you need to buy it directly from the developer's site. Something like this anyway.

Photo Mechanic is fantastic for what you are looking for: Ingest, sort, tag, cull - the image manipulation can then be handed off to another app. Its also fantastic for sorting, I mean this in the context of creating stories and ordering the shots, like you would need to do if you wanted to create a story the same way National Geographic do, Paris Match, these kinds of things. This is something Aperture was fantastic for too. I don't think any of the other apps have ever really taken this on board.

 

[Hoag]

I don't know which system you're using, Windows or OS X, but I think there's an issue with Luminar on OS X. If you buy through the Mac App store, because of sandboxing, you cant use plugins with Luminar. To get round this you need to buy it directly from the developer's site. Something like this anyway.

Photo Mechanic is fantastic for what you are looking for: Ingest, sort, tag, cull - the image manipulation can then be handed off to another app. Its also fantastic for sorting, I mean this in the context of creating stories and ordering the shots, like you would need to do if you wanted to create a story the same way National Geographic do, Paris Match, these kinds of things. This is something Aperture was fantastic for too. I don't think any of the other apps have ever really taken this on board.

I am running an old iMac (early 2009 model) running OS 10.12 Sierra.
I have purchased Luminar 2018, and I did it through the developer's (SKYLUM) website when they did their introductory offer. (I also run SKYLUM's "Noiseless" app.)

I do like the interface and what I can do with Luminar, but it is slooooooooooooow. This, however will be true of any (every??) modern photo editing software that I move to. My current computer either doesn't meet the min requirements of most editors and for the ones where it does meet min spec, it typically just barely meets the minimum. This is one of the things that I found intriguing about Photo Editor, I could run it on my existing computer (in the short term at least).

 

[Attonine]

I've used Photo Mechanic since 2010, I'm still on 4.6.x I think. Anyway, from what I have seen and its target audience, its fast, and small footprint. I have assisted Newsweek guys working Rio Carnival a couple of times and they are running 20000 shots a night, easy. These have to be culled and selected and sent ASAP. These guys aren't waiting around. Then think of the photogs doing the Olympics or other major sporting events, with their Canon 1D whatever doing what 20 plus sots a second or whatever they can do now. I understand for these events the cameras are tethered directly to Photo Mechanic via ethernet and an assistant deals with everything live, time is of the essence, and they have to get the selects sent to news outlets as soon as it happens. So yeah, you should be OK with it.

Didn't Luminar release a major update this week? Not the anticipated DAM release though.

 

[Hoag]

I've used Photo Mechanic since 2010, I'm still on 4.6.x I think. Anyway, from what I have seen and its target audience, its fast, and small footprint. I have assisted Newsweek guys working Rio Carnival a couple of times and they are running 20000 shots a night, easy. These have to be culled and selected and sent ASAP. These guys aren't waiting around. Then think of the photogs doing the Olympics or other major sporting events, with their Canon 1D whatever doing what 20 plus sots a second or whatever they can do now. I understand for these events the cameras are tethered directly to Photo Mechanic via ethernet and an assistant deals with everything live, time is of the essence, and they have to get the selects sent to news outlets as soon as it happens. So yeah, you should be OK with it.

Didn't Luminar release a major update this week? Not the anticipated DAM release though.

Yes, Luminar did do a major release this week. They added a few cameras that are supported (not the Sony A7iii) and updated their RAW processing engine to make it faster. Their best estimate on an ETA for their DAM upgrade is "mid 2018", and they don't have an ETA on A7iii support, but I would imagine that it will be pretty soon since Adobe has theirs out (at least for the DNG Converter).

 

[Attonine]

In OS X, isn't the camera supported by the OS rather than the app?

 

[Hoag]

In OS X, isn't the camera supported by the OS rather than the app?

No, I don't think so. I think that the software still needs to be able to recognize and decode the RAW file. I fired the Photo Mechanic folks an email to ask if/when the A7iii would be supported.

 

[Tool Belt]

+1 for Capture One. Use it with Fuji XT-2 for terrestrial images. Very powerful package, easy enough to use, great results.

 

[Hoag]

Just a quick update ...
Still like the Luminar interface / workflow but without a Digital Asset Manager it is not really a front runner any more.
I have downloaded Capture One Express for Sony and to my surprise my "Late 2009" iMac will run it OK but it is a little slow.
I have downloaded Capture One Pro 11 (for Sony) 30 day trial and my iMac will run it but it is significantly slower than the Express version. For the most part, I like it.
I have downloaded On1 Raw 30 day free trial, and my iMac chokes on it. It will run it, but with all the speed of trying to convince a 7 year old to eat his asparagus.

I have picked up a 1TB external SSD and have removed everything that I could from the internal HD. That seems to have freed up some resources and may be helping a little. I have also ordered 8GB of RAM. This will increase my RAM from 4GB to 12GB and should help out a lot. Eventually, the only real solution will be to replace my computer, but I am trying to save that for a later date. With an increase in RAM, I am expecting that Capture One Pro for Sony (roughly $75USD) will be what I ultimately go with unless Skylum releases their DAM upgrade for Luminar (pun not intended) very before I get my RAM delivered and installed.