So, I did what I never thought I would do and installed Windows on a second hard drive. I did this almost entirely so I could use Adobe Lightroom to edit my photos. I've been relying on Ubuntu and Darktable to do most of my editing and was overall not happy with the results. I can say that Lightroom is leaps and bounds better, and although I don't like Windows for a number of reasons this may get me to at least boot into it for photo editing. What do you guys think? I'm pretty happy with the results considering they are action shots (very fast shutter speeds) and taken indoors with fluorescent light. They're obviously not the best photos I've ever taken but I'm pretty amazed at how much better the software really is.
My condolences to your computer. There's that Team Associated factory painted truck again. Still a favorite. Very cool.
I've been using Adobe Creative Suite for many years (Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, After Effects, Etc.). And I can say without hesitation, there's a reason it's the number one photo editing/altering software in the world - eight years running Yes, I know for you Linux guys Windows is actually a four-letter word. But kudos and props where they are due. Nice pics Nexus! Is that Adam's new track here in GP?
I have also been using Adobe's Creative Suite for years. Keep in mind most of these products were on Mac first. Continuing to use these on windows won't give Adobe the motivation to migrate them to other Operating Systems. On the other hand I guess they have already capitulated by making them a SAAS running in the browser. On the Mac Apple has Aperture which is also a very competent product and compares favorably to Lightroom. Lightroom is available for Mac and seems to have the same price as the windows version.
Many of the Adobe products are now available for the Mac platform. But never having owned a Mac I really can't make an honest comment on how the software compares between the two O/S's. Other than to say that, yes, Macs don't seem to have the virus and crashing issues that are apparently PART of, and designed into, Windows
Eh, it's just dual-boot so I didn't wipe my Linux drive. GRUB is still intact, too so Ubuntu is the default on the bootloader. It is! These photos are several months old, too. Never could get the sharpness and/or noise reduction I wanted with my open-source photo editor.
Why dual boot when you can use a virtual machine? Then you can use both OSs at the same time. Win! (no pun intended).
Hi Chris, I was going to comment about your shots but got side-tracked I guess it's WIN (haha, punny) for your editing skills because at first glance it's not obvious or you can't tell they have been edited. Which is a good thing, the photo-editing shouldn't distract and they stand on their own as pretty good action shots ... Really, NO complaints and NO pixel-peeping here ... ...
I do have a VirtualBox setup within Ubuntu but it's often very slow. I only have 3GB of system RAM so allocating even half of that to a virtual machine eats up quite a bit of system resources. I'd love to put more RAM in, but I'm using DDR2 and now that it's "old" memory the retail cost is outrageous. It's almost cheaper to get a new motherboard, CPU and RAM than it is to try and upgrade my old RAM. Thanks. They're obviously not the best shots I've ever taken but they are all indoors with sparse fluorescent lighting. Combine that with fast shutter speeds and wide apertures and as you know they look dark and if the focus isn't perfect, they look soft. I wish I could shoot at f/11 at 1/800 seconds, but there just isn't nearly enough light for that. I was pretty impressed with Lightroom. I'll likely continue to play with it more, but as soon as I find an open-source alternative that I like just as much (or my preferred alternative gets better) I'll ditch the dual-boot.
Isn't it strange how the price of RAM goes way down and then way up after the next iteration comes along? Maybe a new motherboard, CPU and RAM is a good idea. Maybe Adobe will make a Lightroom for Linux that isn't a crappy SAAS.
I've been pricing out a new "core" upgrade for my computer for a few months now. A reasonable upgrade (8-core, 8GB, USB3/4 RAM slots) would set me back ~$300. Why aren't I rich? Adobe will never make Linux applications aside from their proprietary implementation of Flash. There isn't enough market demand right now. I'd love to eat those words, though. Valve on the other hand, they know what they're doing...
It's pretty amazing how much computer you can get for $300 these days, especially if you build it yourself. I don't think I would settle for 8GB RAM though. Adobe never was very forward thinking. They will be irrelevant one day just like Microsoft. Valve is certainly doing the right thing.
This just in... Adobe Photoshop Express for iPhone - FREE! Searching for photo editing apps I came across a link for the top 50 iPhone apps of 2013 - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366276,00.asp The first in the list was this awesome Adobe freebie! Don't know if it's available for Android, but take a look and check it out
It looks to be available for free on Android also: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.psmobile
