adobe

Photo Film Is Expensive

by

With Kodak raising (again), the price of their film stock, it doesn’t make sense to use recreationally anymore. Over the years, I have developed presets inside of Adobe Lightroom to apply to my images. These presets convert a digital image I’ve captured into a film emulator. I am very pleased with the results. Of course, you can always tweak the settings to suit you. I am giving serious consideration in releasing these presets for a low cost of 10 presets for $10. Let me know if interested by commenting below.

Kodak Gold 200
Ilford HP5+

Goodbye Adobe

by

After decades of relying on Adobe photography software to host, edit and organize my archive, it is time to say goodbye. Photoshop and Lightroom are second to none with one exception- a subscription. With all the competition out there in this space, I can no longer justify $120 annually for it. Yes, they’ve hosted my photography website too, but I am moving on.

In a frequent effort to manage my tools and workflow, I am in downsizing mode. Call it minimalism or essentialism. I’ve discovered Mylio, a software tool that organizes your archives quickly and more efficiently than Adobe.

🔗
My write-up on Mylio is here: https://www.chrisdenbow.website/mylio-photo-organizer/

Last year I paid a one-time fee for Pixelmator Pro which is baked right in to the Apple ecosystem so much, I am surprised Apple hasn’t bought them out.

Last month I re-upped my Flickr photo-hosting membership. This is where my images can be discovered online as opposed to my old photography site (PhotoDenbow.com)

Apple Photos is of course, on all the iDevices that I own and synced flawlessly through iCloud. With 2TB of cloud storage, I am good for awhile there too. Besides, it is a joy to view the images in there. It reminds me of the old film contact sheets we used in the darkroom before making prints.

All of this is subject to change, without notice and usually on a whim. But for now, I am confident that this will help save money and lighten the workflow.

UPDATE 3/3 – That didn’t last long. I renewed the membership, if only to get the Adobe Portfolio web hosting that comes with it. Every other web host is $$.

Adobe Lightroom Video

by

The same edit controls that you already use to make your photography shine can now be used with your videos as well! Not only can you use Lightroom’s editing capabilities to make your video clips look their best, you can also copy and paste edit settings between photos and videos, allowing you to achieve a consistent aesthetic across both your photos and videos.

Benjamin Warde on Adobe’s Blog: June 2022 photography releases

I have never applied a concentrated effort into shooting a quality video because I’ve been so comfortable with photos. Video editing is difficult and expensive. This seems to be a simple solution for beginners such as myself and I am digging it’s simplicity so far.

Post Process Photography

by

Lately I have been attempting to find a more efficient workflow for my photography processing and organization. I have been an Adobe Lightroom user since 2006 to help organize and edit images. A few years ago Adobe switched to a subscription model instead of a one-time purchase. This is disappointing. To save money, I have looked for a solution that can do everything Lightroom can and own it. It hasn’t been easy and I have tried them all. I’ve gone back and forth but somehow I keep coming back to Lightroom so why fight it? Shut up and take my money. A history of the back and forth below:

  • 01/01/2018 Lightroom is the best, I’ll never leave.
  • 05/01/2018 Why am I paying Adobe every month? I wonder what Capture One will do for me?
  • 05/15/2018 C1 trial expiring, do I want to invest $200 for something I am not too happy with?
  • 03/24/2019 Converted from Windows to Macbook. Adobe? Pixelmator? Both.
  • 02/02/2022 Cancel Adobe, hello again Pixelmator and Apple Photos
  • 02/24/2022 Don’t listen to me, I’ve resubscribed to Adobe Lightroom

The whole point of this is to stick with what I know, enjoy the process, appreciate the software solutions offered and pay the monthly fee. This time I went with the 1 TB Lightroom Only plan because I do not use Photoshop. Same cost, less software but more cloud storage. Perfect.

by

Lightroom Preset Synchronization

Finally.

I’ve been able to synchronize my custom film effects from the desktop to my mobile iOS devices so now I can edit my images anywhere.

On my iPhone

On my iPad

This is a fantastic development that’ll come in handy when I am out and about and want to share processed images right away.