Nauticam EMWL - strong reflection in final picture

9 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

Everyone has their own price points they are willing to pay, for me personally, I've been using PS for 25 years+ and apart from RAW converter updates I can do most of the tricks that Adobe introduces with the tools I have in my version. I recall that their updates were getting progressively less compelling and they in fact held back things like support for high res monitors until after they introduced the subscription model, lots of people swore off them on the forums I frequented back then.

Of course not everyone has that skill set and if they choose to subscribe, it's up to them entirely. For me I only ever used PS, never lightroom, apparently it's getting closer now but from talking to people the PS tools area easier to use than LR. For me exercising those skills makes me feel like the photo is more my creation - or something like that. Not disparaging anyone who chooses to subscribe, just letting people know what is possible without all the AI tools etc.

Lightroom is a real powerhouse these days in my opinion. It has vastly improved in the last 5 years. The AI feature that is most useful is not even generative like Remove. It is creating Masks. Masking a complex shape, like that Warbonnet, allows you to make adjustments to a target selection in an image. Brightness, clarity, sharpness, black level, etc. The recent addition on AI denoise is another big improvement. The are the types of AI we can all appreciate as they just make the tools you already used quicker and easier. Masking use to be a painful experience and now its effortless and powerful.

Anyway, i feel like i get my money's worth.

PS- I can't imagine handling 1000's of photos any more without Lightroom's tagging, triage, and organization capabilities. Shudder!