It has long been known that I use Darktable as my main editing software, and that I use ON1 Photo Raw as a secondary editing package for things I cannot achieve in Darktable, as well as the occasional use of Gimp for artistic tasks. Well, as of the last week or so, I have decided to take the plunge, and I have gone to Adobe! Here is why.
I own most of the editing packages, and I have found that I really do not use Luminar Neo or DXO PhotoLab at all. It is not because they are not good, but rather because I just do not “click” with them in the way I do with other packages. I have been looking to consolidate my workflow for a long time now, and I have noticed that the vast majority of video and written tutorials or assets are for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Whatever you need, it is available, because there is such a huge install base for their software.
So, I decided to take the plunge. I started a genuine, intelligent discussion on my photography group Sharing Our Photography Passion and one thing led to another and before you knew it, I had a year subscription of Adobe Photography Plan (usually £9.98 a month). I would like to thank my friend Stephen Davies for this, and it is because of a lot of his work, all created in Photoshop, that I thought it was that time to make the change.
And so, I am all set up. I am the latest version of Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw for most of my images now, and I have added to it the things that I wanted, and were missing to access easily in other software.
I have added a selection of profiles, including the Fro Pack series and Maston Labs sets. I am using ON1 Photo Raw 2024 Max and Luminar Neo, with all available plugins for those programs, as a plugin for Photoshop. It now means I have a central editing point, and I can do the majority of the editing in Photoshop, while dipping into the other programs as and when needed as part of that workflow. There are things I really like in ON1, such as the border options and the superb Dynamic Contrast options that are available.
I have yet to dip my toes into fully Lightroom, generally because I am not to keen on the way that software handles its libraries, but once I get to grips with Photohop, I will start using Lightroom more.
There are a number of reasons I decided to go for Adobe, and firstly, because it is class leading software with more tools for the job than any other pieces of software. As mentioned, there are also infinite number of tutorials, assets and more. Plus, the simple things like masking, and AI masking just works better, with little or no need to ever fine-tune the mask that Photoshop selects. It is also of course updated very reguarly, and even has a Beta version, should I wish to have all the latest developments straight away.
I have tested its denoise abilities, and I am more than happy with them, and they seem to be better than DXO, Luminar ans ON1 with clearning noise and retaining detail (not that I get much noise these days with the Z6ii!).
So, currently I am watchinig a lot of Photoshop tutorials (PixImperfect YouTube channel mostly!) and learning the basics of manipulation. Not because I have to, but because I want to, and have done for a long time. I want to be good at these things, even if the majority of my editing is far less complex than what the software can deliver.
One Camera One Lens Photography 
When I started way back when with Photoshop the learning curve was huge! So, I’m not changing now. With your knowledge and experience with other programs hopefully, your learning curve won’t be too steep! Best of luck!
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Thank you 🙏 thankfully a lot of it is very familiar thanks to the other programs, but there are still lots of things that I need to learn!
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If you’re interested in a book with tips and tricks and “how to do it” step by step I highly recommend Scott Kelby’s The Adobe Photoshop CC book for digital photographers. He has one for Lightroom CC as well. I have used his books for decades. I don’t know what version the latest book is. My CC Photoshop version is from 2014 when I moved from Photoshop CS6 to the online CC version.
I have a very old manual from my Elements 4.0 days that came from Adobe with my software that I still use techniques from. That’s the great thing about Photoshop- stuff you could do twenty years ago you still can! The basics haven’t changed they just get better and more intuitive.
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Thank you, I shall look for this!
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A lot of expense when all the basic needs of a photo editor are in a freeware product called PhotoScape X V4. A pro edition costs $40 US still I think but for the few times I have to clone I can simply jump to another product like NEO. I try to take well composed and exposed correctly with reasonably chosen camera and lenses and find little is required to be done but anything needed is easily created in the PSX product. Retired for 24 years after 33 years as a Professional wedding/portrait (MPA). Have tried many products for editing images but PSX seems to be all I need. Give it a try, it is free. Would love to know your thoughts. MW
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I love Photoscape! The great thing is, I get Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop for free so there is no cost for me, I have been lucky enough to have had a free subscription.
In all honesty, if I wasn’t working with my photography, NX Studio by Nikon is free and incredibly powerful, and combined with Photoscape (which I’ve reviewed on here over the years and mentioned often), it could be a great combo!
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Would love to chat with you about PSX. I have problems with using its clone process but I don’t often clone as I try to limit my occasions where cloning is necessary. Some other things I would like to learn more about which I use infrequently we might chat about too. Might be better handled in a one on one situation rather than turning your program into a chat room about just PSX.
While I have zero interest in creating a YT site about PSX — just not any topic actually — happily retired from working and teaching both of which I did during a 33 year career. However, I have created a brief text with photo that likely needs updating when I get time about using PSX. I just need more knowledge about some aspects to add to it. I will sometime add it to my Dropbox if there is any interest by others in having it as I know there seems not to be any text with or without photos for folks to learn from.
It is an excellent program. Of course Luminar NEO offers some other things and I have it too which I purchased a couple or more years ago but don’t currently bother with paying a subscription for the new add-ons. If working, probably I would as some definitely would make things simpler in some edits.
Nice to have seen info about this forum but I don’t belong to unsocial media — glad to use email.
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I went legal with Adobe last year, and have never had the need to use Lightroom. Camera Raw together with Adobe Bridge gives the same functionality as Lightroom, but without the cataloging.
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