So...Lightroom

I'm in that age range where at 15, I had my first computer (IBM XT w/ a whopping 20MB hard drive!) so as technology platforms and business models evolve, I don't give it much pause. I use LR heavy 2-3 times a year, and once in a while monthly - but to me that $10/mo. to have a constantly current, debugged program is just another day at the office. It also paid off last week with superior customer service when a buried display setting in my laptop was set incorrectly and the tech fixed it remotely in 5 minutes.

I believe younger than me - people don't give subscriptions a second thought. Older and it seems like greedy corporate ogres pushing the agenda.

Just my $0.02...

Lightroom is a catalog software at its core. It's also a very powerful RAW processor. Thus, it is meant to be used with EVERY photo you take. If you're not using it as your catalog and organizer and you're not shooting raw.... it probably wouldn't be worth $10 per month.

But if every photo is being cataloged in it and every raw photo is being processed by it... I probably spend less than 1 cent per photo per year for the software..

Lightroom is a catalog software at its core. It's also a very powerful RAW processor. Thus, it is meant to be used with EVERY photo you take. If you're not using it as your catalog and organizer and you're not shooting raw.... it probably wouldn't be worth $10 per month.

But if every photo is being cataloged in it and every raw photo is being processed by it... I probably spend less than 1 cent per photo per year for the software..

I was so lucky to shoot RAW + jpeg for the first time this past camping trip. One whole hike in snow with sun/overcast alternating - and I highly overexposed a majority of them. The adjustments I was able to make saved all the ones I really wanted. The jpegs - most - could not be post processed without a serious loss in quality.

Cataloging is another story - been super lazy learning the details of how to use it efficiently, so I know I'm losing a lot of value because of it.

I can't disagree with the price per use argument. I use Lightroom often and my price per use is reasonable in my view. In your situation, I would probably do the same.

 

I currently own Skylum software and am waiting for the digital asset management portion to be released to finish my evaluation here on the forums. I also bought the Aurora HDR module too. It looks pretty good and the interface is improving with each update.

 

Dave

Thank you! Reviews I've found on the web so far haven't been too helpful as they all seemed geared towards pro photographers. Your attitude towards HDR in general seems to match mine so what I've read so far in your reviews have been perfect for me. Really appreciate it.