Steve Crane
Member
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2007
- Messages
- 87
- Location
- Cape Town, South Africa
- Lightroom Experience
- Advanced
- Lightroom Version
Hi,
I'm a 45 year old programmer from Cape Town, South Africa and photography is a hobby.
I got my first decent camera, a Pentax Spotmatic-F in the mid 198's but never really got into photography seriously before my young family hit a financially rocky patch and the camera was sold to help make ends meet.
For many years I said I would replace it some day but it was only in 2''' when I bought a second-hand Sony Mavica FD7 that I got back into photography. I used that for a while before upgrading to a better point-and-shoot, and then a bridge camera (Fuji S3'4 & S7'''). I only used the S7''' for 1' months before I gave up struggling with its limitations and bought my first DSLR, a Canon Digital Rebel (3''D) in December 2''5. I used it until May this year when it packed up and I bought a Canon 3'D to replace it. Along the way I have also acquired a Praktica MTL 5' 35mm SLR and a fixed lens Martex 35mm rangefinder, both of which see occasional use when I want to slow things down and really think about every frame I shoot.
Although I develop Windows software for a living I switched to Linux in 1997 for home use and used the GIMP to process my images for the first 5 years that I did digital photography. A while after getting my DSLR I started shooting RAW and found that there was no easy to use RAW conversion software under Linux and switched to Windows. I started off using the conversion software that came with my camera and GIMP on Windows for further processing. I tried the free version of RawShooter and other free software like Picasa but didn't really take to them and it was only when I tried the premium version of RawShooter when it first launched that I found RAW conversion software that I was happy with. I also bought IMatch to use for keeping track of my images but it had a steep learning curve that I never took the time to scale so I used just a fraction of its power.
I heard about Lightroom and liked the fact that it would be able to handle both image processing and management in one place, so as soon as the first Windows beta (B3 I think it was) was available I tried it but it was so horribly slow that I gave up and continued using RawShooter until B4 came out. At that point I found it usable enough that I could start using it in place of RawShooter. Then Adobe bought RawShooter and that's how I ended up owning LR 1.', which I have used almost exclusively since only using other tools for things that LR can't do, like compositing layers and correcting lens distortion.
At this point I only use the Library and Develop modules with a little Slideshow thrown in, but I am working my way through Mikkel Aaland's Lightroom Adventure book and will no doubt come to realise that there are good reasons for me to use other modules as I read about them.
My thoughts are turning towards acquiring a laptop and if I do it may very well be a Macbook, but I still prefer Linux over Windows and if Adobe were to realise a Linux version of LR there is no doubt I would switch to that.
I'm a 45 year old programmer from Cape Town, South Africa and photography is a hobby.
I got my first decent camera, a Pentax Spotmatic-F in the mid 198's but never really got into photography seriously before my young family hit a financially rocky patch and the camera was sold to help make ends meet.
For many years I said I would replace it some day but it was only in 2''' when I bought a second-hand Sony Mavica FD7 that I got back into photography. I used that for a while before upgrading to a better point-and-shoot, and then a bridge camera (Fuji S3'4 & S7'''). I only used the S7''' for 1' months before I gave up struggling with its limitations and bought my first DSLR, a Canon Digital Rebel (3''D) in December 2''5. I used it until May this year when it packed up and I bought a Canon 3'D to replace it. Along the way I have also acquired a Praktica MTL 5' 35mm SLR and a fixed lens Martex 35mm rangefinder, both of which see occasional use when I want to slow things down and really think about every frame I shoot.
Although I develop Windows software for a living I switched to Linux in 1997 for home use and used the GIMP to process my images for the first 5 years that I did digital photography. A while after getting my DSLR I started shooting RAW and found that there was no easy to use RAW conversion software under Linux and switched to Windows. I started off using the conversion software that came with my camera and GIMP on Windows for further processing. I tried the free version of RawShooter and other free software like Picasa but didn't really take to them and it was only when I tried the premium version of RawShooter when it first launched that I found RAW conversion software that I was happy with. I also bought IMatch to use for keeping track of my images but it had a steep learning curve that I never took the time to scale so I used just a fraction of its power.
I heard about Lightroom and liked the fact that it would be able to handle both image processing and management in one place, so as soon as the first Windows beta (B3 I think it was) was available I tried it but it was so horribly slow that I gave up and continued using RawShooter until B4 came out. At that point I found it usable enough that I could start using it in place of RawShooter. Then Adobe bought RawShooter and that's how I ended up owning LR 1.', which I have used almost exclusively since only using other tools for things that LR can't do, like compositing layers and correcting lens distortion.
At this point I only use the Library and Develop modules with a little Slideshow thrown in, but I am working my way through Mikkel Aaland's Lightroom Adventure book and will no doubt come to realise that there are good reasons for me to use other modules as I read about them.
My thoughts are turning towards acquiring a laptop and if I do it may very well be a Macbook, but I still prefer Linux over Windows and if Adobe were to realise a Linux version of LR there is no doubt I would switch to that.
