Yes Lightroom needs every ounce of power. But when you have Lightroom running slow, your work slows down and drives you crazy.
In todays video we STOP letting lightroom RUN slow and make it FAST
I actually got fed up after last weeks video about Speed-Masks. I love Ai masking in LR but it was bringing my good system to a crawl. I decided it was time to review everything and make a video.
This 2023 video is everything relevant I could find to make Lightroom fast and it goes well beyond the basic Lightroom preference panel settings that you tweak when Lightroom is Slow.
This video has 3 segments. The first is the basics inside LR, then the factors outside of Lightroom and finally Advanced tips for your system to make it speedy.
Lightroom is a log, accept that and make it fast!
Lightroom has always been a big of a hog. Lt likes lots of Ram, disk speed and now graphics. The Masking is epically heavy on graphics use so make sure you watch the external lightroom speed tips in the video because they really help.
Many if these will improve speed on other apps as well. So if you find Capture One is slow or you video editing app, many of the things I’ll share with you today still apply.
Check in with preferences first and often if you feel things are slowing down. We’ll cover those tips in the video. But don’t stop there, do the more advanced things to really make your Lightroom run faster.
I hope this helped you speed up Lightroom as much as it did for me. – Gavin Seim
If you’re not using my Elegance Speed-Masks and don’t want to, then you need to make your own. So I’ll show you. This is the only way you should be masking in Lightroom. You get better masks about 10x faster. I mean that 100%!
In today video I’ll show you how to make your own Speed Mask presets and the latest update to my own local adjustments preset pack, Elegance 4.
Lightroom’s powerful masking tools can be slow and cumbersome. But now with Speed Masks
Masking in Lightroom takes a lot of forms and sometimes it transforms everything while others it’s as simple as controlling tone in a sky.
IN this case I use Street’ist presets for the main look and just dialed back the sky using an Ai speed preset. INtersecting grads into you Ai sky selections like I do in Elegance 4.5 makes thenm more natural.
Control 10 layers at a time.
As I showed in the video with this we had all these layers and by using them as a Speed-Mask develop preset you’ll be able top adjust them as one turning the effect intensity up or down. This is a huge control boost for masks in general that most people don’t even know they are missing if they don’t use the Speed Mask presets.
Don’t go too far with masks.
No matter what app you edit with, going too far on a masked edit is the sure fire way to make a photo look fake. In in a time when Ai is creating fakes of everything, I think natural is a good thing.
You should isolate your background but that doe snot mean darken it two stop. Remember Masking is to digital what burning and dodging was in the darkroom. use it wisely.
You can see in this wedding photo how we used the Ai masks but more for atmosphere than to isolate one thing. The mix allows us to us the master slide to decide how far we wanted that to go.
Have fun with these and let me know what you think – Gav
So today’s vlog is for you even if you use either editing tools. Because today I want to share my ESS theory. What I’ve learned in the process has changed how I create photos in a fake Ai world.
No matter how you edit, your street process matters a lot.
So today after over 3 years of pushing hard on my street photography here in Mexico, I want to share how that’s changed the theories of a guy who’s been a pro photographer for over 20 years. I’ll show you how to use my new Street’ist street photography presets. But I’ll also show you ESS.
The key is to know have a simple plan like ESS. Only you know what you are feeling and how you want to share that in a street photo. But with this simple process you start to focus on what really matters in a street photo.
Sure editing tools and tone and using lightroom presets or capture one styles to make you more creative and make you try more ideas are important.
But YOUR process is the most important. Just make sure you’re always asking yourself how you can improve your process and how you cam make it more ESS.
What makes your street photography have style?
Should you shoot black and white or color. Should you use the blue and orange tones or go natural. And and no, Tik Tockers didn’t invent that look.
The truth is that is you focus on ESS and how it can make your process better you will find your editing style. As a long time purist myself however I would encourage you to not get too focused on perfection. On only natural tones or colors.
Great street photographer have always pushed the edge of edits and presentation and shadow. That’s because a great street photographer knows that he’s not just taking a photo. Though we are journalists in a way, the purity of a scene is sometimes less critical than telling your story about what you feel with light, color, shadow and motion.
Fuji Worms are considered a bane of Fuji shooters. Eating files alive like massive Sandworms rising from the dusts of Dune! But they also can invade your other cameras. Not just Fuji.
But do you really need Capture One to save you from Fuji Worms?
Does Capture One eliminate their Fuji worms better than Lightroom? Because yes even your Sony or Nikon can get worms. So who can save you from the end of photography as we know it. I’ll show you how in the video.
Also try my Film presets to get your own same process testing in LR and C1/ PS, Remember that my Filmist and Silver black and white packs both have noise and grain presets to make killing Fuji Worms easy. Try them out.
“Fuji” Worms actually occur in most Cameras.
And even in this years Lightroom VS Capture One 23 full review video I did one or two tests, with Lighting even pulling ahead. So in today’s video we’ll do a definitive and fair test.
And yes worms show up on other files too. It depends on the ISO, sharpening, sensor and more. I’ll show you a Sony file that also has worms and they are solved in the same way.
But as you see in the video, worms are a rather small issue and while both apps work well. You have no real advantage in worms or noise by using Lightroom. In fact on some images Lightroom seems to remove the noise better than Capture one, leaving us with a natural grain like structure.
ISO 10000 from an X100V compared in Lightroom and Capture one with basic noise reduction and no grain.
De-Worming is Easy on Fuji and other cameras.
I did this test a few years back and even then there was not much difference from Lightroom VS Capture One, despite grand claims to the opposite all over Fuji forums. This year I’ll test files all edited the same and we’ll try noise and grain tools a a definitive comparison.
The truth is all this worm stuff goes away when you add a little grain. So except on the most extreme and over-sharpened photos, worms are unlikely to be a problem even on older Fuji camera that have the Xtrans1 sensor like the Xpro1.
In the past Lightroom did struggle in noise and artifacts, but that was years ago. Just remember to add some noise reduction in LR to get the same result as C1 because it’s not default. Or just use a preset like the ones I make for you.
ISO 2500 file from a Fuji XE-3 LR vs C1 basic noise reduction no Grain.
Then whats all the Fuji Worms Hype about?
Really that’s about it. It’s not a big deal anymore? It’s now mostly just fanboy marketing for Capture One. The idea that you need to pay more for an editing software to get good results. That’s not the case in this situation at least.
In the end choose the software that works best for your style and that inspired you to shoot and edit creatively. That’s what this is all about.
You can feel safe and happy being safe from Fuji worms. You win, worms lose. The End.
Gavin Seim
In this ISO 3200 image from an X100V I added a little grain and basic noise reduction in both for an organic feel.
I made a comparison of Luminar Neo vs Lightroom vs Capture One with no affiliate links, sponsors or brand bias.
Lightroom and Capture One are the big dogs in 2023. Watch my annual review here. But what about Lightroom vs Luminar Neo, it Capture One vs Luminar Neo? Today we find out!
Luminar gets advertised as the easy editor. But most reviews are affiliate or even sponsored videos. We need smaller devs and competition, so I don’t want to ignore them. Today we’ll compare Lightroom Vs Luminar Neo and even bit of Capture One in a real world test.
Download my Free Luminar Neo preset I made for the video. Also use my Filmist LUTS in Luminar Neo as LUTS work amazing in Neo. Download the Filmist free pack and the very least and give it try.
I admit, comparing Lightroom vs Luminar Neo surprised me!
Both in that Luminar Neo does a lot of things, but also I expected more. I feels like Skylum has been focusing on fun features that advertise, rather than refining the app and making it pro tuned. With things like UNDO not even working as of March 2023 (v1.7) this app is not ready to be a photographers daily driver.
In general Luminar Neo gives a broad suite of editing tools for RAW files. It actually has more tools than Lightroom, even if some are a bit gimmicky, many are quite useful.
Luminar is trying to bridge the gap between photoshop and Lightroom. And to a point, it does that with fun add on’s, AI tools and some basic layer control. But it’s still nothing close when it comes to the layer based editing to Photoshop or even Affinity Photos. This like LR and C1 is is a RAW style editor first.
How well does Luminar Neo vs Lightroom Process your files.
Overall it’s honestly good. Masks are clean, selections are nice if a bit slow. AI seems to work more of less Ai-like.
BUT as I showed in the video and below, Luminar falls apart in more difficult shadow and highlight situations. Instead of giving a smooth roll-off in clipping, it bands. Something Lightroom used to suffer from, but these days is maybe even a bit ahead of Capture One.
Look at the sun. My tough test RAW file shows that Luminar Neo is far behind Lightroom and Capture One is detailed processing. In this case I( used just Shadow and Highlight on the RAW file. Click to open larger view.
Is it worth using Luminar Neo vs Capture One vs Lightroom?
Not exactly. Neo is a powerful tool but it’s just as expensive and Lightroom and Photoshop Combined. So while it might be easier to learn and get started (for sure it’s easier than Photoshop) it’s also far more limited, has lower quality Raw processing and it’s lacking a lot of basic pro grade features.
Skylum is treating Luminar more like a mobile app than a serious pro photography tool. It’s many tools are in disconnect with interface problems, lack on expandability and they try to sell extras and instead of fixing slow or buggy features.
While importing is fast, even basic tools like resetting a photo, cropping and exporting are slow and drag when compared to Lightroom and Capture One in general. But the results of the many tools do work well.
Before and after with the Summer preset I made for Luminar Neo (download fee under the video). It makes more advanced edits like skin smoothing and portrait details a slightly more one stop shop. A little more than Lightroom but still less than Photoshop.
Is Luminar really the easy Photo Editor?
That’s how Luminar Neo vs Lightroom. is promoted. The easy, cheaper one click editor. In a sense it’s easy. The learning curve seems straight forward and it can do some things you would normally need Photoshop for.
On a learning scale of 1-10, I would rate Luminar a 4, Lightroom a 5, Capture one a 6 and Photoshop an 8 in it’s learning curve.
While this won’t replace Lightroom, Capture One, Photoshop or Affinity for pros, you will get a lot of tools and if you’re looking for a new app to play with, Luminar Neo offers a lot in one package but it’s more expensive than both LR and PS, combined!.
That said the problems and inability to do simple things any pro app should do make things not so easy of you operate by those standards. Here’s looking at you UNDO, come on Skylum.
You can do a lot here from replacing skies (do very many of us do that) to great portrait edits. It’s just important to separate marketing from realty and then decide what you like best. Luminar Neo vs Lightroom.
A decent jack of all trades is Luminar Neo vs Lightroom
I hope with feedback like this, Skylum can raise the bar and make Luminar a real contender against Lightroom and Capture One. Because we need contenders.
I’m still rooting for it and will give the Skylum team a chance to listen and take action. I want to be clear in all of this. It’s a good app. But when comparing to top pro apps we can’t pull any punches and we have to compare apples to apples, dollars to dollars.
In the battle Lightroom vs Luminar Neo this year, Lightroom + Photoshop gives you more bang for less buck. But Neo has a lot of potential and I really hope that by 2024 the scales start tipping.
Tell me your thoughts in the comments. Will you use Luminar Neo, or stick with Lightroom / Capture One in 2023 — Gavin Seim
In the Luminar Neo Vs Lightroom battle, you’ll find both to be powerful editors. But don’t expect the same level of RAW quality in tough scenes like this one or the same level of Ui refinement that you’ll find in Lightroom or even Capture One. As Neo grows it has a lot of potencial and it will be exciting to see what they can do if they listen to the pro market.
