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Upgrading to LR 4
#1
It's all in the title. I own LR3 and would like your opinions on whether to upgrade or not.
#2
In short ... if it works for you, don't change it.



There are reasons for a change when ...



... you get a new camera that is not supported by the actual version of LR ...

the detour with the conversion into a DNG is often too cumbersome.



... you get a new computer with a new OS (or you just happen to upgrade the OS).

Eventually the old version of LR does not support your new OS, so an update might

then be the way to go.



... you always missed something in the version of LR that you are working with ...

and finally Adode listened and implemented it into the new version.





Besides this, there might be other reasons, nevertheless, if the workflow

you have now is sufficient for you, why change it?



Just my thoughts ... Rainer
#3
[quote name='Vieux loup' timestamp='1355935936' post='21223']

It's all in the title. I own LR3 and would like your opinions on whether to upgrade or not.

[/quote]



Download the free trial and see for yourself. I think that the new process version (PV 2012) is a great improvement over the previous raw conversion engine (PV 2010). Better control of highlights, and better noise reduction.
#4
I go with Bryan.

PV 2012 is really worth a look. Some sliders have changed the way they act. Beware! Pictures processed in PV2010 may look strange after conversion. Preprocessed pictures are not converted to PV2012 by default, you have to initiate it.

Tone curve learned RGB.

Noise reduction has made a big step forward. The number of AL-files I have to transfer to CS/Noiseware for proper treatment decreased a lot.

Coming handy when difficult lighting on location (light sources with different colour temperatures): Brush tool is able to manipulate colour temperature.

Seldom used but handy, too: correction of longitudinal CAs



Big improvement (for me) is softproof.



No big concern (for me): "Photo Book" and location mapping via GPS.



Just download the trial version and take a look. Using Windows you will have both version on the disk and you may use both versions but not at the same time. AFAIK you will be able to do so using a Mac.

You know the procedures to run a second repository (picture files, sidecar files and catalog(s))?



You may *not* want to use LR4 with older versions of PS CS if you want to transfer pictures between LR and CS as smart objects. LR3 <-smart object-> CS5. LR4 <-smart object-> CS6. Old fashioned transfer of rendered pictures is possible between different versions, of course.



Ciao, Walter
#5
as others have pointed already, the new process version is a very good improvement. Soft proofing was long overdue and is kinda neatly done (not perfect). CA automated removal, ... A nice solid upgrade IMHO.



The book module isn't too bad but strangely, Blurb only provides CMYK profiles that aren't supported by the soft proof module. And only a few profiles regardless of paper types anyway. The book module can't be taken seriously when you know that, just a nice&easy plugin.
#6
I began to use LR with this new version. So I can't compare with the older one. I changed my workflow but after a short warm-up period, I find LR 4 quite good. My decision for the change was that NX2 is not quite handy and the new process verison of LR was said to be improved significantly. I think the results are as good as NX2 with a very user friendly package. Not to forget that LR-4 is quite fast... The only thing I miss is the "unsharp mask" filter.



Serkan
#7
Serkan, I'm not familiar with photoshop at all but isn't that the radius slider ?



also, did you know you can hold the "Alt" key when playing with the sharpening sliders to visualize better what's going on (thresholds, details, ...)?



http://x-equals.com/blog/sharpening-in-l...rt-1-of-2/
#8
[quote name='Sylvain' timestamp='1356096679' post='21239']

Serkan, I'm not familiar with photoshop at all but isn't that the radius slider ?



also, did you know you can hold the "Alt" key when playing with the sharpening sliders to visualize better what's going on (thresholds, details, ...)?



[url="http://x-equals.com/blog/sharpening-in-lightroom-part-1-of-2/"]http://x-equals.com/...om-part-1-of-2/[/url]

[/quote]



I didn't know the alt + sliders combination, thanks for the tip. It works very well with especially with the radius slider. But using the unsharp mask filter in photoshop with magic parameters, or applying it only for luminance channel (Lab mode) can sometimes make a real difference. But you can't get it all in one package, right :-)...



Serkan
#9
I see what you mean, but all in all, sharpening was treated seriously in lightroom, I think.



Just keep in mind the rendering of adobe might be off, so it's good to go check your fav pictures in both your mfr demosaicer & lightroom. (see my post for olympus om-d, shocking differences, really).
#10
[quote name='Sylvain' timestamp='1356190916' post='21244']

...

so it's good to go check your fav pictures in both your mfr demosaicer & lightroom. (see my post for olympus om-d, shocking differences, really).

[/quote]



I'd like to... But the 32bit version of NX2 is (still) soooo slow that you can hardly open a 45MB .nef file and find time to do such kind of checks <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='Big Grin' />/>... Nevertheless, after upgrading to a 64bit system, the first thing I'll do will be installing the NX2 version and see how it performs.



By the way, can you post the link of this OM-D discussion (sorry VL, I hope I'm not ruining your topic <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='Smile' />/>)...



Serkan
  


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