Another reason to upgrade!

[planetc]

I haven't done very much with any of the Adobe applications for a few years. I always intended to do more photography when I moved to the coast in 2006, and upgraded to cs2 at the time then other commitments put it into the background. It seems I have missed a lot since then. I've discovered that there are lots of new smart tools I don't have, and trying to get a workflow together I have also now found that I can't open 50d raw files directly in the Adobe apps. I get on quite well with DPP and always found its batch processing nice and easy, but prefer the sharpening flexibility of PS. Increasingly looking like I've got to spend some money on software to avoid the additional steps, which is likely to lead to a hardware upgrade too! Takes me back, chasing the technology.... there's always something better just out of reach.

[Tigger]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

one of the biggest problems with upgrading software is it pushes the limits of the hardware, if your thinking about updating you need to look at the specs of your machine first otherwise you could end up spending money on new software and have a tool thats jerky and not usable...

A friend recently asked me for some tips on using LR as he'd just installed it, but onto an old and VERY slow machine - it was a nightmare and in the end I gave up and showed him it working on my MacBook, he's now trying to talk the boss around to spending some cash ....

[ColytonJohn]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

I can only echo what Ian said as software is written to take advantage of the latest developments in hardware and while there is usually some backwards comatability, it's rarely efficient.

I recently made the leap from DPP to Adobe's best and my PC, that I thought reasonably powerful, just couldn't cope. The problem was that 4gb of RAM just wasn't enough and installing more not an option as I was running a 32bit version of Windows - I could have upgraded it to 64 bit and installed more RAM but then would also have needed to reinstall all my software.

I overcame this dillema by buying a new PC for photography! It has an i7, 3.6ghz quad core processor, 16gb RAM and an SSD system drive, a spec that makes it blisteringly fast enabling a seamless Lightroom/CS6/Lightroom workflow. Not a cheap solution but it has removed the frustrations and made photo processing so much more enjoyable.

I still use my old PC for everything else and share the monitor, keyboard and mouse via a KVM switch.

Cheers,
John

[kelly200269]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

I find it strange that you can't open 50D raw files in Adobe apps? You should be able to, as Adobe is fully compatible with these files. Have you tried downloading the latest version of ACR?
There is another option if, like me you don't particularly want to throw more money at a new PC/Mac, and that's to look at software that's a little older which is less demanding of hardware.
Rather than subscribe to Adobe CC or buy a new copy of LR5, I bought a copy of LR4 from eBay at a fraction of the cost of these newer options. It runs perfectly on my 3 year-old PC and with my camera bodies being older like yours, I don't need the latest and greatest hardware and software.
There has to be an end to this endless cycle of 'upgrading' somewhere, and personally I've found it with my kit :) I'd much prefer to spend my money on glass, than on black-boxes of both types.
The only problem I have with my PC is using PRIME deionising NR in DxO, and my i3/8GB just isn't ideal, but that's another story! lol

[planetc]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

Unfortunately research suggests cs3 onwards for the 50d. I did update the camera raw, but although 3.7 supports the camera it does so only from cs3. I will look at the options, as my path to cs2 was a crafty one, I started with 4LE which was free with a scanner, purchased an oem full v6 from Belgium for £40, and then upgrades to cs/2. I have still not spent the equivalent of the full price of any version of PS.

[DrJon]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

You can always use Adobe's DNG converter (free) to convert camera raw files to DNG and open them in versions of Photoshop that don't support the camera in question...

[planetc]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

I did see reference to that, I might give it a go and see how it fares.

[Stan]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

I did see reference to that, I might give it a go and see how it fares

I use CS3 and it was not compatible with my 7D so i have been converting using the Adobe DNG converter (which is a universal RAW format) and then opening in photoshop for over 4 years now without problem.

Stan

[planetc]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

Cool, I'll look closer in the morning. I quite like the look of the content aware fill too, but in reality I don't tend to go that far with modified images usually.

[planetc]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

Yay, it works. End up with a file 20% smaller (although I only tried one). Is there any form of batch process in cs2 or bridge? This was what I found drew me to use dpp originally, the ability to copy a recipe across several similar images?

[Stan]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

Is there any form of batch process in cs2

create an "action" and then you can batch process using that action on all the open files

stan

[planetc]

Re: Another reason to upgrade!

Yes, I figured it out last night after work. I think I'll be working more with it now as I do prefer the results. Although it currently takes me longer I'm sure familiarity will speed it up.