Pixelmator purchased by Apple

[CharlesH]

- Photoshop, LR look decent, but Premiere Pro is subpar in comparison with DaVinci Resolve.

I started out in video with Premier Pro; that was lots of years ago. And then I was very early to adopt ProRes RAW, and then HDR video, and Adobe did not have a clue about any of this. So I moved over to Apple's Final Cut Pro, which handled this very well - it was a breath of fresh air compared to Adobe. Ultimately, like you I've moved to DaVinci Resolve, which I think is the best thing out there. I still use FCP now and then if I want to run native ProRes RAW, but I usually just convert it to ProRes 4444 and run it in Resolve.

But I do use Lightyear for photography. I actually used Photoshop for photography before Lightroom existed, and then grudgingly moved to Lightroom as it became more capable. I do now and then look at other photo-editing software, but so far have not switched to anything else. I use DxO PureRAW as a Lightroom plug-in, mostly with micro four thirds to extend the dynamic range a little, so I appreciate what DxO is doing for photographers. All-in-all I find Lightyear Classic is a good product, well supported, and pretty constantly bringing on new good features.

And by the way, I don't use Lightroom non-classic very much. I have it installed on my Mac and my iPad and my phone. I don't find the interface very intuitive, and the filing system is confusing. I use it now and then in the field with my iPad, but with very few pictures. Maybe it's designed for millennials or younger, but they can have it. I did use it when Adobe first came out with HDR for photography because Lightroom Classic would not display HDR in full screen and non-classic could. But that has been fixed, so I don't have much need for non-classic.

The reason I'm interested in Pixelmator is that it is devoted to just Apple, I use Apple for photography, and with Apple buying them they may get more integrated into Apple's ecosystem, and hence more capable and easier to use. That could be a good thing for me. If you aren't an Apple user I'm sure this is not very interesting. For example if I download Lumix pictures with Lumix Lab into Photos on my phone they will show up in Photos on my Mac and iPad, and I can edit them with Pixelmator with any of these devices. I haven't tried all this, don't know how well it will work, but that is the concept that has me interested.

 

[Oíche]

Black Friday 84% offLuminar Neo lifetime subscription is 1999 Turkish Lira or £44.70 so I'm considering this, it looks better than Photomator except for AI masking but that's something I rarely ever use. It has focus stacking and HDR blending from brackets, I'm currently finding out more about it.

 

[Oíche]

I've a further 10% discount code for the above if anyone wants it.

 

[Oíche]

Luminar supports Lumix cameras:

 

[CharlesH]

It has focus stacking and HDR blending from brackets

Keep in mind HDR blending is different than HDR for a high dynamic range monitor. Blending is the old technique of taking a range of exposures and picking the shadows from the higher exposures and the highlights from the lower exposures to give a photo you can display on an 8 bit SD monitor.

 

[Oíche]

Keep in mind HDR blending is different than HDR for a high dynamic range monitor. Blending is the old technique of taking a range of exposures and picking the shadows from the higher exposures and the highlights from the lower exposures to give a photo you can display on an 8 bit SD monitor.

Yeah I knew that, not sure it can do the HDR files with meta data to display on a HDR monitor. 'Not sure' is key here, I spent most of the day trying to research Luminar Neo and it looks like a pricing trap where the base software is cheap but HDR merge, Upscale AI, panoramic merge and others seem to be optional extras costing more each than the base software and I'm not sure if these too are a time limited subscription.

I downloaded the trial, had a brief look and it's trying to sell LUTs starting at $19 each

So I'm not impressed already, even the full screen view does not display in full. It seems like a stealthy attempt to pretend to be non subscription but the functionality it markets upon is... Just yet more of the same attempt at extortion which we are seemingly bombarded with nowadays.

It also seems to be heavily supposed AI orientated with erase, image expansion and emulating colours and more from other photos. I don't like any of this nonsense, it's not photography or creative and the same as phones doing similar.

I'll might another look at it but I doubt it and just uninstall. Also beware as always of YouTubers shilling it with their 'why I ditched Adobe for it', one of them was even so daft that he stated Luminar asked him to make it.

$59 for HDR merge, $59 for panoramic stitching, $59 for DeNoiseAI... Yeah right

 

[Nevyn72]

And then I was very early to adopt ProRes RAW, and then HDR video, and Adobe did not have a clue about any of this.

Cool. It was probably 'special like magic' doing this, but also still on unsettled ground...

And as how I understand it, Adobe does now some of it, but it is still by far not so comprehensive as Davinci Resolve.

 

[Oíche]

Cool. It was probably 'special like magic' doing this, but also still on unsettled ground...

And as how I understand it, Adobe does now some of it, but it is still by far not so comprehensive as Davinci Resolve.

For now I'll stick to iMovies, only used it once with basic stitching. Not sure I'll move beyond this with my basic needs but I'll keep Davinci in mind if otherwise. I haven't looked at it but I absolutely do not want a "learn Photoshop" scenario for myself for the simple videos I do... I.e. putting short clips together.

If I progress further using LUTs etc I'd rather just use the S5ii for that. I'm sure iMovies can even do B&W but you got to understand that you guys saying DaVinci Resolve brings fear to my noob vodeo heart as I literally can't be bothered with learning new software as it bores and detracts me. But I'm at that stage with iMovies regardless but I'm thinking this is easier considering I'm unlikely to become a video pro. l