8 Lightroom Alternatives That Will Save You Money! — Transcript

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1. 0:00Adobe has recently decided to wank up
2. 0:02the price of Lightroom monthly
3. 0:04subscription again and quite frankly a
4. 0:06lot of people are getting sick to death
5. 0:08of it that's why in this video I'm going
6. 0:09to be brutally ranking eight Lightroom
7. 0:11alternatives to try and figure out which
8. 0:13ones I actually think are worth trying
9. 0:16out and which ones are about as
10. 0:18enjoyable as a fart in a space suit well
11. 0:20unless you're into that kind of thing no
12. 0:22judgment anyway all of the options that
13. 0:24we're going to be looking at in this
14. 0:25video can either be purchased outright
15. 0:27with one payment or are just complete
16. 0:30free to use but before we start I do
17. 0:32need to give a quick shout out to my
18. 0:33good friend Emily AKA Micro 4 nerds
19. 0:36because she recently made a video on
20. 0:38this topic and it was her video that
21. 0:39actually gave me the inspiration to try
22. 0:41this out for myself plus a quick
23. 0:43disclaimer this video is not sponsored
24. 0:45by any of the software companies
25. 0:46featured in this video and none of them
26. 0:47have paid me to make it or anything like
27. 0:49that however this video does have a
28. 0:51sponsor and that's exter which we'll get
29. 0:54on to a little bit later on so starting
30. 0:56off with one you may have actually
31. 0:57already heard of before thanks to their
32. 0:59fairly impressive online advertising
33. 1:01campaigns and that's skym luminar Neo
34. 1:04now at the time of recording a lifetime
35. 1:06license to this software is priced at
36. 1:09$377 but it's currently on sale for just
37. 1:12$119 and you can also download a 7day
38. 1:15free trial before you buy now between me
39. 1:18and you I found that skym always
40. 1:20provides some kind of discounted price
41. 1:22on all of their software so you're
42. 1:24almost certainly never going to be
43. 1:25paying the full retail price for this
44. 1:28however if that's not the case at the
45. 1:29time of of purchasing you can also find
46. 1:31a discount code in the video description
47. 1:33below along with links to where you can
48. 1:35buy this software and all of the other
49. 1:37software that we're going to be talking
50. 1:38about if you're interested in
51. 1:39downloading any of them now in terms of
52. 1:41the UI I actually think this is one of
53. 1:43the better looking interfaces of the
54. 1:45bunch and right from the get-go it
55. 1:47provides you with a whole bunch of
56. 1:49tutorials and resources so that newbies
57. 1:52can get to grips with some of the
58. 1:53software's features but broadly speaking
59. 1:55it works in a very similar way to
60. 1:57Lightroom you have a catalog section
61. 2:00where you can upload and organize all of
62. 2:01your photos there's a preset tab where
63. 2:03you can apply different color grades and
64. 2:05looks and there's also an option to
65. 2:07purchase more presets via a built-in
66. 2:10store but you can also import your own
67. 2:12presets and Luts so long as they are
68. 2:15either an lnpc or cube file but I found
69. 2:19that the option to upload Cube files is
70. 2:21actually a little bit hidden you see
71. 2:23rather than going to the preset section
72. 2:25here you actually have to scroll down to
73. 2:27the mood options and then upload
74. 2:30here now the cynic in me can't help but
75. 2:32feel that this may have been done
76. 2:34intentionally in order to incentivize
77. 2:36you to buy from their own preset store
78. 2:38which just so happens to be much easier
79. 2:40to locate but obviously that's just a
80. 2:43theory and I have no way of proving it
81. 2:44I'm on to you skym I see you you think
82. 2:47he's on to us Kristoff no he's an idiot
83. 2:50anyway staying on the theme of
84. 2:51shamelessly trying to sell presets so
85. 2:53that you can afford food for your family
86. 2:55I have actually recently just finished
87. 2:57converting all of my Lightroom presets
88. 2:59into dark Cube files and that means they
89. 3:02are now more universally compatible with
90. 3:04other editing platforms so if you're
91. 3:06interested just head to my website and
92. 3:08use the discount code on screen now to
93. 3:10get 20% off everything in store my
94. 3:12children thank you anyway back to
95. 3:14luminar Neo and this seems to adopt a
96. 3:17much bigger focus on AI tools compared
97. 3:19to Lightroom or any of the other
98. 3:21Alternatives in this video there are
99. 3:23basic things like a sky enhancement tool
100. 3:26noise removal and motion blur reduction
101. 3:29but then there are are also a bunch of
102. 3:31more Innovative features including this
103. 3:33relighting tool that allows you to alter
104. 3:35the brightness based on the depth of the
105. 3:38objects placed within a scene there are
106. 3:40a bunch of portrait retouching tools
107. 3:42generative erase tools and object
108. 3:45replacement tool Ai rescaling and a
109. 3:47whole bunch more most of which are
110. 3:50completely controlled just using sliders
111. 3:53or painting directly onto your image so
112. 3:55they're all really easy and intuitive to
113. 3:57use now as cool as it is is to have all
114. 4:00of these at your disposal one thing I
115. 4:02will say is that it does make this
116. 4:04software feel a little bit overwhelming
117. 4:06to use at first there are just so many
118. 4:10things to click on and it makes it hard
119. 4:12to know where to start at times though I
120. 4:15am pretty sure that this is something
121. 4:16you would get used to over time overall
122. 4:19though I'm a fan and assuming that you
123. 4:21can actually pick this up for a heavily
124. 4:23discounted price then I think it's a
125. 4:24pretty good value option too so I'm
126. 4:27going to be sticking this one in the a
127. 4:28tier next on the list is is a piece of
128. 4:30software that I had honestly never heard
129. 4:31of before and that's on one photo raw
130. 4:34which is available for a one-time
131. 4:36payment of $99 and99 and you can also
132. 4:39try it out for free for 30 days before
133. 4:41you have to purchase but just like
134. 4:43luminar Neo so far I have never seen
135. 4:46this software on sale without some kind
136. 4:48of discount applied at the time of
137. 4:50recording it's literally half the price
138. 4:52at just under $50 which is incredibly
139. 4:55cheap that's the equivalent of around 4
140. 4:57months of Lightroom payment and then
141. 4:59potentially never need to pay a single
142. 5:02penny again for editing software well
143. 5:04unless you want to pay to upgrade to
144. 5:06newer versions in the future of course
145. 5:07but then even so paying $50 once a year
146. 5:11still works out a lot cheaper than a
147. 5:13Lightroom subscription anyway on one
148. 5:15also provides a bunch of tutorials for
149. 5:17firsttime users but as a long-term
150. 5:20Lightroom user I found that the UI was
151. 5:22very similar so I really didn't need any
152. 5:24help to get off the ground much like
153. 5:26Lightroom you can start by selecting the
154. 5:28photos you want to edit and you can also
155. 5:30use a star rating system to narrow down
156. 5:32your best images you can then move on to
157. 5:34the editing section and this is also
158. 5:36compatible with do Cube files so you can
159. 5:38use all of your new presets that you've
160. 5:40just bought from my website what it has
161. 5:43all of the sliders you would expect to
162. 5:44see like exposure contrast shadows and
163. 5:47highlights Etc as well as some more
164. 5:49advanced features like subject masking
165. 5:51generative erase and a healing brush
166. 5:54plus it also packs in some fancy AI
167. 5:56features as well including Skys swap
168. 5:58portrait retouch Ing and AI resizing all
169. 6:01of which work pretty well but one
170. 6:03feature that I found really interesting
171. 6:05is the AI style advisor now this is
172. 6:08essentially your own AI agent that will
173. 6:10give you some suggestions as to which
174. 6:12presets will best suit the image you're
175. 6:14currently working on it can also be set
176. 6:16up so that it learns from your past
177. 6:18editing choices and then make
178. 6:19suggestions based on those honestly at
179. 6:22this point I am struggling to find any
180. 6:24complaints to make and for just $50 I
181. 6:27think it's very reasonably priced too so
182. 6:29that's why I think we found ourselves
183. 6:31our first s tier software that didn't
184. 6:33take long that's what she said okay so
185. 6:36let's look at some free software now and
186. 6:38first up is dark table now I'll be
187. 6:40honest here the washed out gray look did
188. 6:43make me think that the window had
189. 6:45crashed the first time I booted it up
190. 6:47which isn't the best start plus the lack
191. 6:49of capitalization in the wording seems
192. 6:51to trigger a level of OCD that makes me
193. 6:53want to wretch uncontrollably but that's
194. 6:55a me problem so I'm going to try and be
195. 6:57professional and look past it anyway
196. 7:00this is probably the most Lightroom like
197. 7:02interface so far you know the score
198. 7:05import your photos star rate or color
199. 7:07code the best ones and then head over to
200. 7:08the dark room option to start editing
201. 7:10and that's dark room with a small D now
202. 7:15whilst all of the sliders you'd expect
203. 7:16to see are present and correct the
204. 7:18interface isn't quite as friendly or
205. 7:21easy to navigate as Lightroom which is a
206. 7:23bit of a shame you can import presets in
207. 7:25a DOT Cube format though slightly
208. 7:27confusingly this option is found in the
209. 7:30light table panel rather than dark room
210. 7:32and it's under the Styles section which
211. 7:34did take a bit of searching for now I do
212. 7:36like that there's a search bar for
213. 7:38quickly locating specific tools though
214. 7:40the problem is until you learn the exact
215. 7:42names of the features or settings that
216. 7:45you're actually looking for this isn't
217. 7:47all that much help to start with overall
218. 7:49this really isn't a bad Lightroom clone
219. 7:51and whilst it might be lacking the same
220. 7:53finesse and AI driven features that were
221. 7:56in the paid options that we've looked at
222. 7:58for a free download it's probably worth
223. 8:00a try so this one is going in the B tier
224. 8:03next up we have yet another freebie and
225. 8:05this one is called digicam with a K now
226. 8:08I'm not going to lie here when
227. 8:09attempting to download this software for
228. 8:11the first time I was slightly concerned
229. 8:13that it would riddle my computer with
230. 8:15malware because the website is somewhat
231. 8:17well sketchy looking shall we say it's
232. 8:19very much giving me lime wire Vibes for
233. 8:22those of you who are even old enough to
234. 8:24remember that showing my age a bit there
235. 8:25luckily though nothing bad happened
236. 8:28perhaps the malware was just just
237. 8:29overwhelmed by the sheer volume of porn
238. 8:31that I have stashed away on my hard
239. 8:32drive who knows but one thing I do know
240. 8:35is that just like this reviewer digicam
241. 8:38is very simple but also unnecessarily
242. 8:41complicated all at the same time it all
243. 8:43starts during the installation process
244. 8:45where it asks a seemingly endless string
245. 8:48of pretty Technical and slightly
246. 8:49confusing questions which to be
247. 8:51completely honest I just ignored and
248. 8:53started clicking the next button a bunch
249. 8:54of times and just hope for the best Now
250. 8:56by default it opens in this Windows 9 5
251. 8:59style White theme but luckily you can
252. 9:02switch this to the morally correct
253. 9:04option of grayscale after which the UI
254. 9:06actually looks pretty nice though not
255. 9:09entirely intuitive starting with the
256. 9:11positives the image reviewing system
257. 9:13works well enough and you can star rate
258. 9:16images as you would expect it also has a
259. 9:18really nice Geo tagging feature which
260. 9:20allows you to see where your photos were
261. 9:22taken on an interactive 3D Globe no
262. 9:24option for Flat Earth model though which
263. 9:26I thought was weird anyway skipping over
264. 9:28the fact that these options at the side
265. 9:30here are written vertically which
266. 9:32completely hurts my brain for some weird
267. 9:34reason the options at the top left all
268. 9:36open in their own popup Windows this
269. 9:39meant I was constantly having to open
270. 9:41and close windows to navigate around
271. 9:43which got pretty annoying I mean maybe
272. 9:46this is okay if you use multiple
273. 9:48monitors or something like that but for
274. 9:49me it just felt very clunky editing raw
275. 9:52files is also super slow unfortunately
276. 9:55first you need to make your basic
277. 9:57exposure adjustments none of which
278. 9:58happened in real time which is helpful
279. 10:00then once you've loged those in you can
280. 10:02do things like making color adjustments
281. 10:04adding effects and cropping but rather
282. 10:07than having a nice list of Sliders down
283. 10:09one of the sides to work from everything
284. 10:11has to be accessed from drop-down menus
285. 10:13at the top of the screen and you guessed
286. 10:15it each of these open in a further layer
287. 10:18of popup windows so whilst technically
288. 10:20this software does work as a photo
289. 10:23editor and it's obviously free the
290. 10:25interface is just way too slow to
291. 10:28seriously consider using it that means
292. 10:30unfortunately it's going to have to go
293. 10:32straight into the deter SS next up is
294. 10:34dxo Photolab 8 which is priced at
295. 10:38$229 for a lifetime license and you can
296. 10:41even try out for free for 30 days
297. 10:43without having to enter any payment
298. 10:44details now this is obviously one of the
299. 10:46more pricey options that we've looked at
300. 10:48so far and it equates to around 19
301. 10:50months of Lightroom payments before
302. 10:52you're completely payment free
303. 10:54interestingly there is also what they
304. 10:56call an Essentials version of this
305. 10:58software and that has some of the more
306. 11:00advanced features taken out of it and it
307. 11:02could be purchased at a reduced price of
308. 11:05$139 either way for this video I'm going
309. 11:07to be trying out the full package and
310. 11:09using the elite Edition now when you
311. 11:11first boot up dxo it will give you three
312. 11:15options the first option grants the
313. 11:17software permission to not only
314. 11:18automatically apply lens corrections to
315. 11:20your images to remove things like
316. 11:22vignetting and Distortion but it'll also
317. 11:24apply a base color grade to reduce the
318. 11:27amount of work you have to do option two
319. 11:29will only apply lens Corrections and
320. 11:31won't actually edit any of your photos
321. 11:33and then the third option will just
322. 11:35leave the raw files completely untouched
323. 11:36for you to do as you please anyway
324. 11:38layout Wise It's all pretty typical
325. 11:40there are two main screens to work in
326. 11:42photo library is used for sorting
327. 11:44through and star rating your images and
328. 11:46then the customized screen is where you
329. 11:48get down to business I want to do some
330. 11:51business although you can use and create
331. 11:53your own presets within dxo itself these
332. 11:56are limited to dxo specific preset file
333. 12:00so you can't import any Cube files or
334. 12:02anything like that which is slightly
335. 12:04limiting the interface is very similar
336. 12:06to Lightroom with all of the options you
337. 12:08would expect and it's all easy enough to
338. 12:10use and navigate around so really no
339. 12:12complaints there the AI tools are all
340. 12:14pretty basic though including noise
341. 12:17reduction tools a resizing tool and
342. 12:19something called dxo smart lighting
343. 12:21which basically helps to balance the
344. 12:23brightness levels between the shadows
345. 12:24and highlights but that's about it there
346. 12:26are some retouching tools but they don't
347. 12:28appear to be AI driven and rather they
348. 12:30use pixel sampling so removing large or
349. 12:33complex options can be a bit hit and
350. 12:35miss at times now don't get me wrong in
351. 12:37isolation this is actually a pretty
352. 12:39solid editing platform but when you
353. 12:41consider that luminar Neo and on one are
354. 12:44a fraction of the cost yet include way
355. 12:47more advanced features I'm not
356. 12:49personally convinced that this is worth
357. 12:50the asking price so for that reason this
358. 12:52goes into the C tier next up is a much
359. 12:55more affordable option called photo
360. 12:56director 365 from cyber link and Allin
361. 13:00this will set you back just under $100
362. 13:02now this software is essentially the
363. 13:04lovech child of Lightroom and luminar
364. 13:07Neo it has all of the core features and
365. 13:09similar interface as Lightroom but is
366. 13:11absolutely jam-packed with AI features
367. 13:15though there's a catch which we'll talk
368. 13:16about in just a minute for now though
369. 13:18let's start with the positives the UI is
370. 13:21very nice to use and it's very similar
371. 13:22to Lightroom which makes it easy to get
372. 13:24started right away it has all of the
373. 13:26core image organization and photo
374. 13:28editing features features you would
375. 13:29expect and you can import your own do
376. 13:31Cube presets one thing I actually really
377. 13:33like about this software is there's a
378. 13:35design option at the top which opens up
379. 13:37a Photoshop like interface for more
380. 13:40detailed editing and some basic graphic
381. 13:42design tools so potentially this could
382. 13:45absorb the cost of both your Photoshop
383. 13:47and Lightroom subscriptions finally
384. 13:49there's a batch editor which allows you
385. 13:51to make Universal adjustments to a
386. 13:53multitude of images all at once like
387. 13:56adding blanket noise reduction removing
388. 13:58backgrounds cropping or rotating images
389. 14:00and even applying presets so far so good
390. 14:03right but what about those AI features
391. 14:06well there are so many there's actually
392. 14:08a whole section dedicated to them called
393. 14:10the Gen AI studio now aside from the
394. 14:13usual generative fill and object removal
395. 14:16tools there's a built-in texture image
396. 14:18generator for creating your own AI
397. 14:20imagery from scratch but and this is a
398. 14:23Kim Kardashian size butt these have to
399. 14:26be paid for in addition using credit and
400. 14:29for me personally there's only one thing
401. 14:31that's worse than the subscription model
402. 14:33and that's using credits to put it
403. 14:35bluntly iing hate the credit system
404. 14:38especially when it comes to using AI
405. 14:40tools where you can't guarantee that the
406. 14:42end result will actually look how you
407. 14:44want it to that said for just shy of
408. 14:47$100 even if you just pretend that these
409. 14:50AI features don't exist this is still a
410. 14:53heavily feature Laden piece of software
411. 14:55and a nice one to use at that so I think
412. 14:57it still deserves a place in the a tier
413. 14:59on a side note if those AI features were
414. 15:01thrown in for no additional cost this
415. 15:03would definitely be in the S tier okay
416. 15:06so we're on to the last of the paid
417. 15:07software packages now and this one is
418. 15:09called capture 1 Pro this is actually by
419. 15:12far the most expensive option in the
420. 15:14lineup priced at
421. 15:15$299 which is the same as just over 2
422. 15:19years worth of Lightroom subscriptions
423. 15:21but you can at least try out for free
424. 15:23for 30 days before committing any cash
425. 15:25anyway when you first boot up capture
426. 15:27one I like that it asks you how you
427. 15:29would like your workspace to look so
428. 15:31that it can best suit your own
429. 15:33preference in terms of the UI as you
430. 15:35would expect the library tab allows you
431. 15:37to organize and rank your images the
432. 15:39shape tab provides cropping and resizing
433. 15:41tools whilst the adjust and refine Tabs
434. 15:44are where you'll find most of the
435. 15:45typical adjustment sliders there are
436. 15:47also some AI driven features including
437. 15:49AI masking and AI crop the latter of
438. 15:52which allows you to set a crop reference
439. 15:54on a single photo and then the AI will
440. 15:56automatically create consistent crops
441. 15:59for all of your other images and this
442. 16:01can even happen whilst you're shooting
443. 16:03if you have your camera Tethered to your
444. 16:05computer the style tab is where you'll
445. 16:06find all of your presets and whilst you
446. 16:08can technically import your own presets
447. 16:10into Capture One you will need to
448. 16:12convert your Cube files into ICC
449. 16:15profiles and unfortunately this isn't an
450. 16:18overly straightforward process if you're
451. 16:20not used to doing that kind of thing one
452. 16:21alternative would be to just use the
453. 16:23match look feature which will attempt to
454. 16:25mimic the colors from a reference photo
455. 16:28that you provide which is certainly a
456. 16:29lot quicker and easier to do but can
457. 16:31have varying results overall though I
458. 16:34really do like Capture One and the only
459. 16:36complaint that I have is the price given
460. 16:39that it's six times the cost of on one
461. 16:42but doesn't include six times the
462. 16:44features I think this one deserves to
463. 16:46sit in the B tier okay that's enough of
464. 16:48paying for stuff let's try one more free
465. 16:50option before we wrap things up and
466. 16:52let's try out raw therapy okay this
467. 16:55offers all of the usual stuff there's a
468. 16:57file browser for locating your files an
469. 17:00editor section for well editing and then
470. 17:02a q tab which is used for exporting your
471. 17:04files the UI is nice and clean and for
472. 17:07the most part it operates just like
473. 17:08Lightroom the only thing that threw me
474. 17:10slightly is that you do actually need to
475. 17:12double click on the photo that you want
476. 17:14to edit before it will show up in the
477. 17:15preview window rather than just a single
478. 17:18click which is the norm at first I
479. 17:20thought it was just being super slow to
480. 17:22load turns out I was the one being slow
481. 17:25which sounds about right to be fair but
482. 17:27once I was past that hurdle it was all
483. 17:29smooth sailing to be honest there's
484. 17:31really not a lot to say all of the
485. 17:32standard sliders are there minus any AI
486. 17:35tools but considering that this is an
487. 17:36entirely free to use platform that's to
488. 17:39be expected slider adjustments happen
489. 17:41more or less in real time and you can
490. 17:42even make localized adjustments the only
491. 17:45slight compromise you need to make is
492. 17:47that you can't import presets as cube
493. 17:49files but there is a so-called film
494. 17:52simulation tool that allows you to match
495. 17:54the colors from a reference photo also
496. 17:56known as a hold C L at least I think
497. 18:00that's how it's pronounced anyway
498. 18:01there's a bit of a process to doing all
499. 18:03of that so I'll leave a link in the
500. 18:04description below to a website that
501. 18:06provides more information if you're
502. 18:07interested besides that personally I
503. 18:10think this is my favorite free piece of
504. 18:13software out of this entire list and
505. 18:15that's why I'm going to be slapping this
506. 18:16one in the S tier so looking at the
507. 18:19final rankings to me it all boils down
508. 18:21to this If You Don't Mind Investing a
509. 18:23bit of your own cash into editing
510. 18:25software then on one photo raw is
511. 18:28arguably the software that offers the
512. 18:30closest Lightroom experience without the
513. 18:32NeverEnding expense honestly if I wasn't
514. 18:35such an adobe simp this is the software
515. 18:37I would be switching to alternatively if
516. 18:40AI editing tools just aren't your thing
517. 18:42or you just want a free editing Suite
518. 18:44that offers a similar Lightroom
519. 18:46experience I would highly recommend
520. 18:48giving raw therapy a shop because it's
521. 18:50completely free so what have we got to
522. 18:52lose either way whichever one you choose
523. 18:54with all of that cash will be saving
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