Adobe Lightroom 4 - how stable?
Discussion
I have a nice challenging image for some 'content aware' 'blemish' correction so thought I would give LR4 a run out - all 719Mb of download.
So I scramble around on the Adobe site and find a download then set the location to UK and find it again click download and nothing happens. Just nothing happens.
So maybe I need to login? Ok, no way I can remember the pasword tso go through the exercise of getting a new one, login, repeat the download page discovery, not =e that the system alwsy tells me I am in the US no matter how many times I try and change it, apparently successfully, to UK (although pricing is sometimes in pounds) and still nothing. Zip. Nada.
Stumble across the 'help' forum and see a recent post with the same problem. A respoonse just minutes before my search asks if the OP has the same problem if they change to Firefox (et al) rather than using IE. No answer to that yet so I try FF.
Login in again and, behold, looks like it works.
So we have a rather iffy web site ( I got to a page error at one point) which doesn't want to play with IE (who ever heard if IE anyway?) for a key marketing ploy like a free trial download. And here I am, despite reading a few comments about LR4 maybe not being as stable as some would like and my own less than ecstatic experiences with a few Adobe products and upgrades over the years, downloading 719Mb of bloatware.
So, fellow PHers with LR4 experience, is this product stable or should I only install it on a machine I would be happy to discard (or rebuild) 'just in case' .... ?
I think there may be one or two alternatives for 'content aware' blemish removal so I'm not totally stuck and see no need to take the risk if I don't have to.
So I scramble around on the Adobe site and find a download then set the location to UK and find it again click download and nothing happens. Just nothing happens.
So maybe I need to login? Ok, no way I can remember the pasword tso go through the exercise of getting a new one, login, repeat the download page discovery, not =e that the system alwsy tells me I am in the US no matter how many times I try and change it, apparently successfully, to UK (although pricing is sometimes in pounds) and still nothing. Zip. Nada.
Stumble across the 'help' forum and see a recent post with the same problem. A respoonse just minutes before my search asks if the OP has the same problem if they change to Firefox (et al) rather than using IE. No answer to that yet so I try FF.
Login in again and, behold, looks like it works.
So we have a rather iffy web site ( I got to a page error at one point) which doesn't want to play with IE (who ever heard if IE anyway?) for a key marketing ploy like a free trial download. And here I am, despite reading a few comments about LR4 maybe not being as stable as some would like and my own less than ecstatic experiences with a few Adobe products and upgrades over the years, downloading 719Mb of bloatware.
So, fellow PHers with LR4 experience, is this product stable or should I only install it on a machine I would be happy to discard (or rebuild) 'just in case' .... ?
I think there may be one or two alternatives for 'content aware' blemish removal so I'm not totally stuck and see no need to take the risk if I don't have to.
wolves_wanderer said:
I have it running on several machines and have not seen any of the problems you describe, nor have I seen any instability. I think it is a cracking bit of software, although I wasn't aware that it did content aware stuff, I thought that was Photoshop only?
You might be right but I thought it had been added to LR4 as well. We will see if I install it. I recall playing with an early implementation of Content Aware a couple of years ago. I've never used Photoshop (other than Elements V2 that came with a camera some years ago ) so I wonder which application that was in .... hmm.ETA: Just discovered I have an expired trial of Element 9 installed - that may have been for testing the CA option.
Edited by LongQ on Wednesday 30th May 01:13
Edited by LongQ on Wednesday 30th May 03:07
Not sure about the "Content Aware" side to your question - LR has selective adjustments, but I don't think that's the same thing and it's quite a while since I've used a version of Phull Phat Photoshop to really appreciate this.
BUT. As far as your experience, I've used Lightroom, since before it was Lightroom, have used a few versions of old Photoshop and have installed, but rarely touch, Elements 10. PSE came in a box from Amazon, but all my Lightroom installations for the last couple of years have been downloads including the trial betas.
I have never had issues which are remotely as serious as you have encountered, so it's quite a surprise to hear your woes.
I have to confess to trialling a few other things. One of which was Nik Software - one of their products which I was half interested in after demos at Focus this year. That was a nightmare because I hadn't realised they had a different site for UK. Their "global" site was quite willing to play all the way up to the point of allowing my credit card details (it was a "trial" but you had to commit to potentially start paying after so-many-days). When this didn't work a couple of times my confidence in them crashed along with the downloads - and I probably won't go back to them again!
But, trials of Aperture, Capture et al, and especially all the betas and full LR versions from Adobe have all been well behaved. So, not necessarily very comforting, but I think Adobe stuff is pretty stable and would normally have no hesitation in saying "set it up". I have - many moons ago - found their support to be helpful (haven't used this for at least three years because I have not had issues), so you could try a call?
BUT. As far as your experience, I've used Lightroom, since before it was Lightroom, have used a few versions of old Photoshop and have installed, but rarely touch, Elements 10. PSE came in a box from Amazon, but all my Lightroom installations for the last couple of years have been downloads including the trial betas.
I have never had issues which are remotely as serious as you have encountered, so it's quite a surprise to hear your woes.
I have to confess to trialling a few other things. One of which was Nik Software - one of their products which I was half interested in after demos at Focus this year. That was a nightmare because I hadn't realised they had a different site for UK. Their "global" site was quite willing to play all the way up to the point of allowing my credit card details (it was a "trial" but you had to commit to potentially start paying after so-many-days). When this didn't work a couple of times my confidence in them crashed along with the downloads - and I probably won't go back to them again!
But, trials of Aperture, Capture et al, and especially all the betas and full LR versions from Adobe have all been well behaved. So, not necessarily very comforting, but I think Adobe stuff is pretty stable and would normally have no hesitation in saying "set it up". I have - many moons ago - found their support to be helpful (haven't used this for at least three years because I have not had issues), so you could try a call?
Well, thanks for the comments and observations chaps.
I have installed PSE10 (the PSE9 trial was well out of time) and played with the content aware stuff. In the right situation it's pretty impressive but there was not way it could fix my particlar problem as far as I could tell. It might come close - very close for parts of it - but not so conclusively that it would save a load of time in this particular case.
It's always interesting to re-visit software that is slightly familiar. I still don't get on with the general UI for some reason. There seem to be so many situations where the next step forward or back is simply not obvious, at least to me. Yet other times when it just sort of knows what you want to do. Maybe total immersion in PSE as an application would be the way to go ... but for the number of times I feel I really [i[need[/i] its features it's difficult to justify. Not so much the price but more the time and effort involved with become proficient with it for just occasional use. I mean, how often would I really need the Orton effect?
I have installed PSE10 (the PSE9 trial was well out of time) and played with the content aware stuff. In the right situation it's pretty impressive but there was not way it could fix my particlar problem as far as I could tell. It might come close - very close for parts of it - but not so conclusively that it would save a load of time in this particular case.
It's always interesting to re-visit software that is slightly familiar. I still don't get on with the general UI for some reason. There seem to be so many situations where the next step forward or back is simply not obvious, at least to me. Yet other times when it just sort of knows what you want to do. Maybe total immersion in PSE as an application would be the way to go ... but for the number of times I feel I really [i[need[/i] its features it's difficult to justify. Not so much the price but more the time and effort involved with become proficient with it for just occasional use. I mean, how often would I really need the Orton effect?
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff