Lightroom Users: Have you tried LR5 yet?

[OurManInTangier]

I'm a LR 4.4 user and have been a LR user for several years now and am wondering whether to upgrade to the new LR5. I've had a look at some of the 'improvements' and new tools but would love to hear from anyone who has made the move from an older version to the new one.

 

[srtiwari]

Yes I have, and upgraded, even tho' I'm not sure it is worth $79. Would depend, I guess, on how much you need -
1. Smart preview, when you want to keep post-processing a preview, away from the catalog/file
2. Radial filter,which actually makes local adjustments much easier.
3. The new fancier clone/heal tool.....meh.
4. lens distortion corrections in multiple axes. Personally I do not do that kind of photography, but if you do, this is an easy fix.

BTW, some plugins need to be updated as they only work with LR4.

 

[OurManInTangier]

Yeah, sounds much like I thought - if these were updates within LR4 then fine but I'm not convinced its enough to make me pay out £50 just yet.

Radial filter looked good from the demo video I watched, the fancier clone tool may be a good improvement but anything beyond a mere spot brush clone gets done in PS for me, I've never been a big fan of the clone tool system in LR.

Thanks for your thoughts

 

[willie_901]

I find the improvements in LR 5 to be very useful.

The radial filter significantly enhances the ease of dodging and burning as well as making selective color temperature adjustments easy. This alone is with the upgrade cost.

The vertical/horizontal automated correction can remove subtle distractions from all photos with actual parallel lines. These sorts of subtle distractions can be quickly removed with on or two clicks.

 

[lawrence]

I've never been a big fan of the clone tool system in LR.

Bizarrely it's not even as good as the one in PS Elements.

 

[willie_901]

Bizarrely it's not even as good as the one in PS Elements.

Yes, this strange and frustrating.

 

[podcat]

Yes, this strange and frustrating.

I'v tried the one in photoshop and there it works wonders. Is it really that bad and in what way? Its the one feature that interests me about LR5, otherwise I might as well stick with 4.4.

 

[willie_901]

It is not bad. It is significantly more useful than LR 4.

The limitation is large-scale pixel replacement.

If you photograph a wall and there is a crack n the plaster, LR5 works almost as well as PSE. But if there is a distracting shadow - same from a complicated chandelier lit by an off-camera strobe - then PSE is much more powerful.

The new LR5 gradient tool provides a powerful way to dodge and burn images. The upgrade price is worth it for this feature alone. Also LR5 is faster on my computer (2013 Mac Mini).

 

[Jim-st]

The new LR5 gradient tool provides a powerful way to dodge and burn images. The upgrade price is worth it for this feature alone.

Did you perhaps mean the Radial Filter tool here, Willie? I've just been checking it out, and would probably agree with you about its worth - although for me the "Upright " perspective correction was the real deal-maker that justified purchase of what is, really, the least "major" upgrade yet to LR, imo

Also LR5 is faster on my computer (2013 Mac Mini).

Sadly the opposite is true on my 2006 Mac Pro. I'm gonna have to dig deep soon on that front 😱

 

[willie_901]

Thanks for correcting my oversight.

 

[Godfrey]

I'm a LR 4.4 user and have been a LR user for several years now and am wondering whether to upgrade to the new LR5. I've had a look at some of the 'improvements' and new tools but would love to hear from anyone who has made the move from an older version to the new one.

I've been using LR5 since it went to Public Beta.

- The spot/clone tools work great for what I need to do. The heuristics of the spotting tool's auto-pick are MUCH improved, and the ability to set it into a mode to identify spots is just great. The clone and heal capability now makes it even less common for me to go into PS.

- The enhanced lens correction tools are nice to have. I don't need lens correction very often, but when I do it's nice to have improvements that make it easier to work with.

- The gradient editing tool is terrific. Another reason to never need PS.

- Overall performance (on 2013 Mac mini i7) are a noticeable improvement over LR4 and LR3.

Juliann Kost does her usual great job of explaining all the new stuff ...
http://tv.adobe.com/show/whats-new-in-lightroom-5/

Well worth the upgrade fee.

G