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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

EXPOSURE X6 —- Lightroom Replacement

Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
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Robert,

I am stunned by your transformation of the Grey Railway Bin in the foreground! Well done!

What might you do, if you restarted all over, with your new toolset and mind focused to leverage even further your new sky with cloud imagery?


Asher
 
Robert Watcher

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Just want to give an update after using Exposure x6 for a month and a half now. I am completely completely content with my decision to cancel my subscription to Creative Cloud and delete Lightroom and Photoshop from my computer. In fact for my workflow and style of photography, Exposure surpasses the abilities that I had with Lightroom.

Particularly related to my main desire to have an effective file organizational tool replacement. Everything I could do in Lightroom, I can do in X6 with even greater ease and flexibility. From importing and structuring folders to endless custom exporting options to effortless backups without having to manage huge inflexible Catalogues.

Initially when I started this post I was enamoured with the program being able to handle all the essential tasks I was used to in Lightroom, without much of a learning - in other words I could get right to work. It did that. But as I have become more adept and spent time digging into all the options available in the UI, it is astounding the ability and customizability and endless presets available for every tweak or edit that I want to do. As well having the ability to work with duplicate and adjustment layers and masks in a non-destructive way and having a very good fast Cloning/Heal tool for small touch ups and spotting, means that I only have to edit in Affinity Photo for extensive editing or content aware work.

I am sure there are other programs coming close to the features that Lightroom provided and maybe handling specific functionality better (maybe RAW processing, Noise Reduction, Sharpening, etc) —- but in my quest to find a Lightroom Replacement, I have done so with Exposure X6. It is far more than just a good photo editor.


This video from the company gives a basic overview of the Workflow


 
Robert Watcher

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
A new found treasure that I just came to realize, is the Quick Export feature. There are a whole bunch of Export presets as default, but each can also be customized, deleted, new ones added, and several can run at the same time and places each file in a separate folder for use. As an example, I am again back to using WHCC colour lab for printing my images for my upcoming e-commerce website (I only used them for my portrait business previously). I also post everything on Instagram - so every image that I view as a final, I have Instagram and WHCC selected and when I do a Quick Export, two files are created and saved with my defined sizes, colour profiles and preferences. Normal Export of a file is Command E - by adding a Shift key, the Quick Export opens. Pretty Quick and pretty sweet.


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Robert Watcher

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Working on some old images from Nicaragua - trying to find ones I haven’t considered before. My current workflow being Exposure X6 along with exporting copies out to either/or DeNoise and DeSharpen apps - as well as Affinity Photo when I need Content Aware or Patching/Cloning.

one reason that I never processed this file, was because of the extreme contrast of midday shooting - where most people could not really be recognized. I figured that lifting shadows would just result in a poor image quality.

I left the two kids on the bottom, in the shadows because I wanted the focus to be on the eye of the little girl being held, and the woman walking. The eye and partial face, were quite hidden in shadow requiring a bit of dodging. I am quite pleased with this result.

the pic was taken with my minuscule Olympus E-PL5 with 12-42mm kit lens.

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Robert Watcher

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Being this is more of an educational thread, here is the unconverted image that I didn’t really see any potential with initially. (I only shoot in JPG)


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Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Robert Watcher said:
Working on some old images from Nicaragua - trying to find ones I haven’t considered before. My current workflow being Exposure X6 along with exporting copies out to either/or DeNoise and DeSharpen apps - as well as Affinity Photo when I need Content Aware or Patching/Cloning.

one reason that I never processed this file, was because of the extreme contrast of midday shooting - where most people could not really be recognized. I figured that lifting shadows would just result in a poor image quality.

I left the two kids on the bottom, in the shadows because I wanted the focus to be on the eye of the little girl being held, and the woman walking. The eye and partial face, were quite hidden in shadow requiring a bit of dodging. I am quite pleased with this result.

the pic was taken with my minuscule Olympus E-PL5 with 12-42mm kit lens.

Click to expand...
Robert,

If I remember correctly, that 12-24is extraordinarily sharp!

Your new workflow is really paying off. This supports my contention that with digital photography we restart the creative process when we arrive at the computer screen and load the files in our favorite software.

Unlike a more tortuous enterprise if agitated developer or custom papers with varying contrast, in front of a monitor, one is seated and with the scroll of a mouse, shadows open up and detail is found in recovered highlights.

So I laud your work as the results are so surprising and likely would NEVER have been discovered in one lifetime, locked with your negatives in a wet darkroom!


Asher
 
Robert Watcher

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Some fun visiting old files from Nicaragua and creating compelling images with the aid of post processing. The tools I use often change, but my process is always the same.

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Robert Watcher

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Asher Kelman said:
Robert,

If I remember correctly, that 12-24is extraordinarily sharp!

Your new workflow is really paying off. This supports my contention that with digital photography we restart the creative process when we arrive at the computer screen and load the files in our favorite software.

Unlike a more tortuous enterprise if agitated developer or custom papers with varying contrast, in front of a monitor, one is seated and with the scroll of a mouse, shadows open up and detail is found in recovered highlights.

So I laud your work as the results are so surprising and likely would NEVER have been discovered in one lifetime, locked with your negatives in a wet darkroom!


Asher
Click to expand...

thanks Asher.

In fact I miss my colour darkroom days a great deal. It was never torturous for me. I loved fiddling and manipulating and spending hours on end - to create prints that resulted in the look I wanted. Yes I can do more creatively with digital methods. For me the big thing is repeatability when I need to provide more that one print, as well as speed of getting to a specific result. But sometimes the computer desk and monitor are a torturous necessity to me as well. LOL. I have always considered image processing to be essential and a large part of my creativity as a photographer whether that was wet darkroom or digital processing.

BTW - I don’t own a 12-24 lens. The lens I mentioned in these Nicaragua pictures is the cheap plastic 14-42mm kit lens that comes with the camera. I use it (I have a few) for almost all of my photography while walking around the streets. It is small and light in weight.
 
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Daren Burghen

Daren Burghen

New member
Hi! Thank you for your detailed review and important comments regarding photo editing. I have a question about applications and programs for photo editing. I do not understand this issue at all, and now I want to make a gift to my parents for their wedding anniversary. I plan to edit their wedding black and white pictures by making them colored and removing some damage from the photo. Of course, before working, the photos must be scanned, and after processing, I plan to print them again at frameshop.com.au. I question which photo editing app I should use based on my goals? I will be very grateful for the answer.
 
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