Lightroom replacement

[Luiz Muzzi]

Hi, everyone
In your opinion, what would be the ideal replacement for Lightroom having in mind compatibility with Photo Mechanic.
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
Regards,
-Luiz Muzzi

[Soizic]

I work with PM and CaptureOne, all is OK.

[Kirk Baker]

Luiz,

It is my understanding that a lot of people use PM in conjunction with Photoshop/ACR if they don't need to do a lot of RAW adjustments, skipping Lr for the most part.

-Kirk

[mbbphoto]

To expand on what Kirk said...
If you only do minimal adjusting then going to Photoshop works fine.
Capture one is the only other solution I would trust and most people swear by its skin tone and shadow fidelity but it is IMHO not as fast for processing large quantities of varying images.
Tethered portraiture, still life and architecture is when I use C1...
Marc

[FxRphoto]

Hi Luis,

I just set a new workflow with Photo Mechanic, Iridient Developer (for RAW files), Affinity Photo and/or Google Nik collection (Macphun Luminar works fine too, or Pixelmator...), in replacement of Lightroom. It works very fine, the quality of the files generated with Iridient Developer is stunning. Actually, it is even both lighter and speedier, my images have a greater definition and PM is a perfect tool to manage a huge quantity of images without using a lot of system memory, but you already know that.

You just need to keep in mind that every software have their skills and weaknesses, and the perceptive results may differ a bit. 

Lightroom is a good software but the subscription plan is simply not possible, and the heavy cataloging system don't suits everyone.

Fx

[FVlcek]

I am more or less looking just for Adobe Camera Raw replacement.

Ability to open tens of photos, do nondestructive edits in realtime, copy some edits from one photo to others, selective editing (brushing of highlight / shadow / exposure). Save in batch. No cataloging, no "collections" or other bloated features. I don't need all-in-one-but-bloated program. I would be more than happy to just pipe output from one program that does its job the best (like PM for selecting, previewing, culling, cropping and metadata) to another to develop the RAWs (like ACR, without the whole Photoshop with 3D layers behind it and subscription model), to light photo editor for some retouching if needed, to client. Just like piping commands in Unix...

Everything else including cataloging I can do inside PM. So far, no luck...

ie. I just need a simple and fast RAW developer. Photo editors, that is alternatives to Photoshop with layers, et cetera, for more complex work, there is plenty. All-in-one programs that do everything poorly or slow (like Lightroom) there is plenty as well. Just to simply develop the RAWs there ain't plenty of software...

[Luiz Muzzi]

Thanks everybody.
I'll give it a try with Irident Developer.
My needs are exactly the same as Frantisek's. I need a fast raw converter that allows me to make minor adjustments. I don't think Lightroom does a wonderful job in converting Canon raw files, but that is what I have used so far.
Regards,

- Luiz Muzzi

[FxRphoto]

Luis and Frantisek,

Iridient Developer (Mac only, I forgot to mention) is the only one I could found that is powerful enough.
You can create presets to apply to your camera in one click. Batch processing is simply perfect: You can set a lot of batch mode, with different destinations, naming protocol, file formats, size and resolution, it can open the file in whatever software you want. You can choose one or more of these batch processing presets at one time, just click the "send to batch" button, and the soft works for you.
Unfortunatly, it cannot manage selective adjustments or gradients it have no correction tool, like ACR (since I havn't an auto-sensor-cleaning, I need to use another soft to do that). Ok, it's a Rolls Royce, but maybe an old beautiful one, without fashionable (sometimes useful) gadgets.

It could take some time and practice to obtain a result that match your usual work, (I still learn it, coming from Lightroom I had to change a lot of habits) but the "Help menu" is well-made and very useful. There is not so much tutorials, but you can find some links on the Iridient Digital website. One of them is an integrated workflow with Photo Mechanic...

It goes without saying that this post reflects only my experience, and I am not affiliate, in any way, to Iridient Digital. But like (it seems) a lot of other photographers who want to be rid of Adobe products, I have struggled to find a way that suits my work.
So, I hope this help !

Regards,
Fx