To Photoshop (or not)

To Google in the OSX DictionaryBrandnames turning into verbs is nothing new. Google turned 'verb' a while back officially, and can be found in several dictionaries all over the world. You could think that the brand owner would like it this when a product (or brand) becomes a commodity. Well, not every brand.....

Adobe has a section on the 'Photoshop' usage on their website [mirror]. It seems that photoshopping is a bad verb. Why? I don't know. No matter how good or bad an image or photo is altered or with what tool. The most common remark is 'PHOTOSHOPPED'. All this means is that people associate image manipulation with Adobe Photoshop. There's a reason that this piece of software is on top of the image manipulation food chain. It's simply the best (and probably the most expensive by the way :) ).

After looking for 'google' in the Apple OS X Dictionary, I also tried 'photoshop'. and guess what I found:

to Photoshop in Apple OS X Dictionary/me sits back and wonders when Apple (or even me) receives a letter from an Adobe attorney :) for the incorrect usage of the Photoshop brand.

Adobe Lightroom Quirks

The reason for using Adobe Lightroom is mainly because of the tight integration with other Adobe products, and a little legacy from my Microsoft days. So I had no real reason to look at the competition (Apple Aperture).... Until now (I guess).

The biggest drawback is that you can't open multiple catalogs at the same time. Something like having multiple personal folders within Microsoft Outlook. You can open them, access the content and if you want you can detach it again to save resources.
So opening a catalog means that you can't access photo's in other catalogs.... Therefor I use one (large) catalog. Mainly because I can't be bothered with the whole exporting and importing scenario to move (or copy) images between catalogs.
By the way, I suggested such functionality to Adobe (along with some other improvements regarding the syncing of catalogs). Now let's hope that they will implement this in version 3.0

This feature is something Apple Aperture since version 1.0 (if I recall correctly), and I get the feeling that I'm near the how far I can push Adobe Lightroom.

For the last couple of days I get the strangest behaviour from Lightroom. Importing photo's normally means you can add tags, and select a way of storing them on the hard disk. Lately it seems that Lightroom is having a mind of its own. Photo's end up all over the place. Tags are getting lost.

These problems are most likely cause by two factors in my opinion;

1. A relatively large catalog which I browse a lot
2. A lot of processing power going to other applications while browsing/editing photo's

I can accept that Lightroom is getting slower with thousands of photo's, but it shouldn't get a mind of its own when my iMac is busy doing all sorts of things.

Nik Sharpener Pro for Lightroom

Sharpener Pro is a piece of software to sharpen the photos just before printing/publishing. Different formats require different types or levels of sharpening. As you can imagine a 4x6 image requires different sharpening parameters than a life size poster.

Nik Software provides the tool for doing this relatively easy. Custom user pre-sets can be made. So you've got easy access to the settings you use most.

After making Nik Color Efex Pro and Siver Efex Pro Lightroom compatible, Nik Software released an Adobe Lightroom compatible version of Nik Sharpener Pro (which also works like the 'old' Photoshop plugin). Just as the other two pieces of software this one is also an update which can be downloaded from the Nik website.

After installing the software, a name and serial number are required. Just use the serial number of your original (v3.0) software to register the software.