#Alien skin exposure 2 for photoshop cc software#

Both software packages also allow things like virtual copies and star/flag ratings, which is important for any good organizational software. The good news is that both Exposure and Lightroom allow collections, which means that photographers like me will be happy with either program. However, other photographers, including Nasim, prefer to organize their images via folders on a hard drive, then tag the photos in a way that is easy to locate in their software by sorting for specific information. How do you find your images as quickly as possible? Personally, I primarily organize my photos by “collections,” meaning that I add images to several different groups without actually duplicating them on my hard drive. However, the sidecar system still works well, and I suspect that most people looking for post-processing software (including many advanced photographers) will prefer it, simply because it’s easier to understand, and you don’t need to import photos manually to start editing them. If you’re familiar with catalog software’s advanced options, including usage with multiple computers, that’s probably the route you would prefer. So, between sidecar and catalog files, which system is better? Everyone’s opinions will differ. It can get tripped up by external drives, but you can add them manually by clicking an option called “Add a Bookmark.” With Exposure, all of your folders and images are immediately editable within the software, no additional steps required. In Lightroom, because it is catalog software, you need to select individual photos or folders to import them and start the organization/editing process. Everything in Lightroom and Exposure X3 can be undone, since the changes aren’t embedded in your photos themselves.

With both software packages, the benefit is that you’re never doing any “destructive editing,” like cropping a photo in a way that is impossible to un-crop in the future. Each of them is very small 30 kilobytes is about the most I’ve seen. So, if you’ve edited 1000 photos in Exposure X3, you’ll have 1000 sidecar files. With Exposure, on the other hand, all your edits and organization tags are stored in their own sidecar file, added to a folder on your hard drive (within the photo’s original folder). If you delete your catalog file, all your edits and organization for every photo will disappear. Everything you do to every single photo in Lightroom is stored within a single, centralized catalog file, which contains a huge range of information. 2) Sidecar File vs Catalog SystemĪ major difference between these two programs is that is that Lightroom is a catalog software, while Exposure is not. They’re quite similar, and both are easy to understand without too much effort. In my mind, neither software’s layout is necessarily better. Even when you’re looking at a thumbnail grid, you can edit photos without a problem. While Lightroom has a separate Library and Develop module (for organizing and editing photos, respectively), Exposure X3 lets you perform every function at any point.

However, there are some differences as well. You’ll notice a few differences (and I’ll cover those in a minute), but there aren’t many. Here are the editing screens of the two, for example: Adobe Lightroom Alien Skin Exposure. Personally, even after using Exposure X3 for a while, I kept trying to use my Lightroom keyboard shortcuts due to the similarities between them. If you have used Lightroom in the past, you will be instantly familiar with the layout of Exposure X3. Importing Lightroom Data to Alien Skin Exposure?.

Alien skin exposure 2 for photoshop cc