Lightzone - Anyone Using It?, etc.

[David Karp]

Hi,

I read about Lightzone in a recent Photo Techniques Mag and it sounded interesting. I have used Photoshop and have some minimal skill with it, but I have never really taken to digital image processing. After checking the Lightzone website (http://www.lightcrafts.com/), the program seems kind of interesting, and much more like the process of working with traditional photographic materials. I have some projects I would like to do that lend themselves to digital, so I was wondering if anyone has experience with Lightzone, how they feel about it, and any other related tips.

Thanks in advance.

Dave Karp

[Ted Harris]

I have been testing Lightzone for about two months and so far I am very impressed. It is not as full featured as Photoshop but so what? It does not appear to miss any of the features that a photographer needs to process his/her image. Additionally, it does not buden you with all sorts of potential manipulations that are meant for graphic artists/designers as opposed to photographers. Lars Vinberg, one of the designers of the Software is a regular contributor to this forumn and I imagine he will chime in soon.

The beauty of Lightzone is that it is very intuitive for those who are well versed in the Zone System as that is the paradigm it uses for image manipulation. We demonstrated it at our last scanning workshop and again at the View Camera Conference workshop. In both instances those who were intimidated by Photoshop loved Lightzone instantly, those who were comfortable with Photoshop took more of a wait-and-see attitude. Some, those who are data oriented and engineering types prefer Photoshop's ability to deal easily with numerical values.

For my part, I have not yet abandoned Photoshop in favor of Lightzone but I suspect tht I will eventually do so. You can download a 30 day free trial that is fully functional .... you should do so.

One caveat, the software still needs some massaging in terms of memory management and its ability to handle large files.

[CXC]

Dave, my situation is similar to yours, I am not a real PhotoShop user. I downloaded Lightzone on the 30-day trial, and found it much, much more intuitive and easy to get started with, than PS. It looks more than sufficient for me, esp. for b&w. I could imagine buying it in the future, when my workflow starts to get a little more digitalized.

Give it a try and tell us what you think.

[David Karp]

Thanks for the input. What kind of systems have you guys use with the program. I use a PC with a pretty fast processor and only 1/2 gig of RAM (!! - remember when it was a splurge to go for 16?).

I will give it a 30 day trial and see how things go.

Anybody else have any input?

[Ted Harris]

David, I'm no good as an example as I am using it on a fast G5 with 5 GB of RAM and a MacBook with 2 GB RAM.

[David Karp]

Thanks Ted.

I will make a post after I give it a try. Probably will wait a bit to make the download until next month, when I will have some time to work on it a bit.

[CXC]

Dave, the machine I tried it on was similar to yours, and my first impression is that 512MB might be enough.

[Ted Harris]

Actually, I believe we ran it on a Powerbook with only 512 MB RAM at our last workshop.

[David Karp]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the responses.

[Michael Hewson]

I have recently purchased Lightzone and I agree with Ted Harris. My Dell 1 GByte RAM PC continually "crashes" trying to manipulate a 200MB scan of a 4*5 tranny. I hope they get a "patch" out soon.

Michael Hewson