armd Offline Upload & Sell: On
|
Fair question and I am happy to provide some overall impressions. First you can download a trial version and play with it for 30 days. There are a tremendous number of videos and tutorials out there. Originally, it was more modular and plug-in based program and over the years it has transformed into a stand alone DAM. One can still use it as a plug in, though considering it’s capabilities and intent it is somewhat self defeating. You can look at the features and distinctions on the website but in essence, it would be positioned somewhere between LR and PS. It’s strength is primarily a straightforward, non-destructive workflow and it’s weaknesses are that it has high processing/gpu requirements and can be buggy. It offers many more features than LR and doesn’t require importing/cataloguing for editing though those features are available. It offers both On1 and camera profiles, though one can not import custom ones. The layering and adjustment features as well as “filters” are robust and offer approximately 3/4 of what photoshop does but it is lacking in the higher end features such as creating content aware fill (it does have content aware brushes) and some of the adjustments do not have as many options as they would in their counterpart in PS. The layering and masking tools are robust and efficient.
That being said, I find the workflow is fast and efficient and I don’t have to hop around between LR and PS as I did in the old days and it offers the best of both. Can you produce professional results with it? Absolutely though if you are an illustrator, this is not the program for you. There are several other quirks namely the latest release screwed up Wacom compatibility on Windoze machines, the export can be wonky, the print module is rudimentary as are NR. For me, all of this is offset by the pleasure of the workflow and the non destructive nature of the editing. If you want to get in the weeds a bit more, I’ll be happy to do so though keep in mind that your best bet is to watch a few tutorials and try it yourself.
|