If you have spent any time at all following me, you should know the following.
1. I think photo editing should be quick and easy.
2. I’d rather spend my time with my finger on the shutter button than the mouse button.
3. I love using presets to either start or finish a photo because they save time.
Here’s one more thing you should know. I am sick and tired of paying rent to Adobe in exchange for using their photo/video editing tools.
I used to be okay with their subscription model because I did the math and the monthly costs usually amounted to less than I would have spent on their upgrade path.
But lately, I do not believe the updates Adobe have offered warrant continued subscription. And while I know they make lots of money using that subscription model and they aren’t going to abandon it, I think their approach is arrogant and it leaves open an avenue for other companies to innovate and offer software for a standard, one-time, license fee.
There is a program called CameraBag 2020 that I think warrants your consideration.
While it’s maker bills it as a Lightroom replacement, it doesn’t offer a catalog feature so I think it’s better considered a Photoshop replacement.
It also might serve those who need basic video editing since CameraBag is available for either photo editing or photo and video editing.
Watch this teaser video if you just want an executive summary of what CameraBag 2020 has to offer.
What I really like about CameraBag 2020 is that it offers the combination of power and simplicity. It lets you instantly apply one of hundreds of beautiful presets to your photos (and videos with CameraBag Pro), and then dive deeper with intuitive professional adjustments and custom presets. CameraBag’s focus on intuitive tools and workflows isn’t about dumbing down image editing, it’s about working smarter and faster.
If you read the first few paragraphs of this review, you know that resonates with me. Here’s something else that resonates with me. The price and the business model.
CameraBag 2020 comes in two versions – CameraBag Photo ($30) for working with photos only, and CameraBag Pro ($50) which lets you use the same toolset on both photos and videos.
There are tons of cool presets and you can make your own, either working from scratch or modifying the existing presets.
There are presets specifically designed for portraits, different landscape scenarios, faithful emulation of analog film stock from the past, popular modern photo styles, and more.
If you don’t want to learn how to use the program’s power features, you will still get more than your money’s worth from the presets.
CameraBag Pro is particularly great for anyone who needs to apply the same style to both photos and videos – especially with batch processing for large sets of media (including watermarks/branding, resizing, and cropping).
The ability to easily add branding and watermarks sets CameraBag apart from many of its competitors. I know people who use Photoshop JUST because they can add the branding part. If that is the only reason you use Photoshop, you should really try CameraBag.
If you are a power user, there are tools you can access to do more professional-level edits. These include unique curve tools, adjustment re-ordering and layering, and large precise controls let you do things you simply can’t do in other popular software.
Following are some ways CameraBag is perfect for specific groups of users.
Wedding Photography
Easy batch filtering and watermarking
Use the exact same adjustments and filters on videos and photos (Pro only)
Quick comparison tools for large sets of photos
Tons of useful presets for wedding photography
Social Media Marketing
Custom image-based borders for consistent aspect ratios and branding
Easily save video frames as image files (Pro only)
Super fast filter-finding workflow
Batch resizing
Portrait Photography
Smoother, bigger, better tone curves than in other software
Special portrait-focused presets
Extremely natural and adjustable film grain
Pro Photographers
End-to-end high-bit-depth RAW workflow
Fast intuitive file navigation
Workflow built for developing a personal style
Unique, advanced tools for subtle adjustments
CameraBag has been around for a while, but the new improvements have propelled the product from a fun app to a real, professional editing tool.
Nevercenter (the developer of CameraBag 2020) told me that the following features are new in the latest CameraBag release:
- New spot heal tool
- New interactive white balance adjustment
- New auto exposure adjustment
- Dozens of new presets
- Portrait: Freckles BW 1-2, Portrait Curve 1-5, Gentle Focus, Portrait Shadows Green
- Landscape: Autumn 1-3, Beach 1-4, Landscape BW 1-2, Sky+Earth, Sky+Foliage
- Architecture: Interior 1-5, Exterior BW, Building Detail, Sky+Buildings, and more
- New image info window for viewing image resolution, bit depth, and file path
- Totally reworked rendering engine for improved speeds on hi-dpi/retina displays
- Added option to reset any adjustment tile to default settings
- Added Hue color method to Coloring and Coloring Curve adjustments
- Added interactive placement tool for Dead Pixel adjustment
- Added saving of 16-bit pngs and tiffs
- Resizable viewports when working with multiple simultaneous tabs
- Added ability to auto-load LUTs located in your default filters directory
- In-app notifications when new versions are available
- Support for loading .exr and .hdr images (Mac-only)
- Various interface updates and improvements
- Bug fixes (especially on hi-dpi/retina displays)
CONCLUSION
I have used CameraBag 2020 since the product was in Beta. I keep coming back to it because it is so different than anything else I use. I plan to spend more time with it and will let you know if my opinion changes, but right now, for a one-time fee of $50 or less, it’s a no-brainer.
You will still need to find a catalog alternative to Lightroom, but if you do, you can stop paying rent to Adobe and enjoy a full-featured set of tools that will make photo/video editing fun and easy.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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4 Responses
That looks like some solid software for quick and easy edits. I love that it also works with video.
Looks interesting, but it sounds a lot like Luminar’s pitch when it first started. Think I’ll stick with the benchmark.
I don’t see any correlation between Luminary’s and Camera Bag. The benchmark is a safe choice to be sure. Just kit for me. Not paying rent to anyone ever again.
I tried the trial of CameraBag and my feeling on it are mixed. On one hand, I like that it is a fast and lightweight program, making it the anti-Luminar, at least for Windows. The software interface is intuitive and well designed and there are some nice presets included. It is certainly possible to get from an unprocessed photo to something that looks pretty good very quickly. However, almost every photo I’ve edited in CameraBag I ended up bringing back into Luminar for additional edits that couldn’t be done in CameraBag. Mostly minor things like being able to use a vignette that isn’t centered or local edits or using a filter that CameraBag doesn’t have as a finishing touch but still an extra step.
But my bigger issue was that, at least for me, the collection of presets felt very small. Over 200 presets sounds like a lot at first, but that includes 30+ presets that are nothing more than varying levels of grain, plus pop art, matte, and vintage presets that I’m sure appeal to other people but not to me, and the number started to feel small. It’s nice that the landscape collection of presets includes ones for snow, autumn, underwater, sunset, etc. but there are only 3 or so options for each type and not enough just general landscape presets. I know I could just start making my own, but I couldn’t see this software being more than secondary software and I don’t want to dedicate time to making presets for secondary software.
My other main issue was that it appears to be using whatever software your operating system uses to read RAW files instead of having its own RAW processor and in my case this caused some problems, occasionally giving me a read error and also displaying portrait orientation photos in landscape orientation. Finally, the documentation and educational materials for the software pales in comparison to what Skylum provides for their software (and I would imagine other companies). There is no user manual and most of information they provide is in the form of Youtube videos. I found it a little off-putting that in one of the videos, they basically said that you don’t need to know what the slider does, just play around with it and see what happens, that may work for some people but I prefer to have an understanding of what is going on besides trial and error.
While I’ve highlighted my negative thoughts on the software more than my positive thoughts, overall I do like the software. I’m holding off for now on purchasing the software but signed up for their email list, so perhaps with the next major update or sale, I’ll bite. While the software itself is very different from Luminar, the marketing does feel very much like Luminar 2018, but I’m guessing that can be said about a lot of photo editors since Adobe went the subscription only route.