Loupedeck vs PFixer: Editing Wedding Photos in Lightroom
As a professional documentary wedding photographer, actually taking photographs is a small (but essential!) part of my job. Much of what a wedding photographer does is in the editing and processing of the images. And that’s where tools like the Loupedeck photo editing console for Lightroom comes in handy.
What Is a Photo Editing Console?
I’ve been using Adobe’s Lightroom software for many years, and though it has its own issues, it’s still my preferred way of processing the hundreds of images delivered to each wedding client. For a few years now, there have been several hardware solutions to adjusting all the sliders in the Lightroom develop panel.
Rather than using a mouse to click and drag sliders about on the screen, these devices are controlled by turning and moving physical sliders and knobs which make the adjustments in Lightroom. It drastically speeds up the process of fine-tuning an image – with practice, muscle memory means you are able to process an image without looking at what your hands are doing.
An added benefit that I found with the PFixer software and Behringer panel is that you can make multiple adjustments at once, using both hands. Now, it doesn’t make the keyboard or mouse completely redundant whilst editing, at least not for me. I still like to have a track pad and Wacom tablet and pen on the desk to make brush adjustments, while the panel makes ‘global’ adjustments to the image, selects tools, and rates and cycles through images.
Reviewing the Loupedeck
I’ve had issues with the software part of the PFixer panel in the past. I have to keep Lightroom updated in order to benefit from the latest RAW converters and support for new cameras, and sometimes the PFixer software doesn’t catch up with Lightroom and operating system updates.
So when I saw Loupedeck being developed, I wanted to back the project on Indiegogo and see if it would give me another hardware option. The first units shipped a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been using mine for the last couple of days editing weddings. The Loupedeck review video above gives you a good comparison of how this console works, and what the differences are between Loupedeck and the PFixer panel.
I’m not going to detail my thoughts here, it’s much better to see how it performs in the video.
Here are the wedding images I edit in the video above. They took around 20 minutes with both consoles. Typically I spend 20-40 seconds processing an image with PFixer, and the Loupedeck was taking roughly the same amount of time.
P.S. I paid full price for this unit and have no connection with Loupedeck or PFixer. And if you’re interested in training or mentorship, you can book via dunnit.me photo mentoring site.
About the author: Paul Rogers is a photojournalist based out of Hertfordshire, England. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. He has worked as an editorial photographer for The Times newspaper since 1998 and is also applying his talents to documentary wedding photography. Visit his website here. This article was also published here.
