Lightroom has made impressive updates over the past few months, but is it enough to render Photoshop completely useless?. Most photographers these days start off by using Lightroom, which is certainly the easier software to use to edit your photos. Photoshop, on the other hand, has been known for being a more powerful photo editor. So now the question is, in 2024, which software should you be using: Lightroom or Photoshop?
Lightroom's Unique Features
Additional Features
Lightroom also offers the ability to create a book, make a slideshow, soft proof prints, or create a web gallery. These features are seldom used by most photographers, including myself, but they are available.
Photoshop's Unique Features
Additional Features: Photoshop provides an amazing variety of tools, which can be both a blessing and a curse due to the potential confusion from the numerous options available. Setting up Photoshop in a way that works for photo editing is essential.
Conclusion
Both Lightroom and Photoshop have their own advantages. Lightroom is excellent for cataloging and storing photos and for quick intermediate-level editing. Photoshop is essential for advanced editing, even if you don’t need to learn the entire program. I use both software extensively, storing all my photos in Lightroom and making initial edits before launching into Photoshop for more advanced edits. From Photoshop, it’s easy to save the file and have it appear right back in Lightroom among all my other photos.
Lightroom vs Photoshop – Which is the best mobile app?
v| Name | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | |
| Genre | Blog |
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| Update | December 15, 2024 |
Preview
Lightroom has made impressive updates over the past few months, but is it enough to render Photoshop completely useless?. Most photographers these days start off by using Lightroom, which is certainly the easier software to use to edit your photos. Photoshop, on the other hand, has been known for being a more powerful photo editor. So now the question is, in 2024, which software should you be using: Lightroom or Photoshop?
Lightroom’s Unique Features
- Cataloging and Storage: Lightroom catalogs and stores your photos. In Lightroom, you can use folders, collections, the map, and many more ways to store your photos.
- Modules: Lightroom’s two most popular modules are the Library and the Develop module.
- Library Module: Allows you to quickly search for a photo or a group of photos, view metadata, add keywords, and more.
- Develop Module: Provides access to different sliders for global adjustments and local adjustments.
- Local Adjustments: These include gradient, freehand brush, color masking, luminance masking, and subject masking, which uses AI.
Additional Features
Lightroom also offers the ability to create a book, make a slideshow, soft proof prints, or create a web gallery. These features are seldom used by most photographers, including myself, but they are available.
Photoshop’s Unique Features
- Layers: Photoshop allows you to use layers, which help organize adjustments and combine multiple photos into one. For example, landscape photographers use focus stacking to combine photos with different focus points, something you can’t do in Lightroom.
- Customization Options: Photoshop offers more customization options and exclusive plugins. One commonly used plugin for landscape photographers is the TK panel for Luminosity masks.
- Built-in Effects: Photoshop has built-in effects like special sharpening, blurs, and warping, which are not available in Lightroom. These tools can be crucial for creating certain effects, such as the Gaussian blur for a subtle glow or the Smart Sharpen filter for sharpening images.
Additional Features: Photoshop provides an amazing variety of tools, which can be both a blessing and a curse due to the potential confusion from the numerous options available. Setting up Photoshop in a way that works for photo editing is essential.
Conclusion
Both Lightroom and Photoshop have their own advantages. Lightroom is excellent for cataloging and storing photos and for quick intermediate-level editing. Photoshop is essential for advanced editing, even if you don’t need to learn the entire program. I use both software extensively, storing all my photos in Lightroom and making initial edits before launching into Photoshop for more advanced edits. From Photoshop, it’s easy to save the file and have it appear right back in Lightroom among all my other photos.
