So I've been using photoshop for a while and am fairly proficient in it. However i just got lightroom last night to see what it was like as a lot of people use it and talk about it.
I was curious what the advantages of using lightroom are in the 1st stage of the workflow, rather than just going straight into PS like i do now. I want to know why people think its worth me getting to know this new piece of software when PS seems to be working just fine for me (apart form the obvious of its interesting to learn new software packages for geeks like me)
I like Lightroom for organizing my images. It's very easy and versatile for reviewing, selecting, tagging, deleting, filing and filtering images plus you can quickly make easy adjustments to images. You can still edit images in Photoshop (through LIghtroom, so they stay organized with all your other images.)
From what I gather, lightroom is more of a database (which apparently is really good) with some editing capabilities. You can perform global edits using some basic functions inherent in PS. I have been interested in giving it a shot, so I've been doing a bit of research. Thats just my impression from that research. They are independent products for sure, and PS remains more powerful.
Sorry if that wasn't helpful at all.
Maybe someone can give a more detailed difference.
Yeah, idk. I don't really get Lightroom. And I tried Photoshop on someone else's laptop once but I didn't know what I was doing so I gave up before I even started. Same thing with GIMP. Ah, well.
Lightroom is great! I use it to sort, edit and export my photos. I rarely use Photoshop. I think that's more for 'manipulating' images, whereas Lightroom for me does almost everything I need to edit my photos so they still look natural.
thanks for this thread--i've wondered the same thing! i have ps elements (that i ashamedly cannot perform even one edit in!), and aperture for organizing. but i've heard great things about lightroom, and just didn't know if it was worth it.
sorry im not helpful am i! I only use lightroom really just started using photo shop at college. But lightroom of what i know does what i need regarding shadows lights etc no doubt the same as PS, i could be wrong though. As for digital manipulation with in PS aint too fussed
I've never gotten to grips with photardshop, always used paint shop pro (and an old version, at that), so can't really do a direct comparison... plus, my start with Lightroom was also my start with RAW, so I've never edited RAWs in anything but that, so again can't compare.
However what I do love about Lightroom is the focus on the photographer's process. For the odd photo per day, as in 365, where you're only tinkering with one or two shots, I guess the streamlined process is neither here nor there. When I've got a lot to do though, like my "snowtography" set, having a nice grid view of them all as thumbnails, easily navigated and instantly displaying full size on second monitor, I can easily choose which to discard. It's also only one keypress to get into the full edit mode if I want to quickly test out a crop, then another to go back to library mode and carry on organising.
Even before this, when importing photos from my standard "these are my downloaded photos which need organising" dump folder (where I dump everything from my camera as a holding pen) it can shove them into date-derived folders automatically based on EXIF date - perfect for 365 again and saves me doing it. On the odd occasion where I'm shooting pre- and post-midnight on a single "shoot" this can be mildly annoying as the set'll get split... but only very mildly.
Then once you're done organising you can switch into edit mode and tweak all sorts of things. The clone tool and paintbrush modifier tool thing are flexible enough that, if you've the patience, you can do some pretty photoshop-esque things with it. I'm up in Brum on my laptop at the mo so can't upload the original to demonstrate but this shot originally had a half height lamp post in the foreground which ruined the shot. Probably would've been quicker in PS but the point is you can do it in LR too.
The fact that your modification history on any particular photo is available right there in the left hand pane... forever. I can jump back into the first photo I ever twiddled with and see what I did.
Yeah I'm rather fond of it, all told. Makes life as a "photographer" (which I don't think of myself as, but you get the idea) real easy.
I would say that Lightroom is just a stripped down version of Photoshop but streamlines the process of general photo editing. One of the biggest advantages of Photoshop over Lightroom is Layers for sure. Personally, I use a combination of both.. plus DxO Optics for the intial RAW editing.
The organization aspect of Lightroom is great, but the same can be achieved with free software such as Picassa.
@eyebrows "Photardshop" huh? and you use paint shop pro.... /shrug
Like has been said, Lightroom is great for organisation of photos. A lot of people put photos into folders by date, but once you get Lightroom you don't need to do any of that, because you can filter photos by date, or by any other metadata (lens used etc) or by attached keywords which can be implanted when you import from your memory card. So, if I need to find a particular photo, and know it is of a bride called Lisa and shot at the beach, I can filter by wedding, bride, beach, and Lisa, and I will only get the images with all of those keywords - makes finding things so easy. This is especially helpful if one can't remember the date - with a date system you have to guess, and go through every folder near that guess to find the right set, and then search all the images in the set anyway.
I do basic corrections in Lightroom. So, I do my white balance, straightening, minor exposure adjustments and sometimes curves adjustments. I have plugins that allow me to smooth skin and brighten eyes etc without ever having to go to CS if I don't need to, and I envision this becoming even more useful to me when one of my plugin suites expands to allowing layers in Lightroom in the new year (onOne software). But, most of my photos go to Photoshop CS3/5 at some point, mostly because of layer masking and different sharpening methods available there.
I think, for the typical enthusiast, semi-pro and some pro photogs, Lightroom really is all that is needed. A lot depends on the style of photography and just what is needed with the final product. Lightroom is invaluable to me, but it isn't enough on its own. Neither is Photoshop CS. And, in fact, I need more software besides to really achieve a result with which I am happy, which is why I have spent more on plugins and addons than I have on Lightroom and Photoshop themselves!
Oh, Lightroom also has a number of often overlooked features, like the ability to create web galleries (here's one of the many I've created: http://www.jinximages.com.au/sugar ) and the ability to arrange photos for printing if you do some of your own.
@richwho Calling it photardshop isn't an insult, guy! I'm well aware PSP is way inferior to photoshut, but every time I mention that I use PSP I also mention/imply that that's all my primitive brain can cope with... except I didn't this time, somehow.
I call it photardshop because it's a bastardisation of the name photoshop as used in one of the episodes of this hilarious spoof "how to use photoshop" series on youtube which amused the hell out of me, and which I really do urge anyone to check out.
I agree with Vikdaddy. I have Lightroom and Elements 8. I find Lightroom quick and easy. I just cannot get my head around photoshop and think that unless you want to manipulate the image then Lightroom will do all you need, simply and fast.
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Sorry if that wasn't helpful at all.
Maybe someone can give a more detailed difference.
However what I do love about Lightroom is the focus on the photographer's process. For the odd photo per day, as in 365, where you're only tinkering with one or two shots, I guess the streamlined process is neither here nor there. When I've got a lot to do though, like my "snowtography" set, having a nice grid view of them all as thumbnails, easily navigated and instantly displaying full size on second monitor, I can easily choose which to discard. It's also only one keypress to get into the full edit mode if I want to quickly test out a crop, then another to go back to library mode and carry on organising.
Even before this, when importing photos from my standard "these are my downloaded photos which need organising" dump folder (where I dump everything from my camera as a holding pen) it can shove them into date-derived folders automatically based on EXIF date - perfect for 365 again and saves me doing it. On the odd occasion where I'm shooting pre- and post-midnight on a single "shoot" this can be mildly annoying as the set'll get split... but only very mildly.
Then once you're done organising you can switch into edit mode and tweak all sorts of things. The clone tool and paintbrush modifier tool thing are flexible enough that, if you've the patience, you can do some pretty photoshop-esque things with it. I'm up in Brum on my laptop at the mo so can't upload the original to demonstrate but this shot originally had a half height lamp post in the foreground which ruined the shot. Probably would've been quicker in PS but the point is you can do it in LR too.
The fact that your modification history on any particular photo is available right there in the left hand pane... forever. I can jump back into the first photo I ever twiddled with and see what I did.
Yeah I'm rather fond of it, all told. Makes life as a "photographer" (which I don't think of myself as, but you get the idea) real easy.
The organization aspect of Lightroom is great, but the same can be achieved with free software such as Picassa.
@eyebrows "Photardshop" huh? and you use paint shop pro.... /shrug
Like has been said, Lightroom is great for organisation of photos. A lot of people put photos into folders by date, but once you get Lightroom you don't need to do any of that, because you can filter photos by date, or by any other metadata (lens used etc) or by attached keywords which can be implanted when you import from your memory card. So, if I need to find a particular photo, and know it is of a bride called Lisa and shot at the beach, I can filter by wedding, bride, beach, and Lisa, and I will only get the images with all of those keywords - makes finding things so easy. This is especially helpful if one can't remember the date - with a date system you have to guess, and go through every folder near that guess to find the right set, and then search all the images in the set anyway.
I do basic corrections in Lightroom. So, I do my white balance, straightening, minor exposure adjustments and sometimes curves adjustments. I have plugins that allow me to smooth skin and brighten eyes etc without ever having to go to CS if I don't need to, and I envision this becoming even more useful to me when one of my plugin suites expands to allowing layers in Lightroom in the new year (onOne software). But, most of my photos go to Photoshop CS3/5 at some point, mostly because of layer masking and different sharpening methods available there.
I think, for the typical enthusiast, semi-pro and some pro photogs, Lightroom really is all that is needed. A lot depends on the style of photography and just what is needed with the final product. Lightroom is invaluable to me, but it isn't enough on its own. Neither is Photoshop CS. And, in fact, I need more software besides to really achieve a result with which I am happy, which is why I have spent more on plugins and addons than I have on Lightroom and Photoshop themselves!
Oh, Lightroom also has a number of often overlooked features, like the ability to create web galleries (here's one of the many I've created: http://www.jinximages.com.au/sugar ) and the ability to arrange photos for printing if you do some of your own.
I call it photardshop because it's a bastardisation of the name photoshop as used in one of the episodes of this hilarious spoof "how to use photoshop" series on youtube which amused the hell out of me, and which I really do urge anyone to check out.