Please could someone explain the difference.....

Missy1981

Missy1981

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55
Name
Sarah
Edit My Images
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.....between Photoshop and Lightroom to me?

I'm a newbie to all this and you have all been so helpful.

I would like to have a mess around with some of my pictures but am confused by what each product does. For example, would you use both? Or do you only need one as they do the same thing?

Thanks in advance as always.

Sarah
 
There are many articles on the net which can explain it better than I, such as this:

http://photographylife.com/photoshop-vs-lightroom

However, my personal opinion is that if you need to ask then Lightroom is the product for you. I have both and can't actually remember the last time I fired up Photoshop - I can do virtually all the editing I need for 99% of my shots in Lightroom. Plus, it provides you with a great workflow for editing, cataloging, exporting, sharing, etc etc your photos
 
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At a basic level Lightroom's library tab is good for cataloguing things, going through your photos, picking your favourites, etc. Then you have the develop section where you can adjust the exposure, curves, noise reduction, lens profile, and so on. None of this affect the source image - it's all just applied when you export it.

Photoshop can do all of that as well, but the interface is geared more towards the more in-depth editing side of things.

Certainly no expert, but I tend to go through a set of pictures in Lightroom, pick my favourites, and export them. Afterwards I might fiddle with 1 or 2 of them in Photoshop. If you told me I could only use one of them I'd probably take Lightroom.
 
Photoshop is a generic name for various Adobe programmes. The original Photoshop was a professional graphic arts package and the full version remains so today.

Then Adobe stripped out the most commonly used photo editing bits used by photographers and sell that as Photoshop Elements, but it's still an adapted package rather than one intended for photographers from the ground up.

The relative newcomer is Lightroom, specifically for photographers, full title Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, currently version 4. It has everything most photographers need, including library and catalogue, printing and other output options. It is configured in a more logical way for photographers, so most people find it quite easy and intuitive to use despite the immense power beneath its simple sliders. It is also non-destructive. There are some things it can't do, layers being one, so it's designed to work with other programmes as plug-ins if needs be, but many people now use Lightroom for everything - including me :thumbs:

It's not even expensive now, but download the free 30-day trial and have a go :)
 
Is there a slightly stripped down version of Lightroom, comparable to PSE? Never used LR (but Dad and I came up with Lightroom as a reference to processing digital pictures in the light rather than dark a while before Adobe did!), although I'm hoping to get a quick tour over this weekend.

What are LR's B&W conversions like? Is there something like PS's channel mixer to simulate coloured filters or is it a simple desaturation algorithm?
 
LIghtroom was very expensive (and hence Pirated) but since Lightroom 4 it's only around £100 making a stripped down version not necessary (not that there was one anyway).

LR B&W conversions are very good and yes, it has channel mixers :)
 
A good place to start is the software that came with your camera. It will be able to do some editing.

There are also quite a few free photo editors, eg

Photoscape - a very easy to use basic editor. It does not have a lot of features but I often find it does all I want.

GIMP - does just about everything the paid for editors can do. Takes some time to learn, but that the same for any complex editor.

Others include Irfanview, Paint.Net.

There are also some basic edition functions in Picasa(also free)

Dave
 
Lightroom also has the ability like photoshop does for 3rd party add ons, such as Silver efex and all your other favourites. So even if you dont like the built in channel mixer or presets, you can still use another plug in to do it.

I have Photoshop CS6, but rarely use it. The only time I use it is for large cloning or removing objects.

Lightroom does everything else I could possibly need.

You can get free 30 day trials of both, so download them and use them both to see which works best for you.
I think lightroom is much, much easier and faster than photoshop too.
 
Thank you, Ned, just what I wanted to know. With a bit of luck, I will have a little play tomorrow (with a JPEG or 2) and see what advantages it may have over PSE7 or 8. £100 would be well within budget if I decide I like it.

As I've said in numerous other threads, I dislike PP with something approaching a passion, so the raw conversion side of LR would be irrelevant (although I may have a play again), and my own folder/file structure is so logical that the organisation part would also be unneeded (I could always download Picassa should I want a chronological organiser).
 
I think the best thing LR did for me was, combined with the dynamic range of D700 raw files, allow me to do away with grad filters in all but the most serious circumstances.

In fact, I bought a lot of Lee filters for my recent trip to NZ and barely used them at all, it is so easy to add grads in post that you don't need them.
 
Thanks for your replies everyone. I think I may give the Lightroom trial a go. Being a newbie, I don't think I would benefit from spending so much money on something like Photoshop. I also like that you can organise your photos on Lightroom. This is a big plus for me. Thanks again everyone :-)
 
I use Lightroom and Photoshop, I had Lightroom 3.3 and Photoshop cs3, Ive recently upgraded to lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6 extended, Photoshop now lets me do the same adjustments as lightroom did before i actually open the picture up in CS6. But for me i use Lightroom more than anything else. Id get the free trial and see how it goes, plus its a lot cheaper than Photoshop.
 
Lightroom and photoshop are not really comparable. Photoshop is a full on editing program, Lightroom is not. You can not do extensive retouching in Lightroom. There is no layers facility, no full suite of retouching tools etc. If you don't intend to do a great deal of retouching to your images, then Lightroom is fine, but if you do, then Photoshop is a far better solution.

I tend to adjust WB, levels curves etc. in Lightroom. then do all the fine retouching and editing in Photoshop after exporting the image as a TIFF.
 
Pookeyhead said:
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I tend to adjust WB, levels curves etc. in Lightroom. then do all the fine retouching and editing in Photoshop after exporting the image as a TIFF.
Click to expand...

Not very efficient way of doing things at all
 
POAH said:
Not very efficient way of doing things at all
Click to expand...

But being comfortable with the workflow is probably more important than absolute efficiency to some users.

Personally I use CS5. I tried Lightroom but I found it to be a visual mess that looked geared more towards cataloguing with image adjustments hidden away in a corner. People love Lightroom but I like what I see as the relative simplicity and geared towards adjustment approach of CS.
 
Ran out of time, so didn't get to play with LR. Spent too much time playing with his D3x instead - far to cumbersome and heavy for me - I'll stick to my lesser (but more practical for me) D700.

Will probably stick with my current organisation system and PSE7/8 too - not that I do much PP.
 
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