There’s no better way to learn how to use Photoshop and Lightroom than by listening to the pros. Get to grips with photo editing with lessons by expert photographers and editors.
It depends on your objective: are you focused on detailed image editing, a busy photographer wanting to stay organised, or a multi-disciplined creative mixing photography with illustration?
Discover where you sit in the Lightroom v Photoshop debate.
With Photoshop, you can transform images pixel by pixel with powerful image editing software – retouching photos and merging illustration with photography to create contemporary art.
Adobe Lightroom is aimed at photographers, with its useful combination of lite editing tools and organisational capabilities. With Lightroom, photographers can manage their workflows – retouching photos and creating easy-to-navigate catalogues of images for specific projects.
Photographers can give photos star ratings to make them easy to find while managing their projects across their smartphone, tablet, or desktop, with apps and cloud storage.
The main difference between Lightroom and Photoshop is this:
Professional photographers often use a combination of both – Lightroom for their day-to-day workflows, and Photoshop for detailed editing work. So it’s not always a case of Lightroom or Photoshop or Lightroom v Photoshop – it can be Lightroom and Photoshop together.
Another important point: Lightroom is focused solely on photographers, whereas Photoshop is used across creative disciplines – including graphic design.
Photoshop
Photoshop Lightroom
Draw and paint with brushes
and pens
Photoshop has advantages over Lightroom for serious photo editors and creative professionals – as well as students in disciplines such as graphic design, illustration, and publishing. This is mostly due to its superior power for image manipulation, creation, and enhancement.
Advantages of Photoshop include:
Lightroom has advantages over Photoshop for amateur and professional photographers who need to keep their photo libraries organised and have easy access to basic editing tools. This is mostly because Lightroom is a one-stop shop for working across devices on the go.
Advantages of Lightroom include:
Knowing the differences between Lightroom and Photoshop will help you to pick the best image editor for any given project. In many cases it’s not a Lightroom v Photoshop decision – the two are designed to work seamlessly with each other.
You can process a photo in Lightroom and then press command E or control E to pass it over to Photoshop, where you can fine-tune it. Many photographers begin the editing process with Lightroom – because it excels at handling large amounts of photos – before moving on to Photoshop for more complex jobs.
What’s more, it can be more cost effective to pay for both apps as opposed to just one or the other. If you want to enjoy the benefits of both Photoshop and Lightroom – an options which suits many photographers – check out the combined Photography Plan.
What’s more, it can be more cost effective to pay for both apps as opposed to just one or the other. If you want to enjoy the benefits of both Photoshop and Lightroom – an options which suits many photographers – check out the combined Photography Plan.
There’s no better way to learn how to use Photoshop and Lightroom than by listening to the pros. Get to grips with photo editing with lessons by expert photographers and editors.
There are several ways to buy Photoshop or Lightroom – or indeed Photoshop and Lightroom. We’ll quickly take you through them to help you make an informed choice.
If you’re sure you only want one or the other, you can take out an individual subscription to either Lightroom
or Photoshop – and benefit from a free trial.
If you think you may want to use Photoshop and Lightroom, as many photographers do, then the combined Photography Plan could be the best option.
If you’re a creative who works with illustration as well as photography, you’ll get the best value from a full
Creative Cloud subscription. This gives you access to all the Creative Cloud apps, so you can work in Illustrator and InDesign as well as Photoshop.
Before you take out a subscription, you may want to have a play around with Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom to see which is best for you. You can get a free trial of any Adobe Creative Cloud product to do just that. Get started now
Generally, professional photographers use both Lightroom and Photoshop – rather than one or the other.
With Lightroom, you can manage your workflows and stay organised. Lightroom is great for working on the go – as it’s available on smartphones and iPads – and making light edits to batches of photos.
You can use Photoshop to do more detailed editing work. For example, adding creative effects and editing photos pixel by pixel to remove the smallest imperfections and removing objects.
Photoshop cannot do everything Lightroom can.
You can use Photoshop and Lightroom together. Photographers will often start work in Lightroom – organising and categorising images and making light edits – before opening photos that need more work in Photoshop.
Because both apps are part of the Creative Cloud suite, they are well integrated with each other. You can open a photo from Lightroom in Photoshop with a simple keyboard shortcut.
Lightroom is not included with Photoshop: they are separate products. But if you want access to both, take out the Photography Plan. This plan includes Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, as well as Photoshop Express and Photoshop Camera.
Many photographers use both Lightroom and Photoshop: Lightroom for organising their photos into albums and basic editing, and Photoshop for more complex editing jobs.
As an editing tool, Lightroom is generally better for beginners than Photoshop. But really, Lightroom is aimed at photographers – both professional and amateur. That’s because it combines lite editing with image management features such as albums and libraries – to help photographers manage projects and workflows.
If you’re a beginner to photography, you may be better off with Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Express, or Photoshop Camera. These more basic apps are ideal for smartphone photographers looking to get started with photo editing.
