# Lightroom vs Photoshop



## willdoak (Aug 25, 2010)

I have Lr 3.' and Ps CS5. I find Lr very intuitive, whereas Ps is not. There are some aspects of Ps (all pixel-moving) that aren't available in Lr. 

Has anyone published a comparison of functions in Ps that correspond to functions in Lr? In studying Ps, I'd like to skip the bits that are available in Lr. Many of the image adjustment functions seem to work the same way, although many of them are "destructive." 

I'm assuming Camera Raw is the same as the Develop module in Lr. Am I right there?

Cheers,

Will


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 27, 2010)

Hi Will, welcome to the forum! Apologies for the delay in replying.

I'm not sure of a published comparison, but yes, Camera Raw is the same backbone as Develop module. As a general rule, as you've got Lightroom, I'd concentrate on doing colour and density adjustments in LR, and then switch to PS for proper retouching - cloning, applying bizarre filters, selective adjustments, that kind of thing. There's some crossover with the local adjustments and spot removal tools which are available in LR, but are often quicker and easier in PS for anything complex.


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## willdoak (Sep 1, 2010)

I just happened to stumble across this book on Amazon: Here's an excerpt from a (fairly critical) review:

_Now Stephen Laskevitch proposes to initiate the new user to everything Photoshop in one swoop in "Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3: A Photographer's Handbook." For those not familiar with the software, Bridge and ACR are included with Photoshop but function much like separate pieces of software. Lightroom functionality overlaps with ACR and Bridge. . . .

This is an interesting pedagogical approach. There are many functions that are similar in adjusting images in Photoshop, ACR and Lightroom. For example, tone can be adjusted in all three tools with a form of the curves tool. But each of these curve tools has just a slightly different way of being applied._

There are several positive reviews. (One has to wonder if the author's friends were asked to chip in.) From one of those: 

_The information with in the book is presented with three applications in mind, Bridge, Photoshop & Lightroom. Lessons are detailed to show how tasks can be accomplished in sequence and/or in tandem by using each of these applications. There is much discussion explaining a comparison of how certain tasks are accomplished with in each application as well as the nature by which each application accesses the plugin, Adobe Camera Raw. This approach guides the reader towards a fluid proficiency through out the CS suite of photo editing software._

Has anyone read this book or a previous version? For people with Ps and Lr, it sounds like a good approach.

Cheers,

Will


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## dj_paige (Sep 1, 2010)

I am troubled by



> _Lightroom functionality overlaps with ACR and Bridge. . . ._



Perhaps I am being overly picky about the wording, but this seems like a poor description of Lightroom; perhaps a description of Lightroom by a reviewer who is out to write a review and so learns the basics of Lightroom and doesn't really appreciate the power of Lightroom.

Of course, maybe I'm totally wrong, but this one quote doesn't really make me feel good about the qualifications of the reviewer.


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## ukbrown (Sep 1, 2010)

Dpreview did a very good review of lightroom3, the reviewer looks to have a similar background to you bridge, photoshop. It may be useful

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/adobelightroom3/page8.asp I thought it was quite balanced


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## laskevitch (Jan 14, 2011)

Hey Will,
The author here. Nope--I didn't enlist any friends to write reviews. here are a couple from other reviewers: T. Michael Testi (Blogcritics.org), John "Nemo" Nemerovski (pixiq), and Dr Michael N. Roach (digitalapplejuice)

Hope those clarify,
Steve


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 14, 2011)

Welcome to the forum Steve - good to see you here


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## powertri02 (Jan 20, 2011)

Hi,

I want to get into photography. I have been doing event video production for 10 years, but I am a photographer newbie. I have used photoshop cs4 to edit video production graphics and design web graphics. Do I need lightroom or can I do most of my adjustments in photoshop?


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## dj_paige (Jan 20, 2011)

You can certainly do _all _of your adjustments in Photoshop, you don't _need _Lightroom. Some of the benefits of Lightroom are a greatly enhanced workflow and digital asset management.


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## b_gossweiler (Jan 21, 2011)

dj_paige said:


> ... a greatly enhanced workflow ...


Including applying the same adjustments to multiple photos, copying adjustments from one photo to others, just to mention _one _of the major differences.

Beat


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## chris1999 (Jan 23, 2011)

ive been using photoshop for professional photo editing for years. It is certainly a terrific engine for photo editing. I'm not much for heavy editing either. I just got my hands on lightroom and my preliminary thoughts are: its very basic. hopefully i can be enlightened, in time. Id like to see what else is out there..


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## dj_paige (Jan 24, 2011)

chris1999 said:


> I just got my hands on lightroom and my preliminary thoughts are: its very basic.


 
If all you are going to do is compare editing capabilities of LR and PS, then there's really no reason to buy LR. 

You seem to be missing the fact that some of the MAJOR advantages of Lightroom are in streamlining and speeding up your workflow, and in digital asset management.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 25, 2011)

Chris, it's far more powerful than it looks, but it'll take a while to get into it.  Stick around here and you'll pick up lots of tips.


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## don221 (Jan 26, 2011)

I'm just taking my firs small steps in learning more about photomanipulation. I have several websites and have been having to use either free pictures or try to do my own but then using paint to alter them, which is soooooo frustrating although free. Time has come to learn new stuff so lok forward to reading all the tips


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 26, 2011)

Welcome to the forum Don.  You'll learn plenty here.


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## Mtberfrombothell (Feb 19, 2011)

I'm using both Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 and I found that there are some tasks that I prefer to do in lightroom like exporting the final image to jpeg that applies my watermark properly and with the help of presets save the file easily on a specified location I want. I normally do my editing first with lightroom then move to photoshop then back to lightroom. It is pretty seamless anyway so it works well. On my laptop that only has ps I normally miss lightroom. I'm new here by the way. Cheers


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## dave_35 (Mar 10, 2011)

If you really need to have sophisticated editing of photos, then go for photoshop. The only problem with it is that it's not an image management program, unlike lightroom. That's the reason why adobe bundled it with other programs in their Creative Suite. But for me Photoshop alone works great. Unless you're a photography Pro.


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