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When to Use Photoshop Instead of Lightroom

Community Expert ,
Feb 19, 2017 Feb 19, 2017

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There are courses, books and tutorials on Lightroom and Photoshop.  None seem to focus on when to use one over the other. 

Some things are obvious.  Cropping is going to be about the same in either.  Object removal seems better in Photoshop.   What about all the other things we do with an image file. 

Please recommend a online course, book or YouTube tutorials that concentrate on when to use "Edit in Photoshop".

Thanks in advance!

Bill

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Adobe Employee , Feb 22, 2017 Feb 22, 2017

Hi Bill,

Please refer to the articles below: -

The Difference Between Photoshop and Lightroom Explained

What are the differences between Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom? - Quora

Lightroom can be used to edit Images, making slideshows, printing books.

Photoshop can be used to create designs, abstracts, billboards, animations.

It depends on the choice of work you are going for, hope this answers your query.

Regards,

Sahil

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Adobe Employee ,
Feb 22, 2017 Feb 22, 2017

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Hi Bill,

Please refer to the articles below: -

The Difference Between Photoshop and Lightroom Explained

What are the differences between Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom? - Quora

Lightroom can be used to edit Images, making slideshows, printing books.

Photoshop can be used to create designs, abstracts, billboards, animations.

It depends on the choice of work you are going for, hope this answers your query.

Regards,

Sahil

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Community Expert ,
Feb 22, 2017 Feb 22, 2017

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Sahil.Chawla  wrote

Hi Bill,

Please refer to the articles below: -

The Difference Between Photoshop and Lightroom Explained

What are the differences between Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom? - Quora

Lightroom can be used to edit Images, making slideshows, printing books.

Photoshop can be used to create designs, abstracts, billboards, animations.

It depends on the choice of work you are going for, hope this answers your query.

Regards,

Sah

Sahil,

Thank you for taking the time to post the two articles.  I'm far enough along to fully understand both of them.  Part of them is that through using versions 4, 5 and CC, I'm comfortable with and enjoy using Lightroom.  Even those articles continue to treat them as separate systems due to their structural differences.   Yet, how many times do you read or hear the idea that, "I've taken it as far as I want and now I'm going to jump to Photoshop."  What triggered that?  Where do the synergistic parts of the whole connect? 

For many, the processing choice was Lightroom or Photoshop Elements.  CS6 was out of price reach.  With the $10 Photography plan Lighroom and the "real" photoshop become the new normal package.  If you want one, you get both.  But, instruction systems remain one or the other. 

After a few days of working on this, my conclusion is that I'm going to find little help understanding the synergy of using the programs together.  I'll continue "normal" processing in Lightroom and continue to search for and study the particular unique tricks of Photoshop. 

When I started the topic I was sure I would find someone, somewhere that would be teaching how to get the best from both together rather than each separately. 

Again, thanks for the reply.

Bill

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LEGEND ,
Feb 22, 2017 Feb 22, 2017

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You'll probably find that among Lightroom users they will say that they do at least 90% of their work in Lightroom only. Lightroom has  the same raw processing  engine as Camera Raw. So if you are shooting raw images you should probably try to do as much work as possible using Lightroom.  But if you have some intricate spot removal work to be done, or objects removed from the picture, or want to work with different channels of the image, then that is when you would want to turn to Photoshop. I'm sort of a casual photographer. Almost all of my work is done completely in Lightroom. I don't know that there's a course that can tell you when to use one program over the other. It just depends on the image and what you want to do with it.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 22, 2017 Feb 22, 2017

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JimHess  wrote

You'll probably find that among Lightroom users they will say that they do at least 90% of their work in Lightroom only. Lightroom has  the same raw processing  engine as Camera Raw. So if you are shooting raw images you should probably try to do as much work as possible using Lightroom.  But if you have some intricate spot removal work to be done, or objects removed from the picture, or want to work with different channels of the image, then that is when you would want to turn to Photoshop. I'm sort of a casual photographer. Almost all of my work is done completely in Lightroom. I don't know that there's a course that can tell you when to use one program over the other. It just depends on the image and what you want to do with it.

Jim,

Thanks for your answer.  I learn a lot from your posts here. 

I too am a casual photographer and have been so for about 60 years.  It is and continues to be a fun ride.  Compared to my old wet process darkroom, Lightroom is a dream come true!

My goal, and the reason for the topic, is to identify a learning path that will lead toward a Photoshop proficiency that becomes part of my Lightroom tool kit.   So far, I'm on my third cohesive Photoshop class.  Understanding the mechanics is getting better.  Understanding the creative decision of when "I can do that better in Photoshop" remains mysterious!

I'll continue my search for the book, course or tutorial titled "How to Get Better Images by Using Lightroom and Photoshop Together".

Bill

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Explorer ,
Feb 22, 2017 Feb 22, 2017

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Hi Bill,

     Just my two cents worth, but here is what triggers me to use photoshop.

     Lightroom is my digital darkroom, its where I choose the how to develop my photo. Just like my old wet process darkroom, choosing the tint of the photo, the saturation/vibrance, highlight and shadows setting are like choosing the type of paper to develop on, but on steroids. I have access to adjust everything I need to to develop the photo. Exposure, dodge and burn, crop, layout, and even size. I can do some minor healing as you would in a darkroom.

     Lightroom is extremely powerful at creating amazing photo's from just one photo, from he basic tools panel to using the Histogram and the tonal curve (one of the most powerful tools in Lightroom I would say). And the HDR function is superb at creating a High Definition image from multiple photo's, as long as you looking to create a realistic image. If someone wants to create a Hyper Realistic image, use a different piece of software.

     If all you want to do is develop amazing photo's Lighting room will be your only tool. But....

     When I choose to use Photoshop, it is when I want to manipulate the photo. As in combining multiple photos for a multiple exposure photo, to build a single photo from 2 or many. For example, I had to build a photo of a "Toast to the Bride". It was in a room that had the back drop of a wall of ceiling to floor windows that over looked a valley in Alaska. Needles to say when I exposed to the people the entire backdrop was blown out. Knowing this, I took a proper exposed photo for the outside and in photoshop placed it the background.

     Other times i use photoshop is when i have to some major healing (removing signs, people, buildings) and I use the content aware feature. Lightroom's healing brush just can't handle it. And then there is just the ability to create a single photo or image from multiple ones with masks, text, gradient colours, etc.

     For me, there are course and books that I have found that tells me how to use Photoshop and what Photoshop can do but, nothing to say when to use it over Lightroom. I make my move to photoshop when I know or find that Lightroom cannot do what I want to accomplish. And from what other has said and told me, thats how they approach it as well.

     I have bought books, purchased online courses and it all helps, but I find if you know what your trying to do, plug that into google and lots of help will show up.

     If you buy books, mark them up! Buy those sticky page tabs things and mark on them what its bookmarking. Online and youtube, bookmark them, and if you can print them off to PDF's and file them

Hope this helps in some way.

Cheers

Jef

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Community Expert ,
Feb 23, 2017 Feb 23, 2017

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Jef, Theresa J, D Fosse,

Thank you for your replies.  I'm starting to see the obvious. 

When I started this I was trying to figure out where Photoshop or Lightroom would be better at the same sort of adjustment.  In other words, how do you decide which photos will come out better if the sharpening was done in Photoshop instead of Lightroom?   The specific example was a bird in flight shot that I was using to practice in Photoshop.  For some reason it looked better after a trip to Photoshop and back.   Was I missing knowledge of what criteria to use for the decision to use the "Edit in..." command.

The obvious is that it depends on the image.  The start is to take it as far as you want or can in Lightroom.  If the creative urge is there to do more, and you suspect a path for it might exist in Photoshop, try it. 

My wanting of a technical answer is misguided.   This is art, not science!  There is not a "correct" answer.

Thanks again for taking the time to tutor me!

Bill

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Community Expert ,
Feb 22, 2017 Feb 22, 2017

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Bill,

I teach both LR & PS and I use both almost daily. I am a photographer and a designer. Here's my simple answer.

LIGHTROOM

organize, rate, keyword, copyright, file manage, share online, sync to mobile apps, and export jpegs with watermarks

global edits and small amounts of selecting editing

LR edits are almost always good enough for social media sharing

PHOTOSHOP

retouching, compositing, and selective editing

Every image that I print, and frame, and hang in a gallery is edited to some degree with Photoshop

I hope that helps a little.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 23, 2017 Feb 23, 2017

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https://forums.adobe.com/people/Theresa+J  wrote

Bill,

I teach both LR & PS and I use both almost daily...

Do you teach anywhere near Seattle?

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Community Expert ,
Feb 23, 2017 Feb 23, 2017

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Only if teaching online counts.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 23, 2017 Feb 23, 2017

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https://forums.adobe.com/people/Theresa+J  wrote

Only if teaching online counts.

OK, where online?  My addictions include both Lynda.com and, of course, YouTube.  Online is good!

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Community Expert ,
Feb 23, 2017 Feb 23, 2017

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I sent you a PM.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 23, 2017 Feb 23, 2017

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https://forums.adobe.com/people/Theresa+J  wrote

I sent you a PM.

I got it.  Thank you. 

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Community Expert ,
Feb 23, 2017 Feb 23, 2017

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For me it's pretty simple: Get is as close to right as you can in Lightroom, and if there's still work to be done, move to Photoshop.

There's a wider perspective to this. These days, people think everything can be fixed in Photoshop. As a result, they shoot carelessly and ultimately end up with unrescuable garbage. Photoshop is probably responsible for more bad photography than anything else.

Focusing on Lightroom rather than Photoshop forces you to tighten up and get the shot right to begin with, and the final result will be that much better.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 14, 2017 Jul 14, 2017

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LATEST

  I am Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop so I might be a bit biased, and maybe the only Photographer who doesn't like Lightroom hehe. I am not really into Lightroom because you can do everything that Lightroom does, in Photoshop. I always had students asking about it, because they felt intimidated by Photoshop, that's the reason I learned Lightroom. Even the post-production process that everyone loves, you can do all that with Adobe Bridge.

  What I personally do, if I have to do bulk editing for example, is opening my RAW or even JPEG files with Camera Raw, I believe that it's really fast and efficient, unlike Lightroom. You don't even need to open Photoshop properly, you can do your Adjustments, Lens correction even use Adjustment tools anything you might need on Camera Raw, even some spot removal.

  Eventually, if you need more advanced editing you press the button and open the image in your proper Photoshop Interface. You can also do Save as from Camera Raw (batch rename, change resolution etc) without opening your image in Photoshop Interface. Or if you don't want to save it, Ps keeps your editing info in an xml file, exactly like Lightroom does with its editing information files

  So I propose, instead of learning 2 software, you can learn only one and be able to do what both can do.

I would guess that because Lightroom is easier and less complicated, it makes more people choose it, in contrast with Photoshop that looks more complicated. Also, Lightroom's interface reminds kind of darkroom processes and is targeted specially to photographers. Again, not many people use Camera Raw in it's full extend and that's why I guess they will choose Lightroom for simple tasks and Photoshop for more complicated processes.

  I teach for London Graphics Academy if you are interested in either Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom courses, you can learn from experienced Certified Instructors that will answer every question you might have about Image Editing. Or use online courses like lynda.com or anything that might help you to reach the level of proficiency that you wish! Good luck!

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