I just purchased Adobe photography package. Why did I get LR CC and LR Classic CC?

[ColonelDan]

I just purchased Adobe photography package to replace my old Aperture program.  I understood I was getting LR CC and PhotoShop CC in the package.  But I didn't expect to get LR Classic CC as well and I'm confused by it.

Other than appearance and perhaps a few bells and whistles, LR CC and LR Classic CC seem to be the same program.  So why do I need both?  What advantages are there for one over the other?  What disadvantages?  Can I use them interchangeably? In other words, can I import a photo into one and access it in another?

[JP Hess]

Lightroom Classic CC is the latest iteration of the Lightroom that everyone has been accustomed to over the last 10 years. It is the version that has been part of the Creative Cloud photography plan. It is a folder based, with all images based locally on your computer and providing the capability of sharing chosen collections on the Web and on mobile devices.

Lightroom CC (the new version) is a new program that is just being introduced that is cloud based, and is a version 1 program. When you download images using this program they are immediately available on any mobile devices that you have installed the Lightroom mobile application. This is a new concept program that doesn't have all of the features of Lightroom Classic CC, but will have more features added and will be integrated more with Lightroom Classic as time goes on.

Any collections created in Lightroom Classic and shared will be immediately available in the new Lightroom CC. And adjustments made in Lightroom CC will be applied to the master images in Lightroom Classic. If you don't understand this, that's okay because the two programs aren't intended to really work together at this time. The integration will come as time goes by. I know this is not a complete explanation, but it's a start.

[ColonelDan]

Great information. You are correct - it is confusing and what you provided is a start - a nice start.  Your comments, combined with David's, clarify but also create more questions.  I don't understand why Adobe doesn't explain this, up front.  Your explanation would have made things so much more understandable if Adobe had just included it (or something like it) in their promo.  I couldn't even find anything in the FAQs that addressed this stuff.

So it looks like my best approach is to follow David's guidance - Use Lightroom Classic CC for now and see how Lightroom CC develops.  Following that path, I will ask questions regarding Lightroom Classic CC only.

Your first paragraph talks about local storage.  By local storage are you saying the hard drive on my laptop only or can I specify image storage on an external drive?  I loaded about 3000 photos from a recent trip to Israel on my newly acquired Lightroom CC.  That one trip consumed the lion's share of the 20GB in my Adobe photographic package.  I have many more photos that I need to manage and they all won't fit on my Laptop HD and certainly won't fit on my cloud allocation.  I am enjoying the capability to view my photos on my iPhone but I am not willing to keep expanding my cloud allocation.

Your third paragraph has an interesting statement.  You said "Any collections created in Lightroom Classic and shared..."  I read that to mean I have a choice to share or not.  I assume then, I can store my photos on my hard drive(s) and then use the allocated cloud space for those photos I wish to have available for viewing on other devices.  I further assume I can remove photos from the cloud, at will, and add different photos.  My cloud space would then be my revolving display case.  Are my assumptions correct?

Thanks for the great start.

Dan

[JP Hess]

Images can be stored on any hard drive that is connected directly to your computer. That includes network hard drives. The catalog that Lightroom uses must be on a local hard drive, it cannot be on a network hard drive. So your question about images being on an external hard drive; yes, that is possible. Many people do that routinely.

As far as sharing collections from Lightroom Classic CC is concerned, doing so shares smart previews and not full-sized images. These smart previews do not count against your cloud space. The only time you will use your allotted cloud space is when you use the new Lightroom CC and download images directly. Those full-sized images will be downloaded directly to the cloud as well as to your computer.

[ColonelDan]

Thanks.  I'm really glad to know I am able to store photos on an eternal drive.  And I assumed the catalog had to be on my local hard drive.  Aperture was the same.  I have not yet done anything in Lightroom Classic CC except open it and make minor adjustments to one or two photos from my Lightroom CC download. 

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by smart previews but I'll either figure it out as I experiment with Classic or will ask questions on the forum as needed.

As I've previously stated, I'v downloaded about 3000 photos to LR CC.  Your second paragraph indicates those photos reside (full-sized) on in the cloud as well as on my hard drive.  I didn't know they were on my hard drive and I don't think I had the opportunity to specify where they were to be stored on my hard drive.  Where are they?  Can I now move them to Classic, store them where I want them, and clear some room on the cloud?

As you can tell, I'm new to Adobe and am presently trying to figure out what I have.  I'm going slow and want establish a good understanding of the program(s) and how they will best suit my needs before I do something stupid.  I'm also working very long hours presently and haven't the time or energy to experiment with my new toys.  But once I get beyond the rudiments, I'll need to know how/if I can transfer my Aperture catalog to Classic.  The FAQs may answer all my questions.  If not I'll open a new topic.

[JP Hess]

I'm just starting to experiment with Lightroom CC myself. But in the Lightroom CC preferences you can specify the folder that it uses as the main folder on your computer to store the images. The default location is a folder in the Pictures folder. But you can change that to where ever you want it to be. I have changed it to a folder on an external hard drive. Then, when I downloaded images in Lightroom CC, it created a dated folder within that folder on the external hard drive. The next step was to go into Lightroom Classic CC and import those images the normal way in that program. At this time there is no coordination between the two programs, so the editing done in either program has no effect on the other.

[ColonelDan]

I went to this screen within my program and then hit "Learn More".  If I'm reading it correctly, my photos go to the cloud but are not stored on my hard drive unless I click the checkbox at the bottom of the screen shown above.  I do not have the checkbox checked.  I looked at my pictures folder in Finder and see only the LR library.  This would be the database that contains all the attributes of my photos (location of the original file and changes I've made) but hot the photos themselves. I do not see any photos there.

This is confusing though, because, in the example you provide above, even without the checkbox checked, the statement "Original are currently stored in a custom location:" would indicate originals are stored somewhere other than in the cloud (even when the checkbox isn't checked).  And you are storing your photos on your external drive and uploading those photos into Lightroom Classic CC.  So obviously, the checkbox does not have to checked.  Which begs the question, what does the checkbox do?

Going forward, I will be using Lightroom Classic CC as my primary tool.  But there is the pesky problem of the 3000 photos I have in LR CC.  I have made corrections on many of them - some substantial and some minor - most need additional tweaking.  I still have the originals on an SD card and can easily download them to Classic.  But none of these will have the corrections I've already made to the same photos in LR CC.  I could export my already corrected photos and then load them into Classic but they would have sustained one level of degradation in doing so (like copying a copy).  Probably not much point in making further improvements on those photos.  I could load the ones I do not intend to correct further and live them as is.  For the photos I'd like to work on more, I'll just have to start from scratch with the originals.  I can then discard all 3000 from LR CC if I choose.  Does this sound like a reasonable plan?

One more minor question.  Many of my photos from Israel were overexposed and all landscape shots were very hazy.  To my delight, LR CC has a Dehaze slider that worked wonders on these shots.  I haven't done much with Classic but I did look for the Dehaze slider - couldn't find it.  Does it not exist?

Sorry for the barrage of questions but you are helping me greatly.

Dan

[JP Hess]

Lightroom CC has been available for a couple of weeks. There aren't really any tutorials yet. There are some being prepared. Everyone who is using it is new. You're asking me a lot of questions, and you've got  more images uploaded into Lightroom CC than I do. I don't have answers for you. I watched just part of the Adobe presentation in Las Vegas where Lightroom CC was introduced. They suggested that we start experimenting with it and get a feel for how it works and watch it grow. That is exactly what I'm doing. So far, I have downloaded about 15 images directly into Lightroom CC. I have been experimenting with how they update. When I downloaded the last set of images I had already chosen my "custom" destination folder on my hard drive. My main purpose in downloading directly to Lightroom CC was to see if the images would actually go to the hard drive and to go to that custom folder. They did, and I had full-sized images in the cloud. Okay, I said to myself, I understand how that part works. And that's all I know about that part so far. I don't want my entire catalog migrated to the cloud. I don't need it done. After reading the frustration some are having in trying to make it work I don't want to be bothered with it. I tried making adjustments to the images in the cloud and wondered if those adjustments would be applied to the images on the hard drive. They were not applied. There is no connection there. I don't use other mobile devices. So there is no other connection. So I went into Lightroom Classic CC and imported those images from the custom folder and I can work on those images completely independently from Lightroom CC. That's how that part is working on my computer. At this point, Lightroom CC seems to be an excellent way to look at finished images on another computer with Lightroom CC installed, mostly shared collections from my main computer. From my perspective and the way I do things, I'm probably not going to be importing a lot of images directly into Lightroom CC. I suggest that you just experiment with the program and figure out what works for you and what doesn't. Don't worry about the images that are already there. You have already indicated that Lightroom Classic is going to be your main tool. Okay, just use it for that. Lightroom CC isn't going to affect anything you're doing in Classic. And eventually you will figure out what you want to do with Lightroom CC. Just remember that Lightroom CC is new, it's version 1, everybody is trying to learn it. Just play with it and decide how it's going to work in your workflow. Don't worry about it right now. Maybe one day it will evolve into something meaningful. Right now I don't think it really matters. As a disclaimer, that's just my opinion.

As far as the dehaze filter is concerned, yes, it is in Lightroom Classic CC. It's under the Effects section:

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that you not ask any questions. I'm suggesting that you "join the club" along with the rest of us who are trying to figure this new adventure out. Just know that I/we don't have all the answers. I play with it a little every day and I'm almost to the point where I'm going to install it on my wife's laptop. But I haven't taken that huge step yet because she is very protective of her computer. So I'm still thinking. So if you have any ideas or any more questions feel free to chime in and let your voice be heard. The more you ask and the more you say, perhaps more we all can learn.

[David_Illig]

I understood I was getting LR CC and PhotoShop CC in the package.  But I didn't expect to get LR Classic CC as well and I'm confused by it...

Other than appearance and perhaps a few bells and whistles, LR CC and LR Classic CC seem to be the same program.  So why do I need both?

You probably don't need both, but you got Lightroom CC because it is part of the deal. Forget Lightroom CC for now. The program you wanted is Lightroom Classic CC, which is the exact functional replacement for Aperture. Trust me on this. You can investigate Lr CC later.

[ColonelDan]

Thank you for the advice.  I'm taking it.  You can see I've asked additional questions and will certainly ask more as I explore Lightroom Classic CC further.

Thanks again for your help.

Dan