Differences between Lightroom and Photoshop

D_Fivehundred

D_Fivehundred

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Darren
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Can someone explain (or point me in the right direction to find) the differences between Lightroom and Photoshop please?

I've downloaded the trial version of LR to see what it's all about... and to be honest I can't get my head round it. I use PS for all my editing and I'm reasonably happy with that, I suppose I wondered if I was missing out on anything by not using LR.

Cheers all

:D
 
They aren't really comparative in what they do. Lightroom is a mixture of Bridge and Photoshop really. Firstly it lets you catalogue your shots adding info like keywords, extra metadate info, ratings etc and lets you search for these things....that is all under the 'Library' section (selected in the top right).

The developer section (again top right) gives you a load of processing tool, much like the ones found in Photoshop, just laid out slightly different. They are all contained in the panel on the right hand side, under drop down sections etc.

Lightroom then goes on to allow you to print directly from there, laying out shots on the page at various sizes, which in Photoshop is no where near as simple....you can also make galleries for upload to your website etc, all still inside Lightroom.

So are you missing out by not using it, I would say a massive YES :) It has made it many many times faster for me to work on shots. No more opening various raw files in Photoshop to see what was what, or faffing with having bridge open as well. I just open Lightroom and there are all my photographs, oraganised in 'collections' (IE Sets) that I can quickly jump to and with a single click start processing them, and if needs be apply the same processing to groups of shots, again saving loads of time.

Once you get your head around it it is amazing.
 
Thanks Tom... perhaps I should have thrown Bridge into the mix too... where does that fit in with LR and PS...?
 
Both Lightroom and PS are able to make adjustments to the basic photography variables like exposure and crop. PS then goes far far further with adjustments/layers etc whilst Lightroom adds organisation to your collection.

I actually use both. I use lightroom as my main catalogue and within lightroom there is an option to edit a picture from within it using PS.

I find no use for bridge whilst having LR & PS personally.
 
Exactly as above.

Lucky that I was exposed to PS through work from around PS5 onwards. Still, sometimes it only takes LR to make a minor adjustment to make me happy. I tend to use CS4 for when I'm feeling more creative.

I do love the organisation you get with LR. Having said that, as far as adjustments go, I could cope with CS4 on its own to do what I had to do.......if I really had to.........
 
I use bridge all the time for browsing pics, cataloging and keywording, I never understood what it did until I saw a mate of mine using it, it's a revelation to the way I was working before
 
As above but the easiest way to think of them is LR is for camera to file system and acts as a storage and catalogue system with basic tools that are generally good enough for photographers who get it right in camera ...(gonna to be an argument about that) P S is more about adding effects and combining filters which is why there is an option to save back to lightroom so it stil fits in your catalogue.... If you decide to use lightroom... Please mAke sure you back up your catalogue. It's vital!
 
Thanks for the replies, I'll have a further play with the LR trial :)

I'm guessing it can replace the likes of Nikon Transfer and ViewNX...?
 
I use LR to catalogue, make basic adjustments, make some more detailed adjutments, print and decide on the 10% I need to pass to CS2 for very detailed adjustments.
 
Likewise, I find that Lighroom can handle 98% of my processing.

The processing part of Lightroom is pretty much the same as the Camera RAW part of Lightroom, if you don't do much more than Camera RAW, Lightroom could be for you, however, if you do a lot of adjustment layers etc it may not be.

Bridge is a browser for your image files on your hard drive, rather than using Finder/Explorer to look for files. Lightroom combines the bits of Photoshop and Bridge that photographers really need.
 
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