Comparing Versions of Lightroom
Which of the many versions of Lightroom is the best one for you?
With Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC, Lightroom Mobile, and Lightroom Web, deciding which version you should use can be very confusing. Here’s my viewpoint on which is right for different photographers.
Hello everyone! Welcome back to Coffee Break Photography. My name is Rich Dyson from Edinburgh Photography Workshop. If you're passionate about photography, you've probably heard of Adobe Lightroom. But with several versions out there, which one suits your needs best? In today’s video, we’ll break down each version of Lightroom, highlight their unique merits, and help you decide which is the best fit for you, whether you're a professional, amateur, or beginner. Let’s dive in!
First up, we have Lightroom Classic. This desktop-based application is a favourite among professional photographers. It offers a comprehensive set of features for advanced photo editing and organisation.
This version of Lightroom uses a series of modules that you can see at the top of the screen. The library module is the place where you can organise and retrieve your photographs. The Develop module is where we can use the powerful editing capabilities, including local adjustments, noise reduction, and lens corrections. The Map module allows you to see where your pictures have been taken on a Google map – this needs your camera to collect the GPS data at the time of shooting. The Book module allows you to design a photo book and then send it to the on-demand print website Blurb.com, or if you prefer, you can output the book as a PDF document and then use a print service of your choice. Slideshow allows you to produce a video file of a collection of your photographs, enhanced with music and transition effects. The Print module does what it says on the tin – you can format your images to be printed to a PDF file or sent directly to your printer. I imagine very few people use the Web module, but it allows your photographs to be uploaded to a server using FTP as a formatted web gallery. Finally, you can synchronise your photos in Collections to the Adobe Cloud space, which you purchase with your subscription.
All the photographs are stored on the hard drive of your computer, and you can also include images stored on external hard drives too. In this video, you can see how you can manage the movement of pictures from your internal drive to external ones.
The real benefit of Lightroom Classic is its organisational features, such as Collections, Smart Collections, keywords, and a multitude of rating tools. You can add a colour label, flags, and numerical rating to an image. In addition, you can add industry-standard IPTC metadata to your photos.
As this version of Lightroom targets professionals, Adobe has spent years enhancing Classic's performance to manage extremely large catalogues of photographs. I have over 240,000 images in my Lightroom library, and using the excellent search tool within the library module, I can easily find pictures that meet specific criteria, such as keywords or ratings.
I recommend Lightroom Classic for professionals who focus on extensive editing and detailed workflow and for amateurs building a large portfolio.
Next, let’s discuss Lightroom CC, also known as Lightroom Cloud. This version is designed to be cloud-focused and allows access across devices. This is useful if you are on the move and use different devices to edit your work. You can take pictures and upload them to your computer, and then the full-sized photo will be available on your iPad or mobile device to edit as you travel.
However, you must be aware that each upload is a full-size file. Let’s say you are shooting with a Canon R5; each picture will use up 45MB of your Adobe cloud space. Bear in mind that the standard package for Lightroom provides you with 1TB of data in the cloud, which means you’ll run out of space after you have shot just over 22,000 photos. It sounds like a lot now, but if you shoot wildlife or sports, you will quickly exceed your limits and buy additional storage.
While Lightroom CC has most editing tools available in Lightroom Classic, the interface has been simplified to help with the on-the-go editing process. It’s friendly and easy for beginners to pick up and allows an easy workflow to be established.
One of the features in Lightroom CC that isn’t available in Lightroom Classic is the excellent AI keyword search functionality. You don’t need to add keywords to files available on Lightroom CC, as Adobe’s servers do the hard work for you. Once your images are in the cloud, they are analysed and catalogued. If you are looking for photos that contain blue skies, type them into the search, and Lightroom CC will go away and give you all the images with a blue sky. I wish that Adobe could somehow add this functionality to Lightroom Classic!
Lightroom CC is ideal for photographers on the go who appreciate simplicity and connectivity.
Let's look at the free version of Lightroom, Lightroom Mobile. Yes, you did hear that correctly; there is a version of Lightroom that you can get free of charge. The catch is that it will only allow you to use a limited set of features. If you want to do anything more advanced, such as accessing the edits on other devices, you’ll need to pay for it. If you purchased the Photographers Plan, Lightroom mobile is included in the package.
Lightroom Mobile also includes a camera function, allowing you to control the shutter speed and ISO of pictures taken on your mobile phone. You can also edit images taken with your standard mobile device camera app.
The editing tools are good for a mobile app. There is a wide range of presets, as well as the usual exposure, cropping, and straightening tools.
Lightroom Mobile is a fantastic choice for editing photos while travelling or capturing spontaneous moments. This version makes editing incredibly convenient.
Lastly, we have Lightroom Web. I always find the use case for this version quite tricky to justify. Let’s say you can’t access your computer or mobile device, but you want to edit some of your photos. In that case, you can pop into an internet café (apparently, there are some of those!) and sign in to Lightroom Web.
Any pictures in the Adobe Cloud can be edited, albeit with fewer features than those in Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC.
Lightroom Web suits users who prioritise flexibility and collaboration, especially if you’re frequently on different computers.
So, which version of Lightroom is the best? Well, that depends on your skill level and needs.
For Professional photographers, there’s no doubt that you should be using Lightroom Classic. Hard Drive space is ridiculously cheap these days, so you can have years of photographs in your Lightroom catalogue managed effectively through some great organisation tools. Add this to an impressive array of editing features, and I genuinely think that Lightroom Classic is one of the best all-around packages on the market.
How about those photographers who don’t want to take pictures for a living? In most cases, I would still recommend Lightroom Classic, especially if most of your editing is done on your home computer. Despite the many naysayers on social media, especially the ones that will comment on this video, Lightroom Classic is the tool of choice for most professional photographers. If you don’t know how to do something in Lightroom Classic, hundreds of videos on YouTube demonstrate how. Some of the other organisation and editing tools have fewer tutorials because fewer people are making videos about them.
If you’re an amateur photographer taking a few thousand pictures each year, and you prefer to edit through a tablet rather than sitting on a computer, then Lightroom CC is a good option. It will give you the benefits of a professional editing package without all the additional bells and whistles you probably don’t need.
Finally, if you are a mobile phone photographer, you can’t go wrong with Lightroom Mobile. It has more comprehensive editing tools than the default editors on your phone. In addition, it gives you access to a camera app that allows you to take more control of your pictures by changing the shutter speed, ISO, and white balance.
What do you think? Do you agree with my recommendation? Comment below with your favourite Lightroom version or any experiences you want to share!
If you’ve enjoyed this video, it would be great if you could like it and share it by clicking on the thumbs-up button below the video. That way, a few more people will get to see it. You can also subscribe to the channel by clicking on this button here. I send out a monthly newsletter to my subscribers with news about photography, as well as exclusive offers. Scan this QR code to sign up. My name is Rich Dyson, from Edinburgh Photography Workshop, and this has been Coffee Break Photography. See you next time.
