Lightroom or Photoshop: Which One Should I Use?

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jul 12, 2019 | Workshops

One of the questions I get asked on a regular basis is what software should I use to edit my photos? Should I use Lightroom or Photoshop?

My answer is – it depends. I use both at different points in my editing process. It’s really a matter of which program you are comfortable using, and what you want to do.

If you’ve never edited your photos or have been using very basic editing software, I recommend starting with Adobe Lightroom. From the beginning, Lightroom was designed for editing photographs with the input of photographers throughout the process. Once you learn the basics of the Lightroom Develop Module, editing photos is actually very intuitive. If you start at the top of the panel of editing tools and work your way down through them, you will have made a wonderful start on editing any photo you take. Lightroom also has a Library Module which helps you keep your photos organized. It also has dedicated modules for printing, creating slide show and web pages. 

For many photographers, Lightroom is the only photo editing program they use.

Photoshop is one of the most powerful photo editing tools on the market. I’ve been known to refer to Photoshop as the world’s most user-hostile program.

The challenge for many photographers is that it is a very complex program. Photoshop started out as a program for graphic designers, so many of it’s tools aren’t very intuitive for photographers. With it’s array of tools, there are usually several different ways to accomplish the same goal in Photoshop, so most photographers discover which tools work for their style of editing and never learn everything the program can do.

For photographers who want to edit their photos in ways that Lightroom isn’t designed to work or who learned on Photoshop so are very comfortable with it, Photoshop may be the only program they use.

Many photographers (including me) use both Lightroom and Photoshop depending on what they want to do with a specific photograph.

Lightroom is the starting point for every photo I edit. After I delete any photos that I know I’ll never edit (wrong focus, wrong exposure or some other fatal flaw), all the keepers get imported into Lightroom where I organize them by category so I can find them again. Then for the ones I want to edit, I head to the Develop Module and start editing. I tend to mainly do global edits (changes that affect the entire photograph) in Lightroom.

For most photos that I’ll just be sharing on the web, I do all of my editing in Lightroom. Once I’ve completed the edits I want, I just export them as JPG files, watermark them, and they’re ready to share.

If  I want to do more complex edits or know that I’ll be printing a photograph, once I’ve done my basic editing in Lightroom, I export the photo to Photoshop and complete my editing there. I find it easier to do local edits (changes that affect only part of the photograph) in Photoshop using the various layers and masks. I also find it much easier to “clean up” my photos (removing unwanted objects or more likely dust spots on my sensor) in Photoshop. I also prepare my photos for printing in Photoshop.

Bill on the other hand uses Photoshop almost exclusively. He learned to use it years ago, it makes sense to him, and he finds it easier to use than Lightroom. 

Bill and I will be offering a series of photo editing workshops this fall. All our editing workshops are limited to 4 participants. 

I know what it’s like to sit in a big room feeling lost as someone tries to explain how to edit photos on a big screen at the front of the room. I usually end up totally frustrated, since I’m still trying to figure out step 2 while they’re talking about what they’re doing in step 10! With 2 instructors and 4 students, our goal is to provide you with the individual help you need so you actually understand what you’re doing by the end of the workshop

We’ll be teaching our Introduction to Lightroom Workshop on August 17-18. This workshop is really designed for people with little or no experience with Lightroom. Our goal is that by the end of the weekend you’ll know how to import your photos, do basic edits, and export them for print or the web. You can read more about our Lightroom workshop at https://beautifulflowerpictures.com/store/introduction-to-lightroom-workshop-august-2019/

We’ll be teaching our Photoshop Layers and Masks workshop on October 12-13. This workshop is designed for people with basic knowledge of Photoshop. We’ll be focusing on how to use the powerful Layers and Masks in Photoshop to do more complex editing of your photos. Your can read more about our Photoshop workshop at https://beautifulflowerpictures.com/store/photoshop-layers-masks-workshop-october-2019/

If you have any questions about either workshop, drop me a note   and we’ll find a time to talk about if either workshop is right for you. We’d love to have you join us for one of our photo editing workshops this fall