Lightroom: The Photographer’s Tool

Adobe has recently made some changes and is no longer offering Photoshop as a product you can purchase off the shelves or as a download. Now you pay a monthly subscription rate to use the software.

These changes didn’t happen overnight.  Adobe began the “change over” process when it first announced the Creative Cloud last year. For many people it makes a tremendous amount of sense. Adobe makes great software and they use multiple Adobe products.  Instead of forking out thousands of dollars for each new release, they pay a monthly fee and the newest offerings are immediately available!  No more waiting for the latest and greatest features!

Lightroom is for Photographer’s

What this really solidifies for me?  Lightroom is the place for photographers.  It was designed and created for digital photographers from the ground up.  I’ve known this for a while.

When I first started into digital photography (and a little while I was using film), Photoshop was the tool of choice.  The problem was that, by the time digital really started taking over, Photoshop had been around for a long time and was a BIG program used by photographers, designers, and countless others.  

As a result, Photoshop took me 5 years to learn.  Granted, I was a mom of small children with a love for photography, so I probably wasn’t learning it the fastest way possible.  At the end of 5 years, I felt like I could do most anything I wanted to do in Photoshop.

Around that time, Adobe released the first version of Lightroom—Lightroom 1.  I looked at it, I saw some good reviews on it, but I had just spent a long time learning Photoshop.  I couldn’t change now, right?

But by the release of Lightroom 2, I was convinced.  I bought the program and never looked back.  From that time on, my use of Photoshop decreased.  Slightly, yet steadily, at first.  And then drastically.  I now use Lightroom EXCLUSIVELY on 99% of my photos. 99%!

That means that only 1% of my photos (and that might be a little generous) actually see Photoshop at all.  I go there to swap an occasional head, run the occasional Liquify, or remove the occasional “large distracting object” (Lightroom handles all the small objects.)  
And now with Lightroom 5 on the verge of being released, one more of those items are being checked off the Photoshop list.  Starting with the release of Lightroom 5 most of my “large distracting objects” will be removed in Lightroom, too.
Can you see where this is headed?  The writing on the wall is pretty obvious.  Lightroom is the place for photographers. If you do love Photoshop, be sure to visit our blog at Pretty Actions.