Lightroom desktop vs. Lightroom mobile – Which is better?

Do You Need A Adobe Lightroom Mobile

Photo editing is a critical function one needs, especially today with social media. Whether it is social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, all of them have a photo editing tool included. But, for photographers or hobbyists, those tools do not work to their expectations. Lightroom Mobile fulfills that purpose with the added mobility and ease of use.

The same applies to the desktop version of Lightroom, which we all love- Lightroom Classic CC. Lightroom mobile CC tries to be as functional as Lightroom Classic CC, with some added advantages. Moreover, you can have all the premium features such as selective editing, brushes, and much more with the subscription in the mobile version. You do not need the subscription for using the same functions in the Lightroom Classic CC version.

Lightroom Desktop vs. Lightroom mobile

1. Synchronization:

Because of the integration of Adobe Creative Cloud in the mobile version, there is a lot of liberty to work across different platforms and devices. You can use your cloud storage of 100 GB with the Adobe Creative Cloud to keep your changes everywhere.
Whereas, in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, you have most of your work offline.

2. Limited Features in App:

The Lightroom Mobile app is a freemium service that unlocks important features only after buying the monthly subscription. Features such as selective editing, healing brush, geometry /perspective editing, and some online synchronization are only activated after subscribing. This is not the case with the desktop version – Lightroom Classic CC. Even features such as batch editing, are available only to premium users in the Mobile app.

3. Performance:

Lightroom Mobile only works on recent smartphones and not outdated phones such as the iPhone 5S, or several-year-old smartphones in general. You need a good processor for it to work the same as the desktop. Whether it is batch editing, brush usage, selective editing, you need a powerful processor for them to work. Apart from this basic requirement, Lightroom mobile is the perfect on-the-go app for all your editing requirements.

4. Feature Set:

The Lightroom mobile is not a watered-down version of the Lightroom Classic CC by any means. Instead, it has everything you need and has been using in the Lightroom Classic version. Whether it is the histogram information or the batch editing, you can do it all on the Lightroom mobile on your tablet or smartphone!

Conclusion:

Lightroom Classic CC is no different than the Lightroom mobile. It has the same features, same functionality and even better ease of use. Overall, you get the added advantage of mobility and ease of use in the Lightroom mobile, which might be an issue to carry your laptop everywhere for the same. You can use Lightroom mobile with more intuitive touch-based controls on tablets and smartphones.

This way you even make use of the generally better display of smartphones to really get a sense of how the colors look on the screen. But, for heavy or large collections, you may still prefer your desktop-based Lightroom Classic CC to make use of your laptop’s performance and huge storage space is taken up by RAW photos.

What’s new in Lightroom CC?

Adobe Lightroom is a powerful image editing tool that can edit your images with a variety of features. Now, there are two versions of Adobe Lightroom, namely Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC. There is a considerable difference in functionality as well as overall workflow.

Between the two, Lightroom CC is the latest version. Adobe Lightroom CC is server-based, whereas Lightroom Classic CC is the one which works offline mostly, Using Adobe Creative Cloud, you can have all your work seamlessly synchronized across different platforms.

What’s new in Lightroom CC?

While some features are missing from Lightroom CC, but present in Lightroom Classic CC, there is a lot to get excited for. With new features such as Auto keyword adding, a geotagging map, a slideshow feature, you have the liberty to do more with your photos. In Lightroom CC, you can even apply presets to metadata as well as new imports. Another useful feature in Lightroom CC is the smart collections tool.

Related – Lightroom vs. Photoshop

Let’s discuss some points that set the two versions apart:

1. Image categories:

There are two views, in which your images are organized in Lightroom Classic CC. One is the virtual preview aka Collections, and a folder view. The virtual view is a collection of images as per the software’s import and other presets and settings. The folder view lets you see where your photos are present on the hard drive. On the other hand, in Lightroom CC thee is only one method of organization which is Albums. The Albums folder is a virtual categorization of photos under different names and doesn’t appear this way on the hard drive.

2. Keywords:

In both the versions, you have the option to differentiate an categorize photos by using keywords in the metadata of the file. In Lightroom Classic CC you can add structured keywords based on a hierarchy. You can manually add them and work accordingly. Whereas in the newer Lightroom CC, the Adobe AI assistant ‘Sensei’ does most of the work and organizes your images by assigning keyword as per the content of the photo. It is a great feature that works fast and lets you come back to them later.

3. Editing Tools:

The editing tools present in both versions set them apart in how they function. The Lightroom Classic CC has powerful features such as Tone Curve or Split Toe panels. These features are missing from the Lightroom CC, although some updates have changed it to some extent.

4. Panorama:

Lightroom Classic CC has its own powerful stitching panorama tool which lets you make panoramas out of overlapping frames in photos. Lightroom CC, on the other hand, doesn’t have this feature yet.

Conclusion:

There are many features and design elements that separate Lightroom Classic CC from Lightroom CC. In some ways, Classic CC has an edge over the newer version and in other vice versa. The newer version seems like a more streamlined tool to process and work faster and avoid the in-depth tools of Lightroom Classic CC. Overall, Lightroom CC is a great upgrade, but leaves something back in Lightroom Classic CC, to move forward in functionality.

Lightroom vs Photoshop – Which is better?

Adobe is a household name to professionals and hobbyists of all kinds. Adobe software can handle many things, whether it is image editing, management, graphic design or countless other utilities. Let’s discuss Lightroom vs Photoshop today.

Now, when it comes to their most widely used software – Photoshop and Lightroom, there is bound to be a comparison. Both are equally capable pieces of software but excel at different functions.

Adobe Lightroom:

Lightroom is more of a starter’s tool to use for image editing, fixing, and management. It is capable enough to fix and change the smallest details in RAW and other formats in images. And at the same time, it is an easy to use software, which one can learn fast. You can use Adobe Lightroom easily and make your edits quickly. Lightroom is an all in one package to batch edit your photos down to the last detail.

Adobe Photoshop:

Photoshop is a general creation and designing tool that can also do the same things that Lightroom can do. But, its functionality to use as a substitute for Lightroom is incredibly limited in terms of ease of use. Its unique functionality makes it possible to do millions of things like background swap, painting, web design, something that Lightroom cannot do. You have to master all the basics to be able to apply presets, modify images, create from scratch as well as tune images.

Photo by creativelive.com

Lightroom vs Photoshop

Since each of them has its benefits and unique features, it is not a competition. Both are part of the Adobe Suite and in a photographer’s workflow, both are quality essential.

You start with applying color and other fixes on Lightroom. Then, you move to Adobe Photoshop to further edit and add any more changes. After all, photoshop is the Swiss Army knife for graphic design! Whether it is removing, adding or modifying elements, you can do it all with Photoshop.

You can play wit layers, lighting, artificial effects, elements, and a lot of artificial edits in Photoshop. Whereas, in Adobe Lightroom, you cannot add elements and artificial external elements or modify the image’s elements.

Surely, you can remove blemishes, spots, change colors, that too at an advanced level. Whereas you can easily edit and add images to Lightroom, Photoshop is as its name suggests. Photoshop lets you play around with photos and add layers of edits and edit each layer differently. You can even stitch images, and make panoramas, something that Lightroom cannot do. It is kind of like a garage for photos; Lightroom’s name also gives it purpose away clearly.

Much like a photographer’s darkroom, its main purpose is to process images into a fair level of the usable final product. You can show the output of a digital camera’s raw file into a natural-looking image with the tuning tools of Lightroom.

Conclusion:

Both are capable at their own functions and tend to different users. When it comes to ease of use, Lightroom takes the leading position. On the other hand, if it is graphic design or advanced image editing you are looking for, you should learn Adobe Photoshop.

You can edit photos down to the pixel level in Photoshop, and in Lightroom, you can edit everything which looks appealing to a layman looking at a photograph with perfect colors and removing all imperfections in lighting. You can even add multiple images into one image with Photoshop whereas Lightroom lets you apply your desired settings to a batch of your photos.

What is Lightroom?

Lightroom cc logo

As a photographer, whether professional or hobbyist, you need to be able to take stunning pictures. Often times it is the skill and experience which can teach about what settings work best according to the scenery. But, camera and colors play an equally major role in this too! This is where Adobe Lightroom comes in. You can understand what is Lightroom below:

 


Simply put, a phone or digital camera is only good enough to decide what looks best as per its coding and sensor settings. Nowadays, machine learning can do a lot, but in the end, one needs to use their own judgment to take stunning shots. When you take a massive number of photos, it is hard to concentrate on capturing the perfect picture every single time.

What is Lightroom?

Adobe Lightroom is your companion if you find yourself too often in the above scenario. Lightroom, as the name indicates, is the photographer’s best friend. It can manipulate, process and edit photos as required into an amazing end product. Adobe has enabled everything one would ideally need in a traditional sense of a dark room.

Whether it is pushing out amazing looking photographs or tuning intrinsic details about your capture digitally, Lightroom can do it all. You can change all the basic settings such as contrast, exposure, shadows, white balance among so many other available elements. There is a large number of data that a DSLR or even a smartphone captures in one photo.

As a multi platform tool, Lightroom is ideal to use anywhere, be it your smartphone or your desktop computer. Both professionals and hobbyists are using this amazing software to get amazing looking photos. Moreover, it can process RAW files such as .NEF perfectly.

RAW file formats show you how much this amazing software can actually tune and edit in your image. Additionally, whether is is JPG files or RAW, the performance and capabilities of Lightroom give you full and easy to use control over photo editing.

Additional Features:

Lightroom is not only good at editing the basic and finer details of your photos, but also can add a bit of flair to your photos. You can use built in Lightroom presets to completely change the setting and background of an image. Additionally, you can also rely on it to give you an accurate sense of how images would look on any screen in general.

If you need to understand what is Lightroom more, you need to start practicing on it right away and play with the controls a bit. As an easy to use software, it is quite intuitive in how it operates and can be your best buddy in churning out a picture perfect photo session in no time. It can process a bulk of images and you can process them into any desirable format as well.

In addition to bulk processing, Lightroom is perfect in sorting through your library and applying any number of edits to your portfolio. As an all in one package this is the ultimate tool to edit your photos irrespective of size, format, or even quality!