Hello guys, I am Vaibhav and today I am going to clarify your doubts on the difference between Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. Basically, Photoshop and Lightroom are image editing software that is manufactured by the same company, Adobe. So what’s the difference between Photoshop and Lightroom, why did Adobe launched two products, Photoshop and Lightroom, if they perform a similar task? Let’s find out the answer below.
I think I should start with Photoshop first.
Photoshop:
So what is Photoshop? I guess we all know the answer to this question. Even nowadays, we are using Photoshop as a verb and you might have come across with several phrases like – this image is photoshopped, can someone photoshop a picture for me etc. while surfing social networking websites.
Basically, Photoshop is an image editing software which went viral during the late 20th century. Earlier Photoshop was only built for editing images but recent upgrades made Photoshop as the best tool for photographer, web designers, animators, architects, publishers etc.
Photoshop is a pixel-based image editor where we can edit our images or retouch our images. Built by Adobe, the software has a very high potential of manipulating the images and you can do anything you want in an image with the help of Photoshop. If you want to remove a person from an image, you can do it, if you want to change the background, you can do it, if you want to make yourself slim, you can do it, if you want to enlarge your eyes, you can do it. Below is the screenshot of the Photoshop.
With too many tools, Photoshop can be an unpleasant experience for most of the beginners but as soon as you master those tools, I believe you will never you those third class online editing software’s or photo editing software’s in your entire life.
I believe that almost all the movie posters that we come across while surfing the web, watching TV or YouTube, are made using Photoshop. The great power of blending images together is one of the most powerful uses of Photoshop.
But for a person, who only wants Photoshop to retouch day to day photographs, Photoshop can be a costly investment for him. It comes with a subscription plan and costs $49.99 if purchased as Creative Suite (Creative Suite includes all the top Adobe software like Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Muse etc.). If you only want to buy Photoshop, the cost is $19.95/month. But if you want to buy a yearly plan, the price per month is somewhat less.
Now let’s talk about Lightroom.
Lightroom
Built only for photographers, Lightroom is much cheaper than Photoshop with a price of $100 (in Amazon). Lightroom is basically a Digital Asset Management (DAM) and photo editing software at once. If you have ever used Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera RAW while using Photoshop, then think Lightroom as nothing more than a combination of Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera RAW with a clean user interface and a better engine. In fact, both Lightroom and Camera RAW use the same engine to retouch images.
Here is a screenshot of the Lightroom.
Unfortunately, in Lightroom, you do not have the luxury to manipulate images like making someone taller and thinner, combining two images together, blending modes, filters etc. (I am assuming that you are aware of the capabilities of Photoshop).
But in Lightroom, you have several handy tools like presets, analogous to Actions in Photoshop, which can be used to give some pre-defined effect to images with just a single click. There are several plugins available for Lightroom, as well as Photoshop, which can make your work so much easy like Silver Efex Pro by Nik Software, HDR Pro by Nik Software etc.
If you have a computer with low technical specification, Lightroom would be a better option for you than Photoshop because Lightroom does not require high RAM, processor as well as a graphics card to run smoothly.
Bottom Line
If you are an occasional photographer and only do photography because it’s your hobby then Lightroom would bethea best choice for you as it is cheap, easy to understand and loaded with several features to make your day to day images better.
But if you a professional photographer and makes your living on photography, Photoshop would be a best choice for you. Apart from a photographer, if you are a web designer, then Photoshop + Adobe Dreamweaver would bethe best choice for you. If you are an animator, then Photoshop + Adobe Flash Pro would be a best choice for you. If you are a publisher, then Photoshop + Adobe InDesign would be a best choice for you. If you are an Illustrator, then Photoshop + Adobe Illustrator would be a best choice for you.
And we are done here. Please provide your views on Photoshop and Lightroom in the comment section below.
