DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I don't use photoshop on every image by a long shot. But when I do, it is awesome and worth every dime. The content-aware fill is a tool in photoshop that is worth its weight in gold. Sometimes the clone tool is essential. You just never know. Get both.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Corn left out in the rain then fermented.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Good choice. That is the right one for people that use traditional ("classic") computers instead phones and tablets for primary post processing.

Nikon1201

I have the $9.99 a month of LR classic and Photoshop. To me they go hand in hand . I do not use cloud storage with Adobe , I use Backblaze which is unlimited.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Oh, yes, some people have mentioned it but it needs to emphasized - the Light Room CC with 1 TB is NOT for the full Light Room - it is for the former "Lightroom Mobile" and does not have all the features of Light Room (Classic). It is designed for use on tablets and smart phones, not a laptop or PC. Light Room Classic is the full program and has many more features than Light Room CC.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

When I went to college, I could not spell engineer. Now I are one. lol

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Actually I am pretty certain all cloud subscriptions include both Lightroom and Photoshop. The difference is that there are two versions of Lightroom to choose between: a "Classic" version that emulates and builds upon the last, non-cloud version (Lightroom 6.12)... And a "CC" or "Creative Cloud" version with some different features. AFAIK, some folks just prefer one or the other. Maybe someone who has used both (which I haven't) can give you more detail about the differences. (Me? Well I still use LR6, the perpetually licensed version that Adobe recently stopped supporting with updates.)

In either case, the approx. $120/year (since you have to prepay the full year's subscription to get that $9.95/mo.) includes BOTH.

But you don't have to install both. You also aren't required to use the "cloud storage" for your images. (In fact, I don't and wouldn't... I want MY images archived on MY hard drives, which are quite cheap to buy these days.)

HOWEVER, if you choose to use them I recommend you get BOTH LR and PS... and then take the classes, buy and read the books, and be prepared to spend the next year or so learning to use them well.

You see, neither Lightroom nor Photoshop is truly "complete", without the other. They're designed to complement each other and work together. Lightroom is a powerful organizer and cataloger with fairly minimal, rather crude and mostly global image editing and optimization capabilities. Photoshop is pretty much the opposite... A powerful image editor and optimizer that can work on a very precise, pixel level, but with minimal organizing and cataloging capabilities.

Lightroom is simpler to use and has a shorter learning curve, though it's still a fairly powerful program with a lot of different capabilities (many of which you can turn on to use or hide if you don't need to use them).

Photoshop is extremely complex and you literally can spend a year in college level training classes learning to use it well.

If all this sounds like more than you want to tackle right now, being new to using digital imaging, you might want to instead consider Adobe Elements 2018. This is more of a standalone software and perpetually licensed (not a subscription). You buy it once, not annual subscription. They update it with a new release about once a year, but you don't have to buy it unless you want some new feature it offers or have bought a new camera that's not supported by your older version.

Elements is sort of a "lite" version of both Lightroom and Photoshop, more of a standalone product than either of them. In fact, all three of them have the same Adobe Camera Raw at their core (ACR is fully integrated into Elements and Lightroom... so to update it you need to get a whole new version of the software. On the other hand, ACR is a module within Photoshop that can be updated separately, up to a point).

Elements is much more oriented to folks new to working with digital images. It's got three user interfaces you can choose among: Beginner, Intermediate and Expert. You can switch back and forth between them any time you like. In a sense, there is built-in "training" with Elements.... There's no support like that in either LR or PS. You have to look elsewhere to learn to use them. Even with it's built in support, I'd recommend buying one of the guide books for Elements, to get up and running as quickly and easily as possible. But Elements 2018 will be MUCH easier and less intimidating to start with, than the LR/PS combo.

Elements 2018 is on sale right now for about $70. (If you also want to work with video, for a little more it's available in a bundle with "Elements Premiere", which is a separate version specifically for video editing.)

You didn't mention what camera you've got. If it's a very new model, you might want to check the Adobe website for compatibility, just to be certain. It can take some months after a camera is introduced, for the software to be updated to handle it.

All three... Elements, Lightroom and Photoshop.... can be downloaded for a free 30 day trial. This might be worthwhile with Elements, in particular... although I'd recommend ordering and getting in hand at least one guide book from Amazon before doing so, to be ready to use and evaluate it as fully as possible. It's also probably "doable" with Lightroom, though definitely first get one or two of the books to be able to use it right away. I wouldn't recommend an inexperienced user do a 30-day trial with Photoshop... it's simply too complex (only experienced PS users thinking about an upgrade would see much benefit from a short trial period, I suspect).

Personally I use both LR6 and Photoshop CS6... fully licensed (non-subscription) versions that Adobe no longer supports. I'll be okay unless I update to a new camera that they can't handle.

After shooting an event, I copy all my images to a folder on my computer... and then Import them into Lightroom for rapid analysis, very quick straightening and crop, slight adjustments to color and exposure... and "flag" the better images... which I then proof out in batches of smaller size images for clients to look over and make their selections. Sometimes I have many thousands of images to sort and quick edit, so I spend less than a minute per "keeper" and the "proofs" are far from fully finished. Once my clients have made their selections and told me what product they want, I again use LR to locate the original image, make any necessary crop changes and often do a little more careful tweaking of color rendition and exposure, then pass the image off to Photoshop for finishing. That can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or two of work, depending upon exactly what's needed. Usually the end result is a much larger and higher resolution file to meet the client's requirements.

I used to work with Photoshop alone, before Lightroom existed. That was a much slower process and for some of the things I do now with LR, I had to use other software to accomplish (such as making proof-size files in batches and watermarking them). It's much more efficient now, using the two Adobe programs in tandem with each other. But I know some people don't finish their images to the degree that I do, and are happy with using Lightroom alone. Other folks work with a far smaller volume of images than me and are happy using Photoshop alone. I need and use both.

But, again, Elements is more of a single program alternative.. with some of the most widely used and popular features from each of the more advanced programs, as well as some of it's own "tricks" and shortcuts.

Hope this helps!

P.S. Especially if you plan to make prints from your images, you also might want to consider getting a monitor calibration device and software. This is important because most monitors are by default WAY too bright, causing you to make your images too dark.... as well as not all that accurate rendering colors, which causes you to mis-adjust your images. Monitor calibration helps solve those problems... and if you make many prints the device will essentially pay for itself in savings of wasted ink and paper or cost of having images reprinted if sending them out, as well as reduced wear and tear on the printer itself if you print at home. Datacolor Spyder, X-Rite ColorMunki and a few other calibration options are popular, easy to use and reasonably affordable in their more basic versions.

mjgoulet

With hard drive prices at an all time low. Who need the cloud. Unless your business takes you to places you can't bring your laptop, you won't need it. Besides, once you get to learn a few things in Photoshop, you'll be amazed.

joegim Loc: Long Island, NY

garygrafic Loc: South Florida

I guess we're talking pro here, you're a car shooter, your image needs 'tweaking', you do not do it yourself, you turn it over to a PS pro. MY point is, and I imagine I did not spell it out in detail, PS is so powerful, strong and complicated, takes forever to fully learn. A photographer should put all that energy, time it takes to learn PS and put it into shooting new ideas and concepts and leave the finalizing to the PS expert. My thoughts only, I've been wrong before.

ab7rn Loc: Portland, Oregon

Years ago my wife was a proof reader for JPL Labs. She told me engineers were the worst spellers. Also, she was not allowed to correct grammar mistakes, lest she change the meaning of the gobble de gook.

Wmetcalf Loc: Rogersville, Mo

Me to elektroniks

Jeanne4kats

Hahaha, I can read inginering.....

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

"Actually I am pretty certain all cloud subscriptions include both Lightroom and Photoshop."

I don't mean to be rude amfoto1, but that is incorrect.

Check here: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/compare-plans.html?promoid=BDDS3N81&mv=other

You will see that there are three "photography plans. Two are $10/month. One is $20/month. One of the $10 plans has Lightroom CC (cloud), Lightroom Classic CC (computer) and Photoshop. The other $10 plan has Lightroom CC, no Lightroom Classic CC (computer) and no Photoshop but has 1TB or storage space.

The people that want Lightroom Classic CC on their computers and want to keep it to $10 a month have to pick the right plan.