Chan Garrett

During my days as a professional wedding photographer I moved with the from film to digital as soon as I thought digital could give me images that matched film. I was a very early user of Photoshop. I continued to use Photoshop to edit images and sent the digital files to the lab for printing. I retired before Lightroom came on to the scene. After a period of 5-6 years of inactivity, I returned to photography as a hobby and discovered Lightroom. At first it was confusing. " What is a catalog?" "Where are my photos stored?" I made some mistakes along the way. It was frustrating. After a little while of struggling on my own, I decided to watch a number of good YouTube videos and learned what I was doing wrong, as well as what strengths of Lightroom I was ignoring. What a difference. Now, I load all my images directly from my card into Lightroom. I use a simple file system, but by learning to use keywords I don't have to remember which folder I placed them in. If I want to edit an image in PhotoShop, or any other editing program I have as a plug in for Lightroom, I bring up the image in Lightroom and right click on the image (Windows) and go to edit in and choose the program I want and check Edit a copy. The new program opens and I do the edit. When I am finished I click "Save" and the file is saved as a new copy back into LightRoom.
Use what you like. Lightroom Classic works great for me.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

It's a sign. See it. Believe it. It says: Use Lightroom.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Me too.

The whiners haven’t learned how to use it.

I find it MUCH simpler than Photoshop and do 95% Lightroom only.

BebuLamar

My need for PP is basically only the RAW converter. I make all the adjustments in the RAW converter I rarely need to do further PP in photoshop itself. For that LR seems to be a better choice but I can't use it because the cataloging features drive me nuts.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Learning PS; then you are also leaning ACR (I hope). LrC is just ACR with a fancy interface and things like keywords and collections. If you do not lie LrC then you don't need anyone's permission not to use it. Just do what you want. No need for a rant here.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

It would be my opinion that you "hate" the program because you have not taken time to learn it. LrC can be an incredible time-saver and organizer if one takes a few minutes before using it to learn how it works. When you said "I won't have to worry about LR losing photos or not recognizing a drive" that was a tip off that you never took the needed time. I've used the program for about 10 years now and have never had any of the issues you talk about: I have over 100,000 images linked to the application. It's human error and incompetence that puts people off of the software, it's not about the software. All software can glitch just as we humans do, it is to be expected on occasion. Also when you say you "have a good organizational system on my external drive" that system is simply mirrored in the software, LrC does not have its own organization system, it only does what you tell it to do and only mirrors your hard drive organization. My guess is you will have trouble with other software, too.

KarenKaptures Loc: New Jersey

👍🏾👍🏾

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I suppose that anyone who doesn't like LR (or PS) or a cataloger is wrong.
Forget individual volition, opinions, desires, or the process that works for them.
Because LR/PS works for one, it should work for everyone.

Interesting that people need to justify the fact that everyone should be using it,
because it works well for their requirements.

Well, that's their opinion.


/s

stan0301 Loc: Colorado

I am a two million shot photographer who studied with Ansel (he would have loved Photoshop) - to me Lightroom is pretty much mouse milk - Photoshop is the way to go, and with Scott Kelby's books it is not that hard

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

LR is an editor and an organizer. As an editor, it's pretty basic. That alone would not make so many people swear by it. The fact that it talks to Photoshop increases the value of LR as an editor.

As an organizer, LR is in the top group of organizers. A browser or something like Finder or Explorer is probably in the mid range of organizers. Explorer can search on file names or keywords/tags. I am not aware of a way to get Explorer to search on anything but selected metadata elements. Not being a Mac guy I can't say anything about how Finder can search.

LR can search on pretty much the whole gamut of metadata elements. Shooting with several different bodies? LR can filter on camera model. Have several of the same model camera? LR can filter on serial number. LR can filter out your edited images and show you only the images that you haven't worked on yet.

Have an image that can be classified several different ways? LR can place it in different collections without making duplicates. If you edit the image, the edits show up in all the collections.

These abilities are somewhat specialized, so not everyone will need them. But I find that although there are other ways to do some of these things, having them available in the software I'm using makes it quicker and easier to use the feature.

pdsilen Loc: Roswell, New Mexico

I feel the same way. I rarely use LR. I too use Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Heck, I use all sorts of different workflows, only some of which involve Lightroom.

For casual work, I'll make a JPEG at the camera and tweak it in Apple Preview.

For stuff I record on my phone, I often process it in the Camera app and email it. If it's a grocery list, or a photo of a part I need, or a wine brand I want to remember, I trash it later.

For my serious work, I often record raw files, start in Lightroom Classic, 10% of the time finish in Photoshop, and end in Lightroom Classic.

For converting film negatives to positives, I must work in Lightroom Classic, because that's the only app that works with Negative Lab Pro, a Lightroom Classic plug-in.

kscanman Loc: Wisconsin

I agree. I am comfortable editing in photoshop.

Guzser02

Hi Raptor, DAM is the principal reason I do not use Adobe's Lightroom (LR). It doesn't always recognize catalogues, and navigating them is not easy. What drove it home for me was when I discovered that Adobe has been regularly updating the LR UI while occasionally the program.

PS is way ahead of its time. Apply the PS concepts to other editors(and pertinent methodology) to enhance the quality of your results.

In the end, you too will be ahead of the curve. Good luck!

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA