Jerry Coupe Loc: Kent, WA

Notes about PS and LR.

I am primarily a LR user and use the $9.99/month programs. LR has all the features of Adobe Camera Raw which I understand is really the beginning of post processing for those using PS as their main editing tool. Layers is one key feature of PS not available LR.

The most recent update to LR, particularly the masking enhancements is pretty incredible. Yes, you can do it in PS too, but faster in LR.

Hopefully I have not over simplified to totally misstated anything in my comments above.

I am a firm believer that the subscription plan for LR and PS is a bargain.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

Same here for att (which is all I can get where I'm at), for 50mbps/10mbps. Pretty fast for me and what I do.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

Absolutely.
…Cam

JimGray Loc: Albuquerque, New Mexico

I worked for many years as a database programmer on medical databases. Lightroom is an excellent photography database program. Even though I have been using Photoshop since 1996 I only implemented LR in 2020. I am glad I finally implemented it. I think I know some of the reasons it is hard for people to understand that Lightroom does not store your photos. It stores a pointer or address of the image file. LR does store a lot of metadata in its catalog. The terminology that is used in Lightroom I find annoying and confusing. In my humble opinion the term "import in place" is an oxymoron. It is not an import. It is merely cataloging the images. As I see it a lot of other terminology in Lightroom Help, in books about Lightroom, and on websites suggest that LR has the images in its catalog. Not as bad as "import in place" is "export". Export suggests that an item (your image) is relocated from its original place to the new location. That is not what export means in LR. No wonder people are confused about the fact that LR does not store your actual image file. Back in 2011 I loaded Lightroom and tried to find out what it was doing. I was confused and was unable to find out that LR was not actually copying and storing my image files. Lightroom can actually import images from something like an SD card to a hard drive and catalog the images as it does it. However, even then the image files are not stored IN Lightroom. It just does the upload for you and records in its catalog where the image files are. So in a sense, Lightroom can store your images if you use it to upload images, but the images are not stored in Lightroom. So, as Sodapop says it is an important concept that causes a lot of confusion and angst. I hope this helps somebody deal with their LR problems.

wkocken Loc: McGregor, MN

The new masking features in the last couple of versions are amazing! It is absolutely worth the $10/month for me.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Good response here Cam, and it makes senses. I understand finding PS confusing (not after 15 years though) I found Affinity very difficult for me to get a full handle on after years using and internalizing PS.

I recall PS did do batch editing and actions? I never found much use for batch editing however, other than applying actions to a bunch of photo's to crop them into specific sizes for specific screen sizes. I hear people liking the batch editing done to raw files and really, I can't imagine a bunch of pics needing the exact same processing. Every picture I edit getss it's own personal editing.

One feature that PS has superior to Affinity is it's Actions. Affinity has them, but they don't work nearly as well as PS. I assume LR also can create actions same as PS?

Anyway, I guess I asked enough questions for now. I doubt I'd ever switch from ACDSee to LR for photo file management. If I ever go back to PS I'd still use ACDSee as photo catalogue app unless LR has a way to import my keywords and so on into it's database.
No one here seems to know, and I doubt it can, but I've been quite happy with ACDSee for the past 25+ years, so not a big issue.

As a long time computer buff, I like having my Photo database/catalogue app separate from my editor. It just seems more clear cut, less convoluted and so on. That's me though, keeping in mind I've never used LR. Not many on here have used ACDSee for many years either, so there's that...

I should add ACDSee does have a powerful editing module, but it is separate from the catalogue database. I rarely use it because PS and Affinity do everything it does so what's the point. I guess that's why I don't fully understand Adobe having LR and PS both doing the same editing tasks, or worse, each doing different editing tasks so you need to use both. I really don't recall anyone pointing out editing tasks that LR does that PS doesn't do.

The start of this thread is about LR updates to masking. I want to ask does PS not have the same capabilities? I won't ask in fear of being accused of making claims I don't fully understand, creating click bait, or being told I need to read up on it.

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

I never came across batch editing in PS. But I don't look for batch editing since I rarely do it. My images need individual attention for the most part but occasionally if I'm using high ISO and/or taking a bunch of photos from one location I find it useful to apply an adjustment to several photos at once (e.g. noise reduction and/or white balance).



LR and PS masking are really different things. LR is a parametric editor and PS is a pixel editor. PS has had masking as long as I have used it. LR started life without any masking and it has been adding things as it gets more advanced. Masking in LR used to be just using a brush to paint a mask. PS had several different ways to add a mask. My view is that PS has had the masking capability continually, while LR is really just developing it a little at a time. The most recent LR has automated mask generation to some extent. I haven't had time to use it enough to evaluate the difference between LR and PS, but it appears they're getting closer together.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

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

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

See it. Believe it. Use the subscription version.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Others have said that and I've no idea where they get there information. PS is most definitely a photo processing environment. Adobe makes Adobe Illustrator for vector graphics art environments and PS for photo environments. Yes there may be overlap but EVERYONE I know that uses PS uses it for photo editing?

I'm beginning to get the feeling that LR, in addition to being a photo catalogue app is also just a raw editor, like ACR, and stores whatever edits it does in a sidecar file just like ACR. It sounds like Adobe is trying to get their raw editor to act more like a raster editor? That would be excellent, if possible, I reckon.

Does LR have healing brushes, clone stamp, selection brushes, liquify tools and so on like a jpg editor has? Affinity has none of that stuff in it's raw development module and neither did other Raw editors I've used. I always have to go into the raw development module, make whatever color adjustments I want, then exit that module into the photo editor module for the other stuff like layers and so on?