Which is Better, Lightroom or Photoshop?
(This is a article I wrote for the Portland Metro Photographic News website. )
The first time I saw Adobe’s Lightroom, while it was in its earliest beta version, I wondered what the point of it was. I could already do everything it did in Photoshop. Why did I need to learn a new way of doing what I already knew how to do? However, as I began using the software on a daily basis, I soon realized that Lightroom?s approach to workflow is quite different than the Photoshop approach.
Photoshop is an amazing assortment of image editing tools. There are tools for web designers, graphic artists, engineers, doctors, 3-D modelers, and even photographers. Photoshop is like going to the hardware store and ordering one of every tool. Then tossing all those tools into a giant toolbox. Whenever you need any particular tool, it will be somewhere in the toolbox. It may take a while to find it - and then you may need to spend some time learning to use it - but it will be there.
Lightroom was designed specifically for photographers. It’s more like going to the digital hardware store and ordering only the tools a photographer uses the most often. Then laying out the tools on a workbench in the order in which they are intended to be used. This intuitive user interface, combined with a narrow purpose, makes Lightroom an ideal working environment for photographers.
At this point you may have come to the conclusion that I think Lightroom is better than Photoshop. However, I believe that a well-balanced digital post-production workflow requires both Lightroom and Photoshop. That’s because each of these products is intended for different parts of the workflow.
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