I have been using adobe camera raw in photoshop to process my raw images for a while. However, i know a lot of people use lightroom. What are the main differences?

It took me forever to add Lightroom to my workflow, even after I'd switched my RAW processing away from Capture One and DxO Optics to Camera RAW.

However, it was instrumental in me switching from shooting RAW+JPEG to just RAW as dealing with a few quick edits to a batch of RAW files and spitting out some web sized JPEGs became so quick and easy in LR. I still use Photoshop on every stock image I process, but for many quick edits, Lightroom is fast and easy and "good enough".

The performance in Bridge is just awful and LR is much peppier. I don't keyword in LR - although many people do. I like the notion of virtual copies to have a couple of different types of RAW processing on a single file without duplicating anything and being able to compare them side by side. Collections can be helpful to group and organize images.

It took a while to get used to it, and it still has some limitations and quirks I would love to see addressed, but it's been a very useful tool for me.

Lightroom presets offer a significant advantage vs Photoshop CS. Presets effectively are non destructive processing recipes - often for example to use as a starting point for a specific look and feel - perhaps a film effect.

You can create your own presets - for example perhaps when using a particular camara and lens combination you always apply the same lens corrections and zero the sharpening. You can also buy some very good presets - the best of which will typically come with their own alternative camera profiles.

An obvious difference is that not only RAW files can be opened in LR. Your starting point might be a tiff or a jpeg. The same as with RAW files no changes (neither destructive nor non destructive) are made to the original.

Yep, agree. THere is so much to LR, I cant even being to name them.

There are none.

they release updates for each at different times so they leapfrog each other.

LR however can be used directly in your workflow, it does what Bridge does for CS. So LR for me is the way forward as it combines CS and BR in one program.

LR, however,


erm, what do you mean "however"

Bridge/ACR is used in the same way in your workflow.

Quote from: bhr on August 31, 2013, 15:47

An obvious difference is that not only RAW files can be opened in LR. Your starting point might be a tiff or a jpeg. The same as with RAW files no changes (neither destructive nor non destructive) are made to the original.

you can open jpeg in ACR

And tiff.

An advantage of this sort of editing vs Camera RAW in PS is that the processing steps are saved and can be changed. You can go back to the RAW file and all of its processing and adjust a particular value setting which forms part of the processing.

Or you can apply all of those same processing values to, say, all of the other files in a particular shoot.

ditto in ACR, you can jump back into ACR and make some changes, and then return to PS and the changes will be updated on the files you're working on.

(have you guys even used ACR?)

here's a big difference: ACR is free. It comes with PS. So if you're using PS you already own ACR.
another difference: LR is groovier. It looks better. ACR still has a clunky look about it that is a bit PC-ish.
another difference: LR has some some great options for showing off different edits of your files v quickly.
another difference: there are more presets available for LR than ACR (I tend to do creative styling in PS where I have greater control)

Quote from: bhr on August 31, 2013, 15:51

An advantage of this sort of editing vs Camera RAW in PS is that the processing steps are saved and can be changed. You can go back to the RAW file and all of its processing and adjust a particular value setting which forms part of the processing.

Or you can apply all of those same processing values to, say, all of the other files in a particular shoot.

ditto in ACR, you can jump back into ACR and make some changes, and then return to PS and the changes will be updated on the files you're working on.

(have you guys even used ACR?)

here's a big difference: ACR is free. It comes with PS. So if you're using PS you already own ACR.
another difference: LR is groovier. It looks better. ACR still has a clunky look about it that is a bit PC-ish.
another difference: LR has some some great options for showing off different edits of your files v quickly.
another difference: there are more presets available for LR than ACR (I tend to do creative styling in PS where I have greater control)

Yes, I have used ACR and I turned to LR coz I dont like the interface. No need for all these little jabs.

I was here to help, I dont need your lectures. Cheers.

Interesting input Gillian. Now I'm tempted to spend some time trying out ACR & Bridge again just too see.

I see that VSCO presets are also available for ACR.

your "these days" comment is also weird,  I learnt ACR in 2010 on CS4 and there were presets then.

Not weird. Lightroom considerably predates the launch of CS3. Even more so since Adobe made the stable betas and RC versions freely available to encourage adoption.

I have been using adobe camera raw in photoshop to process my raw images for a while. However, i know a lot of people use lightroom. What are the main differences?

What is the main difference?

Lightroom has to be considered in the whole, not only as a simple raw developer.

ACR is an engine used to manage raw files.
Photoshop and Lightroom use (share) this same engine but with a different interface.
So in reality it should not be a very big difference.
IMHO the Lightroom interface is more ergonomic and usable, allowing you a faster and more accurate workflow.

But the huge difference is that LR proposes you a librarian module permitting you to organize, put keywords, titles, descriptions, in a very easy and fast way.
LR allows you to export in batch a bunch of images in the size/resolution/file format, where you want, in a very simpler way that can do Photoshop. You can create different exportation sets according to your needs.

With this you can also create photo albums, web pages (sites), geotag you images directly on a map, organize a slideshow, all directly without to leave the program.