Digital photography has changed how photographers do their work, run their businesses, and deliver their final products. Rather than tucked inside a dark room processing, most of us now sit in front of a computer doing post-production editing and enhancements. There's usually no getting away from some level of editing, no matter how much time you spend perfecting your shots out in the field.

Most photographers today use Adobe as their editing software, so we thought we'd do a quick overview of Adobe's four options.

lightroom from adobe.jpg — **LIGHTROOM**

Lightroom, unlike Photoshop, was developed for photography. This means its capabilities are designed with the photographer's needs in mind. That alone makes it a popular choice with many photographers. You can organize, publish, and print images reasonably easily.

This is the simpler version of Lightroom designed more for file organizing than anything else. You'll have fewer options than Lightroom and an outdated UI. However, for quick and easy developments in RAW, Bridge does the job.

Probably Adobe's most popular photo editing software for both professional and amateurs alike. Keep in mind that it's a pretty sophisticated software to use. -It's hugely popular with both photographers and graphic designers alike because it's not strictly a photo editor.

It's actually a raster graphics editor allowing users to create and edit images and save them in one of various raster or bitmap formats including JPEG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF. It's a very comprehensive piece of software with wide-ranging capabilities. If you want to become proficient at Photoshop, plan on putting some time into learning it.

Photoshop+Elements+by+Adobe — **PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS**

Consider Photoshop Elements the entry-level of Photoshop. It's also a raster graphics, but it's way more user-friendly than Photoshop. You'll be able to learn how to use it more quickly than Photoshop while still having most of the same features including the ability to create, edit and organize your images.

As you can see, for all intents and purposes, Adobe's four software options have their advantages and disadvantages depending on your perspective and your needs. Some photographers prefer Lightroom while others prefer Photoshop's broad-ranging capabilities.