Should you use Lightroom or Photoshop?

Which one should you use: Lightroom or Photoshop? That's a great question, and one we hear rather often! But, a better question to ask is what, if any, is the difference between the two? 

Lightroom and Photoshop are both powerful and popular editing programs used by a large number of professional photographers. Each one has its own value, and you will most likely use both of them but for different reasons. Let's take a closer look at when to use which application.

Lightroom

When it comes to organising your images and most edits, Lightroom is king. It's also excellent as a raw image editing and color-correcting tool.

There are two vital elements of Lightroom that give it an edge over Photoshop: 1) organising any number of images, 2) editing them safely without affecting the original file.

Organising: With Lightroom, you can sort, categorize, assign keywords, and track all your Lightroom imported photos. With Lightroom Catalog, you can use preview, Smart Preview, browse, color-correct your images, or export in low-resolution for social media sharing.

You can use its organisational tools include such handy features such as color labels, star ratings, flagging, collections, and keywords. Its capacity to organize images is a significant time-saver, making it one of the best applications available - better than Photoshop. 

Non-destructive: In Lightroom, you can make changes to your images without destroying the original. When you make edits in Lightroom, you're adjusting a preview or copy of the original. Edits are non-destructive. This applies to raw, JPG, PSD, and TIF files. To change the original file, you'd move it into Photoshop to make edits there instead of Lightroom.

Another way to make permanent edits is to make them in Lightroom by exporting the file to Photoshop. The ability to make non-destructive edits gives the photographer more flexibility. In Photoshop, all edits are made to the original file and are permanent.

Photoshop

When it comes to making both simple and complex photo edits, Photoshop is it. It's both a robust photo editor and an image creation tool. You can make significant edits as well as create entirely new images because it was originally designed for graphic designers.

Eventually, photographers discovered it. Its possibilities are nearly limitless. You can use layers, masking, channels, selections, distorting, and warping. 

If you have many edits you need to make; Photoshop is the program for you. It's also versatile enough to be useful to any style of photography. 

Lightroom vs. Photoshop

Now that we've discussed the utility of each application let's take a closer look at which one you should use. It's a pretty straightforward answer. Most photographers, including the pros, find it easy (and handy enough) to spend all of their post-processing time in Lightroom.

It offers pretty much everything they will ever need. For those highly complex enhancements, you might need to make someday, such as advanced retouching, head over to Photoshop.