It’s the age-old question that every photographer—newcomer or professional—has had to ask themselves: which is better, Photoshop or Lightroom? The truth lies not in comparing the two programs, but in defining what you need for your project. Both are excellent Adobe programs that deliver amazing features for photo editing. However, one may be better suited to your project than the other.
Lightroom vs. Photoshop—The Basics
Lightroom is great for beginners who are just starting with photo editing. The benefits of Adobe Lightroom include:
The free Lightroom presets have been organized into the following categories: Film Effects, HDR Effects, Color Effects, Black & White Effects and Vintage Effects. Free Film Effect Lightroom Presets. These presets will give your digital photos a film-like appearance. These effects are often somewhat subtle, but can help to create truly beautiful. Using raw files also lets you change the white balance (color warmth or coolness) after the fact; Lightroom offers an Auto White Balance button that can sometimes fix a color-shifted photo.
Photoshop is the industry favorite for advanced design and image compositing. The benefits of Adobe Photoshop include:
If you’re still stuck and not sure which program to use, we’re going to do a quick breakdown for you. Before launching into the details of when you should use each program, take a look at this video to get a full overview of the functions in Lightroom and Photoshop.
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Lightroom is a unique photo editor that has features to help you manage, import, organize and find your photos. Lightroom includes some, but not all, of Photoshop’s editing features. It’s great for your basic edits like cropping, white balance, minor retouching, exposure, and so on.
Lightroom is also a “non-destructive” photo editing software—meaning you’ll never lose your original image. If you’re a photographer who needs to edit large batches of photos and is looking to streamline your workflow, Lightroom may become your new best friend.
One of the standout features in Lightroom is its ability to copy or sync your edits to multiple photos at once. If you’ve got a project with a deadline or thousands of wedding photos to sort through and edit, Lightroom is a great way to easily manage your images and your time.
When Should I Use Photoshop?
If you know you’re going to be doing some heavy-duty edits, Photoshop is the way to go. Photoshop offers a more extensive editing platform than Lightroom and is equipped with tools for advanced retouching and healing, high dynamic range photo merging, panoramas, layer creation, and a seemingly endless number of adjustment filters.
Photoshop may be the program for you if you’re a photographer who needs to make detailed edits or if you prefer a workflow that allows you to focus on one image at a time. The ability to create avant-garde effects on your photos may draw you to Photoshop, as well.
Both of these programs are powerful post-processing platforms, so it’s hard to say if one is “better” than the other. Whichever program best suits your needs as a photographer is the one that you should invest in. Lightroom and Photoshop also have great cross-application compatibility, so if you want to use both programs to enhance each other that’s a great avenue to take as well.
Whatever you decide, make sure you check out the fresh stock photos that are ready to be turned into creative marketing materials for your brand. We’ve also got some great tutorials to help you sharpen those photo editing skills.
Most web and graphic designers use Photoshop on a daily basis as one of the main tools of the trade. Photoshop is incredibly powerful for designing and for photo editing, but Adobe also has Lightroom, which can be used for processing/editing photos and for the organization of photo files.
As a designer you probably work with a lot of images, including those provided by clients, purchased stock photos, free stock photos, and possibly even your own photos. Because designers work with so many photos, and because many designers are also photography enthusiasts, Lightroom has become increasingly popular even outside of the circles of just professional photographers.
Also helping to boost Lightroom’s popularity is its inclusion in Adobe’s Creative Cloud. If you have a Creative Cloud subscription for software like Photoshop and Illustrator, you also have access to Lightroom.
The early versions of Lightroom included basic functionality for editing photos, but the Library Module for organizing photos was equally important. Since photographers, even hobbyists, can easily build up an archive of thousands of photos, keeping them organized is essential. But over the years, with each new version, Lightroom’s Develop Module has become increasingly powerful, and Lightroom users find themselves opening Photoshop less and less.
One of the best ways to take advantage of Lightroom’s capabilities, especially if you are just getting started with the program, is to make use of presets.
Lightroom Presets are small predetermined settings files that, once installed, and with just a single click, can be used to apply specific and often stunning effects to your photos instantly. They serve a very similar purpose as Photoshop actions that would be used in Photoshop to apply a specific type of effect to a photo.
Presets can help to speed up your editing workflow, allow you to get amazing effects that you might not be able to duplicate on your own, and they can also serve as an excellent educational resource if you want to learn how to create different types of effects. There are many presets available for purchase, but there are also some that you can download for free.
Finding the best free presets can be a little challenging because you need to weed through a lot of lower quality options as well, so this collection was compiled to showcase some of the best free presets that you can download.
The free Lightroom presets have been organized into the following categories: Film Effects, HDR Effects, Color Effects, Black & White Effects and Vintage Effects. Next catalina update.
Free Film Effect Lightroom Presets
These presets will give your digital photos a film-like appearance. These effects are often somewhat subtle, but can help to create truly beautiful photos.
PRO Landscape and Travel Lightroom Presets (Envato Elements)
Starting off our list strong is this collection of Lightroom presets. You will find a total of 15 different presets created to make editing nature, landscape, and outdoor photos easier.
Free Portrait Photography Lightroom Preset (Free)
With the help of this preset, you’ll give your portraits a grittier feel and you can apply it with a single click.
The Editorial Collection v2 (Envato Elements)
If you want to make your photos look like they belong on the cover of a magazine, try this preset. You will find 13 presets compatible with both JPEG and RAW files.
Film-Inspired Lightroom Preset (Free)
This film-inspired Lightroom preset will give your photos a classic film look. You can apply it to all kinds of photos, including landscape, outdoors, portraits, and more.
Film Lightroom Preset (Free)
This is another film-inspired Lightroom preset but the difference is that this set gives your photos a soft, washed out look. Use it to produce an interesting effect on your portrait photos.
Anniversary Lightroom Presets – Volume I (Envato Elements)
This set of presets contains 20 different presets designed with couple, senior, and portrait photography in mind. A few notable features include authentic color tones, moody atmosphere, and film imitation.
The Starter Pack Lightroom Presets Collection (Free)
If you’re just getting started with Lightroom, this preset collection is what you need. It contains several useful presets that will help you enhance your images and improve your workflow.
Sunny Landscape Lightroom Presets (Envato Elements)Lightroom Vs Lightroom Classic
Try this preset collection if you like shooting a lot of landscapes, sunrise or sunset photos. The collection comes with 30 different presets that support RAW, NEF, DNG, JPG, and TIFF formats.
Christmas Holiday Lightroom Presets (Envato Elements)![]()
Add a little bit of holiday spirit to all your photos. You will find a grand total of 30 different presets with support for RAW, NEF, DNG, JPG, and TIFF formats.
Vintage Film Lightroom Preset (Free)
Use this vintage preset whenever you need to make your photos appear more vintage. The preset will apply a nice-looking, soft vintage effect that will make your photos stand out.
Grainy Matte Lightroom Preset (Free)
Matte effects are a popular effect for portrait photography and thanks to this preset, you no longer have to create it from scratch each and every time.
Newborn Lightroom Presets (Envato Elements)
This preset collection was designed with newborn photography in mind. A total of 20 presets will add various effects such as soft light, soft black and white, vintage, amazing eyes, and more.
Faded Lightroom Preset (Free)
Try this preset if you want to add a nice-looking faded effect to your photos. This effect works well with a variety of photos, including city scapes, landscapes, outdoors, portraits, and more.
I’m Blogger – 50 Lightroom Presets (Envato Elements)
You will find a grand total of 50 presets, perfect for travel, fashion, lifestyle, food, and other photography styles. Use it to make your blog stand out.
Free HDR Effects Lightroom Presets
Lightroom is great for allowing you to increase the dynamic range of a photo. The most recent version (Lightroom CC) includes a new HDR merge feature, but in order to do that you will need multiple exposures of the same scene. If you are just working with a single photo you can get an HDR appearance with these presets.
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