The power of Lightroom

[DanK]

Today I worked on an image that I initially considered a discard: a landscape taken under terrible lighting, with washed out colors, bright light on one edge, lots of distractions needing cleaning up, etc. I decided to see how much I could fix it up using only Lightroom, with no work in Photoshop at all. I used a lot of masking, the AI removal tool, the point color function to adjust colors, etc. I think this pair is a good illustration of just how powerful Lightroom Classic (and of course ACR, which is the same processing engine) have become.

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[billtils]

Nicely done Dan!

[LenR]

Dan, agreed. Nicely done on the edits.
Not being able to venture out much these days due to ongoing medical issues, I am revisiting/ re-editing older images from the archives.

Bill, nice to see you back - all well I hope?

[Manfred M]

Great demonstration Dan. Yes, the two pieces of software that you mention keep getting better technology.

I personally find that I like Photoshop's masking functionality because editing the mask is much more precise.

[Round Tuit]

That is impressive Dan. A testament to your editing skills. I must admit that I still only use the global editing capabilities of Lightroom. I have invested years in learning how to use photoshop efficiently and don't feel that I want to invest the time and effort to learn the intricacy of a new software package when photoshop meets all my needs. On the other hand, when it comes to digital assets management and to printing, Lightroom win easily.

[DanK]

There are some things Photoshop does better, and some that only Photoshop does at all. But there is less and less of that every year. I only switch functions to LR when it's easier or quicker.

A few examples:

1. Dodging and burning is much better in Photoshop. LR/ACR offers nothing that comes close to the method Manfred posted here years ago.
2. LR/ACR offers nothing like the multiply blend mode to deal with washed out areas.
3. Painting with a brush, IMHO, is much easier to do precisely in Photoshop
4. Manual removal of distractions is better in Photoshop.
5. Manual creation of selections is far better in Photoshop

But:

1. The AI-based selections in LR/ACR are now very good.
2. LR/ACR now offers the ability to add, subtract, and intersect masks. I don't know how one would intersect them in Photoshop
3. Some of the color adjustments in LR/ACR have been better than in Photoshop for some time, and the addition of the point color sliders make them very powerful.
4. Some of the AI based removal tools appear to me to be about the same now. In this photo, I removed leaves, branches, and a person effortlessly.
5. It used to be that one had to use photoshop to adjust tonality without affecting saturation, using either L*a*b or a luminosity blend. In the case of the curves tool (but not other controls), one can now do this in LR/ACR. It's much simpler for certain cases. In Photoshop, if you want some but not all of the saturation effect, you duplicate the curve, set one to normal and the other to luminosity, and fiddle with the opacity of both. In LR, you just put the slider where you want it.

In the case of this image, a lot of what I had to do to overcome the effects of harsh lighting was color adjustments. I used the LR calibration panel to start and then did quite a number of adjustments using the point color tool (which I have only recently learned how to use). I don't think I could replicate this in Photoshop.

So my approach to the flood of new tools in LR has been to learn things bit by bit (there are LOTS of good videos) and use them only when they make my life easier. When it's easier for me to use Photoshop, I do. Storage, after all, is now dirt cheap.