Adobe Lightroom Classic Review

 

Adobe's Lightroom is unquestionably the leading professional photo-workflow software. The one question is, which Lightroom should you use? The photo software is now available as two separate applications: the consumer-targeted Lightroom and Lightroom Classic, reviewed here. Lightroom Classic offers professional photographers a powerful way to import, organize, and correct everything they shoot. The June 2020 update adds local hue adjustments, custom ISO-based presets, and new default preset options, along with some UI touch-ups. Other recent major updates include the Texture slider, Flat-Field correction, and the Enhance Details tool. The program earns a rare five-star rating, along with a PCMag Editors' Choice award.

Though there are excellent competing products such as ACDSee Pro, CyberLink's PhotoDirector, DxO's PhotoLab, and Phase One's Capture One, none equal Lightroom Classic's combination of smooth workflow interface, organizers, and adjustment tools. HDR tools and panorama-stitching tools, improved performance, face recognition, a mobile app, and cloud integrations are also at your disposal, along with top-notch lighting, color, geometry, and lens-profile based corrections.

 

A Tale of Two Lightrooms

With the release of the rethought Lightroom, the program photo pros have come to know and love got a younger, and frankly, still fairly immature sibling. Lightroom does offer simpler, cleaner interface, but it lacks some expected tools—including the ability to print and plug-in support. Pros will want to stick with the subject of this review, Lightroom Classic, the true heir to the Lightroom throne that offers every bit of the franchise's functionality. Lightroom, on the other hand, is more suited to consumers and enthusiasts who want everything available from the cloud—since the newer program requires you to upload all images to its cloud storage before you can edit.