Digital Camera World - UK (2022-02)

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com FEBRUARY 2022 DIGITAL CAMERA^113

dobe has made things
complicated by splitting
Lightroom into two
versions! You get both
versions with the Adobe Photography
Plan, but they work in very different
ways, so we’ll look at them individually.
‘Lightroom’ is the name Adobe uses
for its web-first version. Lightroom is
a stripped-down version of Lightroom
Classic that’s actually more pleasant
to use, but comes with important
requirements and restrictions.
First, all images must be stored in
the cloud – so for an image collection
of any size, that means paying
£9.98/$9.99 extra per month for 1TB
storage. Second, it doesn’t support
external editors or plug-ins (except
for Photoshop), it doesn’t offer smart
albums, and you can’t create virtual
copies of your photos for editing.
Lightroom is very effective, however,
if you want to use your mobile devices
to capture, browse and edit images
seamlessly across devices.

ightroom is an all-in-one

image cataloguing, raw

processing, editing and

effects preset tool that can

tackle just about any kind of photo

enhancement, short of multi-image

composites, type and illustration

effects. (For that, there’s Photoshop,

included alongside Lightroom in

the Adobe Photography Plan.)

Lightroom Classic is the ‘old’

desktop-first Lightroom, and the

version likely to be used by most

photographers. Images are stored

on your own computer (though

collections and smart previews can

be synced online) and you can use

plug-ins and external editors freely.

You can get excellent results very

quickly in Lightroom Classic, although

its multi-module interface feels like a

throwback from the past, with Map,

Slideshow and Web modules that

feel far less relevant today. Its noise

reduction also seems some way behind

Capture One and DxO PhotoLab.

A L

Adobe

Lightroom

£9.98/$9.99 per month

The web-first Lightroom

http://www.adobe.com

Adobe

Lightroom Classic

£9.98/$9.99 per month

The original, and the best

http://www.adobe.com

Digital Camera verdict Digital Camera verdict

4.0 Excellent 4.5 Outstanding

Features Ease Results Value Features Results Value

of use

Ease

of use

Lightroom demands
pricey cloud storage.
It does make all your
images editable and
viewable everywhere,
but its organising tools
are some way behind
Lightroom Classic’s.

Lightroom Classic

is hard to fault for

features and value.

Its new masking tools

are great, but its noise

control is indifferent,

and its interface is

in need of a refresh.

System requirements

Windows

Intel, AMD or ARM 2GHz or

faster processor; Windows 10

64-bit (version 1909 or later)

macOS

Multicore Intel or Apple

Silicon processor; macOS

10.15 Catalina or later

8GB RAM (16GB+

recommended);

2GB hard disk space

System requirements

Windows

Intel or AMD 2GHz or faster

processor; Windows 10 64-bit

(version 1909 or later)

macOS

Multicore Intel or Apple

Silicon processor; macOS

10.15 Catalina or later

8GB RAM (16GB+

recommended);

2GB hard disk space

Photo-editing software Group Test

3.5 5.0 4.5 3.0 4.5 3.5 4.0 5.0