Author Topic: Lightroom, Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw?  (Read 4127 times)

Offline elianoimperato

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Lightroom, Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw?
« on: February 23, 2024, 05:02:49 AM »
Hello everyone,

I'm a photojournalist and I'm curious to know, from people using the Adobe suite, which app you use (of course together with Photo Mechanic) for the editing among Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw, and why.

Cheers,
Eliano
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Offline Mick O (Camera Bits)

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Re: Lightroom, Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw?
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2024, 09:46:54 AM »
I've taken to opening my Raws in Photoshop / Adobe Camera Raw.  If you hold down SHIFT when you open the Raw in ACR it will embed the Raw as a Smart Object in a PSD. (Check to see the "Open" button in ACR change to "Open as Object") This means I can make some ACR edits, save the PSD and the edits are non-destructive. I can go back in later and tweak if necessary or reset all the settings back to default.  I like the controls of Lightroom, but the way LR and LRC manage files is so exasperating for me, personally, that I prefer this route. (I'm, of course, happy to use PM Plus as my catalog, so it works out well.)

Working with Smart Objects embedded in PSDs like this also means if I make an edit to the PSD and save it, Photo Mechanic sees the changes to the thumbnail without having to save out a separate JPG or export metadata.  PM can also export a JPG from the PSD via "Save as..." and "Send via AirDrop" (when it comes back) when used on PSD will automatically send an updated JPG to my phone without having to save one out separately. The Uploader in PM will also create JPGs automatically from my PSDs when I send them to Flickr.

All workflows have tradeoffs. The main downside to this workflow from my perspective is that if I need to add/tweak metadata with PM, it will be noticeably slower when working with PSDs (It's a much more complex file format for PM to manage and keep everything where it needs to be).  So I try to get as much of the metadata work done before I get into editing the pixels. 

Hope some of this is useful for you.

Mick
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Offline elianoimperato

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Re: Lightroom, Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw?
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2024, 06:04:17 AM »
Hope some of this is useful for you.

Thank you for the answer Mick! It's interesting how Photo Mechanic works with the PSD files. Just I think PSD are more large than RAW, but of course it depends of which kind of work we're doing and if we need specific Photoshop functions. If I'm shooting a football match or a wedding is more streamline to work/save RAW than PSD files, I think.
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Offline Max Lemesh

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Re: Lightroom, Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw?
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2024, 08:35:37 AM »
I use camera RAW for quick edits, just because I can launch it from PM, however for serious work I switched to Capture One

Offline neil@dg28.com

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Re: Lightroom, Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw?
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2024, 08:50:25 AM »
Adobe Camera RAW. I have Photoshop set us to edit JPG and TIF files using Camera RAW as well. It is just such a smooth and slick workflow. I have never been a Lightroom fan in any of its versions even though I have always wanted to like it.

Offline elianoimperato

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Re: Lightroom, Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw?
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2024, 05:43:46 AM »
Adobe Camera RAW. I have Photoshop set us to edit JPG and TIF files using Camera RAW as well. It is just such a smooth and slick workflow. I have never been a Lightroom fan in any of its versions even though I have always wanted to like it.

I use camera RAW for quick edits, just because I can launch it from PM, however for serious work I switched to Capture One

Thank you for your answers!
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Offline OlliT

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Re: Lightroom, Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw?
« Reply #6 on: June 21, 2024, 10:51:45 PM »
I use camera RAW for quick edits, just because I can launch it from PM, however for serious work I switched to Capture One

Could you outline your workflow with PM and Capture One?