Adobe Photoshop vs Adobe Lightroom
When do you use Photoshop and when do you use Lightroom?
Sude is back with a comparison post between the two Adobe Creative Cloud programs. After reading this blog post, you should feel more comfortable about when you should be using Photoshop and when you should be using Lightroom.
Among architecture students and universities, Adobe Photoshop is frequently heard of more compared to Lightroom. I’ll first start off with a brief introduction to each program.
Adobe Photoshop is far more than a photo editor. You are able to create renders and new creations by bringing multiple photographs together. You are not limited to a set photograph and can form your own new scenarios through tools offered to you by Photoshop. But Photoshop can also act as a photo editor if you want. You can change, enhance, mute, brighten any area of any photo you want. I would consider it a more advanced program too compared to Lightroom with much more functions.
Nevertheless, Adobe Lightroom is an amazing photo editor. If your intentions are simply to edit the look of a photo, I would recommend using Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom aims to create the best visualisation of your photo. Like the name suggests, light is the main factor Lightroom adjusts really well. A good camera can get amazing captures too although I definitely suggest putting your photographs through Lightroom to give them slight tweaks. You’ll be amazed how your photos can reach a new level of wow.
I think many architecture students can agree that Adobe Photoshop plays a more distinct role throughout projects. I also agree. Everyone uses Photoshop mostly to create their collages and enhance their orthographic drawings. You can bring in as many layers as you want to create your own visual, you can’t do this in Lightroom. You won’t be going through an architecture undergrad without the use of Photoshop, it’s basically impossible. I wouldn’t regard myself a professional when it comes to Photoshop, it definitely takes time to understand each function and its purpose so it’s okay to feel overwhelmed when you open the software to see a crap ton of tools. Considering it has been 1 year of studying architecture, I’m still not comfortable with the program. It’s 100% a learning process so don’t be frightened if you have had close to 0 experience with Photoshop. You’ll be taught either as a whole separate module or within a much larger module. There are also many online courses, some of which are free, that can help you advance your knowledge of Photoshop. We also have a basic Photoshop tutorial available on our blog which goes through some of the basic tools that we have used mostly in our first year. Remember to go check it out!
When it comes to Lightroom, you may get through the whole 3 years without it. Adobe Lightroom is definitely not a necessary or obligatory piece of software for studying architecture, but it never hurts to show the best version of your first hand photographs. Since you usually have access or purchase Adobe programs in the Creative Cloud bundle (this is recommended), you get Lightroom alongside Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc. Especially when it comes to creating a portfolio of your work. When you know your photographs will be reviewed by a third party you should consider using Lightroom to achieve the best quality photographs. Since manipulating the photographs is out of question, it wouldn’t be necessary for you to use Photoshop. You’d simply be editing the photos. Saves you more time and you end up with the result you wanted without the hassle of extra buttons.
When it comes to using both programs, Lightroom is much easier than Photoshop. Photoshop is able to do all the things Lightroom can but much more. It’s definitely a more advanced program. You could easily get the hang of Lightroom by just playing around with photos. I think with Photoshop you could hack some of its basic functions via the same method although it wouldn’t be efficient nor effective. Photoshop is way more advanced so more guidance may be needed in order to hack its tools. I would recommend online courses/YouTube videos or even simply asking your fellow classmates or your tutors for some help. Skillshare has many Photoshop based classes, some of which are by Adobe themselves. In other words, there’s a lot of content out there to help you make the most of Photoshop. Make sure to follow Adobe on their social media accounts since they have frequent tutorial sessions up for anyone to take part in.
I hope you guys have now gotten an idea of the purpose of each program and when to use them. We recommend that you check out our Introduction to Photoshop blog post that we uploaded 2 weeks ago, especially for Photoshop newbies.
Like always, we’d love to hear from you guys so feel free to get in contact with us through our email or our instagram account @archidabble. We are always up for suggestions to make sure we are posting quality content for you guys!
See you next week!
