Learning to Love Lightroom Classic
Before I bought my first interchangeable lens camera in 2018, I had no personal experience working with RAW files. I had, however, heard of their magical power and I was excited to explore a whole new world of photography. I already had an Adobe Creative Suite subscription as I was regularly using many of their other applications, but I then had to install Lightroom to unlock the full potential of the files.
The year previously, Adobe released Lightroom CC - a modern, cloud-based version of their well-established Lightroom platform - and re-branded the existing application as Lightroom Classic. I was initially confused about the differences, so I set about doing some research to figure out which one was right for me.
Right off the bat, the obvious distinction was the aesthetic - CC had a sleek, clean interface influenced by Material design principles while Classic was cluttered and still retained a somewhat outdated style with rounded edges and gradients. If I was going to pick based purely on looks, CC would win any day.
The second major factor was the way each program managed files. Classic uses the traditional catalogue system that references files on your local machine while CC syncs images to the cloud so that you don’t have to keep the images on your computer and you can access them on any compatible device. A cloud-based system simply makes multi-device workflows much easier and faster - I can edit a photo on my computer, then open the app on my phone to export and post to social media. For my purposes as a casual shooter, there was no contest.
Finally, in terms of processing, CC appeared to have almost all the same features as Classic for global adjustments, detail enhancements, and geometry correction, as well as a suite of tools for spot removal, gradients, and brushes. It did, however, lack a couple of modules such as tone curve and split toning. In my inexperience, I deemed them as redundant utilities that unnecessarily complicated the editing process.
After considering these three main aspects of both applications, I decided to go with Lightroom CC, and it served me well for about a year an a half. Earlier this year, however, I attended a few online webinars covering the use of Lightroom Classic. While all of the modules in CC had an equivalent in Classic, there was one immeasurably useful feature that does not yet exist in the new application - range masks. It was a term I was not completely unfamiliar with, and there was a time when I would confuse it with the far more complicated luminosity masks in Photoshop, but I didn’t appreciate how it could completely transform my images.
After one of the webinars, I decided to look back through my photos to see if there were any that just didn’t look that great because I wasn’t able to process the image effectively.
The first attempt was a shot taken last year in Vancouver during a walk along the seawall around Stanley Park. At the time, the Sun was in a less than ideal position causing the sky to be completely blown out. I’m not sure why, perhaps it was the rapidly rising tide, but I didn’t take the time to put on a filter or set up bracketing. Once I got it into CC, I was able to recover a surprising amount of detail in the sky, but only by pushing the dehaze tool which resulted in severe haloing around the subject - Siwash Rock.
In Classic, I was able to combine several linear and radial gradients with luminance range masks to selectively adjust the desired areas, and to my astonishment, a photo which I thought would be useless turned into something fairly decent.
The next example of Montmorency Falls in Quebec wasn’t as hopeless, but I didn’t really like the colour and there was a small amount of haloing along the tops of the trees. One of the other features that has yet to be brought over to CC is the auto mask option for brushes, which intelligently finds contrasting edges and prevents the brush from bleeding into other areas. This made it simple to create local adjustment areas for the sky, the waterfall, the background rock face, the foreground hillside, and the water, each with luminance masks to refine the selection. I also made use of the split toning module to create a more dramatic but subdued look.
It even proved useful for old JPGs that don’t have the flexibility of RAWs, such as this scene of three young women wearing traditional hanbok at the National Folk Museum of Korea in Seoul. Although, CC’s spot removal tool seems just as advanced, if not more so, than Classic’s - three people have been cloned out of this image using CC, one of whom was partially behind one of the women.
It probably comes as no surprise to experienced photographers that Classic remains the far more advanced editing platform - certain features simply can’t be equaled in CC. However, CC is, in my opinion, far superior in terms of organisation and sharing. Though it may seem like an over-complication, until CC can acquire some of the key features from Classic, I will continue to use both applications. CC therefore has become primarily an ingest, organisation, and sharing tool, while Classic remains an option for more advanced editing when necessary, which is an effective arrangement as edits made in Classic will sync back into CC.
My hope is that the two applications will reach feature parity and Classic can finally be phased out in favour of a faster, more efficient program better suited for a more connected world. Until then, I’ll try to learn from my stubbornness and keep a more open mind, though I still won’t give Capture One a second chance.
Thanks for reading.
