Which Photo Editor is Mostly used by Photographer?

Hello its just a survey which I wanted to know always. Does most of the photographers do their own editing by themselves? If so which photo editor they prefer most? Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom?

Photoshop (CS6)

Both

My guess is that yes, most folks process their own images. I primarily use LR, and maybe 5% PSE 12. I have CS6, but find it way too bloated for what I do. I never even try it anymore.

GeoKras1989 wrote in post #17693353
My guess is that yes, most folks process their own images. I primarily use LR, and maybe 5% PSE 12. I have CS6, but find it way too bloated for what I do. I never even try it anymore.

Yeah I only leave LR (to gimp in my case) for very technical, background swapping type work.

travisvwright wrote in post #17693355
Yeah I only leave LR (to gimp in my case) for very technical, background swapping type work.

Exactly. If I am in PSE 12, it is because I am doing more than adjusting the look of the shot. I am messing with content. Removing power lines or 'patching' a wall, or something like that.

Photoshop is an editor, Lightroom is not really a photo editor. Its more of a photo cataloger/organizer and a photo adjuster. There are uses for both programs.

If you want organize your library, process raw files, change parameters, LR is the perfect tool. However, it does not perform most of the editing type functions.

If you want to edit a photo, work with layers, perform pixel level changer, remove elements ot combine elements, the PS is the right tool.

Yes & Photoshop CS6.

If you want the "best" editing package, I'd say Photoshop CSx (which would include the Creative Cloud Photographers package). This is because PS CSx includes the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) app, the Adobe Bridge app for browsing and adding bits of Exif (like keywords) and then gives you a direct path to the Photoshop Editor, which gives you all of the editing abilities, including layers, including the ability to alter or combine photos to your taste.

All that being said, there are many who prefer a "dialed down" editor, be it Photoshop Elements or an alternative editor (someone mentioned gimp, but there are others)....

Either way, it's important to LEARN about what you are using! fortunately, Photoshop has many learning tools, including great books and excellent online resources, since it has a long history as being the "standard" photo editor.

But, as you have seen, Lightroom has many followers. This is because of a couple factors:

1) A number of years ago, Photographers were struggling with the need to efficiently organize their photos. Since many of these photographers were happy shooting and processing Raw photos and developing them in the "digital darkroom" using Adobe Camera Raw, Adobe decided to develop an application that would enable photographers to develop in the digital darkroom, and organize and then to output those images for various uses including print, Web output, even "slide-shows"...and that's how Lightroom was born!

2) Photoshop is, well, complicated! It can take a long time to "get down" using Photoshop, not hours, days, but multiple months to get down some of the "basics", and then, well years...ask folks here how long and then how much longer! This is why so many folks go for other alternatives! PS Elements does have many abilities "inherited" from the standard PS. Many alternative editors have also "borrowed" techniques from Photoshop.

But, back to Lightroom:

Lightroom is popular because it had the Adobe Raw Processor (ACR) at the core, and can also be used with Jpeg, tiff and Adobe Psd files, to enhance photos in the "digital darkroom". With Lightroom, you can develop, organize, and output your images withing one integrated interface. This makes many of us quite happy, because we like using the Raw processor and don't often need the more extensive operations of an editor such as the Photoshop editor

That being said, though, many of us have opted to keep an "image editor" on hand for times that we want/need such a tool, for example to build a composite, or to construct something from a "stack" of images, or to do a "deletion" from a photo that can take some work. I have been a user (and proponent) of Lightroom for, well, a good number of years, but I do have Photoshop (CS5) on had for when I need that something "special"!!

So, without me babbling on, you have to decide what you want in a photo editor! You could start with Photoshop Elements, buy a book or two and get a lot of mileage! If you are looking for more, such as the Lightroom organizational tool, well, more learning but you can check out "The DAM Book". If you want info about Raw processing and the "digital darkroom", check out "The Digital Negative" by Jeff Schewe! Or, read the stickies in this sub-forum and keep up with our posts here!!!

gjl711 wrote in post #17693360
Photoshop is an editor, Lightroom is not really a photo editor. Its more of a photo cataloger/organizer and a photo adjuster. There are uses for both programs.

If you want organize your library, process raw files, change parameters, LR is the perfect tool. However, it does not perform most of the editing type functions.

If you want to edit a photo, work with layers, perform pixel level changer, remove elements ot combine elements, the PS is the right tool.

To amplify on gjl711's post...

https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=16710804

Good information above. So, to recap...
If I was just starting out, I would want the cataloging & organising features of Lightroom (LR). But Adobe Photoshop (PS) comes with Adobe Bridge, which is similar to Lightroom.

Adobe Photoshop is the premier editing program & the one that allows you to do the most with your images. Sooner or later, it's the one that most people will learn.

FYI, if you feel that you must have the latest version of PS & LR, students & teachers can get a discounted 60% education license for Adobe products now & later upgrade to a full version if you think that you need it.
Qualify for education pricing here.

IMO, most people are happy using about 5% of what PS is capable of, & I'm still using the free version of Adobe CS2 which includes Bridge.

GIMP is free & also very good. It offers you many of the same features of PhotoShop (layers, masks, decompose colors, loads of filters from sharpening to blurring and everything in-between). There are also many, many plug-ins available. There's even a version that looks like a PS clone & uses the same shortcuts.
Sticky: The Gimp - free alternative to Photoshop
The biggest problem that I see with it, is that not too many people here use it, & you'll have to look for help with it in their forum.

Finally, Adobe Photoshop Elements (PSE) is a very capable program that a lot of people use, & it can be found online for $30-50 USD.
But I can't see much use for it when the free CS2 is so much better.

I use iPhoto. And I am sad and frustrated that Apple has discontinued it.

While I have Lightroom, Aperture, and Photoshop Elements, I really only use iPhoto on a regular basis.

I like it so much because it is a RAW converter, meets 99% of my editing needs, and I was able to learn it "instantly". Yup - I never had to take so much as a single minute to figure anything out! Everything iPhoto does is quite intuitive, and I "just knew" where everything was and how to do it, without having to watch a tutorial or anything.......now THAT is my kind of program! ! ! !

shumicse wrote in post #17693303
Hello its just a survey which I wanted to know always. Does most of the photographers do their own editing by themselves? If so which photo editor they prefer most? Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom?

Editing has a couple of different meanings. Some refer to editing as culling images, and the actual processing as retouching.

I've grabbed a few programs over the years, such as Corel's Paintshop Pro, and Graphics Suite. PSP does have the ability to cull as well as retouch. It's RAW conversion is ok. However I find it weak compared to ACR, in LR or PS. I started using LR in version 4, and have really grown to love it, especially the DAM. I wished the library would be faster, instead of the constant re-drawing/loading. My bouncing around has to do with workflow. I'm constantly watching tutorial videos, and reading. Recently Matt Kloskowski, who was with Scott Kelby's Photoshop "Guys", went to OneOne. He described a different workflow, where he copies his images from his card to his HDD. Then using PPS's Browse to view and cull, marking his selects. Then he imports the selects into LR for post processing. He uses Photoshop for compositing, and OneOne PPS, for the final "stylizing". I've been trying that workflow, since you can move between them easily.

Another downside of LR (for me anyway) is the Spot Healing/Clone. I think they could do a lot of improving with it. I've found OnOne PPS to do much better, and then recently PSCC.

So anyway for me I currently use a mixture of those, LR, PSCC (photographer's bundle), PSP, and PPS. I grabbed Adobe's Photographer's Bundle because my old CorelDraw GS X4 is not wanting to run properly on the current Windows OS, and I like doing composites.

So I can say that it depends upon individual person and also to the type of photos! Thank you for sharing your own process here.

I have just seen many of the photographers complaining the same as like you. I guess iPhoto was a good option for most of the Apple users. So what are you preferring more now?