The lightroom situation

Let’s start by saying I love adobe. I use their products and am more than satisfied with the features for what I do.

Lightroom mobile is a cool idea for shooting images on my phone and editing while traveling.

I however never expected what happened today. Let’s assume you’ve read the news. Adobe is releasing a new Lightroom cc and rebranded the original Lightroom cc as classic.

Now I’ve thought about this a lot the last few hours and let’s put these thoughts in a blog post so you guys can also she’s some insights.

1. Lightroom classic

I think this is a huge mistake.

When I see this my first conclusion is, This Lightroom is end of the line. So let’s start using the new one. Especially because the new Lightroom is now called cc (the name of the now classic) in other words Adobe gives you the suggestion that classic is not to be used anymore and you should switch to cc. Logical because classic was first cc.

Better would have been too call Lightroom classic. Lightroom pro and cc just cc. This is actually what it is in my opinion.

2. Lightroom cc

Ok let’s go.

First off cloud storage.

When we are home we will very soon have fiber with a speed of 100/100. This translates to app 10mbs. A normal fast USB drive will give you 125mbs so working on cloud files will be very slow.

At the moment we now actually have 12 down and 0.7 up. Meaning uploading I’ve raw file will take ages.

In the studio we have a das and Nas system so why would we need cloud storage which will hit performance a lot. And you only have 1 TB storage. At the moment I have more than 25tb in my catalogue. So 1 TB is not even covering one year.

Now when traveling Lightroom cc would be awesome. Imagine shooting a full day and in the hotel downloading your card straight to the cloud. Now you don’t have to worry about HDD space or loosing files. Plus you can edit on your mobile, tablet or laptop on the go without thinking about it. Absolutely awesome. And added bonus ……when you’re home everything is nicely there. You can download it and put it in Lightroom classic (I still prefer pro) and you’re done.

This would work like a charm and 1 TB would be more than enough for most people during a 2-3 week trip.

However there is one thing that actually makes the whole experience useless. And that’s exactly what makes it so cool to start with……..internet speeds.

Lets say I stay with friends day 1-3 and they have fiber. Downloading(uploading actually) a 16gb shooting day would take at least 1-2 hours and than you have to start editing compared to downloading the card in 3-5 minutes and starting right away.

And what if I want to edit my 40 selects in alien skin exposure for tinting and and store them in Tiff 16 bits. This means first downloading them and after editing uploading the 16 bits Tiff’s again. But hey we are on fiber, so just lets upload it during the night.

However after visiting this friend we move to our hotel. And here we have the standard hotel internet experience. It sucks. I’m happy if we actually can watch some YouTube or Netflix. But most of the time hotels top out at 5/2 and often loose connections. So what happens now with the images I want to continue working on…. This will be an unworkable situation. So it’s still necessary to keep my original files local.

And how about when traveling with the RV and using internet tethered via our phones ?? Internet at home is often ok but in most cases not build to upload 20-30gb every day. Unless you have a very fast fiber connection.

Now let’s look at Lightroom classic.

Here we have all the files local and I can even work without internet. PLUS we have a link with Lightroom mobile. Meaning I can always choose to sync the catalogue to all my devices. So I can also work in the cloud with classic

I know the idea is like this.

Lightroom classic is local based and has the option to upload to the cloud.

Lightroom cc is purely based on cloud.

For me personally it would probably mean I will never use the new lightroom cc. I have too many files and download/upload speeds are nowhere near what we need for a good workflow. So classic is the way to go and combine it with mobile.

Ok so why cc?

I think it’s actually a genius move from Adobe. Just a horrible way to market/name it.

Lightroom cc is awesome for my parents. They shoot jpg and love to edit images but are terrified of Lightroom because it’s way too complicated. They don’t shoot a lot and the files are small. They do also own an iPad and iPhone and will love working and browsing their images on all devices and never worry about backups anymore. And 1tb will last them a LONG time.

So in conclusion

I think the new Lightroom cc is a genius product but by labeling Lightroom cc as classic Adobe unnecessary creates a lot of problems and confusion.

We pros are used to using Lightroom cc and now cc is a very simplified cloud based version while our workhorse where we spend years of years on keywords, presets, automations etc. Is now called classic which (I can’t help it) gives me the idea it’s a dead end program. If they would have just labeled it Lightroom pro I think it would be much clearer.

At the moment I’m excited for the new Lightroom cc and will be playing with it and probably record some videos for it. However using it myself will not happen due to internet limits on the road and even at home. But Adobe does open a whole new market with this new Lightroom and the more people subscribe the more Adobe can innovate and that’s a good thing.

What’s your opinion?

35 replies
  1. Jim Roberts
    Jim Roberts says:

    I see several more issues. Like what happens if your subscription lapses? Are your images held hostage? Is the Classic designation mean that there will be fewer or no further updates like you said “a dead end product”.

    • Frank Doorhof
      Frank Doorhof says:

      I don’t think they will. But it’s always possible. However it wouldn’t make any sense at all. It would cripple everything.

      Cc is a cool app but it’s a far cry from what professional or internet handycapped photographers need.

  2. Jim Roberts
    Jim Roberts says:

    Oh and one other thing, If you use any other photo editing software (hint Capture One) your images would not be available until you downloaded them back on to your local hardware. Same may be said for Luminar and On1 Raw

    • Frank Doorhof
      Frank Doorhof says:

      Indeed. I mentioned that in the post. It’s a very download / upload intense workflow

    • Jeffrey A McDonald
      Jeffrey A McDonald says:

      So am I understanding this correctly….The new LRCC will not have local storage capability. It’s cloud only? I have a 14TB Drobo next to my main iMac with all my images. Will that even function with the new LRCC?

    • Frank Doorhof
      Frank Doorhof says:

      It’s cloud based but you can store a copy local.

      For the normal workflows we need classic

  3. Tim Evans
    Tim Evans says:

    Naming the “good” version of LR “Classic” definitely brings with it an association that it is not the most current version. I cannot see any photographer—professional or hobbyist—using Lightroom CC as anything other than a mobile supplement to LR Classic.

    My sincere hope is that Classic was a stopgap. Adobe sped it up without a total rewrite and a otally new from the ground up Lightroom Pro is released in the next 6-12months.

    • Frank Doorhof
      Frank Doorhof says:

      It’s also something I think. Merging the two. It doesn’t really make sense to have two separate DAM systems as Adobe.

  4. MPR1776
    MPR1776 says:

    I don’t like the new version at all. Like you, I have way too many files (large ones) to be waiting on the uploads and downloads of said files. While I have managed to get my presets (ones I’ve created) into the CC version it’s too awkward to use. And forget ‘migrating’ your old catalog into the new version, it wants to create an exact ‘copy’ of what is already there instead of just pulling all the files in from where they already sit on your HD. If you go the other route by ‘adding’ photos, then you have to go through all the trouble of creating albums and naming them, then pulling the photos into LR cc. If they get rid of the old version I will be switching to Capture One or some other software for editing my images.

    • Frank Doorhof
      Frank Doorhof says:

      I don’t think they will stop supporting classic. This is also why I wrote the post.

      I feel they just named it very badly. Or at least I hope they did. Because if they would indeed stop updating classic and get all the new features into cc I’m also switching.

      I think however that the next step will be that classic and cc will merge into one program.

  5. Richard Dyson
    Richard Dyson says:

    I’m with you that the 1TB isn’t going to cut it for most professionals and so we will stay on the Classic (Pro) version. The only thing that makes me want to use the functionality of CC is the Sensei tool. It would be fantastic to merge the two together into a pro tool by allowing a background upload of low quality small jpegs that the machine learning could catalogue to allow those super-quick keyword without the keywords searches.

  6. Dirk (PhotArtGraphy.eu)
    Dirk (PhotArtGraphy.eu) says:

    I am with you 100%.
    And I can tell now that a 2 weeks ago I legt the Adobe creative cloud and went completely on On 1 with their – better ‘our’ for it is a project with the customers as I am alraedy for several years – new Photo Raw. When They add good metadata editing and export/publish then I ll have all I need in 1 product. And no importing time losses….

    • Frank Doorhof
      Frank Doorhof says:

      I love the Adobe suite and on one although great is nowhere near for what I need in my workflow.

      However all workflows and needs are different of course.

  7. Robert Taylor
    Robert Taylor says:

    It sounds like adobe are trying to tap into a bigger slice of the phone photographer market. I actually think they’ve been very clever with the naming by making the mobile version appear to be the main product. We all know that using “pro” software makes people feel like they’re mixing it with the big boys (it did for me the first time I used photoshop) so by making the mobile version the “main” product, it opens the door to signing up millions of phone only photographers as this gives them common ground with pro photographers. Classic definitely has connotations of being for those folks who want to do things “the old way”.

    • Mike
      Mike says:

      This was what I was I was going to mention in my reply. I think this is all about phones. I think (not sure as I haven’t tried it yet), I would use the new LR CC just for my cellphone photography. It might be a nice way to handle more “casual” shots while traveling when I don’t have my Nikon with me or pics with the grandkids to post to FB. It is not for working photography, at least I don’t think so at these internet speeds. With my cell phone it is not hundreds of shots. I am not shooting raw. I do still like to edit some. So, I think I will try the new LR for that type of photography and maybe even keep it as a separate catalog (can I do that? Not sure??). Is that sort of photography is worth an extra 10 bucks a month since I have survived quite nicely without it? For me, maybe it is. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

  8. Thorbjorn Liell
    Thorbjorn Liell says:

    Hi, Frank! I share your views on both the naming concept and the LR CC usage. While working with mobile photos a cloud version works great. However, with a LR database of 180K+ photos working with a cloud solution is not even worth considering. Our LR database and image files are all stored on our photo server on our 1Gbit office LAN and work well. We are 2 photographers working on our own computer and are able to access the database and the files over the local network fast and easy. A CC solution will not work.

    Another thing: We will never ever store our original data files in the cloud without a local copy. We would never trust a third party 100% while taking care of our digital photos captured through the last 19 years.

  9. Jacques Lloyd
    Jacques Lloyd says:

    Hi Frank, great post, not sure if this was mentioned, but how is everyone finding the speed increase? For me running a 2015 I7 Win 10 PC the first 20 photos flies and then crashes again in performance. Only fix is a LR restart?

  10. Snuffy Sims
    Snuffy Sims says:

    My internet also is a problem 6.0/0.6 LOL. On top of that all shots are raw files. Currently I use the stand alone version of LR because of this. Looks like I will be looking for a replacement for Lightroom since they seem to be discontinuing the stand alone version.

    • Frank Doorhof
      Frank Doorhof says:

      Did you read the article ?
      Cc classic will continue. Only 6 stops. I don’t think that’s a reason to go for something else ?

      It’s an incredible bang for your buck in creative cloud.

    • Snuffy Sims
      Snuffy Sims says:

      Yes, I read the article. I was referring to other news sources advising Adobe will stop supporting the non-cc version. I personally don’t need anything cc although I see the advantage for lots of folks.

    • Frank Doorhof
      Frank Doorhof says:

      Adobe would be the dumbest company in the world if they did that.

      That’s why I think the naming is all wrong. It causes a lot of speculation.

  11. Kim Cannon
    Kim Cannon says:

    I agree with you about the CC Version. Interesting thing is with Classic – what did we get – faster – well that should have happened years ago – what else? Not much!

  12. André Berends
    André Berends says:

    Personally I could not agree with you more on this subject. Lichtroom CC (new version) is useless without a decent internet connection.
    I stick with the Lichtroom CC (old, now classic) version and use my own cloud in a Synology NAS.

  13. Brian Dragtstra
    Brian Dragtstra says:

    I think it’s all about the program, not the name.
    At this moment, the CC version is a bit of nothing. The program is very limited but also very fast, after you have access to your files.
    I don’t think the word ‘Classic’ refers to something you are not going to use anymore. In fact, I know I love my classics (talking about books and movies) and calling them a classic means they are more then the average movie I watch of book I read. So, looking from that perspective… The original Lightroom deserves to be called a ‘Classic’.

    • Frank Doorhof
      Frank Doorhof says:

      For books and movies yes. But classic also means from the past.

      And I think when you rename a product classic and put another product in it’s place with the old name of classic people cannot draw another conclusion that classic is now “as is” and the new one with the name of the classic is the new way to go.

      Although in this case classic is a totally different approach and will be supported.

      At the moment cc cannot be used “seriously” for example I can’t even find a way to rename my images (maybe I’m missing something)

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