Today’s Question: As a follow-up to your answer about Camera Raw versus Photoshop, I’m wondering if you think it would be worthwhile for someone like me who has been using Lightroom Classic but never used Photoshop, whether it would be worth learning Photoshop for the more advanced targeted adjustment capabilities. I don’t consider myself to be all that computer savvy.
Tim’s Quick Answer: If you’ve found yourself frustrated with the limits of the control you can exercise over targeted adjustments in Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw, I do think it is worth learning to leverage targeted adjustments in Photoshop. Just keep in mind that it will require time and effort to get comfortable with the tools in Photoshop, especially if you’re not particularly comfortable on the computer.
More Detail: There’s no question that Photoshop is more powerful than Lightroom Classic (or Camera Raw) when it comes to applying targeted adjustments to photos. There are many more tools and commands for creating and modifying selections in Photoshop. You can also exercise greater control over the layer masks used for applying targeted adjustments, such as through the user of layer groups.
However, Photoshop is also considerably more complicated and not as user-friendly as Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw. In other words, there can be a bit of a steep learning curve when it comes to leveraging the more advanced capabilities of Photoshop.
To be sure, if you’re not particularly comfortable on the computer and you’re perfectly happy with the results you’re getting for targeted adjustments in Lightroom Classic (or Camera Raw), you could certainly get by without learning to make use of Photoshop. However, if you work through the basics of targeted adjustments in Photoshop and gradually work your way up to more advanced techniques, I think you’ll find you’re able to go beyond the limitations of applying targeted adjustments in Lightroom Classic without too much difficulty.
For example, I covered selections and targeted adjustments over the course of six lessons in my “Photoshop Ultimate Live Learning” series, which is still ongoing. You can learn about this series on the GreyLearning website here:
https://www.greylearning.com/courses/photoshop-ultimate-live-learning
