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What Is Adobe Lightroom?

Photo editing solution designed to help with photo editing, storage and management, and sharing. Features of the platform include customizable presets, mobile access, level adjustment, cropping and rotating, focus shifting, import/export, intelligent image search, image labels, custom categorization, and collaboration tools.

Who Uses Adobe Lightroom?

Not provided by vendor

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Reviews of Adobe Lightroom

Average score

Overall
4.8
Ease of Use
4.4
Customer Service
4.1
Features
4.6
Value for Money
4.3

Reviews by company size (employees)

  • <50
  • 51-200
  • 201-1,000
  • >1,001
Adham
Adham
Senior Social Media Specialist, Senior Graphic Designer in Jordan
Verified LinkedIn User
Broadcast Media, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

The fully fledged photo editing software for every photographer outhere

5.0 last year

Comments: i've been using lightroom for almost 7 years now, and never ever has it failed me, they update it on regular basis, it's always easy to handle, it gives me the freedom to edit every single aspect of my photos, i always recommend it for every photographer out there.

Pros:

You can control every single aspect of colors on your photos, create presets or even import ready made ones, you can adjust every single light and shadow on your photos as well as the color wheel of the shadows & highlights, you can also batch import and edit, create your own settings and save them to a catalog, edit on the go from your mobile, it's always synced and backed up to the cloud, so you can access your photos anywhere and anytime.

Cons:

Nothing to dislike except the prices, it's a bit expensive when it comes to single software use if you're only using lightroom, however you can get an offer bundle if you get it with photoshop, or with photoshop and illustrator

Rachel
Director in US
Education Management, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Photo Editing made easy

4.0 last month New

Comments: Overall, I enjoy using Lightroom. Outside of managing my preschool, I handle all social media and Lightroom is great for editing the photos I take of activities within our program.

Pros:

I like how many features users can explore while working in Lightroom. I also like that users can connect to the community and use filters created by others.

Cons:

I find that this program can be easily "overloaded" and will crash- especially if the device you are using it on is not completely up to date. If you are ensuring that your device and Lightroom are both running on the latest software, it works fine 99% of the time.

Nikhil
Graphic Designer in India
Arts & Crafts, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

O CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN..

3.0 9 months ago

Pros:

The most likely part of adobe lightroom its the whole light panels , i mean personally its the backbone for all of it , and also the grain effect it adds essence to the picture like a24 studios does to its movies and images.

Cons:

the least i like about adobe lightroom as it doesn't have presets themes and designs that should the creator should give , i know we can create our own presets but presets themes what i feel should be there for more ideas and variations.

Nathan
Sales and Purchasing Manager in UK
Wholesale, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Excellent photo editing software

5.0 last month New

Comments: I really like using Lightroom to process my photos and the results compared to my old photos is a massive improvement. I feel it is capable of so much more than I use it for though as I have definitely barely scratched the surface

Pros:

The AI assisted masking is fantastic. it's not 100% perfect but each update seems to improve this markedly

Cons:

The hardware requirements to get it to work quickly is quite high. This is more of a 'me' problem though as I am definitely due a new computer!

mickael
PHOTOGRAPHER in France
Photography, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

A must have for all photographers

5.0 7 months ago

Comments: I use LR daily for my photographer activity and i couldn't do it with an other software. It's a must have.

Pros:

LR allows you to edit your pictures as you want it to. It gives you really fast render. The AI tools are insanely good. The sorting tools allows you to handle your picture sorting as you want to directly in the application.

Cons:

A bit complicated to understand all export options, but once you get use to it and make your templates properly it's a one click export.

Prateek
Graphics Editor in India
Photography, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Adobe Lightroom, The Best Photo Editor

5.0 last year

Comments: Overall, Lightroom has become the core of my everyday operations, and it's the single software I rely on the most. The initial implementation was a bit rough due to the complexity of Lightroom's Professional Tools but now, it has become integral to my role.

Pros:

Lightroom has everything a Photo Editor can think of. From basic editing like manipulating brightness and contrast, to more advanced features like HSL Split Tone, Masking, Layers, and Tone Curves, Lightroom has it all in one place and is the benchmark product in its industry.

Cons:

Starting up with Lightroom as a beginner is a bit steep and challenging. Lightroom has a vast palette of tools and features that appear overwhelming for a newbie but the learning and experimenting is actually fun.

Anil
Editor in UK
Entertainment, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Creative Alliance Review

5.0 12 months ago

Comments: Overall, lightroom has been our go-to software for final retouching the photos and we also use it for making LUTs for videos. It is a simple and easy to use software and has helped us a lot in out weekly works.

Pros:

Along with easy and simple photo editing, making LUTs is also very simple in lightroom. Convenient to save time for editing photos. Various filters and abundance of functions are an added bonus.

Cons:

One of the cons of Adobe Lightroom would be the pricing for Adobe products as a whole. Only talking about Lightroom, there are certain limitations to fully editing photos, for which Photoshop has to be integrated.

Shilton
partner in St Lucia
Food Production, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

One of the best for Novice editors

5.0 12 months ago

Comments: I work for a small waste management company, and I recently convinced my company to invest in a DSLR. This is used for all my content gathering at work, however, the CyberLink software which came bundled with my camera package was just plain horrible. Upgrading to Lightroom was a lifesaver, the ease of use, and flexibility allow me to quickly edit, add watermarks and output photos.

Pros:

Ease of use and more lightweight than Adobe Photoshop while maintaining most of the key features that beginner editors would require.

Cons:

Subject detection does not always work as well as I would like

Jessica
Marketing Manager in Canada
Furniture, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Great app and easy to use

5.0 last month New

Comments: Easy to use, great for having presets to enhance the quality of your pictures and the ease at which you can change settings to get your desired look.

Pros:

How easy it is to use on my phone. I can crop and get the quality pictures I need and want with a few easy clicks. Then you just save to your phone and you are good to go!

Cons:

The storage on the computer always seems to fill up fast. We need to be reminded to take them out of the program and save them in a separate file.

Jenna
Owner in US
Marketing & Advertising, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Great for photo editing

5.0 3 weeks ago New

Comments: Have used for years for photo editing and is easy to use with other adobe programs

Pros:

Can easily edit photos like a professional

Cons:

Have to relearn some of the functions when they make updates

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Automotive, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

A detailed and experienced review of Adobe Lightroom.

4.0 3 years ago

Comments: Due to lightroom, the engagement of customers on all our social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, Google Page etc has increased by more than 70%. Which is has a direct impact on our overall sales and revenue we have noticed that customers connect more to our business once they visit our pages which filled with the content of lightroom.

Pros:

The filters are provided on presets and recommendations by lightroom are another level of experience. I have used lots of apps but the filters which I got on Lightroom were unique and beautiful. If you are a photo editing enthusiast then let me tell you there is no better option in the market. Before I used to edit photos related to my business and its services through other apps and all those photos were uploaded to our social media pages but the engagement was not that much after I started using the lighroom for my all social pages the engagement of customers are on some another level. that's why I love this app.

Cons:

I have noticed that sometimes this app lags and shut down by itself while working and sometimes it doesn't open only. There are lots of editing tools and filters which is good also but if someone who is new to the platform is using this app then he might get confused about what to use and what not to use. Although I have never felt its requirement but the premium plan of lightroom is very costly it about $9.99 us dollars per month. This is something which is felt was very High if someone needs to go for a premium plan then they may need to think again before buying.

Edwin
Edwin
Administrative Assistant in Kenya
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Perfect software for photo editing.

4.0 3 years ago

Comments: If you want to do photo editing this is the software to go since using this software is simple and it produces perfect images. Adding to that, it is also effective and efficient.

Pros:

First what I like about this software is its non destructive ability. It creates a copy of the edited image while keeping the original image intact. Compared to other alternatives the usability of this software is simple thus anyone can use it easily. It has an intuitive interface thus once the user open he or she knows what to do. Compared to related adobe packages, this software runs smoothly on a computer with lighter processing requirements. Lastly is on its pricing, if you intend to buy the whole package with photoshop it is fair compared to Lightroom itself.

Cons:

I really don't have much dislikes about this software since it has majority of features and also the quality of images produced are excellent only that it has limited editing options compared to other related alternatives.

Louie Jay
Customer Service Representatives in Philippines
Outsourcing/Offshoring, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Enhancements

5.0 last year

Comments: This product is easy to use and all of the effects are quality and perfect to show up.

Pros:

I really love its feature where can enhanced with a quality picture and can gain more confidence from posting to any social media platforms.

Cons:

I don’t see any feature or effects that needs to improve about this product. There’s no missing or lacking on it.

Luana
Auxiliar Administrativo in Brazil
Farming, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

It's the best app I've ever used to edit professional photos.

5.0 12 months ago

Comments: It is a very usuful and pratical app, I use it whenever I need to edit photos, professional or not

Pros:

It has lots of great options for editing photos, both in free and paid mode, lots of practicality, efficiency and quality.

Cons:

Sometimes the app crashes a lot and takes a long time to respond, and I've often lost an entire edit because the app crashed and didn't save what I'd already done.

Bernard
Photographer in UK
Photography, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Great workflow

5.0 last year

Pros:

Cross platform with great mobile integration. Subscription model ensures always up to daye

Cons:

There no negatives with the application. You need to take time to learn how to use but there is a lot of material on YouTube to help

Pratyush
User Interface Designer in India
Information Technology & Services, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Robust Photo Organizing and Editing Tool

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Overall experience with Lightroom is good as it is feature rich.

Pros:

Support almost all formats of photos and it is very easy to find and manage a large stock of photos with the help of its feature of tagging and labeling. Can easily integrate with other Adobe software.

Cons:

It's very complex to learn, and quite expensive as other Adobe software. It's a good tool to edit a large number of photos but if you want to edit a single image photoshop is the better tool for it.

Chelsea
Graphic Designer in US
Design, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Adobe Lightroom is Essential

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: For bulk photo edits it is essential and a huge time saver

Pros:

I love that I can edit photos the same way in bulk or batches to save a ton of time

Cons:

Since it acts as a file storage it can sometimes take a bit to load all the pics

Joyce
Ceo in Brazil
Animation Software, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: Free Trial
Reviewer Source

best editing app

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: The application is the best at the moment, I use it for personal editions, but for photographers it is excellent and has been winning the hearts of many professionals, precisely because of the efficiency and practicality that the application delivers. I always use it because when I want images with the same edition and quality, it gives me this feature of editing and keeping the same edition in all images

Pros:

The practicality of editing the photos and the option of offering the same edition and quality by copying and pasting in all the photos, if they are photos in the same light and angle, it makes editing the photos much easier as it speeds up the work instead of applying the photos at home same editions

Cons:

I have nothing to question about the application, at the moment it delivers what it promises

Francis Rod
Graphic Designer in Philippines
Graphic Design Software, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Adobe LIghtroom Review

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: I had a great time with adobe lightroom, it is easy to use and helps me achieve my desired outcome. It is a perfect tool for post processing.

Pros:

It has great editing features, user friendly interface and great local and cloud storage access.

Cons:

Lightroom is a great tool and it never gave me any issues.

Mark Oliver
Mark Oliver
Web Developer | Graphic Artist in Philippines
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

LIghtroom at a Glimpse

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: I learned how to use photoshop first starting on and used it for the longest time (years), when asked a photographer friend of mine before what i can use other than photoshop that is easier to use for multiple images, he showed me lightroom lightroom, just like photoshop, have been my bestfriend since discovering then way before I even graduated college. its a part of my personal and professional life now.

Pros:

Lighroom is much more than an image editor, it helps to organize your images by importing or exporting and managing your images easily making you able to keep track of your edits and images, in short it's an editing software and an image managing tool combined into one. you dont have to need to worry about ruining your image while editing as the edits only appy to an exported image not the original. Fast and easy photo books, slide shows, and web galleries this is much easier to learn than photoshop.

Cons:

if you are switching to lightroom because photoshop is clunky when it comes to editing multiple images at once, you might be in for a surprise coz lightroom doesnt support layering like photoshop has. Lightroom is made for photo enhancement so its image manipulation tools are limited unlike photoshop.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

From today, you will not be without Adobe Lightroom

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: Let me tell you a secret, this is from the experience of more than 4 years of using it, so that your heart is rested to set out on this adventure . But still , I can't do without using it to edit my photos .

Pros:

It is very difficult to upload a picture of my own to social networking sites without it being modified in the Lightroom program , simply, because people take a lot of photos at the same moment , but they need to edit all the photos in one click , and here comes the role of the great program , which is Adobe Lightroom . The speed in editing your photos in this program is incredible to the mind, you do not need to go to many places inside it to finish editing your photos compared to Adobe Photoshop, you need to navigate more than once, quite the contrary, in only one place inside Adobe Lightroom you can create The best and most exciting editing, you basically do not need previous experience with it, you can learn it in a few days and become a professional in color editing and this is a powerful feature of Adobe Lightroom. Let me tell you before I forget , the user interface is simple and easy on the eye , And believe me, you will learn it in less than a week for its simplicity and you will come out of it with the best picture you will see in your life.

Cons:

The only problem is that if you want to change and delete in the small details, in fact you can do it, but not as powerful and easy as Adobe Photoshop handles .

Brian
Brian
Videographer/photographer/editor in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Online Media, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Edit all your social media photos with Lightroom!

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: I use lightroom and photoshop sometimes interchangeably but I prefer using Lightroom for quick edits since it is perhaps the easiest and fastest program adobe offers

Pros:

Adobe Lightroom is deeply versatile but perhaps most importantly it takes so many steps out of the process to get photos onto social media that it becomes a necessary tool to master for every single creator who has any social media platform. The beauty is it’s easy to master and will have you feeling like a professional in no time even if you are one already ;)

Cons:

Like all adobe products it comes with a moderate monthly price tag but like all Adobe products every bug is fixed and every update is applied as soon as you’re ready for it!

Sam
Designer in US
Graphic Design Software, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

No better batch photo editor out there!

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: Regarding my workflow, Adobe Lightroom has substantially improved photo categorization. I take images on a regular basis, so having them all in one spot is quite convenient. I can quickly locate a one-off old photo that I require, make a fast edit, re-export and tag it, and move on to my next task.  This is useful when I'm using photographs from more than a year ago in current marketing materials. Overall, Lightroom is a must-have for those looking to improve everything about photography—especially workflow and aesthetic adjustments.

Pros:

I like how Adobe Lightroom  allows me to edit RAW files in a comprehensive manner. I can batch-edit RAW photographs more easily than I can with Photoshop. I appreciate being able to rapidly switch between presets and preview them. The simple keyboard shortcut that allows me to rapidly change between my altered photo and the original RAW shot is perhaps my favorite feature, allowing for easy comparisons when editing.

Cons:

There aren't many things that Adobe Lightroom does poorly. Lightroom occasionally has long photo export times, which is the only drawback I can think of. For example, exporting a batch of 50 photographs can sometimes  take up to an hour or more. It's not a major concern because I'll just be leaving my computer for a few minutes, but I'd like to see speedier photo exporting, or one that works better on computers with less RAM.

Cameron
Cameron
Photographer in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Photography, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

One stop shop!

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Overall, the good far outweighs the negative and Lightroom has become an irreplaceable part of my workflow.

Pros:

Lightroom has really grown over the years to become a nearly one stop shop for photo editing needs. Unless you are making drastic alterations to a photo where Photoshop is required, Lightroom can handle a majority of the workflow and also integrates well with organization and has features that allow for the upload to your website via plugins.

Cons:

Over the years adobe has moved away from single license pricing to a cloud based subscription model and updates occasionally have bugs that take a bit of time to resolve, especially for Mac products.

Oreoluwa
CEO in Nigeria
Marketing & Advertising, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Review of Lightroom

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: Overall, Lightroom is a great app, it saves me from a lot of stress by helping me edit multiple images at the same time and also with the bulk export function

Pros:

I really like that Lightroom has both the system software and the mobile application because it really helps improve picture quality and even as a beginner using the app, you can get a lot of things done as it is very User friendly. I can say anywhere that with Lightroom even if the image was initially wrong you can make the necessary changes and make it just right. One thing I like about the system software is how you can edit multiple images at once

Cons:

I feel that the software can be improved, normally you can edit multiple images at once but the edit you can do to multiple images is limited. If it can be improved it'll make the app really better

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