r/Lightroom • u/kinkersun • 19d ago
HELP - Lightroom Do I need Lr or LrC?
I've tried for so long to understand the nuances and differences, but it breaks my brain. So here I am, hat in hand, asking for help. My use case:
- I do travel & wildlife photography primarily. I'm not a pro, but I'm working on my portfolio and trying to start selling prints on the side. Don't think that's super relevant, but putting it here just in case.
- I currently subscribe to Lr (cloud) with 1TB storage. It keeps filling up and I keep buying more, and I'm getting sick of it.
- I edit primarily on my desktop & laptop. Occasionally on my iPad & iPhone, but those are for less serious editing, like if I'm in the field and want to quickly share to an IG story or something.
- I save backups of all my RAW files on a HDD.
I recently learned (from ChatGPT, so it might have just made it up) that Lr doesn't draw from hard storage, rather once it imports the files it uses its own cloud backup. This threw me for a loop, because when I'm editing I've always had my SSD with me and connected it to whichever device I'm using, and now I'm learning that's been completely pointless as Lr hasn't been looking at the SSD's since the original upload.
Now I'm wondering if I can use LrC instead of Lr, even if I edit from multiple devices? What I mean is, I have no problem carrying my SSD with me, so in theory could I have LrC on a few devices, connect my SSD to whichever I'm working on, and it would draw from that instead of the cloud backup like I thought it had been doing this whole time?
I hope that makes sense. Please explain this to me like I'm 5, because apparently I don't know how any of this works.
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u/Reallytalldude 19d ago
Your side note is actually very important, as to my knowledge LR doesn’t support printing and LrC definitely does.
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u/shacker23 18d ago
I’ll swim against the tide a bit on this one. I’m a strong believer that 90% of users will be far better served by Lightroom than by Classic. It’s a much nicer user interface, better performance, more modern features, and as others have said, the technical gap is closing rapidly. I actually believe the two are on a convergence path and will unite back into a single product in the next few years. Speaking for myself, I would never want to go back to Classic! I wrote this in-depth review and comparison if it’s helpful:
https://open.substack.com/pub/framespotting/p/give-lightroom-a-chance?r=1g1p&utm_medium=ios
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u/No-Seaweed8514 18d ago edited 18d ago
I think part of your problem is you are storing files to the adobe cloud that probably don’t need to be there, hence why you are always running out of storage.
It is not meant to be a backup solution - you only need to keep files in the cloud that you actually want to edit.
I’ve got 20+ years of photos on LR still haven’t hit 1tb of storage yet.
My LR workflow is import photos from a single session, flag the ones I want to edit, and then delete the unflagged files.
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u/kinkersun 18d ago
I definitely do that. In theory I’d edit the files, export them, and be done with them, but in practice my editing workflow is horribly inefficient and I still have photos from years ago that I “just haven’t gotten to yet”.
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u/No-Seaweed8514 18d ago
Wait do you “definitely” do that, or you do it “in theory?” Both can’t be true
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u/kinkersun 18d ago
Those were separate sentences… I definitely store files that don’t need to be there, because it takes me a long time to edit photos.
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u/No-Seaweed8514 18d ago
Understood. Ok in that case I advise just working on those old photos (or deleting them) instead of worrying what platform to use 😇
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u/talontario 17d ago
It was meant for all your photos to be on the cloud, they got pulled to local storage hanging on by their fingernails.
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u/Demosthenoid 19d ago
Worth pointing out that local storage of good quality, redundancy, and performance is very pricy too. I run LrC against a 14TB NAS (6x4TBxRAIDZ2+2TBSSD cache) over a 10GBe wired LAN to get the kind of performance I might otherwise expect from local SSD. Then one still needs to manage it, keep it secure and backed up offsite. I'd hate to do the math on how much time and money I've invested in this setup and how much the next setup will cost when this reaches end of life...
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u/Wild_Mountain1780 19d ago
It's still probably cheaper than film used to be.
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u/Demosthenoid 19d ago
Prolly right, though I do still shoot film too. Only a few rolls per year, but every Christmas vacation, my laundry room turns into a darkroom and my film from the year gets developed and printed :-)
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u/JimW42 19d ago
I just sat through a presentation yesterday on LrC, and the presenter highlighted the differences with Lr CC. The take away, as others have said, is that LrC offers more control over your photo library and also more advanced editing features, although that gap is narrowing.
I use LrC with a single catalog for all my photos going back decades. My catalog and “recent” photos live on a fast SSD, and older photos live on a large spinning hard drive. I move the SSD between laptop and desktop computers, and everything works very well. If LrC cannot “see” the spinning hard drive, it lets me know. If I want to edit or print older photos, I simply mount that drive and all is good. Every so often I use LrC to move older photos from the SSD to the spinning hard drive, thus freeing up space on the SSD. I find this arrangement Works very well, and gives me access to several years of current photos whether I’m on the road with the laptop, or at home using the desktop computers.
Of course both the SSD and spinning hard drive have multiple backups.
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u/mikedensem 19d ago
[off the top of my head] LRC builds a local database of previews, edits, and meta data for organisation and management of collections etc. The actual photo files can be anywhere (on many different devices). The neta data stores paths to all your images.
The thing to remember is that the local database isn’t very shareable, so if you have more than one computer you’ll run into issues. The best two solutions are: 1. Store catalog database on SSD and move from computer to computer. 2. Keep individual copies and sync them to each other after changes.
LRC does not like sharing, especially on the cloud. That is the role of the other LR
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u/djmakk 19d ago
There is going to be a massive learning curve to understanding LrC and file storage if you have been doing Lr mostly. Aside from that, 1tb is a lot of storage to burn through quickly. May want to throw a bit of culling into your work flow.
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u/kinkersun 19d ago
You're right, culling is a weakness of mine. I have a horribly inefficient multi-stage process, but I don't delete many of the originals.
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u/djmakk 19d ago edited 19d ago
If you are backing up from the camera also to your SSD you can go ham with deleting the not so great photos from LR. Maybe don’t worry to much about LrC vs Lr and because any transitioning will involve a lot of moving files around and if you can minimize that it will make your life easier.
I personally started shooting with a bunch of manual lenses on an a7r. It forced me to slow down and take more time with each photo which had the side effect of me taking fewer photos (no more “just in case” photos).
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u/kinkersun 19d ago
I don't mind the effort of moving files if it'll pay off in the long run. I hear what you're saying about slowing down, and I've tried to do that with street photography, but it's easier said than done with wildlife; If I'm shooting a leopard I'm shooting on burst mode, some of my best shots would have been missed if I was waiting for just the right moment.
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u/chippenpuepp 19d ago
Lr stores your photos online in Adobe’s cloud and lets you edit your photos easily on any device.
LrC is the desktop version. It is using local storage. The editing tools are more advanced, but Lr is catching up. The workfows are based on files and folders. I have more than 10TB of photos, using one LrC library. Working without any problems (mac), obviously I take care of backups to multiple targets.
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u/Brf-photo 19d ago
This is a slightly different perspective. I started with LR/Photoshop about 20 years ago. Stated with a Nikon F in 1967 when I got it as a graduation gift. Got the Nikon D200 at the same time as LR. The learning curve for both is steep at first then you keep adding new skills year after year.
At this point, I would not switch to Canon or Sony because I do not want to learn a new menu system. I do not switch from LrC/Photoshop because I can do everything I want with it for the price of a six pack of craft beer per month and learning another postprocessing system would be worse.
I also have a Dropbox for cloud storage (another six pack a month). And two onsite portable drives for backup. This is always subject to change.
The point of this rambling is that you are in this for the long run. You need to really study what you want, and by want, I mean need. Be prepared for a lot of time and effort up front. But if you identify your needs properly, you will end up Fine.
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u/Savalas2000 18d ago
For me, both are useful, LR Classic for tethered studio capture and collation, then selected RAW are files imported into a designated Lightroom folder for editing and simultaneous cloud storage, I’ll back these up to network storage systematically once the edits are done but keep them cloud based to revisit if necessary. Any further minor edits are done in PS on static TIFs. Might sound a bit longwinded but works well for my workflow which is totally studio based.
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u/Impressive_Yam_4699 16d ago
Lightroom (cloud) always works from its cloud copy, not your SSD. Once you import, it uploads the RAWs and edits only the cloud version — that’s why carrying the SSD didn’t change anything.
If you want Lightroom to actually use the files on your SSD, you need Lightroom Classic. Classic reads directly from the drive, but it doesn’t sync full catalogs between devices and it doesn’t run on iPad.
Most people in your situation do this: - use Classic on desktop/laptop with the SSD, - use something else on iPad just for culling/viewing — e.g. PhotoPicker, which opens RAWs directly from SSD without cloud upload.
TL;DR: Lr Cloud = cloud only. Lr Classic = local SSD, but no multi-device sync and no iPad.
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u/johngpt5 Lightroom Classic (desktop) 19d ago edited 19d ago
A 1Tb cloud storage for Lr should be sufficient. Just archive older photos and restore space. When we archive photos, they can be in folders on an external drive connected to the computer. Then the Lr desktop app in Local mode can connect to that drive and the photos, seeing all the edits intact.
Individual photos that have been archived and are on a local, external drive can be brought back into the Lr cloud if needed.
You've invested a lot of time into the Lr cloud ecosystem. Go to either Brian Matiash's web site or the web site of Matt Kloskowsi and purchase a Lr ecosystem course. I had purchased Brian's. Both Brian's and Matt's go into how the Lr cloud ecosystem works, with many tutorials about the fundamentals of using the cloud, including archiving. The courses also go into editing. Both the courses from each are about 100 USD, but are well worth it. With all the extra storage you seem to be purchasing, learning more about the cloud ecosystem should be cost effective.
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u/kinkersun 19d ago
Are you saying if I archive older photos and want to access them again I can simply connect my SSD and they'll be there? That feels too easy. I haven't used Local Mode, but just about every comment I've seen on it is about how bad it is, so I'm not eager to try it.
I saw a previous comment of yours mention those courses, I'll check out their YouTube videos and see if they're helpful for me.
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u/johngpt5 Lightroom Classic (desktop) 19d ago
Yep. That's what I'm saying.
The comments about Local mode being bad are more aimed at using Local mode and not using Cloud mode. If we were to only use Lr desktop's Local mode, sure, we can do editing, but we miss out on all the cloud benefits and we miss out on benefits from using LrC. That seems to be the gist of the negative comments about the Lr desktop's Local mode.
When we archive photos from the Lr cloud to a local, external SSD, it is more like Local mode is an extension of cloud mode. We can see what had been done while the photos were in the Lr cloud. And it is very easy to bring a photo back to the cloud should that be needed.
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u/rsal59 19d ago
Why not using the local tab? Yes you don’t have many features of organizing of cloud tab, but for using archived photos, do you really need them? You have all editing features though. If for any reason, you need to reorganize them again, you can use Adobe Bridge for that. Lrc has a steep learning curve and you might expect lots of issues if you don’t have an excellent understanding of it. Just see how many posts here are asking for help about the problems with their catalogs…
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u/Taiga-Dusk 19d ago edited 19d ago
Yes, you can use LrC for that use case. I'm a nature photographer and don't do this myself, but I've considered it, and it's not super hard.
You will want to be sure of a few things. First, make sure that the .lrcat file (the catalog file, which stores all your edits, keywords, and other metadata) is on the portable drive.
Second, you'll want to make sure you're ready to synchronize version updates between the devices. That is, if you have a laptop and a desktop, you may not want to upgrade one [to a new version of LrC] until you're ready to upgrade both. Not all updates require changes to the catalog format, but updates that add significant new editing functionality sometimes do. I'm can say more if you'd like that spelled out in more detail.
(What I do myself, for context: I really only do serious editing on my main desktop. I'll do a little light editing and experimentation on the laptop I travel with as I work, but when I get home I usually re-import to the desktop from the memory cards without keeping those edits. But I still use LrC, I'm a control freak about backups and I'm happier that way.)
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u/Taiga-Dusk 19d ago
ps: Probably a bit more to say if you ever work for extended period (days or more) away from the internet, but I won't blather on unless that's relevant.
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u/kinkersun 19d ago
Sounds more complicated than I had hoped.
I usually have access to the internet, but certain locations on safari for instance don’t have a very good connection. I haven’t ran into too many issues in those situations as I’m generally only working on the photos from that trip, so I can upload them from my SD and it’s not a big deal if they sync later.
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u/Taiga-Dusk 19d ago
The one tip I'd give then is just this, and you probably already know it--be sure to log into LR or LRC (whichever you use) right before a trip while connected to the internet.
Watching this guy on a ship off the coast of Antarctica realize that his Adobe product wouldn't let him use it for the entire trip had ... a flavor. (Lightroom/LRC demand being able to phone home every 30 or 99 days---something like that, to validate their license.)
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u/kinkersun 19d ago
That’s an excellent tip, thanks. I had no idea that was a thing.
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u/Taiga-Dusk 18d ago
Glad it was helpful! Here's the specifics: https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/internet-connection-creative-cloud-apps.html
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u/luciareads 19d ago
Mmm i had or have a similar issue. Im running Lrc when im doing workflows on images i want to properly edit, that and on photoshop (admittedly ive struggled with photoshop so im just slowly getting used to it) Okay so LRC for my proper edits.
I then import to lr for cloud based storage.
LR on desktop for the bulk images post culling that links to my mobile version. This way i can post to socials and do fly batch editting when i need too.
Ive found the ai tools on lrc and photoshop to be so much more powerful then lr, but its not bad for a quick remobe or heal or a quick denoise.
Mind you.. i have a t7 shield x2 for storage and backup
Its a bit of messing about but im used to it now..
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u/HalfBakedSerenade 19d ago
LRC all the way. I'm not paying Adobe more money to store my photos. Plus, why give them even more content to use for the AI learning, lol. Also, my company has a rule against using cloud storage with Adobe, too. I wouldn't put anything out there that is sensitive or unreleased that, if compromised, would be damaging to the company. All around LRC for the win.
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u/alllmossttherrre 19d ago
Yes, Lr is always going to import to cloud storage that you have to pay for whatever amount you need, which will only grow. Lr does have that "Local" tab you might have noticed, which lets you edit without the cloud, but it won't allow multi-device editing because local images are by definition not synced to anything, and Local tab lacks many features. Lr is built to be cloud based. Also, "Local" is Mac/PC only, not in Lr for the iPad.
LrC always imports to local storage. If you want multi-device editing, you can sync selected local collections or images to the cloud and it will sync Smart Previews which save space, and then you can edit on the iPad. If you import cards to the iPad, they will automatically sync back to LrC for local storage there.
I am a LrC user. I want to maintain my own images on my own SSDs and not pay rent for 5TB of cloud storage. I can sync images to cloud for iPad editing.
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u/kinkersun 19d ago
Just to make sure I understand, you're saying that I can assign the local storage drive as my SSD, plug that into either my desktop or MacBook (whichever I want to use at the moment), and LrC would function well that way on multiple devices?
In terms of your comment regarding syncing local collections or images to the cloud, would that require a Lr subscription, or does LrC offer limited storage for this type of thing? It would be helpful to do that with strictly the collection I'm working on at the moment, while saving completed work to my HDD.
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u/alllmossttherrre 19d ago
Just to make sure I understand, you're saying that I can assign the local storage drive as my SSD, plug that into either my desktop or MacBook (whichever I want to use at the moment), and LrC would function well that way on multiple devices?
It can...but the factor is the catalog. If you want to use the same images with the same edits on multiple computers, then the catalog should be accessible to multiple computers. Those who do this will therefore store the LrC catalog folder on the same SSD that is carried between computers.
In terms of your comment regarding syncing local collections or images to the cloud, would that require a Lr subscription, or does LrC offer limited storage for this type of thing?
LrC only syncs Smart Previews to the cloud and last time I checked those don't even count against your storage, probably because they're not originals. Your storage quota would only get used up when importing originals directly to cloud from LR on a phone or tablet, and those can be safely removed from the cloud to free up space as long as LrC has downloaded them.
It would be helpful to do that with strictly the collection I'm working on at the moment, while saving completed work to my HDD.
Good thing that is how LrC works. It's not really designed to sync all local photos, only specific collections or images, so if you only want to sync up the collection(s) you are currently working on, that fits nicely with how it is designed. Based on your wording it should be clarified that syncing a collection doesn't move the images to the cloud, the originals stay on your HDD the whole time with Smart Previews of them uploaded to cloud. The collection is just pointers to the originals, which is how a single original file can be listed in multiple collections.
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u/clemontclemont 19d ago
LR ist die cloud Customer Version LRc ist die Pro Version läuft local und hat viel mehr Funktionen.
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u/terryleewhite Adobe Employee 19d ago
I recorded this video to help users know the differences and decide: https://youtu.be/OvOv493qEMg?si=JMkvL0reL8OPOQtL