Anyone moved to Lightroom CC?

[LiE_]

As per the title, interested to hear who has switched over and why. I can understand the benefits of both.

My sticking point with Lightroom CC is I'm not 100% comfortable with everything being uploaded to the Adobe. 1TB is a decent amount but the lock in is really hard with the cloud approach.

 

[mjoshi123]

I've switched to LR CC Classic from LR 6.0 - point you are missing out is performance of LR CC is faster compared to 6.0, also it supports lot more camera and lenses. And nothing is uploaded to cloud unless and until you want it to. All your pictures and your resources are still on your machine.

 

[tizeye]

Unfortunately, put my "Dump Adobe" is on hold for another year but at least downsized to just the LR/PS package from full CC this year while experiment with a substitute. Affinity Photo, while a PS substitute, is the weak link with Capture One a strong competitor to Lightroom. Wish Corel's Paint Shop Pro was written for a Mac as don't know how it would work transitioning back and forth through Parallels linking with photo programs on a Mac. When you state Lightroom CC, it is that new Internet Cloud based itineration with a similar name that Adobe imposed on us, and not Lightroom CC Classic which is the traditional product that operated similar to LR 6.0. I have kept away from it and just maintained Classis, but then again I keep away from most cloud based operation because you are 1) at their whim, and 2) RAW files take HUGE amounts of space, but are rarely used after initial processing - but that is space you pay for. Even with iCloud, I am selective about which photos I transfer to Photos for storage.

 

[mollyc]

I use LR CC and have for years. I don’t use any cloud for storage. Everything is stored locally.

 

[LiE_]

LR CC is now purely cloud based. LR Classic is the one which is the old Lightroom CC.

 

[mollyc]

LR CC is now purely cloud based. LR Classic is the one which is the old Lightroom CC.

Yes, but you don't have to keep your photos in the cloud for it to work. It just syncs between your desktop and mobile devices.

 

[MacNut]

LR CC is now purely cloud based. LR Classic is the one which is the old Lightroom CC.

Such stupid naming Adobe came up with.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Such stupid naming Adobe came up with.

Agreed. How about
Lightroom 6
Lightroom perpetual licence
Lightroom cloud

That would be so much easier.

 

[mollyc]

Agreed. How about
Lightroom 6
Lightroom perpetual licence
Lightroom cloud

That would be so much easier.

I would propose Lightroom 6 (although really they would just drop that since it's no longer supported or updated)
Lightroom CC Desktop
Lightroom CC Mobile

I have been chatting with someone in a photo group who insists she is using the Classic verion because it is called LR CC, as the desktop version was for years. "How would the mobile version get on my computer?" (Umm...you downloaded it because you thought it was the correct version.) And her friend uses "Lightroom CC" on a PC and that version looks like what she wants. She won't believe some of us when we tell her she's in the wrong program becuase Adobe screwed up the nomenclature. I've shown her a bunch of screenshots, so hopefully she'll get on board, but really Adobe @#$^ed the naming on this.

 

[jordanneo]

I'm using Lightroom Classic CC on my late 2015 27" 5k iMac. Much better than on my ancient PC. I'm on the subscription plan that gives LR and PS CC. I only end up in PhotoShop for things that Lightroom doesn't do well, like removing objects.

Lately I've been playing around with Lightroom CC Mobile on my old iPad Air and I'm looking at getting an iPad Pro 12.9" for an editing alternative.

 

[mofunk]

I haven't moved because I've done the cloud thing way back when Apple had .Mac. I like to organize my pics on drive. I guess down the road when I upgrade my Mac or camera I need to look at other alternatives. For now its LR of old

 

[Mike Boreham]

I have moved from Photos to the new Lightroom CC (but haven't deleted my Photos Library, still hedging my bets)

I have 75,000 photos/500GB in my LRCC Library and it works brilliantly. We have two computers and three iDevices syncing to the Adobe Cloud. In many ways it is better that Photos.

(EG1: Unlike Photos, LRCC syncs referenced masters to its Cloud, and the referenced masters can be on an external drive.
EG2 : You can chose which albums are stored locally on your devices to avoid the tedious delay to download which sometimes occurs with Photos)

For many years my wife and I used the same Apple ID, which meant all our photos were automatically combined into a single library and all edits sync'd....wonderful! Then she got an Apple Watch, which effectively forced her to have her own Apple ID, so we no longer had a combined Library. Tried Family sharing (low res only) and manual exporting/importing (ugh).

IMHO the main drawback is that it will cost you $10 per month for 1TB. In my case I will be able to recoup some of this by dropping down from the Apple 2TB tier in iCloud. Also at the moment there is no printing out of LRCC, but there are ways round this. Photos printing options are better. LRCC is a work in progress with significant improvements coming regularly.

 

[SnowLucas]

I went from lightroom 6 to Lightroom Classic this year. I was against the idea of paying monthly but frankly it’s where everyone is headed. Also compared to the money I spend on the camera gear and computer it’s worth the money for me at the moment.

One thing I don’t think people utilise enough is that you can use Lightroom classic on your main computer and still use some of the lightroom CC features. Specifically when I add photos to my Lightroom Classic library I also add them to a synced folder on CC. I can then cull and make adjustments using my iPad or iPhone which sync back to classic. With a bit of management you can stay well within your 15GB limit and avoid paying more than the photography package.

The mobile apps are really good and very enjoyable to use.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I went from lightroom 6 to Lightroom Classic this year. I was against the idea of paying monthly but frankly it’s where everyone is headed. Also compared to the money I spend on the camera gear and computer it’s worth the money for me at the moment.

One thing I don’t think people utilise enough is that you can use Lightroom classic on your main computer and still use some of the lightroom CC features. Specifically when I add photos to my Lightroom Classic library I also add them to a synced folder on CC. I can then cull and make adjustments using my iPad or iPhone which sync back to classic. With a bit of management you can stay well within your 15GB limit and avoid paying more than the photography package.

The mobile apps are really good and very enjoyable to use.

Yes Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic can be used in syncing combination with a bit of management, and you can stay within the 20GB Photography Plan limit by uploading smart previews instead of full size files, or by only using it for some of your photos. But Adobe are very ambivalent about doing this, they seem to support it but not recommend it! I tried it and know others who tried it and got in a mess and lost photos (recovered from backup).
IMHO I think your phrase "with a bit of management" is an understatement, you need to really understand the interaction between LRCC and LR Classic when syncing is turned on in Classic. I still have Classic but keep syncing turned off.

 

[Phil A.]

I really like LR CC and its streamlined approach, but wish they'd add printing ability to it - the lack of such basic functionality in 2018 is bordering on criminal!

I found I was using LR Classic less and less (and Photoshop even less since I found Affinity photo), so I switched my plan from the photo plan to an LR only one (which is half the price) and the only things I'm really missing are the aforementioned printing and the weird restriction that only photoshop is supported as an external editor.

There are ways round both but it's a bit clunky at the moment: Hopefully Adobe will continue to develop LR CC to add the missing functionality

Having my photos on the cloud is a benefit to me as I do tend to do a lot of simple edits on my mobile devices and my desktop is setup to download all photos locally so I've always got a copy away from Adobe's cloud

 

[SnowLucas]

Yes Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic can be used in syncing combination with a bit of management, and you can stay within the 20GB Photography Plan limit by uploading smart previews instead of full size files, or by only using it for some of your photos. But Adobe are very ambivalent about doing this, they seem to support it but not recommend it! I tried it and know others who tried it and got in a mess and lost photos (recovered from backup).
IMHO I think your phrase "with a bit of management" is an understatement, you need to really understand the interaction between LRCC and LR Classic when syncing is turned on in Classic. I still have Classic but keep syncing turned off.

This isn't really my experience and I've found it pretty simple really. I only use it for recent photos so I can cull and make quick edits while mobile. I do not want or need to upload the whole catalog. My workflow is as follows.

Import in Classic using all my normal settings but choose "Add to collection" under file handling and choose a collection I have called Recent Imports. ("Add to Collection" appears to be the only import setting that I need to turn back on each time as all the others settings seem to be unchanged or I could use an import preset)

Lightroom Classic imports, ejects the card, creates the previews and uploads to CC (I don't use smart previews so it does upload the RAW files which is something I need to look into)

I can now go to my phone, iPad or any browser and cull my photos and make edits etc. Any flags, star ratings or edits are synced to the main Lightroom Classic photos from the import above.

This is key. Deleting photos in Lightroom CC on mobile or web or on my laptop using the standalone CC app do not remove them from Lightroom Classic. They are only removed from the collection within Lightroom Classic. They will remain in the original folder I placed them in on import.

Once I've flagged all my photos as either rejects or keepers I go back into Classic and delete all the rejects permanently.

Apart from adding to collection on import this is pretty much how I would do it before CC was available so not a big change for the advantage of being able to cull and edit while mobile.

The management part is cleaning up photos stored on Lightroom CC. I only have the 20 Gb plan so if a photo is a keeper it needs to be removed from the Collection (CC) at some point otherwise I will run out of space. I go to the collection. Select all. Delete. It will ask do you want your photos to remain in the all synced photographs folder. I select no so they are removed from CC.

I highly recommend it.

 

[steveash]

Agreed. How about
Lightroom 6
Lightroom perpetual licence
Lightroom cloud

That would be so much easier.

How about:
Lightold
Lightrent
Lightcloud

 

[fcortese]

No, even though it is downloaded onto my computer, I am not using it. I am so used to classic Lr and all of its capabilities with my use of Skylum plugins (Luminar and Aurora HD) that for me and my workflow Lr CC does not really fit. I have all of my photos on a portable external HD with a second HD hooked up to mirror it, as well as Backblaze for my cloud backup. When I travel I take the portable external HD with me. I may eventually change my mind when Lr CC gets up to speed with the powerful editing capabilities of Classic Lr, but for now, no, I am not using LrCC. But to each his/her own!

 

[StoneJack]

Dumped everything Adobe - the bloated Adobe PDF Acrobat, the PS, Illustrator, Premiere, the whole unholy cloud package.
Has now Pixelmator, Draw, Final Cut Pro X, Motion, is now far more productive.
Similarly dumped everything Microsoft and again, productivity is up with Pages, Keynote and Numbers.

 

[macduke]

I have moved from Photos to the new Lightroom CC (but haven't deleted my Photos Library, still hedging my bets)

I have 75,000 photos/500GB in my LRCC Library and it works brilliantly. We have two computers and three iDevices syncing to the Adobe Cloud. In many ways it is better that Photos.

(EG1: Unlike Photos, LRCC syncs referenced masters to its Cloud, and the referenced masters can be on an external drive.
EG2 : You can chose which albums are stored locally on your devices to avoid the tedious delay to download which sometimes occurs with Photos)

For many years my wife and I used the same Apple ID, which meant all our photos were automatically combined into a single library and all edits sync'd....wonderful! Then she got an Apple Watch, which effectively forced her to have her own Apple ID, so we no longer had a combined Library. Tried Family sharing (low res only) and manual exporting/importing (ugh).

IMHO the main drawback is that it will cost you $10 per month for 1TB. In my case I will be able to recoup some of this by dropping down from the Apple 2TB tier in iCloud. Also at the moment there is no printing out of LRCC, but there are ways round this. Photos printing options are better. LRCC is a work in progress with significant improvements coming regularly.

This isn't really my experience and I've found it pretty simple really. I only use it for recent photos so I can cull and make quick edits while mobile. I do not want or need to upload the whole catalog. My workflow is as follows.

Import in Classic using all my normal settings but choose "Add to collection" under file handling and choose a collection I have called Recent Imports. ("Add to Collection" appears to be the only import setting that I need to turn back on each time as all the others settings seem to be unchanged or I could use an import preset)

Lightroom Classic imports, ejects the card, creates the previews and uploads to CC (I don't use smart previews so it does upload the RAW files which is something I need to look into)

I can now go to my phone, iPad or any browser and cull my photos and make edits etc. Any flags, star ratings or edits are synced to the main Lightroom Classic photos from the import above.

This is key. Deleting photos in Lightroom CC on mobile or web or on my laptop using the standalone CC app do not remove them from Lightroom Classic. They are only removed from the collection within Lightroom Classic. They will remain in the original folder I placed them in on import.

Once I've flagged all my photos as either rejects or keepers I go back into Classic and delete all the rejects permanently.

Apart from adding to collection on import this is pretty much how I would do it before CC was available so not a big change for the advantage of being able to cull and edit while mobile.

The management part is cleaning up photos stored on Lightroom CC. I only have the 20 Gb plan so if a photo is a keeper it needs to be removed from the Collection (CC) at some point otherwise I will run out of space. I go to the collection. Select all. Delete. It will ask do you want your photos to remain in the all synced photographs folder. I select no so they are removed from CC.

I highly recommend it.

Could either of you please help answer my questions since repeated attempts at contacting Adobe Support have returned no useful information about their own product?

1. When I have a full resolution photo stored in Adobe's cloud, is it available in higher resolution when I edit so that I can see details when zooming in (not possible with smart preview sync) and will it export at full resolution if I do something like crop in on it, instead of outputting a pixelated mess like smart previews?
   
2. Is there an option to store all or part of my library in full resolution on the iPad itself so I don't have to wait for the cloud to pull down large 42MP RAW files? And when it does pull down a RAW file, does it take a long time?
   
3. Will the Adobe cloud sync new full resolution photos and edits to Lightroom Classic CC and the attached external drive where my main library is stored so that I have a local backup that I can use when I'm offline and on my Mac? Would be useful so that I could print from there as well.

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[SnowLucas]

Could either of you please help answer my questions since repeated attempts at contacting Adobe Support have returned no useful information about their own product?

1. When I have a full resolution photo stored in Adobe's cloud, is it available in higher resolution when I edit so that I can see details when zooming in (not possible with smart preview sync) and will it export at full resolution if I do something like crop in on it, instead of outputting a pixelated mess like smart previews?
   
2. Is there an option to store all or part of my library in full resolution on the iPad itself so I don't have to wait for the cloud to pull down large 42MP RAW files? And when it does pull down a RAW file, does it take a long time?
   
3. Will the Adobe cloud sync new full resolution photos and edits to Lightroom Classic CC and the attached external drive where my main library is stored so that I have a local backup that I can use when I'm offline and on my Mac? Would be useful so that I could print from there as well.

Thank you so much for your help!

So this isn't how I use CC so my answer might not be correct as I don't have first hand experience. Below is what I believe to be the answers to your questions...

1. I presume this depends on your settings. On iOS for example you can choose "only download smart previews" under Cloud Storage and Sync. If you turn this off I would assume it downloads the full size file (RAW etc). What gets exported must be affected by this setting because if the setting is on it will only have the smart preview available for export. (If you press the cloud icon while looking at an individual photo it will tell you if the local file is the original or a smart preview.)

2. I don't believe you have control over this. I'd test this out with the above option switched to "only download smart previews" being off. I would assume you would need to open each photo to download the RAW file rather than it downloading the whole library. On the desktop CC app you can choose to have local copies of the originals.

3. Lightroom Classic will download the originals if connected to your CC account and is setup to do so. I believe they will be downloaded to a different folder than your other classic photos so you should move them and organise them as you need. Edits do sync. The files remain on CC until you choose to remove them.

Hope that helps.

 

[macduke]

So this isn't how I use CC so my answer might not be correct as I don't have first hand experience. Below is what I believe to be the answers to your questions...

1. I presume this depends on your settings. On iOS for example you can choose "only download smart previews" under Cloud Storage and Sync. If you turn this off I would assume it downloads the full size file (RAW etc). What gets exported must be affected by this setting because if the setting is on it will only have the smart preview available for export. (If you press the cloud icon while looking at an individual photo it will tell you if the local file is the original or a smart preview.)

2. I don't believe you have control over this. I'd test this out with the above option switched to "only download smart previews" being off. I would assume you would need to open each photo to download the RAW file rather than it downloading the whole library. On the desktop CC app you can choose to have local copies of the originals.

3. Lightroom Classic will download the originals if connected to your CC account and is setup to do so. I believe they will be downloaded to a different folder than your other classic photos so you should move them and organise them as you need. Edits do sync. The files remain on CC until you choose to remove them.

Hope that helps.

Thanks! I haven't tried it the non-smart preview way so I wasn't sure how that worked. Now I'm suddenly tempted to get the 1TB version. And the university I work at is having a $150 off sale on that new iPad Pro in a little over an hour!

 

[Mike Boreham]

Could either of you please help answer my questions since repeated attempts at contacting Adobe Support have returned no useful information about their own product?

1. When I have a full resolution photo stored in Adobe's cloud, is it available in higher resolution when I edit so that I can see details when zooming in (not possible with smart preview sync) and will it export at full resolution if I do something like crop in on it, instead of outputting a pixelated mess like smart previews?
   
2. Is there an option to store all or part of my library in full resolution on the iPad itself so I don't have to wait for the cloud to pull down large 42MP RAW files? And when it does pull down a RAW file, does it take a long time?
   
3. Will the Adobe cloud sync new full resolution photos and edits to Lightroom Classic CC and the attached external drive where my main library is stored so that I have a local backup that I can use when I'm offline and on my Mac? Would be useful so that I could print from there as well.

Thank you so much for your help!

I am not sure I can answer the first question since I have never seen a pixelated mess using smart previews, which is what my MBP uses! Editting via smart previews has not been a problem for me. There is a zoom option to see detail using smart previews, but may not be enough for you. I am away from my iMac which has local full size files so can't see if it is different. I suggest the best place to ask questions is on the Lightroom Queen forum where there are some very expert and responsive contributors.

For the second question you have the option to store smart previews on the iPad or not, by album as I said above. I don't think the iPad will ever pull down a 42MP file for editing, as I think it uses smart previews, but I may be wrong.

I would also ask your third question on Lightroom Queen. Syncing between LRCC and Classic is not straightforward IMO. I have Classic but keep syncing with Adobe Cloud off.