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Why Everyone Uses Lightroom Classic Over CC. The Simple Answer

Chris Gampat
No Comments
05/17/2022
3 Mins read
Leica M11 in Lightroom Classic

Lightroom Classic is, for better or worse, the industry standard for many photographers. Both new and experienced photographers alike often use Lightroom Classic instead of Lightroom CC. Introduced a few years ago, Lightroom CC was designed to address various speed and performance issues. It’s a lightweight version of the program. But that also means it’s not as powerful as photographers need it to be.

But First, a Preface

For many years now, The Phoblographer switched our staff to Capture One. Lightroom Classic used to be our full testing standard for cameras and lenses. But when speed and overall performance issues began popping up, we switched. These days, when I open up Lightroom Classic, I sometimes notice an easier interface, but at other times it just seems confusing. And nothing exports at the same quality that Capture One does either.

For the record, we’re not sponsored by Capture One. But in the past, they’ve hired us to publish sponsored content. In The Phoblographer’s history though, Adobe has spent far more money with us. When we started to switch from Adobe toward Capture One, Adobe began to sever our press relations. This felt unfair; we only believed we were using a superior product. Manufacturers also tend to agree with us. Camera and lens manufacturers have respected our decisions, for the most part. We’ve asked Adobe about getting back on their press list: no response. 

With all this said, we’re still sharing what we believe to be the truth on why Lightroom Classic is more popular than Lightroom CC.

Plugins

Lightroom Classic is more robust than Lightroom CC. One of the biggest reasons has to do with plugins. These give you lots of other functionalities. We’ve used things like JPEG Mini to make our images smaller. Then there are noise-reduction plugins and so much more. If you want to customize your experience, plugins are the way to go.

Creative Cloud Sync

Lightroom CC stores your images in the cloud while Lightroom Classic stores them on your computer. If you need to work faster, it’s better to keep images on your computer or an external drive. I always edit off of external drives while some folks use their computer’s internal drives. Why pay for extra data when you’re on the road or if you’re at home?

Functionality

Generally speaking, Lightroom Classic gives photographers the functionality they need for more professional applications. I’m sure most professional photographers don’t print these days. But if they need to, Lightroom Classic can provide a much better experience.

Years of Experience

Lastly, we’re tackling experience. Classic just used to be called Lightroom. And these days, it’s important for so many photographers because they’ve used it for years. When you’ve been doing something a certain way for so long, you don’t want to change it. For Lightroom Classic, there’s fear of losing your catalogs and so much more. Further, there are also just the innate instincts that become commonplace when you’re working in Lightroom Classic. 

If I were still using Adobe products most of the time, I’d surely be using Lightroom Classic over Lightroom CC. But as it is, we find there to be a much better editing experience in Capture One. Manufacturers work directly with Capture One when that’s not always the case with Adobe. 

And so there you have it.

adobe capture one editing lightroom Lightroom CC lightroom classic photo editing
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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