Adobe’s history with imaging dates far back, and I remember using the original Photoshop alpha version back in the late 1980’s with a Barneyscan (I believe it was Photoshop version 0.65 that was labeled as the Barneyscan application I was using). Photoshop had at its core the mission to compose and edit image data at the pixel level, something that has been expanded on ad finitum ever since.
Perhaps Creative Suite diverted Photoshop a bit, as we ended up with features that helped support things like drawing and text, but the core pixel-pushing abilities have pretty much continuously been tweaked, refined, added to, and given more performance through all 27 major variants of Photoshop. If you ignore the “graphic designer flotsam” that’s been added, Photoshop remains a pretty wicked advanced photo editing platform.
The subject of my headline, though, is not Photoshop, but Lightroom. A product I also have deep roots with, as I was involved in a lot of the early discussion and was a beta tester for a brief time before Adobe ratcheted their non-disclosure to the point where they could control what was written about the product.
While Photoshop’s origin was “what can I do with these pixels?”, Lightroom’s was actually a Jeff Schewe idea, which essentially was “what can I do with all these photos I’m generating?”. While pixels are a part of that at some level, the real problem that Lightroom set out to solve was one that both early digital professionals and hobbyists had: they were suddenly generating thousands of images, and had no way to manage them.
And thus the Library (catalog) was formed.
Curiously, Lightroom started veering from Photoshop from the get go: Adobe acquired Pixmantec’s RawShooter to use for the Develop module instead of Photoshop’s then current engine (we’ve gone through many iterations of that, and now both Photoshop and Lightroom use the generically named “Version 6 (current)” process for raw conversion).
However, up through Lightroom 6.x (2015), the program was still pretty recognizable as the original idea augmented and refined. You worked from your Library, occassionally dipping into something else. Your Library was local, and both pros and hobbyists alike basically used Lightroom as their photo command center (even those of us that still used Photoshop for raw conversion and editing).
In 2017, something that had been brewing for several years suddenly raised its head: Adobe no longer saw “photography pros and enthusiasts” as their ultimate market for Lightroom. The Creative Cloud was not only Adobe’s attempt at re-centralizing all visual data (i.e. “it lives on our servers”), but also that Adobe saw themselves competing in the world’s casual photographer competition, along with Apple (iCloud Photos) and Google (and I suppose Meta via Facebook and Instagram).
Much of the past ten years have thus been attempts by Adobe to bring Lightroom CC (the Lightroom for “everyone”) up to the same feature set as Lightroom Classic (the traditional pro and enthusiast product). Adobe continues to try to push everyone, including frazzled Classic users, to use the Creative Cloud instead of their own storage. (I should point out it's unclear how much Adobe was using user cloud-ed images in its AI efforts.)
What this has done is open up the competitive gates. CaptureOne, DxO, and OnOne now have “libraries” of some sort for the primary functions Lightroom has. Heck, Apple Photos is now getting close to equivalent with Lightroom Classic, given the lastest macOS Golden Gate changes.
In essence, Lightroom Classic has pretty much taken a back seat to Creative Cloud and Photoshop, which is where Adobe has concentrated their new efforts. Sure, Lightroom Classic typically gets the latest and greatest Photoshop add-on with a later release, but I’m not seeing Adobe driving that product for their long-term enthusiast/pro customer particularly well. When was the last time that image export was really improved?
In fact, what Adobe is doing with Lightroom Classic is pretty close to what Cory Doctorow calls Enshitification (intentional platform decay). Basically, Adobe is counting on the fact that you built a huge library of images using their product to keep you around while they milk you for short-term profits.
I’ll be clear: I long ago gave up on Lightroom (either version). It is now more complex to do simple things, has marginal overall performance on large image collections or processes, and feels more and more like a “lock in” as opposed to a thriving, evolving, and useful application. It simply doesn’t feel worth a constant tithe to me.
I’ll also note: while I’ve been consistent in my always pursuing de-centralization for 50 years now (I own my data and I keep it current and available to me with my own facilities), the computer world wobbles between centralization and de-centralization cycles. The whole Cloud/AI thing is an attempt by people with way more money than you looking to make even more money from you if you’ll just agree to their centralization of your data.
For the 100% casual, ocassionally-take-a-few-photos user, centralization using Apple iCloud or Google Drive makes sense, as it gives them access on all devices at (virtually) all times. But that really only makes sense on Apple or Google clouds, as pretty much all the others start increasing the effort for less benefit to the casual user.
For pros and serious photo enthusiasts I’d argue that the “centeralized cloud option” doesn’t tend to make a lot of sense. It increases complexities without bringing much in the way of benefit, and I’m pretty sure you’ll get bit in the butt at some point in time in the future. You’re better off managing your images yourself, and using the best tool at any given time to do that.
And that brings me back to the headline. Lightroom Classic stopped “turning” in the right direction some time ago. It has instead turned more into a bloatware and performance sinkhole, and even those two things lag the market now. It’s really the “catalog lock-in” that keeps many of you using Lightroom Classic.
Interestingly, if I type “migrate Lightroom catalog to another application” in DuckDuckGo search, I get a long list of how to move my Lightroom catalog to another computer that also uses Lightroom. That means that the search engines are locking you in, too. Interestingly, Claude took some time to answer the question, but finally came back with a correct answer: CaptureOne has built-in Lightroom catalog import (with restrictions).
At this point, I’m considering dropping Lightroom from my recommended macOS applications. Maybe not quite today, but it feels like “Real Soon Now.”
So what do you think? Is Adobe still on course and getting Lightroom turned all the right directions? Or do you find yourself off-course now, and wondering what to do next?