Steve Weinrebe's Mode Studio

At book signings I’m frequently asked what the difference is between Photoshop CS3, which my book teaches, and Lightroom, especially since Lightroom has the Photoshop prefix in it’s name. In Photoshop CS3, Bridge and Camera Raw handle most of what Lightroom does. One of the major differences is that in Photoshop you have the ability to work on portions of an image (through masking, layer masks and so forth), and to create layers, including adjustment layers, and Smart Objects (an amazingly advanced feature in Photoshop CS3), as well as combining multiple images in composite, panoramic, High Dynamic Range imagery, vector based type and shapes, and more; while in Lightroom everything you do affects the single entire image (for example, every instance of a hue or a tone in the entire image), and what you do in Lightroom affects only that image.

In many ways Lightroom is the half (or third, or quarter, but I won’t mince fractions) of Photoshop CS3, and depending on your photographic workflow it is, or isn’t, the needed half. Photoshop CS3′s additional features go way beyond those mentioned here, but if there is a key point to consider, that would be it. This is all a grand simplification, but if you work in either program you understand what I’m getting at, and if you want a wordier answer feel free to email me. Hope that helps!
Posted by Steve Weinrebe