For serious applications too cumbersome, inadequate and unnecessarily chaotic color management no real RAW Workflow

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom program is primarily intended for performing the first image processing steps (corrections of exposure, white balance, tonal values ​​etc.) of photos that were taken with a digital camera. These few basic features are not comparable with the multiple editing capabilities of Adobe Photoshop. So Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has actually nothing to do with Adobe Photoshop and carries the familiar names Photoshop probably primarily for marketing reasons.

Lightroom is divided into modules, of which only the development module is required for the actual imaging. The remaining modules (Library, Slideshow, Print and Web) are not required for this purpose and provide only unnecessary ballast is that inflates the program and is lethargic. Lightroom is thus a typical representative of the so-called bloatware.

By inflated program structure usually some simple operations are designed unnecessarily cumbersome. So for example it is not simply possible to open an image file, edit, and save again. Instead, the image must first (usually along with all other images in the affected directory) are cumbersome imported into the so-called library, with additional previews and cataloging metadata is generated, of which accumulates a large amount on the hard disk over time. Only after the image of the library can be transferred to the Development module where the actual image processing can take place. The edited image you finally can not just save as usual with Save As, but it must in turn export cumbersome.

The idiosyncratic user interface Lightroom looks attractive. Her dark, neutral colors are particularly advantageous for the undisturbed assessing the hues of the edited images. Work with the panels, options and controls required by the user first need time to adjust, but then follows a recognizable logic. Some functions (eg. As while zooming or cropping) but often lead to unexpected behavior of the program and thus to unnecessary additional work and frustration for the user.

Very messy is handling Lightroom with color spaces and the corresponding color profiles. The Develop module used as the working color space for images of raw files to large but unrealistic ProPhoto RGB color space regardless of the color space was set for the intended output in the digital camera. In contrast, the histogram shown above right is based on the tone curves of the sRGB color space. The corresponding RGB values ​​are displayed as a percentage and can be shown not in the ordinary 8-bit system (0255). The Library module stores previews in the Adobe RGB color space, although for a preview on most screens the sRGB color space would be much better suited. For rendered files (such as TIFF, JPEG, and PSD files), Lightroom uses the embedded color profile of the image. If the image file contains no color profile, Lightroom assumes the sRGB profile. Images in the Slideshow and Web modules are automatically exported from Lightroom using the sRGB profile. A separate working space for the development module can not determine the user. Only when you export the images so after completion of image editing you can select the color profile for images. The assessment of the images during image processing could take place under the wrong conditions thus possibly. Against this background, the reference in the user acts you do not necessarily understand how the internal color management works in Lightroom () almost sarcastically.

The most serious drawback of Lightroom, which is not necessarily easy to recognize for the user is the fact that Lightroom dominates no real RAW workflow, but can such a makeshift imitate because it is the manifold peculiarities of cameras and model-specific raw file formats can not be considered accurate. Therefore, the results of Lightroom soft always more or less from those of the original RAW workflow from camera manufacturers. One of the few parameters on which the differences for the user are immediately recognizable, is the color temperature for white balance. Lightroom displays for the same image with the same white balance very often a completely different color temperature as the camera and the original software from the camera manufacturer. Such variations are not very reassuring for the user, especially since most of the other parameters are not visible or are hidden behind sliders with arbitrary scales. A major reason for the deviations is that Lightroom can not use the model-specific original camera profiles of the camera manufacturer, but must rely on empirical DNG profiles. These profiles can be partially edit and correct Passport using the X-Rite ColorChecker Classic or X-Rite ColorChecker While using the free Adobe DNG Profile Editor; but the results usually reach no where near the quality of the original camera profiles the camera manufacturer. (As an alternative to Adobe DNG Profile Editor X-Rite also offers its own program that can be called even directly from Lightroom, but the results generally show wrong colors as well as extremely wrong color saturations and therefore hopelessly useless.)

Compared to the Develop module, Lightroom usually delivered along with good digital cameras the camera manufacturer's software (eg. As Digital Photo Professional from Canon) is less cumbersome and provides mostly better results. (Included with some cameras also include a license for Lightroom, which is often not used.) A single purchase of Lightroom appear altogether unnecessary.