@Lesnums) Posted on 19/06/18 at 14:00 Share:
By unveiling two versions of Lightroom last October, Adobe confused the minds of many users. So if we refer to your answers to our last survey Which software to process your photos ?, a majority of you have not updated or only use Lightroom Classic CC. We have therefore decided to offer you in this article to discover how to use these two applications in a reasoned way.
Lightroom CC is a completely identical application on a workstation, tablet or smartphone.
Depending on which Creative Cloud subscription you have, it's not certain that you have both versions of Lightroom software. Only the Creative Cloud photo plans (20 GB at € 11,99 / month) and Creative Cloud all apps (€ 59,99 / month) include both Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC. Adobe also offers specific subscriptions integrating only Lightroom CC. These are the Creative Cloud plans for the photo (1 TB at 23,99 € / month) and Creative Cloud for the Lightroom CC photo (11,99 € / month). The first confusion in the minds of users comes from the new names given to the Adobe cataloguer. Indeed, while Lightroom 6 installed via a Creative Cloud subscription was previously called Lightroom CC, it is the version closest to that renamed Classic CC. Lightroom CC, for its part, is a new application that takes the logic of the old Lightroom mobile with additional features and a new version of desktop compatible with Mac and PC.
From computer to mobile
If you are processing a very large amount of images and a few videos, doing complex retouching, or want to continue using print layout or slideshow creation tools, this is the Classic CC version to which you better turn around. It is the only one to offer complete search tools in a very large catalog or to offer the selections by range mask that we recently detailed to you. However, this does not prevent you from using the CC version on your mobile or tablet since it is available with your subscription. To do this, you must create Collections from Lightroom Classic CC and activate synchronization with Lightroom CC. You will then see a double arrow displayed to the left of your Collection.
By clicking on the “+” at the top left of the Collections panel, select Create Collection ... Once your Collections have been created, you will be able to distinguish those synchronized with Lightroom CC from others contained only in the Classic catalog by the presence (or not) a double arrow to the left of the column.
Check the Sync with Lightroom CC box to see the images in the Collection appear on your mobile.
In this case, your original files remain saved on your disk. Lightroom only saves dynamic previews - lightweight files based on the lossy Raw DNG format - on Adobe's servers, which will allow corrections from within Lightroom CC. You can then use it on your mobile to search your Image Collection, apply markers or make corrections. All these operations will be automatically synchronized with Lightroom Classic CC and will therefore appear automatically when you open your application on the desktop. If this is the solution you have chosen, it is obvious that the retouching operations will be carried out in priority on Lightroom Classic CC that you will have installed on a workstation equipped with a calibrated screen. However, using Lightroom CC can be very useful for presenting your images to someone on the go and making selections with the various sorting and tagging tools.
From Lightroom CC for mobile, you will then see your Synchronized Collections appear in which you can search or perform ratings and markings.
A 100% Lightroom CC workflow
This synchronization also works if you only use Lightroom CC in its mobile or desktop versions. There, the logic is however a little different since when you import images from this version of the software, the recording of the original files is carried out directly on the servers of Adobe with a space which depends on the type of subscription taken out.
When importing, Lightroom CC gives you virtually no options.
If you have chosen this working configuration, know that in the software preferences (workstation version), you can still choose to automatically keep a copy of all your originals on your hard drive.
To save a copy of the images to your scratch drive, go to Lightroom CC desktop preferences.
When using Lightroom CC on your computer or its mobile versions, you can make corrections from any device, and they automatically sync to others. In contrast, Lightroom CC, which offers the same options in its various forms, does not allow cutting or applying corrections and presets to videos. The classification of the images responds here to a logic of folders and albums in which you can always choose to move your images to make selections. Finally, note that if you have imported all your photos in the Cloud with Lightroom CC, you can download them all (but not folder by folder) thanks to the Lightroom Downloader utility available for download from the Adobe site.
Two versions for workstation
The same Collection displayed simultaneously in Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC desktop.
But the question that arises most often, and the most problematic, is that of the joint use of the two versions of the software for the workstation. Indeed, you could choose to install Lightroom Classic on one of your computers and Lightroom CC on another. Installing both software on the same computer is not really of interest, but is also possible. How then can you be sure of the location of your images and of the follow-up of your corrections? The operation is more complex and is not recommended by Adobe because of the risk of errors. The most important thing is to choose the same method for all your images: importing from Lightroom Classic or from Lightroom CC.
It is possible to automatically create Collections from the Lightroom Classic import module.
If you're importing your photos from Lightroom Classic, the logic is exactly the same as if you were using Lightroom CC on mobile, except the app is there on a computer. The software will allow you to work on dynamic previews created from Lightroom Classic and saved to the Adobe Cloud. Your corrections will be synchronized between the two devices each time you connect to the Internet. However, it is imperative that you remember to check the Add to collection box in the Lightroom Classic CC import module and then validate the synchronization with Lightroom CC. If you don't do this, your photos will be saved to disk and integrated into the Lightroom Classic CC library, but won't appear in Lightroom CC.
When you delete a Synchronized Collection from Lightroom Classic, the software displays an alert message regarding its visibility on Lightroom CC.
Conversely, if you import photos from Lightroom CC, you will not need to force synchronization. It is done automatically and the photos imported from your computer with CC will appear in Classic in the form of Collections whose name you have previously chosen. If you have chosen to copy the originals to a physical disk in addition to saving to the Cloud, you can also find these images in the form of a folder in the Lightroom library.
If you are looking to import with Lightroom Classic images already imported with Lightroom CC, they will be greyed out to avoid duplicates. However, the converse does not work and you can import with Lightroom CC images already saved in your Classic CC library.
The risk of using Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC desktop at the same time comes from possible duplicate issues that could be created on import. Based on our testing, Lightroom Classic was able to recognize files already imported by Lightroom CC and prevented us from creating duplicates. But the converse is unfortunately not exact, and although we have already imported photos into Lightroom Classic by creating a Collection synchronized with Lightroom CC, we were able to import these images again to the Cloud via the module d import from Lightroom CC. Therefore, it is difficult to know which file you are working on from each software… Remember to use only one method for importing images and to check regularly on what type of file, dynamic preview or original file, you are working.
In Lightroom CC, you can tell what type of file, original or dynamic preview, you are working on by viewing the information for each image.
In Lightroom Classic, this information is located below the histogram.
Finally, avoid any simultaneous use of both software, by sharing your computers with a colleague for example. You would then take the risk of working on the same image at the same time, which could generate synchronization conflicts.
