That’s why so many blog posts, or photographers, will still just say “Lightroom” when really they mean “Lightroom Classic”. Then Adobe created the pared-down webstorage version, and decided to (confusingly in my book) name THAT Lightroom, and rename the original Lightroom to Lightroom Classic. That’s because Lightroom Classic was the “original” version of Lightroom, and it didn’t have “Classic” after it’s name - it was just Lightroom.

One important point to note here: when photographers talk about Lightroom, they often mean Lightroom Classic, rather than the pared down “Lightroom”. Lightroom also doesn’t have the same full range of tools that Lightroom Classic has, so it is a more “streamlined” version, and that means it’s not quite the full end to end solution that Lightroom Classic is. That means that in addition to the application, you’ll need to pay each month for storage space on Adobe’s servers for your images. Lightroom is a pared-down version of Lightroom Classic where all your images are stored in the cloud, rather than locally. The important thing to note - specifically with regard to the different plans available - is that with Lightroom Classic, all your images are stored locally, on your hard drive.

Essentially, it’s the “hub” of your post production workflow as it provides a full end to end photo management solution. Lightroom Classic is an application that allows you to manage, organise, edit, and share your images from one single application. Here’s a quick breakdown of which each of those are:

Creative cloud photography plan