While Luminar, Lightroom, Capture One, and Photoshop are all photo editing applications, they each have different strengths and weaknesses. Photoshop and Luminar are powerful editing tools, but Lightroom and Capture One are generally more comprehensive in their capabilities, allowing you to maintain most of your editing workflow in a single program.

In this video, we compared these programs based on the following questions:

• Can you bulk import?
• How can you organize images within the program?
• Is there a rating system?
• What’s the UI of the cropping tool?
• How easy is it to make basic lighting adjustments?
• Can you easily undo, redo, or tweak your adjustments?
• Can you easily transfer edits across images?
• How in-depth is the color grading tool?
• What AI tools are available, and how well do they work?
• How accurate are auto-selection tools?
• Can you bulk export?

Capture One

Capture One is great for cataloging and editing your photos. You can easily bulk import, export, organize, and cull within the application. Capture One is almost like a cross between Lightroom and Photoshop in terms of the editing functions. It uses layers to make adjustments to your images like in Photoshop and is geared toward a more high-tech interface, but the overall layout and functionality of the program more closely resembles that of Lightroom. The lighting adjustment sliders and color grading tools are in-depth but simple enough to get the hang of.

Capture One is a great all-in-one photo editing system for your typical photographer. You may not be able to do crazy AI edits here, but for editing your standard everyday shoot, it will certainly get the job done. The program interface and user workflow may not be as intuitive as Lightroom’s, however, so it might not be as beginner-friendly.

Luminar Neo

The Luminar Neo interface appears fairly straightforward. You can bulk import images and organize them into different folders, but the rating options are not nearly as in-depth as other programs. Luminar specializes in AI editing, and the program is set up in a way that gears it toward beginner photographers.

Luminar is probably best known for its AI capabilities, such as sky replace. Some of the AI functions are pretty solid, such as the Sky AI, but it seems that the portrait-centric AI tools could use a lot of work. The basic lighting and color editing tools are rather, well, basic. It may suffice for amateur photographers only looking to make a few quick adjustments, but it definitely leaves something to be desired for more seasoned photographers.

One thing to note here is that any edits you make to your image in Luminar are saved in the ‘edits’ tab. The sliders in the ‘tools’ tab are reset when you change tools, so you can only access and tweak your current edits from the ‘edits’ tab. This is quite different from most other editing programs and may prove to be a hindrance to your workflow.

Luminar Neo can be a good option for those looking to do very quick, basic adjustments or those interested in capitalizing on the available AI tools. If you want to do more robust, manual edits to your images, this might not be the best program for you.

If Luminar seems like your cup of tea, you can purchase the program via our affiliate link here.

Lightroom

Lightroom is one of the most popular photo editing programs. The interface is fairly straightforward and intuitive. It’s designed to be a comprehensive photo editor and cataloging system. It’s very easy to bulk import images and organize, rate, label, and cull your photos. The different viewing options are relatively simple but highly effective.

Over in the ‘develop’ tab, there’s an abundance of preset options—whose effects you can preview by hovering over them—and all of the tools you need to make comprehensive adjustments to your images. The basic settings section is super easy to navigate. From there, you can get as simple or as complex as you want with the rest of your edits.

Lightroom has made some significant improvements in the past year or so in regard to the masking tool. Depending on the kind of subject and the nature of the scene, Lightroom’s AI suggests different mask selection options, all of which tend to be relatively spot-on. This is especially helpful for very specific edits, saving you so much time compared to having to draw your masks manually.

All in all, Lightroom is a really great, versatile, all-in-one editing program. It’s simple enough to be suitable for beginners but offers enough detail for in-depth professional edits. Another thing to note is that Lightroom has the ability to transfer images directly into Photoshop for more elaborate edits and back into Lightroom seamlessly.

Photoshop

Photoshop may be a very powerful editing program, but it only allows for single-image editing, making it unsuitable for bulk editing an entire shoot. It’s also a more technical and complicated program, so it’s not exactly beginner-friendly. There is definitely a learning curve in Photoshop, and it can be challenging to navigate if you’re not already familiar with the program.

For most photographers, it’s probably preferable to do basic lighting and color edits in another program, like Lightroom, and then bring the photo into Photoshop for more in-depth edits, such as skin retouching, object removal, etc. Photoshop’s manual tools can be used to create some powerful edits. Their new Generative Fill AI tool has the potential to be a powerful game changer in Photoshop’s toolbox, but as it currently stands, it could definitely use a lot of work.

Final Thoughts

All of these programs have their own unique set of strengths and weaknesses, and depending on your needs as a photographer, the tools offered by one program may better serve you than those of another.

Capture One and Lightroom are great comprehensive programs that are easy to navigate and have a lot to offer professional photographers in terms of efficient workflow. Lightroom also has the added benefit of bringing images directly from Lightroom into Photoshop and back seamlessly. 

Luminar is great for doing creative effects with the power of AI in your images.

Photoshop can be a great addition to unlock more creativity when used alongside these programs.

Thanks to Luminar for letting us try their program. If you’re interested in the program, click here to check it out.