I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about Adobe owning our photos, and being locked in to their software for our editing needs. Or maybe you think one day you won’t need the software, for whatever reason, and you’re worried your photos will be locked in to a subscription that you need to keep paying in order to see them. Or maybe you just want to take a photo software break, but occasionally still look at your photos even if you’re not paying a subscription fee.
While most of you are using Adobe, I think that – overall – knowing a little more about what being tied to any photo editing software app means can help you understand and feel more at ease.
Let’s dive in and take a look at this from a couple of perspectives because both are a bit different. First we have your Raw Editor and then we have your image (pixel pushing) editor – and they do work a little different.
Before We Get Started: This is NOT a “You should use Adobe”, or a “Subscription is good or bad” or any post to get you to feel one way or another about any software. This is a post meant to help you understand how “locked in” or not you are to photo editing apps, and what being tied to any one software really means.
Your Raw Editor is Your Basket
I got a question from some one the other week asking about how I use Lightroom over Lightroom Classic. They mentioned how that sounded good to them because it doesn’t need a catalog and they’ve always felt that a catalog was proprietary. They were worried about having “all of their eggs” in the Adobe basket, if they used LrC because of that catalog.
While I’m personally happy to be rid of a catalog system, it has nothing to do with proprietary software, etc. When you use a raw editor you are using that company’s special sauce for decoding, reading, viewing and editing that raw photo. Every company has it’s own proprietary software for doing this, and they don’t talk to each other. In a sense, It really is the secret sauce.
Making a Shadows adjustment, as an example, isn’t an industry wide adjustment that is recognized by a governing body of image editors. There is a complex set of tonal values being read, masks being created on the fly (even if you don’t see them), and adjustments being made to the photo. Some companies invest an incredible amount of man-power to making this better, smoother, and more pleasing to the eye. Others do not.
So adjusting Shadows in an Adobe editor are all the same since it’s all Adobe code. However, adjusting shadows in another raw editor (like Capture One or ON1, or Skylum) will look and feel different from Adobe. I personally think Adobe does this best, followed closely by Capture One. And those are pretty much the only two raw editors I’d trust my photos with.
But any way you slice it, it is proprietary. So my shadows adjustment of +31 will look different in Adobe than it will any of those other editors. While ON1 and Capture One (what’s with the 1’s already!?) do have conversion tools, they are not worth it. Trust me, your images will not look the same and you’ll have to edit them from scratch, to get there again. I’ve yet to ever hear from one person that was happy with this process and it’s results.
In short, the moment you edit a raw photo in most of your popular raw editors, you’re placing your eggs in their basket. Whether or not you use a catalog system and can transfer your keywords, metadata and all that, your edits are not transferable in spite of what their marketing says. You will essentially lose your edits if you change raw editors. This isn’t Adobe’s fault, this isn’t ON1’s fault, this isn’t a camera company issue, etc… It’s just the way the world works, and each company is protecting their property and proprietary code (that they paid A LOT of money for) by doing this.
Photoshop and Image Editors
When I say image editors, I’m really talking about pixel pushing image programs like Photoshop, Affinity, Corel, Gimp and others. These are different from “instruction based” raw photo editors, which is why we’re always able to do more to photos in these pixel pushing programs, than a raw editor.
This part differs a bit from the first one because the files are typically readable in many programs the same way. For example, if you open a JPG, GIF, or PNG file in any almost any image editor, it will look pretty much the same. That’s because your edits are in essence “baked” in to those formats. They can’t be undone and these image formats are considered final.
Now, PSD and TIFF files can contain layers – even though they don’t have to. PSD files (stands for Photoshop Document) can surprisingly be opened in many image editors that are not even created by Adobe. That’s because years ago companies recognized that Adobe had become the standard. So if you open a 1 layer PSD file, or 1 layer TIFF file in most of those editors, it’ll look the same.
However, most of these programs also support layers, and masks and adjustment layers, and whatever… in different ways. So if I open a PSD file with 5 layers, some of them containing adjustment layers and smart filter layers, they will probably not look the same or act the same and I won’t be able to edit certain layers from one program in another one. That’s because ON1, Affinity, etc… can’t edit a Photoshop Adjustment layer and vice versa.
So if you have a lot of Photoshop files with a lot of proprietary adjustment layers, smart object layers, Generative fill layers, and smart filter layers, then your eggs are in the Photoshop basket and it would be hard for you to switch without doing a significant amount of rework to your images.
If you’re like me, and mostly use Photoshop to remove distractions and maybe the occasional sky or background replacement, and flatten just about every Photoshop adjustment along the way, then that’s not as big of an issue to open in another program. Regular layers with only transparency and masks are (mostly) easily read between various image editors.
Side Note: Program compatibility IS NOT the reason why I don’t use a lot of layers and I flatten layers often… I just favor simplicity, and don’t often have to go back and use those layers to re-edit an image, personally. Some of you differ, which is totally fine.
In short, some of your Photoshop edits will show up fine in other programs and some won’t. The file format doesn’t really even matter much, since most other image editors will read PSD files just as well as they’ll read a layered TIFF file. It just may not be able to show you all of those layers or edit them like you’re used to in Photoshop.
What Can You Do About All Of This?
The last questions to ask yourself is does any of this matter and what can we do about it? I understand some people are hesitant to put all of your eggs in one basket. But as I pointed out, with raw photos, the moment you choose a program and edit those files in a raw editor, your eggs are there and there’s nothing you can do about it.
If you stay with that program, then no sweat. If you decide to move raw editors, then you could re-edit those raw files if you need, or just leave them alone. Even if you don’t subscribe anymore, you can open Lightroom to see / export your photos in to different non-proprietary formats like JPG, TIFF, PNG – you just can’t edit them anymore.
With Photoshop your eggs are definitely not on one basket. As I pointed out, there are certain things that PSD or TIFF files opened in other programs can do and show, and there are things they can’t.
A Simple Solution
All of us reading this have to face the fact that 1) We may not have an interest in using editing software one day, or 2) We may not be around to do it. So what then? Do we (or our loved ones) need to keep subscribing to these programs to view our photos?
Absolutely not. Sometimes the best solution is the simplest one.
For me, whenever I’m done editing a photo that I like a little – Notice I said “a little”. I may not love it but I like it enough to have spent some time on it. After editing, I simply save it as a full resolution un-resized JPG in to a folder called “Matt’s Favorites”. Even if that folder has thousands of images in it, it’s relatively small in size and easily backed up. When I want to get to a favorite photo, that’s where I go and that’s where anyone that would access my computer (if I weren’t around) could go. And a JPG can be opened anywhere, and you can print it, put it in a book, or do whatever you want with it just as good as you could a PSD, TIFF or whatever else.
Last Thoughts
One last thing to consider. If you do ever decide to switch photo editing software, this all applies in reverse. Every software company will do their best to keep you with their software, so their edits won’t show up the same elsewhere.
Some of this discussion has popped up as a result of Adobe’s Terms of Service (FAQ Link Here). If you do your research, all of the good photo editors out there have the same terms of service that Adobe does. I just looked up Capture One’s TOS and they have a cloud option too. And their TOS for cloud files reads almost identical to what Adobe’s did – yet somehow they escaped the internet rage that Adobe recently experienced. At least Adobe went back to make theirs more plain-English-like. C1 hasn’t yet, so it reads like a bunch of legal gibberish.
And they ALL (yes I said ALL), want you on a subscription. If they have a perpetual version just know they don’t want to offer it to you, and will do everything in their power to make sure you pay every year to continue to use their software. This isn’t opinion… it’s fact. They’ll use it to their advantage in marketing to you, but rest assured if it’s good software, they will get you to pay some how.
Hopefully this cleared up a few things if you were ever worried about the impact of using an photo editing app for the long term and what would happen to your photos if you no longer used that app. Thanks for stopping by!
Enjoy!
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
I save my pics in “my Pics” in different named files & on an ext H/Dr incl the Raw/original images. I get tired of these American companies ruling one be they Adobe, Google or MS. Time they had competition.
Hi Kevin. Not sure what American companies ruling anything has to do with this… if that’s what you got from this then you definitely got the wrong message. They all already do have competition and are on top because they do what they do better than some one else does.
Very well done and thought out. The Matt’s Favorites jpg file makes great sense now. Too bad you can’t write on the back of a jpg who or what’s in the photo like my Mom did way back when with her prints and scarp books. Thanks
I have a lot of shared LR/LRC albums. What happens if I stop paying? Are they immediately removed?
Hi. I googled “How long does adobe cloud keep my photos” for you. Should be some good links to check out: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+long+does+adobe+cloud+leave+my+photos&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS898US903&oq=how+long+does+adobe+cloud+leave+my+photos&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRifBTIHCAYQIRifBTIHCAcQIRifBdIBCDEzMDFqMGo3qAIKsAIB&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Thanks for the in-depth explanation. Though I don’t have any plans to move from Adobe I like your explanation of what to do to be sure your photos can be viewed when you’re not around. Very simple and clean. I will take on that task as I go forward!! Thanks again.
Thanks for the info! As a senior citizen with a great- granddaughter that wants all my pictures, Im happy to know that she will not have to subscribe to Adobe just to view the pictures.
Thanks, an interesting discussion. I like many, have thousands of photos which should be culled. Many are edited, but still wouldn’t necessarily be rated of interest by family. I doubt that anyone will have family members going through their computer to find the best photos; absolutely making it easier to find the best ones using your ‘favourites’ folder is a good idea.
I have the equivalent of a ‘favourites’ folder by creating a collections of the best photos and exporting those to make photobooks. I have done this to create the equivalent of the old family photo album. Creating these collections forces me to hone in on the best shots.
I would envisage if I were changing programs I would simply expect to only view fully edited exports and no longer attempt to edit them.
Thanks for the common sense translation.
A superb post Matt which sort of confirms what I have been doing since 2007 when I went fully digital.
All my image files from my cam memory cards are imported using Photo Mechanic, then stored in folders I label as I wish (usually by country or topic) without using Lightroom, thereby escaping any problems of “orhaned” files because I moved a file or renamed it in LR.
I actually prefer using Photoshop CC over LR, so I tend to do all my adjustments there, then like you, same my masters as high res JPGs. As you stated, you can then source those edited JPGs and reuse or edit them again in other software, though usually it’s to create prints or upload to social media.
Question: Have you done a tutorial on best pixel dimensions, resolution and file size for social media?
I thought I was a achieving great results, but many such as FB and IG seem to be changing their compression algorithms resulting in soft images.
I know it’s a bit off topic, but it is related to editing! If you have a tutorial on this topic, please point me to it!
Cheers and thanks!
Frederic in Montréal
Hi Frederic. Thanks and glad you liked it. It’s not something I would ever do a tutorial on because the moment you release it, it’s out of date. Always best to go to the source. Most social media companies, post their image sizing requires on their sites if you poke around. Thanks!
Thank you for this post. I try to convert all my photos to Dng with LRC. Even after being edited, I can read them in the 2 raw editors I already have DXO and Skylum. I am not disappointed by the results in DXO or Skylum.
I just stated to try lossy DNG but I do not have enough experience to tell whether it is or not a good idea.
Do you have an opinion on DNG as a universal way to store image and also on lossy DNGs.
Thanks
Hi Eric. DNG doesn’t change the fact that raw editor changes are proprietary. So what your photo looks like in LR it will not look like that elsewhere. Plus, in my opinion, DNG is solving a problem that’s not there so it’s just not something I use personally. But it doesn’t make anything universal, and every problem I described here is exactly the same with a DNG file. Hope that helps. Thanks!
Hi Matt,
Thank you for your well written perspective. My question is more along the lines of using the different RAW editing programs within Adobe – Lightroom Classic, Lightroom and Bridge with Adobe Camera Raw. Historically, I have used LrC, but just started using Bridge and ACR. After watching your latest Lr video and your Lr course, I’m now rethinking whether I should instead use Lr as my photo browser and RAW processor. The main features I like in LrC that don’t appear in Lr are, the History panel, the five color label options and some of the EXIF and IPTC data, but don’t see these as a deal breaker. One issue I have with Lr is that it doesn’t recognize the stacks I set up in Bridge. I use stacks to combine HDR, panorama, and RAW/PSD/JPG versions of the same image. I would appreciate your thoughts on the Stacking issue between Bridge and Lr. Thank you!
Hi Joe. It’s not really an issue in the sense that LR works exactly the way it’s supposed to. It’s just more of a missing feature. It just doesn’t support the stacks you’ve created elsewhere, and I don’t know that feature (or the back-and-forth compatibility you’re referring to) will ever get there.
Hi Matt,
Thank you so much for your response!
Matt,
Thanks for your comments and how you go about saving your final edits has jpgs in specific folders. I don’t know if I will every leave LCR/PS, but I probably should start a folder where I save all my best edits as jpgs. If for nothing else, a place where I can easily find them without opening LR.
Excellent comments. I have been thinking of exporting my Favorite photos to an external hard drive and send them to my grandchildren . I like your suggestion. Can I also include some or all of my Lightroom Classic metadata ?
Hi Fred. Whatever metadata is present on your photos will be viewable on an exported file. Thanks.
For a different approach: I use the “Publish” function to copy my final (so far) version of photos rated 3 star or more. Having MS365 with 1Tb of storage I publish to OneDrive which also then gives me auto backup of my finished pics. This also provides for if I do any additional editing my OneDrive Gallery will be updated too. (I just have to remember to run the publish function every so often).
“After editing, I simply save it as a full resolution un-resized JPG in to a folder called “Matt’s Favorites”.
Exactly! I have a folder called “Final Edits” and within that folder have sub-folders for all the genres of photography I shoot (nature, wildlife, portrait, cars, moon, sun, etc.). These folders have only hundreds of photos, so far :-), to browse.
Nice tip on the exporting of your favorites to full-size jpg’s into an easily accessible (and backed-up) folder.
I’ll be incorporating this over the weekend – thanks!
This is very clear, easy to understand
I will continue to subscribe but nice to know what my options are based on program use.
thanks!
A good summation, I came to a similar decision several years ago. There is no real difference between the company policies and it comes down to which one feels comfortable to use and in the long run, those you leave behind will not have any interest in how you made to sausage they only want the finished product.
I loved your “Simple Solution” about using full resolution un-resized jpegs. Just one question: Do I have to call my folder
“Matt’s Favorites”?
JPG’s make an interesting work around.
Thanks for the thought-provoking article.
Thank you for your thoughtful thoughts! I have been thinking about this dilemma for some months now. Not for my sake but for posterity. Now that I am “old”, it suddenly occurred to me that I have a lot of photos in LR that have not been exported or saved in a format that my family could view even if they wanted. There isn’t anyone in my family that would have any interest in working with LR.
I have also appreciated your comments in the past regarding the perceived “value” of my photography. It meant something to me at some point but I could probably delete 90% of it and no one would miss it. So at age 79, I have come to realise that there really isn’t a dilemma at all. I will continue to enjoy photography and LR – until I can’t. In the meantime I will also begin to make sure only the “favorites” are saved just in case anyone else might have an interest.
Thank you Matt! As always, reasoned arguments and practical advice that are welcome. A new free editor has popped up and I wondered what you might have to say about it: https://fixthephoto.com/darktable-review.html
Hi Keith. Dark table isn’t new at all. It’s been around for almost 15 years and of course you’ll get what you pay for. I don’t look at it because I’m happy with the software I have, at a great price, so why look elsewhere? If it’s not broke, I’m probably not going to try to fix it 🙂
Thank you Matt, your point is very clear. I have no intent to switch from PS and LR. I tried Capture One (the free version which includes very little stuff) and was disappointed, even if it works better on Fuji RAF files.
And I am saving all my interesting pictures in jpeg format for a very long time. Great idea. And they are on several hard drives. Thank you so much for all your advices, very useful!
I use a lightroom plugin by Jeffrey Friedl it saves all my photos to a jpeg format on a different drive, it not only becomes my backup but it will allow my family to see and use my photos when I am no longer around.
I do things a bit different. When I am ready to get my images off my card and work on them I send the DCIM file into a stand alone 4TB hard drive. I then give each file a unique name to allow me to identify them. Once that is done I use the import photos and videos function in LR Classic to bring them into Lightroom. I do not save to cloud, just my stand alone hard drive.
In order to save space on my computer I download into LRC and onto a hard drive. To access my images for editing I have to plug in the hard drive so all my edited images are on there as well. It seems to me that this would solve the problem???
Excellent and very helpful review. In the early days of PS instructors hyped saving layers. You can go back years later and change them. All true, but the fact is most people don’t do that. Flattening an image or making a TIFF copy is more than sufficient, then save to an external hard drive. This method has been great and I am not held hostage to any specific software. Thanks Matt
Hi Gerry – Regarding layers I think it’s important to look at it as the advice for a beginner is different than the advice for the more experienced (in nearly every hobby, activity, etc…). I think learning to use them in the beginning is important. As you progress, you start to realize what’s important for you and adapt your activity to cater to those things. It’s different for everyone. Some people may still find it important to save layers and others may not. But as you become better at just about anything, what works for you may be very different than what worked for you when you started out. Thanks!
absolutely correct.
Thank you for taking time to put this out there! I love Adobe so I’ll never switch but it’s great information for those that are on the fence.
Thanks! I also think it’s useful to know what happens if you decide you’re just not interested in editing anymore too, but still want to see your photos.