Adobe Lightroom Classic Alternatives

There are plenty of Adobe Lightroom Alternatives available on the market. Let’s talk about them.

Skylum Luminar has been popular as a RAW photo editor for years, but in 2018, it added digital asset management capabilities. Since then, other image enhancement filters powered by artificial intelligence (AI) have been added, which have taken the app to a new level. For example, Accent AI will automatically analyze a photo to calculate the best edits to make.

These sorts of tools are great for newcomers to image editing programs. There is also a large focus on presets and one-click edits, which will help you familiarize yourself with the software. However, those with more experience aren’t left out, as advanced editing tools are available for those who like finer-grained control.

The pricing for Skylum Luminar is modest, and you only pay for a one-time license. However, there’s no free trial, but there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Skylum Luminar is a standalone app and a plugin for other apps like Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photos for macOS.

Another tool on the list of Adobe Lightroom Alternatives is RawTherapee. It is a free, open-source RAW image-processing app for Windows, macOS, and Linux. In terms of interface and toolset, it’s a hybrid between Photoshop and Lightroom, though it doesn’t have the same image management and organization capabilities. But because it’s more of a lightweight version of the other apps, it doesn’t have the same steep learning curve.

RawTherapee shares with Lightroom that it is non-destructive when working with RAW files and will always keep them intact. It also has many editing tools in Lightroom, like adjusting exposure, sharpening and curves, and color correction.

People who like to use both Lightroom and Photoshop to manage and edit their photos should consider On1 Photo RAW, which has many of the digital asset management features of Lightroom and the image-editing capabilities of Photoshop.

ON1 originally started developing image-editing plugins, many of which are now integrated with Photo RAW. It also features layers and focuses on stacking, like Photoshop.

There’s no need to import images when using Photo RAW, as the program automatically recognizes images on your computer’s hard drive.

ON1 Photo RAW has a decent one-time cost and comes with a 30-day free trial and a 90-day money-back guarantee.

Capture One Pro is a photo editing program aimed at professional and studio photographers, offering a range of advanced tools.

The photo editing software is similar to Lightroom in its feature set but includes some of the functionality found in Photoshop, like using layers. When organizing images, users can group them by sessions, not just catalogs, and you can even add annotations directly onto photos.

Because Phase One’s history has been with high-end cameras, the software has benefitted from having a similar emphasis on high-end rendering quality. The platform used to be quite expensive because of that focus, but the price has come down to be similar to that of Lightroom.

You can either pay for a subscription or purchase the software outright. Subscribers get free updates, and outright purchasers can get updates at special prices. You can also get licenses that support just one brand of camera—Sony, Fujifilm, or Nikon—for a reduced fee.

DxO PhotoLab is from DxO, a French company that produces photo-editing software and runs a benchmark service to assess lenses and mobile and digital cameras.

The software available for Mac and PC will convert RAW images and automatically correct optical flaws, extend dynamic range, and remove digital noise. These features are in the Nik Collection suite of tools, which used to be a Google product.

PhotoLab has always had image-editing capabilities, but it also recently had photo libraries added for managing images, which aligns with what Lightroom offers. Like other apps, DxO PhotoLab will organize images found on your hard drive rather than requiring you to import them into the program. The software can be purchased for a one-time fee, and there is a 30-day free trial.