Is there anything that can still only be done on LR desktop?

[newmoon]

Lightroom Version Number

Latest

Operating System

1. iOS

I currently use LR Classic and want to change to LR (non Classic).
I then plan to get an iPad Pro (and pencil) and edit 90% + on that with remaining 10% using LR on a desktop PC.
I will cancel my LR Classic subscription.
I will be using the new masking tools extensively (mainly subject masking).
I print but will use the Epson printing app.
Is there anything on the Developing module that can only be done in LR Classic or on LR (non Classic) on a PC please?
My photographs are all raw files.
An alternative to an iPad Pro is a MacBook Air (same price in UK) if that’s a more sensible option.
Thanks for your advice.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Off the top of my head, the only Develop tool that Classic has which neither Lightroom Desktop or Lightroom Mobile has is the Calibration tool. All the other tools are available in the cloud apps (apart from LrWeb), although perhaps not always as comprehensive as Classic.

 

[newmoon]

Hi Jim,
Thanks for your reply to this question too. I don't use the Calibration Tool in editing, though some of my older edits are set to previous versions of Classic Calibration. Hopefully on transfer to LR from Clssic the calibration is automatically updated.
I am 95% decided to change to LR and will do this on the desktop initially, then decide on either the iPad or Mac Air, but my prefereance is the iPad option.
David

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Ignoring Classic for the minute, between Desktop and Mobile, there are a few things that are still Desktop only, although they're not specifically edit related. It's things like you can copy and paste edit settings to multiple photos on mobile, but you can't apply a preset to multiple photos or keyword multiple photos at once. There's also some metadata you can add on desktop but not mobile, like changing the capture time or adding GPS co-ordinates. As you'll look through the Edit Like a Pro book, you'll see where I've called out some things as desktop only. I think I've got them all there.

Off the top of my head, as far as editing tools goes, the brush tool's Auto Mask checkbox isn't on mobile, but a color range/brush combination works better now anyway. Visualize Spots is desktop only but the rest of spot healing works on both. Oh, and importing profiles and presets is still desktop only at the moment, but you could still do that on your PC and they'd sync to mobile. I think that's the lot.

 

[newmoon]

Ignoring Classic for the minute, between Desktop and Mobile, there are a few things that are still Desktop only, although they're not specifically edit related. It's things like you can copy and paste edit settings to multiple photos on mobile, but you can't apply a preset to multiple photos or keyword multiple photos at once. There's also some metadata you can add on desktop but not mobile, like changing the capture time or adding GPS co-ordinates. As you'll look through the Edit Like a Pro book, you'll see where I've called out some things as desktop only. I think I've got them all there.

Off the top of my head, as far as editing tools goes, the brush tool's Auto Mask checkbox isn't on mobile, but a color range/brush combination works better now anyway. Visualize Spots is desktop only but the rest of spot healing works on both. Oh, and importing profiles and presets is still desktop only at the moment, but you could still do that on your PC and they'd sync to mobile. I think that's the lot.

Thank you Victoria. An interesting point you make about using color range/brush instead of Auto Mask, I will try that as I don’t find Auto Mask particularly accurate in many situations in Classic either.
On the specific subject of my question I don’t see anything that is likely to cause me an issue with editing on an iPad instead of a PC, where I’ve edited using Classic to date.
Finding out that there’s an Epson printing app clears up the issue of there not being a printing function in LR.

 

[bradbort]

Ignoring Classic for the minute, between Desktop and Mobile, there are a few things that are still Desktop only, although they're not specifically edit related. It's things like you can copy and paste edit settings to multiple photos on mobile, but you can't apply a preset to multiple photos or keyword multiple photos at once. There's also some metadata you can add on desktop but not mobile, like changing the capture time or adding GPS co-ordinates. As you'll look through the Edit Like a Pro book, you'll see where I've called out some things as desktop only. I think I've got them all there.

Off the top of my head, as far as editing tools goes, the brush tool's Auto Mask checkbox isn't on mobile, but a color range/brush combination works better now anyway. Visualize Spots is desktop only but the rest of spot healing works on both. Oh, and importing profiles and presets is still desktop only at the moment, but you could still do that on your PC and they'd sync to mobile. I think that's the lot.

Is printing available yet? If not, will the original poster’s idea of using Epson’s print utility work? The lack of printing functionality was what stopped me from even considering transitioning, but I have not looked at it in a while.

 

[clee01l]

Is printing available yet? If not, will the original poster’s idea of using Epson’s print utility work? The lack of printing functionality was what stopped me from even considering transitioning, but I have not looked at it in a while.

I think the Adobe goal is to keep the Lightroom app functionally platform independent and the same across all platforms as much as the functionality of the OS will allow. Some things can be implemented on an Android before they get implemented on iOS and iPadOS and vice versa. To the extent that the desktop version can mimic the mobile features you will see common functionality across Android, iOS, iPadOS. MacOS and Windows. For this reason, I doubt that Adobe will ever incorporate an LrC print module into Lightroom of the desktop.
Essentially the print module in LrC operates on an exported file held in working storage. Since mobile OS do not manage storage the same way, there are no temporary files created in Lightroom mobile and the only way to print on a mobile device is to have a dedicated print app. In the Desktop world, the Epson Print Utility app would serve the same function as the LrC Print Module.

 

[Linwood Ferguson]

I have not kept up lately but I do not think cloudy vs classic allows plugins by 3rd parties, at least not in the same fashion (I think you have to negotiate with Adobe individually?)

Also, cloudy still requires (I think?) that 100% of your files be in the (paid) cloud, there's no way to maintain offline archives to reduce cloud cost (with edits and all the other catalog info), right?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

iPadOS can do some basic printing from the Share menu, but there's not a lot of control.

I have not kept up lately but I do not think cloudy vs classic allows plugins by 3rd parties, at least not in the same fashion (I think you have to negotiate with Adobe individually?)

Also, cloudy still requires (I think?) that 100% of your files be in the (paid) cloud, there's no way to maintain offline archives to reduce cloud cost (with edits and all the other catalog info), right?

Correct on both counts.

 

[frank.barino]

Lr Classic offers Auto Advance to speed up culling which I find very usefull and also Reference View which helps to keep your edits constant. Both is not available in Lr (Cloud based) if I am not mistaken. Seems like minor features but makes up for a significant difference to me.

 

[johnbeardy]

The list is really long and the answer to "Is there anything that can still only be done on LR desktop?" largely depends on how little you do in Classic Lightroom and what corners you're happy to cut.

Don't ignore backup. One big difference is that with Cloudy you can't routinely backup your work on your images - like printing, that's another thing you'll need to figure out for yourself.

 

[clee01l]

Don't ignore backup. One big difference is that with Cloudy you can't routinely backup your work on your images - like printing, that's another thing you'll need to figure out for yourself.

This is probably the Biggest shortcoming in "cloudy". If you delete an image file, you only have 60 days to recover it after it goes into the "Deleted" bin. Once gone, it is lost forever.
You can't automatically walk an image back in develop history like you can in Classic. Desktop Cloudy will let you store a copy of the original locally, but is is unadjusted. Classic holds all of the metadata adjustments in a separate catalog file. Snapshots of the state of Lightroom Classic can be (Should be) made regularly with backup copies. This functionality does not exist in "cloudy".

John says, "Don't ignore backup." Unfortunately too many Classic users also ignore that admonition.