The release of Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC—and the untimely death of Lightroom as a stand-alone product that is available sans subscription—has inspired some very strong reactions within the photo community.
But even those of us who aren't itching to yell profanities at the folks at Adobe are left with some questions about the future of this software.
Enter Dan Watson of Learning Cameras, who recently sat down with Adobe director of product management Tom Hogarty and Lightroom product manager Sharad Mangalick for a deep dive on this major release, how it would impact current Lightroom users who don't want to switch to a cloud-based workflow, and, most importantly, what the future looks like for Lightroom Classic CC.
In other words: is Lightroom Classic an afterthought that is going to be phased out in a couple of years?
You can check out the full interview at the top of this post—they cover everything from the reason for the name change, to moving images between the two versions, to potential future features, video integration, custom preset, and a lot more—but since everyone has been wondering, here's the answer to the question above.
No, Lightroom Classic CC isn't going anywhere.
In fact, Adobe has two separate teams working to build out Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC, so this isn't some side-project that will quickly be relegated to the back burner.
Some photographers want to work on a hard disk-based desktop workflow, and Adobe has no interest in deserting those users, at least according to Hogarty. Speaking of Lightroom CC, he said:
We don't want [the name change] to be perceived as a lack of investment, or a lack of effort with that product. It is very good at what it was designed to do, which is manage files and folders on disk. All of those desktop-local workflows that photographers told us about during our first Lightroom Public Beta back in 2006, we are absolutely going to continue investing in. It's a different team.
To hear more about Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC from the product managers who actually decide where these products go in the future, click play up top. And if you want to hear our thoughts on the product-line split, read two opposing opinions by senior editors here at DPReview below:
RIP Lightroom 6: Death by subscription model
Hello Lightroom CC: Embracing the future
. dpreview.com2017-10-23 19:07
