Adobe Lightroom Review for 2026

Aside from having one of the best photo editing solutions on the market, Adobe has a bunch of other design solutions in its portfolio. The best value for money can be achieved by getting a Creative Cloud All Apps plan. However, if you’re only looking for photo editing apps, the Photography plans, including Photoshop and Lightroom apps, are a better solution.

Adobe Lightroom offers various plans to suit different needs. The Lightroom Individual (1TB) plan costs $11.99/month, featuring desktop, mobile, and web access, 1TB of cloud storage, 100 generative credits per month, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, Adobe Spark, and tutorials. It includes a 7-day free trial and a 14-day money-back guarantee.

The Lightroom Classic (1TB) plan is also $11.99/month, designed for desktop use with 1TB of cloud storage, the same trial, and guarantee.

The Photography Plan (1TB), priced at $19.99/month, includes all features of the 20GB plan but with 1TB of cloud storage.

Finally, the Creative Cloud All Apps plan costs $59.99/month, providing access to over 20 apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, 100GB of cloud storage, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Portfolio, with the same trial and guarantee.

Out of all the photo editing app providers on the market, Adobe is likely one of the best when it comes to customer support.

Although other photo editing software providers may offer more options when it comes to customer support, Adobe is focused on providing fast responses through the easiest customer support ways.

The live chat support feature is a great way to get support when billing, signing in, purchasing a specific plan, or setting up the apps on your device. Video tutorials, FAQ pages, and the blog section are more than enough to get support when using the apps. The community is also a great way to find an abundance of tips and tricks about using specific Adobe apps.

This part of the review is probably the most complex. On the one hand, various AI features seem extremely complex but are incredibly simple to use, and on the other hand, each of the apps in the Photography plan is jam-packed with features and tools that require at least some level of experience.

Creating a profile on the Adobe website and setting up the software on preferred devices is fairly simple and fast. Using the software might take some time, especially for inexperienced users.

Basic photo editing tools are pretty straightforward and don’t require much experience, but advanced features might become a bit overwhelming. Thankfully, the in-app guides can help users get up to speed with advanced features and get the most out of the software.

Adobe is known to require modern hardware components to function at its finest. When users have adequate hardware components, the apps will work seamlessly.

Advanced photo editing tools require more expensive components, and performance directly depends on the hardware.

Even mobile apps, although dependent on the users’ internet speed, provide staggering performance capabilities.

Adobe is known for providing some of the most advanced apps on the market. Here’s a quick look at the main features:

• AI editing features
• Generative Remove
• Lens Blur
• HDR Editing
• Local Editing
• Video Editing
• Tethered Capture
• Adaptive Presets
• Point Color Tool
• Mobile and Web Integration

Let’s go a little deeper on some of the main features:

AI editing features

One of the best features of the Photography plan is that Adobe incorporated powerful AI tools for manipulating images simply. Generative Remove and Firefly AI tools are incredibly easy to use and give designers endless possibilities.

Generative Remove

This AI-powered tool allows you to easily erase unwanted objects and imperfections from your photos, even on complex backgrounds. It’s available across all Lightroom platforms.

Lens Blur

The AI-powered Lens Blur feature adds professional-looking blur and bokeh effects to your photos. This tool supports adaptive presets and batch operations, ensuring consistent results across multiple images.

HDR Editing

Lightroom provides a comprehensive workflow for HDR photos, allowing you to capture, merge, edit, display, and export high-dynamic-range images. This feature is available on both desktop and mobile versions.

Local Editing

You can now edit photos and videos stored locally on your device without importing them into the Lightroom cloud. This feature allows for better organization and management of your local media files.

Video Editing

Lightroom offers some basic video editing capabilities, including trimming, color correction, and applying curves to achieve consistent editing results. This feature is available on the desktop version of Lightroom.

Tethered Capture

Lightroom Classic now supports tethered capture for Sony cameras, allowing you to control camera settings and capture photos directly from the software. This feature enhances live session workflows with seamless preset applications and camera control.

Adaptive Presets

These presets use AI to automatically adjust settings based on the image’s content, such as blurring the background or enhancing specific areas like the sky or a subject’s clothes. They streamline the editing process and ensure consistent results​​. Great for creating at scale.

Point Color Tool

This tool allows you to fine-tune any individual color in a photo, providing more precise control over color adjustments and enhancing the overall editing flexibility​.

Available Mobile App

A great feature for photographers who are frequently on the go is Adobe Lightroom’s mobile app accessibility. Although it doesn’t offer as many features as Photoshop, it’s still a great app that allows users to edit photos from any Android or iOS device.

How-To Guides In Apps

Adobe is known for making software for professionals, so it’s sometimes difficult to learn all the tips and tricks for how these software solutions work. In this case, even beginners can start working with these apps, as there are how-to guides located directly in the apps that show users how to do certain things and how to get started. Becoming an expert in these apps has never been easier with this feature!

Available on

Adobe Lightroom is designed to be cross-platform and highly accessible, whether you’re a desktop power user or editing on the go. Here’s a full breakdown of where Adobe Lightroom is supported:

• You can use both Lightroom (Cloud-based) and Lightroom Classic (desktop-focused) on Windows and macOS.
• Lightroom mobile offers powerful editing tools, cloud syncing, camera support, and presets.

Adobe’s Lightroom features and Photography plan are among the best solutions for photographers and editors alike. Adobe Lightroom offers a comprehensive set of advanced photo editing tools and seamless cloud integration to enhance productivity and flexible access to your photo library across multiple devices.

Surprisingly, Adobe is not even among the most expensive photo editing brands, but it provides one of the most advanced features and AI tools on the market.

This is both a blessing and a curse. Experienced professionals can use the features to their full potential, while less experienced users get to scratch the surface of the unlimited possibilities these applications offer. For beginners, this can become overwhelming. However, those who decide to improve their skills in Adobe apps can expect to find endless possibilities when it comes to photo editing.

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