Capture One, Lightroom Classic, PhotoLab Elite, and Photo Raw have all been updated this Fall. The question for me is whether or not these changes make switching from Lightroom Classic a good choice.

I wrote about my approach to selecting a post-processing software for my photography earlier. My approach now is the same; what I consider important has not changed. What has changed are the features of the different programs.

I moved my websites off of WordPress several years ago due to the security problems I was having and the complexity of customizing themes. There were just too many files in too many places to modify when modifying a theme to suit me. So I switched to Grav and found its straightforward approach was what I needed.

I’ve spent the last couple of months working back and forth between the raw processors Capture One, Lightroom Classic, PhotoLab Elite, and Photo RAW in an attempt to settle on just one going into 2024. Owning more than one is just too expensive and too complicated trying to keep edits and metadata in sync. My primary raw post-processing tools have been Capture One and Lightroom Classic. So that’s where I started my efforts.

I’ve been working with PhotoLab Elite 6 over the last couple of weeks re-editing some of my better images from the last few years. The more I work with it, the more I see the missing pieces yet to be included to make it a real competitor to Lightroom Classic, Capture One, and Photo RAW. And that’s making me question if PhotoLab Elite can really replace Lightroom Classic for me.