Picsart vs Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom and PicsArt are well-known photo editing apps with a variety of features and efficient editing tools. Both software seem similar at first glance, but there are huge differences in their uses, features, and capabilities.
In this blog, we will compare both applications in detail and help you choose the right one.
What is PicsArt?
PicsArt is one of the most popular AI Photo editing tools with 150 million-plus monthly users across the world. It comes with professional editing tools, trending effects, and a social community. Moreover, it contains AI-based and manual tools for diverse editing requirements. Users can enhance automation, adjust filters, drawings, collage making, and add text.
Key Functionalities
- A variety of effects, filters, and options to adjust other aspects such as Dehaze, Saturation, Tone Curve, and more.
- AI tools such as face restyle and sky replacement through machine learning.
- Text overlays and drawings are done manually.
- Collage making with different frames, grids, and backgrounds.
- Templates for posters, cards, and social media posts.
- A feed section to access pictures and edit.
A unique blend of AI features with controlled tools makes PicsArt a dynamic photo enhancer.
What is Lightroom?
Adobe Lightroom is a professional-grade photo management and editing tool. This is a mobile-based app that requires a powerful RAM camera with advanced digital darkroom functionalities.
Key Features
- Capturing and editing RAW and HDR photos.
- Enhancing the preset system with creative profiles.
- Controlling color grading and RGB curves.
- Editing multiple files.
- Clone, healing, and radial/gradient masking.
- Vast EXIF data and histogram displays.
- Cloud sync with desktop.
Lightroom is an essential editing software for your photography workflow. This definite focus facilitates casual and photography users.
Let’s deep dive and compare both editing apps through different features:
- Effects and Filters
PicsArt offers a variety of vivid and playful photo filters and graphical overlays, such as bokeh, cool mirror, Gaussian blur, quirky filters, and more. Users can apply the desired effects and filters with just a single tap.
Lightroom stands out for subtle and more natural profiles with color grading and hundreds of curves optimized in different styles, such as cinematic, portrait, vibrant, and more. It aims to enhance pictures through drastic transformations. It is a professional photo editing app, requiring a good editing understandings.
- Color Adjustments
PicsArt and Lightroom offer full manual control over color aspects such as contrast, exposure, shadows, highlights, warmth, vibrance, saturation, and more. While Lightroom has more advanced features, like the HSL panel to customize hue, RGB curves, saturation, and luminance of various color ranges.
- Text Overlay Effects
PicsArt allows users to add text stylized with different colors, fonts, outlines, and preset templates. They can easily overlay graphics such as speech bubbles, stickers, and customizable banners.
On the other side, Lightroom focuses on photo adjustments and doesn’t accommodate graphical shape/text overlays. So it allows basic text captions for publishing purposes.
- Transformations and Cropping
Both PicsArt and Lightroom come with standard cropping, rotation, perspective corrections, and image flipping capability. However, PicsArt has some extra transformation tricks such as fish eye and pinch/punch distortions.
- Cloning and Retouching
PicsArt is more focused on applying effects to entire images rather than a few adjustments. It includes useful AI tools such as teeth whitening, blemish removers, and more.
Lightroom provides detailed brushes for creating cloning and healing. This is good for removing stray objects, blemishes, and whitening teeth.
- RAW Photo Editing
Lightroom contains RAW and DNG formats to shoot photos through the mobile camera. It has advanced controls to process uncompressed images. This aspect gives a professional experience that is missing in PicsArt.
PicsArt works on standard compressed formats such as JPG and PNG. It adds effects, transforms, and processes RAW camera data. PicsArt is template template-friendly photo editing app.
Now, we will highlight one application for a specific function:
- Social Media Content Creation: PicsArt is a perfect tool for social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
- Product Photography: Lightroom is a reliable editing solution for product photography and e-commerce editing.
- Travel Photography: Color grading and RAW processing of Lightroom give an ideal touch to the travel vlogs.
- Professional Photography: Granular control of Lightroom is perfect for critical shoots like weddings.
- Casual Photographers: PicsArt is recommended for general life photography for semi-pro users.
| PicsArt | Lightroom | |
| Pros | A Variety of unlocked effects, filters, borders, and templates.AI collage and sticker makerDrawing toolsSocial media communityAi Adjustment toolsEasy to learn for new users | RAW/DNG format supportedAdvanced color gradingSingle workflowMasking and retouching tool |
| Cons | Poor controls over pixel-level adjustments | Limited layer-based editing |
Final Words
PicsArt and Lightroom offer a full level of control over your editing requirements. PicsArt caters to casual photographers and social media content creators. Lightroom is designed for professional photography with absolute precision of image processing.
However, PicsArt comes with basic to advanced photo editing options, while Adobe Lightroom is recommended for seasoned photographers.
