When comparing Lightroom vs Flickr, the Slant community recommends Flickr for most people. In the question“What are the best photo managers?” Flickr is ranked 2nd while Lightroom is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose Flickr is:
Flickr has an app on Windows, OSX, iOS and Android, called Flickr Uploadr (available for download in the [tools](https://www.flickr.com/tools/) section) that can automatically upload images to Flickr. It can even pull images from external drives and other cloud storage services such as iCloud.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Excellent asset management capabilities
Lightroom allows, for example, organizing images based on folders, color labels, flags, rating, keywords, GPS location, it can automatically create smart albums (albums that automatically update based on set rules) and it can be set to automatically backup, rename based on set rules, apply default processing, add keywords to images on import. It offers that functionality in an intuitive way and allows extensively customizing layout, behavior and workflow of managing assets to better suit your needs.
Pro HDR support
Can merge multiple shots into one in order to expand dynamic range.
Pro Facial recognition helps find and tag people
Lightroom has built-in facial recognition support that can be used to find the same person in any collection of photographs.
Pro A good number of cameras have built-in lens profiles for lens distortion correction
Lightroom has over 900 lens profiles from all kinds of manufacturers, including major lens brands like Canon, Nikon, Leica, Pentax, Ricoh, etc. You can see the full list of supported lenses here. Lens profiles will in most cases speed up the process of correcting lens distortion down to 1-2 clicks.
Pro Intuitive interface that's streamlined for a photographer's workflow
At a high level the interface is organized into broad groups of tools called workflow modules. Modules like "Library" for asset management and "Develop" for manipulating the photos. Each module displays only those tools that are needed for that task. This allows you to separate concerns between tasks and reduces interface clutter. When you're, for example, developing the image, you're not bothered by interface tools relating to exporting it.
Within each module tools are grouped in a logical manner. Develop module, for example, will group tools relating to basic image adjustment, lens correction, and effects.
And there are a plethora of keyboard shortcuts that improve the workflow speed even further. At all times you can easily navigate between images you're working via arrow keys, quickly compare images before and after making edits with \
, or see side by side comparisons with y
.
Pro Supports tethered capture
You can connect your camera directly to Lightroom and have Lightroom display images as soon as they are captured.
Pro Can be set to auto-upload images
Flickr has an app on Windows, OSX, iOS and Android, called Flickr Uploadr (available for download in the tools section) that can automatically upload images to Flickr. It can even pull images from external drives and other cloud storage services such as iCloud.
Pro Photos are backed up elsewhere
I mainly use Google Photos and keep separate local backup of all my photos, but also use the IOS app which transfers all new photos onto Flickr storage as well.
Pro Good search
Flickr is capable of searching images by a combination of content, color, shape, depth of field, style, pattern, size, license and other options.
Pro Built-in image recognition
Flickr will automatically attempt to figure out the contents of a picture and tag them appropriately. This will allow you to look for, for example, all images of flowers, bridges or butterflies.
Cons
Con No layer-based image editing capabilities
There are no layers removing any ability to blend images, create composits, overlay text, etc.
Con Hot folder option could be better
It can take a couple of seconds for Lightroom to check the folder for incoming images and that can noticeably slow down the workflow. Additionally, only the last image is imported as active.
Con There's a learning curve
Con Telemetry
Adobe is interested in what you do with "their" software. Just install wireshark and see the story unfold. Don't have that or too difficult? Just take a bank note, scan it. See if you can get it on your screen...
Con Expensive and subscription
As with other software offerings, Adobes portfolio keeps giving. For the customer/ user however, this means that you never own your software, but you rent it. Until the point your landlord throws you out.
Con Proprietary
As all Adobe software it is proprietary, closed source.
Con No offline view
While Google Photos and iCloud Photo Library allow you to select if you want to keep local copies of your photos, Flickr only allow you to view your photos online.
Con There are limits on file sizes
Images can't be more than 200MB a piece and each video can't take up more than 1GB of space.
Con No support for lossless file formats
Photos can only be saved as .jpg, .gif (non-animated) and .png files.