Capture one, last time I looked, also leads the market in high prices. It’s the only major piece of photo processing software I haven’t tried, purely because I could not stomach the price.
If you’re after absolute quality, also check out DxO PhotoLab. It has its limitations and quirks, but the basic quality is second to none.
That’s fair! But it’s not a subscription, and depending on one’s needs, it might be the way to go (especially for Sony users and folks who need tethering). It’s worth mentioning.
I’ll second the recommendation of DxO Photolab. I don’t use it anymore, primarily because I use Lightroom and Photoshop in tandem, but I still use DxO’s PureRaw to convert my RAW files before I process them in Lightroom / Photoshop. The same first rate RAW conversion engine in PureRaw is baked into PhotoLab.
Lightroom wins hands-down for catalogue management, however.
For movie editing; How about iMovie?
(I don’t use either, so this suggestion may be really stupid 
– But sometimes we forget all the great apps that are included with macOS)
very true, we can do basic level of editing in iMovie and which can beneficial for some people.
On that note, I’d personally use GarageBand before I use Audacity again. Same deal.
I’m stealing this comment, for off-line use only 
You may have just saved me a ton of time!
I have to assume that Lightroom Classic is not being maintained, and that I should keep my eyes open for other software options?
Lightroom Classic is not only being maintained, but actively gets new features. The name is a misnomer.
This is fantastic news. Thank you.
Lightroom Classic is the mainstay of professional photographers. They are set in their ways and refuse to even consider the newer Lightroom (which we used to called “Lightroom CC” but Adobe hates that.)
Personally, ever since I learned that the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) editing engine is the guts underneath all the Adobe image tools, I no longer have imposter syndrome or jealousy using Lightroom CC instead of Classic.
I simply don’t need the catalog-style organizing of Lightroom Classic and prefer the folder/album DAM structure of Lightroom CC to be more like standard non-Adobe photo library tools.
Conversely, since ACR is also inside Photoshop and not just the Lightrooms, I prefer to do all my photo adjustments, especially layers and masking, in Photoshop instead of Lightroom.
I find the layers and masks are fully fleshed out in Photoshop while Lightroom is still trying to dumb it down which fences me in rather than liberating me - once you grok the overall editing concepts (that took me quite a while),.
Most pro photographers are not “set in their ways”, but they do tend to spend a lot of time and money building a bulletproof workflow (e.g. very expensive cameras that “just work” every single time) and once they have something they know works for them, they will be fiercely loyal. they literally can’t afford to experiment with client work.
Lightroom classic is a great platform for the kind of photography (e.g. weddings or social events) where you might take a couple of thousand images and then have to distil down to a a much smaller number, which need to have a consistent look and feel. It can still do all that pretty quickly, despite Adobe’s determination to bloat every single piece of software they ever make and upsell you into Creative Cloud where you pay for lots of software you are never likely to use…
Portrait and studio photographers tend to prefer Capture One. There are very many niche applications too. Photoshop/Lightroom dominates the scene, despite being far from the best or best value for many purposes - it’s just the default, partly because Adobe has been very effective at getting it used in technical education.
I beg to differ - the single biggest complaint about Lightroom Classic from many pros is that is it horribly slow in performance and a terrible tool for culling huge collections of similar photos.
There is, in fact, a niche genre of new tools specifically designed for streamlined, high-performance culling (with or without AI assist), but inertia keeps many pros from exploring options.
They prefer to keep complaining about what they use then actually fix the problem!
Sound familiar? I see this attitude all the time in my consulting. Clients don’t like what they have or use, but don’t want to expend even an incremental amount of energy to pursue an alternative.
Lightroom Classic is perfect for my uses which are basically all cataloging.
My only issue with everything Adobe is that even the free stuff requires the installation of Creative Cloud (CC). I find CC rather pevasive on my system and don’t want to reinstall it.
Define pervasive. Yes, it installs a lot of “stuff” but I barely notice it. Mainly I see it when trying to launch apps from Alfred and several may appear depending on what I type. Day to day it’s just not an issue.
It will have taken me at least three passes to get rid of Adobe’s “fingerprints” and scattered files from my Mac. (1) Uninstall, (2) Run Adobe’s Creative Cloud Cleaner tool, and (3) Hunt around and delete remaining Adobe files still present and even running in the background.
I think the point being made is, and I agree, that there isn’t any system-impacting problem with installing Adobe Creative Cloud support files.
Doesn’t consume huge amounts of disk space, doesn’t impact system performance, and doesn’t create stability or reliability issues for macOS.
There is, of course, the lingering perception that a “big brother” app is being forced upon oneself, but the damage, IMHO, is purely illusory at this point?
Perhaps this is not a good comparison, but when I tried the “set app” bundle of apps, I found the way it worked, creating virtual app stubs on my system, to be much more distasteful and “felt wrong” and I quickly stopped using it terminating my trial, yet I know it is loved by many listeners (and creators) of Apple-centric podcasts.
Exactly this. I don’t like apps that require a supervisor app to run. I tried the uninstall a number of times and it refused to uninstall.
There is an obvious system impact, as to run any Adobe app you are required to install CC, let it run in the background and as mentioned removing it requires a more intimate knowledge of system files.
I don’t like apps looking over my shoulder, I don’t trust what’s data it is collecting or monitoring despite what they claim.
It sounds like you just don’t like the way Adobe does things. Which is perfectly understandable. But a difficulty in removing an app isn’t really a disadvantage if you actually intend to use it.