A few weeks ago I started a new poll on what post-production software you use most often. If you want to add your vote you still can here. We have run this poll twice in the past, every two years, so it will be interesting to see if the results have changed at all from 2009, to 2011 to 2013. Let’s look at the current results first.
Results – what post-processing software is used most often in December 2013
With over 27,000 votes at the time of this summary the overwhelming winner was Lightroom with a whopping 42% share. Now let’s see how these numbers compare to 2011 and 2009.
Survey results from 2011
Interesting! Lightroom has certainly catapulted to the top in a big way:
- Lightroom is up 10% from two years ago to 42% currently, that’s a huge chunk of users
- Photoshop and Photoshop Elements combined are down from 34 to 30% (-4%)
- Picasa is down 2%
- Aperture is down 2%
- Gimp down 1%
- PaintShop Pro held steady at 3% share
- iPhoto was down from 4% to 3% share
- Other was constant at 5%
These results are from 23414 votes in the 2011 poll.
Way different results from 2009!
According to Wikipedia Lightroom Version 1 was released in January 2007. Within two years (as seen below) it had taken almost 20% of the post-processing market share. Not bad! But compare those stats to the current one and Lightroom has become the clear front runner for photographers in the processing arena.
Quick comparison of the big two by Adobe
- 2009 Lightroom had 19%
- 2009 Photoshop (all versions of CS) had 36%
- 2009 Photoshop including Element had 49%
- 2013 Lightroom at 42%
- 2013 Photoshop down to 19% (pretty much reversed)
- 2013 Photoshop inc. Elements 30%
Most of the “also rans” stayed pretty steady in terms of their percentage, within a point or two. I’d say it’s fair to say that Lightroom has taken over in four short years and has become the “go to” software of choice for most photographers (amateur and professional).
Want to learn how to use Lightroom and get on board?
First, grab a copy of Lightroom 5 if you haven’t got it already, or upgrade if you’re still using version 4.
Next check out some of these tutorials:
