Photo Editor
Adobe Photoshop
The pixel-level layer editor for the work Lightroom isn't built for — compositing, detail work, the occasional generative pass.
Photoshop is where the work that Lightroom Classic can't handle lands. Lightroom is the catalog and the develop module — global edits, lens corrections, the non-destructive pipeline. Photoshop is layers, masks, compositing, and pixel-level retouching. Two tools, one subscription, one workflow that hands files between them via the Edit In option without breaking the round-trip back to the catalog.
Photoshop gets pulled in selectively. Compositing for Subtext Lab visuals when an essay needs an image that doesn't exist in the portfolio. Detail work where a Lightroom brush can't reach. Occasional generative fills when something distracting needs to disappear from a frame. The recent AI features are useful when used sparingly — Generative Fill and Remove Tool both work better for content removal than for creative additions, where the synthetic look gives itself away.
Where it falls short is being lean. Photoshop is thirty-five years of accumulated features, most of which any individual user will never touch, and the application launches like it. Affinity Photo and Pixelmator Pro are real alternatives that load faster and ship the features that matter for most photo work. The reason Photoshop stays here and not on those is the same reason Lightroom stays — file format, plugin ecosystem, and the fact that the rest of the world sends you PSDs.