Compare
GridSlate vs. Lightroom and Photoshop
They are different tools for different parts of the job. Lightroom and Photoshop are general editors. GridSlate is built for one thing: a shoot with a list of people, from the first photo to the lab’s PDF.
| Task | Lightroom and Photoshop | GridSlate |
|---|---|---|
| Sorting photos to people | By hand, by file name, or with your own spreadsheet and scripts. | Reads the QR name card you photograph before each person and gives every photo to its person. |
| Placing a face in a print mask | A Photoshop action or template per photo, adjusted by eye. | Finds each face, puts it on the mask’s face target and flags the few it is unsure of. |
| Culling a whole shoot | Strong tools for rating and picking. | Flags dark, soft and burst photos across the shoot; you keep the final say. |
| Retouching a hero image | Far deeper: layers, masks, healing, colour grading. | Batch adjustments, LUTs and a retouch pass; not a replacement for Photoshop on a single image. |
| Sheets for the lab | Export, then build the sheets in Photoshop or with actions. | Builds the sheets from your templates, with bleed and crop marks, JPEG, TIFF or a PDF per group. |
| Your original files | Not changed by Lightroom’s catalog; Photoshop saves new files. | Never changed: GridSlate only reads them and keeps its own catalog. |
When to use which
- Use GridSlate when the job is a list of people: a school, a team, an event. Everything after the shoot is the same steps for every person, and that is what it automates.
- Keep Lightroom and Photoshop for creative work on single images: a retouch you want to control by hand, a composite, a hero shot.
- They work together. GridSlate reads the files you already have and writes sheets; open any photo in Photoshop and come back.