How to Edit Lighting vs Substack: What You Need to Know

For creators navigating the crowded content publishing landscape, choosing between visual-first platforms like Lighting and newsletter giant Substack often comes down to editing capabilities. Whether you’re adjusting exposure for a portrait series or formatting a long-form newsletter, understanding each platform’s editing workflow is critical to streamlining your process.

What is Lighting?

Lighting is a creator-focused publishing platform built specifically for visual artists, photographers, and videographers. Unlike general-purpose tools, it integrates end-to-end content creation features, including native lighting and color editing tools tailored for visual media. Launched in 2022, it has gained traction among creators who need to edit and publish visual content in a single ecosystem, eliminating the need to switch between editing software and publishing tools.

What is Substack?

Substack is a leading newsletter platform that prioritizes text-first content, enabling writers, journalists, and thought leaders to monetize subscriber-based newsletters. Its editing tools are designed for long-form written content, with minimal support for advanced visual editing—most creators upload pre-edited images or videos to Substack rather than editing them directly in the platform.

Editing Workflows: Lighting vs Substack

Lighting Editing Workflow

Lighting’s editing pipeline is built for visual content:

1. Upload raw image or video files directly to the platform.
2. Use native lighting adjustment tools: drag-and-drop sliders for exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and white balance. Advanced features include AI-powered auto-lighting correction and preset filters for common visual styles (e.g., golden hour, moody indoor).
3. Integrate with third-party tools: Sync edits with Adobe Lightroom or Capture One via native integrations, pushing adjusted lighting settings back to Lighting’s publishing dashboard.
4. Publish directly to your Lighting profile, with automatic optimization for web and mobile viewing.

Substack Editing Workflow

Substack’s editing workflow is text-centric:

1. Draft written content using Substack’s WYSIWYG editor or markdown support for advanced formatting.
2. Upload pre-edited images or videos: Substack does not include native lighting editing tools, so creators must adjust lighting in external software (e.g., Photoshop, Premiere Pro) before uploading.
3. Embed media: Use Substack’s embed tools for YouTube videos, Instagram posts, or other external content, with limited customization for visual display.
4. Publish to your newsletter, with options to send to subscribers via email or post to your Substack web page.

Key Editing Features Compared

Feature

Lighting

Substack

Native Lighting Editing

Yes (exposure, color, AI correction)

No

Text Formatting

Basic (headings, captions)

Advanced (markdown, custom CSS)

Third-Party Integrations

Adobe Lightroom, Capture One, Canva

YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Podcast hosts

Mobile Editing

Full editing suite on iOS/Android

Draft-only, no visual editing

Monetization for Edited Content

Subscription tiers for exclusive visual content

Paid newsletters, tips

Which Platform Should You Choose?

Choose Lighting if your primary content is visual (photography, videography, digital art) and you need to edit lighting and color directly in your publishing workflow. It eliminates the friction of switching between editing and publishing tools, making it ideal for visual-first creators.

Choose Substack if your focus is long-form written content, and visual assets are secondary pre-edited supplements. Its robust text editing and built-in subscriber monetization make it the top choice for writers and newsletter creators.

Conclusion

Editing workflows on Lighting and Substack are tailored to completely different creator needs. By aligning your content type with each platform’s editing capabilities, you can reduce production time and deliver higher-quality content to your audience. Whether you’re adjusting lighting for a photo series or drafting a subscriber newsletter, the right tool will streamline your entire process.