Alongside Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom is Adobe’s most popular software for photographers. Since launching in 2006, Lightroom has helped photographers of all experience levels manage and process their images. The latest updates aim to make Lightroom more powerful and easier to use.
AI-Powered Quick Actions Promise to Speed up Editing
Like with Adobe’s other software, Lightroom has gotten its fair share of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in recent updates. In response to these expanding tools, Adobe is adding Quick Actions via early access to Lightroom for mobile (iPhone and Android) and Lightroom for the web. Lightroom analyzes the photo and then suggests contextually aware editing actions that can be accessed with a single tap or click.
For example, in the image above, Quick Actions detects the woman and background to selectively improve each independently. Quick Actions automatically creates individual masks of each selected element so users can further refine the automatic adjustments.
The Impressive Generative Remove Is Now Available to All Lightroom Users
Across all versions of Lightroom, including Lightroom Classic plus Adobe Camera Raw, the Generative Remove feature introduced earlier this year in beta is now publicly available to all users. Since the Firefly-powered feature was added to Lightroom via beta in May, millions of photographers have used it to remove distractions from their images. Since the beta release, Adobe has added improvements to the selection of objects. Now, when Detect Objects is enabled, users can circle the distractions they wish to remove rather than brush over them.
Performance Gains
Although Adobe has continually added features to Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom Classic remains the software of choice for many photographers, especially enthusiasts and professionals. However, Lightroom Classic’s performance has long been a sticking point for users. Adobe says its most significant focus for Lightroom Classic this year has been improving the performance of the software’s Develop module. The company says it has doubled image navigation performance, and the latest release further enhances how the software handles memory and caching, delivering an even smoother experience.
For Nikon photographers, there are other performance gains. Tethered capture is now faster and more reliable across Mac and Windows on Lightroom Classic.
Expanded HDR Support
Last year, Adobe introduced HDR Optimization, an end-to-end high dynamic range (HDR) workflow from capture (on mobile) to edit and export. The support for HDR images in Lightroom is expanded in the new release, including support for embedded ISO HDR Gain Maps. This means that users no longer must create separate SDR and HDR versions of their photos. Instead, the correct version will automatically be displayed depending on the screen’s capabilities. HDR Gain Maps are supported in numerous apps, including Apple Photos, Google Chrome, and Instagram.
With the new release, Google Pixel 9 series devices can now view and edit photos in HDR. Further, users with a Mac with Apple Silicon or those using Lightroom mobile on iOS can edit videos in HDR in addition to the existing support for stills.
More Lightroom Updates
The latest release includes many other relatively minor improvements. In Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Adobe Camera Raw, more RAW file formats now support Denoise, including HDR and panorama DNG files, Apple ProRAW DNG, Samsung Galaxy Expert RAW DNG, Google Pixel Raw, and additional RAW files for Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Leica cameras.
In Lightroom Classic, users can now set a preview cache limit to control how much disk space Lightroom Classic can use for storing previews. Say goodbye to losing hundreds of gigabytes of storage space and not knowing why.
Another Lightroom Classic improvement means users no longer must change a catalog’s name when upgrading it to a new version.
Rounding out the updates, performance in Lightroom Mobile is significantly better than before.
Lightroom Has Better Workflow Options
While Lightroom Classic has long had a lot of impressive workflow features, Lightroom has lagged a bit behind. However, Lightroom now supports more sophisticated workflows. The photo editor can now connect to third-party apps, including native Frame.io compatibility.
Content Credentials in Lightroom
Content Credentials are available in early access across all versions of Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw. When exporting from Lightroom, users can attach their name, social media handle, and a list of the edits they performed to images via a digital signature.
If a photographer chooses to attach credentials to their photos, they can be verified via the new Content Credentials website.
Image credits: Adobe. Featured image created using an asset license via Depositphotos.