Hey everyone, I wanted to share some news many of you have been anticipating and waiting for. Today, Tuesday, October 10, at Adobe MAX in LA, Adobe has released new versions of Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom on Mobile, and Lightroom on Web.
Here are the highlights and main new features:
Local Storage in Lightroom
Available on Lightroom only
This is a major change for Lightroom that many users have asked for. With Local Storage, you now have the choice to store and work on your images and videos in Lightroom’s cloud, OR now you can choose to work locally. Working locally means clicking on the Local tab and immediately accessing your local drives and network storage. You can click on any folder to see its images and videos. You can click on any locally stored photo or video and immediately start editing it without first adding it to Lightroom or syncing it to the cloud. The Local tab is essentially a file browser. If at any time you decide to sync your photo/video to the cloud to back it up and have it available on all your devices, you can click the Copy to Cloud button. The photos/videos will still be stored locally in your folders, but a copy with the edits will be synced to the Cloud. You’ll have the option to continue working locally and sync any future edits that you make.
HDR Optimization
Available on Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom for mobile (iOS & Android), and Lightroom for web. Requires a display that supports HDR.
Lightroom and Lightroom Classic have been able to Merge to HDR for a while now. However, up until now, the HDRs you’ve merged or imported as single images have been displayed in SDR (Standard Dynamic Range). As of the Adobe MAX releases, you can now Edit in HDR on your HDR displays and export HDR images to JPG, JPEG XL, and AVIF.
Lens Blur – Early Access
Available on Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom for mobile (iOS & Android), Lightroom for web, and Adobe Camera Raw
This is one that I’m pretty excited about the ability to apply Lens Blur to your existing photos and any new ones you take. Lens Blur uses AI to determine your photos’ depth, allowing you to blur the background selectively. You can add beautiful, realistic bokeh to your photos.
Point Color
Available on Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Adobe Camera Raw, and Lightroom for web
The new Point Color gives us a new way to edit colors in our photos selectively. The best part is that it works within the masking features to get the ultimate control or color changes/corrections to your subjects.
It’s usually easier for me to show the new features rather than explain them, so I’ve recorded this video for you:
I’ll also do a live stream this Friday so you can see everything live and ask questions. That stream is here:
Also, check out this blog post for more details.
P.S. Lightroom Classic now supports tethering to the Nikon Z8! Also, the new editing experience in Lightroom on phone is streamlined and easier.
Be sure to check out the full Adobe MAX Keynote here:
Please feel free to post any questions/comments/thoughts below. I am particularly interested in what everyone thinks about Local Storage in Lightroom. I will answer everything I can and share any comments/concerns with the teams at Adobe.
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