In addition to significant improvements to its prototyping tool XD, Adobe today released updates to Lightroom with new ways to learn photo techniques, improved editing features, and more. The updates are rolling out to Mac and iOS customers starting today.
One of the most interesting new features in Lightroom is a tool Adobe calls Texture. The simple slider packs a lot of functionality behind the scenes. According to Adobe, Texture isolates medium-sized details to allow you to accentuate or smooth specific areas of a photo without changing the appearance of the entire image.
Most detail tools in photo editing applications have the unfortunate side effect of sharpening bokeh or softening edges, but Lightroom’s tool does an impressive job of intelligently separating a scene. The new feature makes selective adjustments less necessary in many cases. Adobe’s ACR team has published a blog post with all of the technical details behind Texture.
Also new today in Lightroom are tutorials and sample images intended to help you understand how professionals edit their photos, and maybe provide some inspiration for your own edits. The new tutorials are interactive, meaning that you follow along with editing a photo in real time instead of passively watching a video to learn.
Today’s Lightroom updates also include the following changes:
For more information on the latest Lightroom updates, see Adobe’s blog post here. Lightroom CC is available for iPhone and iPad in the iOS App Store, and for macOS through a Creative Cloud subscription.
Available within the Optics section, Defringe helps to remove purple or green fringes caused by lens chromatic aberrations. (Lightroom for Mac)
Previously available as a plug-in, Flat-Field Correction is now built into Lightroom Classic’s Library module. (Lightroom Classic)
