When shooting in RAW, the flat image preview in Lightroom looks nothing like the punchy JPEG on the back of the camera screen — but that’s changing. In a set of updates to the Lightroom ecosystem, Adobe has added a handful of new workflow enhancements and speed improvements, including the option to adjust the default color profile options. At the same time, the company teased some artificially intelligent tools under construction for the photo editing and RAW asset manager.
In Lightroom Classic, users can now choose their favorite color profile as a default to be used automatically on import. With the update, Adobe makes the hidden option more user-friendly, and adds tools to apply settings universally to every photo, or based on which camera is being used.
There’s also the ability to default to the camera’s color profile settings. With this option selected, the previews in Lightroom will look a bit more like the preview on the back of the camera screen. That gives photographers a starting point that’s more consistent with the JPEG, rather than starting with a flatter color profile using Adobe color. The option to automatically import images adjusted to the camera profiles is located inside Preferences > Presets in Lightroom Classic. The same options are also new in Adobe Camera Raw.
Lightroom Classic also receives a laundry lists of subtle updates that may be big for users. Classic now supports Large Document Format (.psb), which is commonly used in stitched gigabyte panoramas. The option to calibrate display settings when using three or more displays, as well as notifications to avoid accidental auto-syncs, are also on the list of improvements. Lens correction and Transform edits are now part of the GPU accelerated editing for faster edits on some computers; Enhance Details uses external GPUs for faster performance on MacOS 10.15. Photoshop Elements 2020 catalogs can now also be directly imported into Lightroom Classic.
On the multi-device-friendly Lightroom CC, the list of updates includes a similar list of changes, starting with the option to export to DNG from a laptop (previously only part of Android and iOS). Photo Merge gains a keyboard shortcut on desktop — Control + Shift + H for HDR and Control + Shift + M for panorama.
Import presets are migrating from the desktop versions to mobile, starting with Android today and coming to iOS soon. Photographers can also now use the drag-and-drop import with an album by dragging to the album itself.
Finally, the iPad version gains split-screen support to use alongside a second app.
Besides sharing the latest list of features, Adobe also teased what’s coming up next for Lightroom in 2020. The company says that performance and stability, along with editing and organizing images in an efficient workflow, are all a primary focus. Additional GPU accelerated editing updates are in store for 2020, while additional Develop tools, including A.I. and machine learning tools, are currently under development.