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Tuesday 13 August 2019

Lightroom Updates – August 2019






With the August release, Adobe has made some further improvements across all the Lightroom desktop and mobile applications.


Lightroom 2.4

The desktop version of the cloud app now gets the Deleted Photos (recycle bin) tab which was previously available only in the web app. Each thumbnail shows the number of days remaining before permanent deletion.

Lightroom Classic 8.4

GPU for image processing to improve interactive performance.
In the Preferences dialog, under Performance tab use Graphics Processor now has 3 dropdown options:
- Auto
- Custom
- Off
Custom gives the choice between using GPU for display visualization or for Editing.
I’ve noticed some minor speed improvements but nothing major although I have a modest system. However it’s good to see the supported GPU pipeline being used for more tasks. I’m sure this will see further development in future releases.

The most responsive experience will be found with higher end GPUs and on systems with monitors of 4K and above.

Older versions of Mac OS will not have the necessary support but Windows users can normally update drivers, independent of OS.

Export as PNG
Nice to see this option has been added to the export file formats. Transparency is on by default which is useful for inserting files into Acrobat, other software or websites.
Check out my short video demo at YouTube for a neat trick.




Batch Photo Merge


Batch processing is now available for merging HDR, Pano and HDR Pano’s. Place each set into a stack; then select all the stacks and run the merge command from the Photo >> Photo Merge menu. I always show the EV info on thumbnails in the grid which I find helps with initial selection of stacks. The resulting merged photo is added to the top of each stack.




Filmstrip Index Number
This works like Index Numbers in Library Grid. I think I actually prefer this, enabling me to disable the feature in the main grid. It can also be turned on/off from the right-click context menu in the film strip by choosing view options.


Color Labels 
It’s now possible to add color labels to collections. This brings the ability to differentiate color marking between photos, folders and collections. 

Book Module – Drag & Drop
A small improvement, but it’s now more effective when dragging photos from the filmstrip into a photo cell. In the past I found it didn’t always work first time and I needed to make several attempts; so I’m pleased to see this improved functionality.

Dragging a photo from the filmstrip to a blank page now automatically creates a photo cell. This also works when dragging multiple thumbnails on to a blank page. The individual cells can then be moved and scaled to make a custom layout.











Lightroom Mobile (Android) 4.4

Video
A popular feature request enabling customers to import videos that are supported by Android platform.

Deleted Items 
Recover, or permanently delete files from Lightroom Android. Deleted items remain in the recycle bin for up to 60 days but do not count towards your storage quota.

Batch Processing - Metadata 
Customers will be able to select multiple photos from the grid and edit their metadata using a batch-metadata editor UI. 

In-App Learning - Tablets and Chromebooks 
Tutorials will now be available in Tablets and Chromebooks. 

Likes and Comments 
With the advent of Group Albums feature, Adobe has added the ability to like and comment on an image from a shared album by the contributors and owner.

Lightroom iOS


Deleted Items 

Recover, or permanently delete files from Lightroom Android. Deleted items remain in the recycle bin for up to 60 days but do not count towards your storage quota.



Create Presets from Discover Posts
Discover posts were introduced with the May update. Now you can turn those edits into a preset to be applied to any photo. Also available on Android and Chrome OS.


Recent
Click the home icon (top-left) to see recently edited photos in addition to recently added and recent albums. 
 


Search
Auto-complete has now been added to the mobile apps to make search easier or when adding facets.


Metadata batch processing should be coming to iOS with the next update to bring it into line with Android.
 
 

Lightroom Web App

It is now possible to collapse the sidebar. Simply click one of the icons (top-left) to hide and click again to again bring back.

















Square grid is now available in addition to the default adaptive view. The G key can be used to switch (tab) between the two grid views.