Adaptive presets utilize the AI-based subject detection capabilities to select or mask the target subject and then apply settings to the masked area. With the new lens blur presets it will attempt to detect the subject and then apply lens blur settings to the background to simulate the type of blur you’d get from a lens. Like all adaptive presets, the quality of your results will depend on how well your subject can be detected and how well it may already be separated from other elements in the image.

While I don’t think it is intended to replace the quality of blur from a quality portrait lens shot wide open, I do think it is a useful addition to our editing toolbox when we want to enhance the existing shallow depth of field or to add some blur to further separate our subject from the background. Like most edits, this is subjective, and season to your own tastes.

You can use these presets in a couple of ways, with the first being to have the photo in Develop that you want to edit, then simply clicking the desired preset to have it detect the subject and apply the Lens Blur settings in the given preset. To get to learn what each preset can do, one can simply move your cursor over each preset in turn and see the settings preview on the photo (it will first have to detect the subject to build the mask, but once that is done it will preview quickly for each of the other presets).

Once you’ve found a preset you like, click to apply. This will activate the Lens Blur panel with the settings contained in the preset and you can tweak as desired.

If you have similar images you want to apply the same settings to, you can select them in the Filmstrip and click the Sync button to synchronize settings across the selected photos. Check the Lens Blur box (and the boxes for any other settings you want to sync).

You can also batch apply an adaptive preset right from the Library module. Start by selecting all of the photos you want to be affected by the preset, then in the Quick Develop panel, click the Saved Preset drop-down menu and choose the desired adaptive preset.

Lightroom will create an AI mask for each selected photo and apply the preset’s settings. This can take a little while depending on how many photos you selected and your system’s hardware.

Once done, switch to Develop and adjust settings on each photo as desired. You can consider these presets, like any preset, as just a starting point to move you further down the road, or if you like the look of the settings in the preset, you are done. If you’ve tweaked the settings in a preset, or just customized Lens Blur settings from scratch, you can save those settings as your own adaptive preset by clicking the + sign in the Presets panel, checking Lens Blur, and giving it a meaningful name. Now you can create your own set of adaptive presets and make the most of this cool new tool.

The post Adaptive Presets for Lens Blur appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Note, these updates roll out slowly all over the world, so if you don’t see the update in the Adobe Application Manager right away, check back later. Be sure to update the Camera Raw plug-in too.

Lens Blur

Elevated from Early Access mode to a full-fledged tool (powered by AI), Lens Blur allows for adding/enhancing the appearance of lens blur to your photos. As a full feature, sync, auto sync, and copy/paste are also now supported.

Generative Remove

From what was once just a spot removal tool, this Early Access version of Generative Remove adds a new option to our ability to remove distractions from our photographs. Look under the newly renamed Remove panel (formerly Heal) to find the new Generative AI option. Note, the previous versions of Heal and Clone are still there. The new Generative AI option uses Adobe Firefly to generate the new pixels in the area being replaced, so you do need to be connected to the Internet when the checkbox is enabled.

With Remove selected and Generative AI checked, use the brush to mask over the objects you want to remove, then click Apply. Adobe Firefly generates three variations of the new pixels to replace those being removed, and you can switch through each variation once it is finished. We’ll take a deeper dive into this feature here on the blog soon, but give it a try and put it through its paces. I’m pretty impressed so far.

Filter by Exported Images (Lightroom Classic)

I feel like this is a feature that has been requested since the dawn of time, but I never thought I’d see, but here it is! We can now filter our photos based on whether a copy has been exported or not. There are few ways to utilize this feature. First, under the Attribute section of the Library Filter bar there is an Export Status icon for exported or not exported.

Additionally, under the Metadata tab of the Library Filter bar there is an option for Exported Files to filter the current view.

And finally, we can also find Exported as an option when creating a smart collection. It uses the exported status and a date range, so let’s say you wanted to see every photo exported from the catalog you have open before a given date, you’d choose Exported as the criteria, is before as the range, then enter the desired date.

Sync Performance (Lightroom Classic)

If you, like me, sync your Lightroom Classic catalog to the Lightroom cloud then you’ll be happy to know this update includes a significant infrastructure upgrade to improve reliability and performance. Don’t be surprised if it seems like sync is doing more than it should at first after you’ve installed this new version.

Tethered Shooting with Sony (Lightroom Classic)

Talk about long requested features … I am so happy to finally see native Sony support included for tethering in Lightroom Classic, and I don’t even shoot Sony. I’m just happy for all of the Sony photographers who have been asking for this. Be sure to check the list of supported cameras for tethering (filter by Sony).

Speaking of tethering support, Canon photographers will be happy to learn that the R6MKII is finally now supported for tethering too.

As usual, there have also been other performance enhancements added under the hood. What’s your favorite feature in this update? Anything you are still hoping to see added in the future?

The post May Update for Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, and Camera Raw appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

New Sorting Options in Lightroom Classic

In Grid view, in the Toolbar, you will find a few new options in the Sort drop-down menu for sorting the current view.

New Smart Collection / Metadata Filter Options

When using the Metadata filter in the Library Filter bar above the thumbnails in Grid view, or when creating new smart collections, you’ll find a few more criteria relating to Masking, Lens Blur, and Healing at your disposal. This will make it easier to find/filter photos based on if any of those features have been applied to given photos.

Flags Written to XMP Metadata

For compatibility with Lightroom desktop’s ability to work directly on locally stored photos without uploading to the cloud, it is now possible to have flag state written to and read from a photo’s XMP metadata space. This is also helpful for Lightroom Classic users who routinely have the catalog write to XMP and have the flag state included along with other metadata. This is not currently compatible with Adobe Bridge.

Be sure to update all your applications to ensure compatibility across apps and get the latest fixes and improvements.

The post Lightroom Classic and Lightroom February Update appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

The real news is that we gained the Point Color panel that allows for much finer control over a customizable range of color. The HSL panel remains unchanged and is still quite useful. So, what does Point Color do that the HSL panel cannot? There are two key functions of Point Color that differentiate it from HSL, first being that Point Color allows us to fine tune the range of affected colors with a high degree of control, whereas each specified color in the HSL panel affects an unchangeable range of similar colors.

We’ll look at some example photos to show why that is important. The second key difference is that Point Color is available as a global adjustment (affecting all selected colors in the entire photo at once) and as a local adjustment in the Masking panel. Taken together it means that while HSL can be quite useful when you are happy with adjusting the predetermined range of colors affected by each slider, we now have a tool that gives us far more control to narrow in on a very specific range of colors and make desired adjustments both globally and locally. Let’s look at some examples to see how this works.

Getting Oriented

When you first view the Point Color panel there is not much to see, but as soon as you grab the Sample Spot Color (Eyedropper) tool and click on the color you want to sample it comes to life. Note, I have expanded all the disclosure triangles in the panel to reveal all the options.

Next to the eyedropper you’ll see a color swatch representing the selected color (note, as you adjust the color this swatch will change to show both the original selected color and the adjusted color). Below that is a large color field displaying the selected color (indicated with a black pin) within the range of hues that will be affected. Below the color field is a color bar displaying a larger view of the selected color (this also changes to show the original and adjusted color). To the right of the color field is a color rectangle that shows the selected color within a range of luminance values.

With the color selected you can now adjust that color’s hue, saturation, and luminance as desired by dragging within the color field or color rectangle or by moving the Hue Shift, Saturation Shift, or Luminance Shift sliders. Dragging left or right within the color field adjusts the Hue Shift. Dragging up or down in the color field adjusts the Sat. Shift. Dragging up or down in the color rectangle adjusts the Lum. Shift. As you make adjustments by dragging in the color field, you’ll see how the corresponding sliders move in concert. Likewise, moving any of the sliders results in seeing a white circle move in the corresponding color field to represent the resulting change.

Putting in Practice

Let’s say I wanted to shift the color of this young woman’s dress from a very saturated red to a less saturated pink. If I were to use the Targeted Adjustment tool in the Mixer tab I could try to shift the hue, saturation, and luminance towards a more pink color, but because the original color was so similar in hue to her skin tone, the end result is less than desirable. There’s no way to constrain the range of affected hues with this tool or use it with Masking.

Let’s reset those adjustments and switch to the Point Color tool. I’ve used the eyedropper to sample the color of the dress. Looking at the colors in the color field I can tell I’m going to run into the same issue I had before, so let’s use the Range controls to see if I can limit the range of affected color to avoid affecting her skin and lips. The Range slider can be shifted right to expand the range of affected color or shifted left to decrease the range. With the Range disclosure triangle expanded we can access more granular controls for fine tuning the hue, saturation, and luminance range I want to adjust. In a case like this it can be helpful to check the Visualize Range box, which changes the unaffected colors to grayscale and leaves only the affected range in color.

Now we can clearly see areas of her arms and face that will be affected if I don’t constrain the range of affected colors.

With the range dialed in to just affect the dress I can now make the desired shifts in hue, saturation, and luminance to change the color of the dress without affecting her skin.

That type of adjustment was just not possible before using HSL alone since we had no way to customize the range of hues being affected by the adjustment. As close as the color in the dress was to some of the color in her skin tone, I was able to limit the affected range of hues narrowly enough to effectively isolate the dress from her skin, but there’s even more power in Point Color than in just limiting the range.

Point Color in Masking

In that example I was just (barely) able to isolate the color I wanted to adjust from the subject’s skin tones, but what if limiting the range of colors wasn’t possible, or the same color existed in more than one place within the photo, and you only wanted to adjust one location? That’s where Point Color’s other difference over the Mixer (HSL/Color) can be found, which is in Masking. I’m going to reset/remove the global Point Color adjustment by double-clicking the Point Color label at the top of the panel. Alternatively, you can right-click a color swatch and choose to delete the swatch (or all swatches) from the contextual menu, which does the same thing.

Next, click the Masking icon to enter that tool. Since I have a person in this photo I can leverage the AI-based masking ability to select just her dress with a single click on the Clothes checkbox under Person Mask Options, then click Create Mask.

With her dress masked, I can expand the Point Color panel and use the eyedropper to sample the color of her dress as I did before. With Masking, you’ll likely see the overlay by default at first, but as soon as you select the eyedropper the mask is hidden so you can see what you are sampling. Thanks to the mask I don’t need to worry about constraining the color range as this adjustment (and any other adjustment I decide to apply to this mask) will only affect her dress. That means I can just focus on adjusting the color of the dress right away.

There’s often more than one way to achieve an adjustment, and the right way will depend on the photo and what you are trying to achieve. With Point Color you have such a fine level of control that just wasn’t possible in Lightroom before, and we still can utilize the HSL/Color controls too. This opens wonderful possibilities for fine tuning skin tones, removing color casts from shadows, adjusting product photography to better match the desired color, and so much more.

The post Get to Know Point Color in Lightroom Classic appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

[Editor’s note: It seemed fitting that my last blog post of the year should be my last column in Photoshop User magazine, which ceased publication with the December issue. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have written my Under the Loupe column for so many years. – Rob]

When you first expand the panel, you’ll see everything is grayed out until you check the box next to Apply, which brings it to life and applies the settings to the selected photo.

By default, it uses AI to create a depth map of the photo and applies the default blur amount of 50. Having a photo with a clearly distinguishable subject will improve the quality of the depth map it creates. With this photo, I was impressed with how well it detected the subjects and even the default settings helped to separate them from the background. This tool is no replacement for in-camera depth of field blur and won’t replace any of my fast lenses, but in this case the photo was shot with the Canon RF600mm f/11 lens, so I couldn’t open the aperture any wider. My goal is to use Lens Blur to help the owl and squirrel stand out more from the busy background, without it looking too fake (obviously in the eye of the beholder).

Let’s get oriented to the panel. The Blur Amount slider does exactly what it says, and if you take it to 100, you’ll see we’re heading into fake looking blur territory. Below that slider are five different bokeh options, and hovering your cursor over each will reveal a pop-up with its name and description. The first is the most normal looking, but definitely worth clicking each one and exploring how each affects the photo. A photo with out of focus light sources will really show the differences between each option. If your photo does contain out of focus light sources (imagine a string of holiday lights in the background), then the Boost slider can be used to adjust the brightness of those light sources (the effect is very subtle on a photo like this).

For some photos, simply adjusting the desired Blur Amount and Bokeh option may be all you need to get the desired effect. If you want to fine tune things further or if the AI generated depth map doesn’t quite work for your photo, you can manually select what is in focus using the Focal Range controls. At the top of the Focal Range pane are icons for the AI generated depth map and a crosshair icon that allows you to click (or click-drag) over the region of the photo you want to be in focus. I think the AI did a good job of finding the desired subject, but there are some areas I want to refine, so I’ll leave the AI depth map and explore how I can modify what is in focus and what is blurred.

To really see how the depth map is working you’ll want to check the Visualize Depth box, which displays a color-coded depth map overlay on the photo. The warmer the color the nearer to the camera while the cooler the color the further away. You can see these are the colors displayed in the Focal Range pane as well. To visualize what exactly is in focus, keep the checkbox checked, then click on the handle within Focal Range. Dragging left or right will change what is in focus and you’ll see the in-focus area of the photo displayed in white. You can also reduce or increase the size of the rectangle to further refine what is in focus and what is blurred.

For this photo, I tried to reduce the size of the in-focus area as much as possible to ensure the owl and squirrel were in focus along with the branch they are on, but there were still some areas of the owl that remain slightly out of focus, and this is where the Focus and Blur brushes at the bottom of the panel come into play. The Focus brush allows for painting in areas that we want to be in focus, while the Blur brush allows for painting in areas that we want more blurred. The Size, Feather, and Flow sliders work just the same as they do for the brush in the Masking panel. There is even an Auto Mask checkbox that works great when brushing over an object with clear edges between it and the adjacent area. In this case, I’ll select the Focus brush, reduce its size (the left and right bracket keys also adjust brush size here) to fit within the area of the owl not fully in focus, and paint over its back and tail to include those areas in focus.

You can paint with the overlay on or off as desired. Use the Amount slider to blend your adjusted area in with the rest of the photo. Zooming into 100% shows some areas along in focus objects that need help along the edges, such as the branch coming up in front of the owl. Switching to the Blur brush, I can fine tune those edges to clean that up and match the blur along the edge to the background’s level of blur. Just as when brushing in Masking, hold the spacebar and click on the image to zoom in/out, or to click and pan around.

When done brushing with either tool, use the Amount slider to fine tune the look to all the areas you brushed and blend with the rest of the photo. If you want to make a new brush adjustment, click the + sign next to the brushes to begin a new adjustment with a different amount setting. In this case I wanted to ease the transition of blur on the bottom branch as it heads into the background below the animals. Now, I know this is not the same as true lens blur done in-camera, but I do like having the ability to make the subjects stand out of a busy background in a subtle way with quite a bit of control. Be sure to use the eye icon on the Lens Blur panel as you go to see the photo without Lens Blur for comparison.

For a more exaggerated example, I’ll take a photo with a very wide depth of field and give it a strong blur effect to simulate a shallow depth of field. After letting Lightroom create its AI depth map I’ll grab the Point/Area Focus tool to manually click on the car to tighten the area of focus even more.

I’ll turn on Visualize Depth, and further refine the area I want to be in focus around the car.

I’ve got the area dialed in, but due to the car windows we can see into the background, but those areas are still in focus. Grabbing the Blur brush, I can brush over the areas within the windows to match the blur with the background.

With a new Blur brush, using a lower Flow setting to slowly build up the effect, I can paint on the hill behind the car to separate it from the car with a more subtle blur. If you accidentally paint over the wrong area, you can hold the Option (PC: Alt) key to flip the brush to an eraser to erase any errant strokes. By using a lower flow and multiple brush instances, you can build up layers of blur. In an otherworldly image like this, I think the added blur can enhance its look (again, subject to taste), and the Lens Blur tool provides a pretty high degree of control even in its Early Access state. I look forward to seeing how this tool evolves and how it can help us achieve a final look beyond what our cameras and lenses can do alone.

As a final note I’d like to thank Scott Kelby, Chris Main, Kim Doty, Barbara Thompson, Jessica Maldonado, Margie Rosenstien, and Angela Naymick, along with all the rest of the behind-the-scenes team that have made Photoshop User magazine so wonderful for so many years. I’m sorry to see this is the final issue, but it has been an honor and a privilege to have been able to write for it since Lightroom first came on the scene. Thank you to all who have read these issues, and I hope to see you still in the KelbyOne community and LightroomKillerTips.com. – Rob

The post Exploring the New Lens Blur Panel appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

When you launch the new version of Lightroom Classic it will walk you through the process of updating a copy of your current catalog to work with the new version. The copy is updated leaving your original catalog unchanged, so if you have a problem with the update you can easily go back to the state just after updating. Assuming all goes well, and you move forward in the new version, be sure to eventually delete that old catalog from the previous version as it will just take up space.

Lens Blur

An Early Release version of a new panel, called Lens Blur has arrived. Early Access means it is still a work in progress. No, it is not as good as achieving shallow depth of field in camera, but I think it is pretty good for improving what was done in camera with a few clicks and slider moves. I look forward to seeing this feature improve.

Point Color

We’ve gained even more control over the colors in our photo with the new Point Color feature. We’ll take a deeper dive into this soon, but for now start to explore how this works by expanding the (renamed from HSL/Color) Color Mixer panel, clicking the eye dropper tool, and sampling the color you want to edit.

With a color sampled the panel comes to life and you can begin adjusting the hue, saturation, and luminance with far greater control than we’ve ever had before.

Click the Mixer tab to access the HSL controls we’ve had for years.

HDR Edit and Output

We’ve been creating and editing high dynamic range (HDR) images for a long time, but as HDR displays become more accessible we’ve needed better tools for editing HDR images to be displayed their best on HDR monitors. The new HDR Edit and output features are designed to do just that. There’s a lot more to say and explore with this feature, so look for a follow up post in the near future devoted to just this. For now, read what the ACR team has to say about it.

Filter Develop Presets (LrC)

If you’re like me and have a growing number of Develop presets sitting in your Presets panel, then this small update may be most welcome. Just like we have the ability to filter the Folders and Collections panels, we now have that same functionality in the Presets panel. Simply start typing in the search field at the top of the panel and only preset groups and presets that match the text will appear. Useful naming of your presets just became more important.

And no update would be complete without some boosts to performance in LrC, most notably when reading and writing to XMP, converting to DNG, moving folders on your drive, and loading of photos in Develop. There is one very significant update in Lightroom for Mac/Windows that even Lightroom Classic users will want to check out.

Preview in History and Snapshots (LrC)

Just like we’ve been able to quickly preview the effect of a preset by moving the cursor over the desired preset, we can now similarly preview snapshots and history steps by moving the cursor over the desired snapshot or history step.

Local Tab (Lr for Mac/Win)

I’m very excited to see how this feature will evolve, but with this update we now have the ability to access and edit photos stored on our local hard drives without first importing them into Lr. Clicking the Local tab gives you file browser access to your drives where you can navigate to a folder of photos, browse those photos and edit them at will without ever seeing the import dialog and without having to upload those photos to the Adobe cloud. This is a real change in thinking for this cloud-based app! Edits are stored locally.

Keep in mind that photos edited locally can always be imported and synced if you wish (so you can access them on other devices running synced Lr apps), but you do not have to do this. We even have the ability to rename local folders and move photos between folders.

There may not be any features that feel as game changing as Masking or Denoise, but there’s still a lot of cool and interesting functionality to learn and see how to best incorporate into our existing and possibly new workflows. Stay tuned!

The post Adobe MAX Updates appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

As long as you keep scrolling, you get access to all of the tools. The new editing interface is much simpler and cleaner and fits without scrolling.

To get there, tap the 3-dot menu in iOS (3-line menu on Android) and go into App settings.

There, look for Early Access and tap that …

Then toggle on New Editor to enable to the new editing interface before tapping the X to close out of App settings. You can also go into that menu to send feedback to Adobe through the app.

A few things to note:

• You can find the Geometry tools under the Crop tool
• If you want to enable the visibility of the Profiles and Optics icons, tap the 3-dot menu and go under View options (if enabled, they’ll appear when you tap Edit)
• Also under the 3-dot menu you can quickly jump to Info and Rating tools

When you tap Edit, you’ll see the icons for the editing tools appear above the bottom toolbar.

I’m still giving it a test run, and I’m not sure what to think, but one thing I noticed on iOS is that when you rotate your device to landscape orientation you lose the editing tools and just see the photo alone. I did find it useful to have the tools along the side when editing some landscape orientated photos. I do appreciate the opportunity to explore, test, and give feedback before it becomes a final change. You can always disable Early access and go back to the original editing layout (for now). Try it and let me know what you think!

The post Get Early Access to a New Way to Edit in Lightroom for Mobile appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Basic Workflow Tips

Before diving into the new features, I want to review a few aspects of the LrC to Photoshop workflow that should keep you out of trouble. First, make sure that when you update LrC to a new version you are also updating the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) plug-in at the same time. When LrC sends a copy with Lightroom adjustments to Photoshop it uses ACR to render the photo that appears in Photoshop. Keeping those two programs at a compatible version will smooth out your workflow and ensure the photo is rendered correctly.

Second, pay attention to where you are selecting the photo in LrC before you send to Photoshop. If you use collections and you want the copy to be added to the same collection as the source photo, ensure you have the collection selected in the Collections panel (as opposed to a collection set or smart collection). If you only use folders, then ensure you have the desired folder selected in the Folders panel. Then make sure the sorting option for that collection or folder is set to Filename or Capture Time so that the resulting copy shows up right next to the source photo when your editing is done. Once you are done editing in Photoshop, use the File > Save command to automatically add the copy back to the LrC catalog and save it to the same folder as the source photo.

Since almost the dawn of (Lightroom) time, we’ve had the following choices under the Photo > Edit In menu for sending from LrC to Ps:

• Edit in Photoshop
• Open as Smart Object in Photoshop
• Merge to Panorama in Photoshop
• Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop
• Open as Layers in Photoshop

Ever since the Photo Merge options were added to LrC for creating panoramas and HDR (and HDR panos) I think most of us have stopped using those options within Photoshop, but it is worth noting they still work and can be useful if LrC’s own functions don’t deliver desired results. The April update allows us to choose the version of Photoshop (based on what’s installed on your computer) and adds a new option to Open as Smart Object Layers in Photoshop, which provides the most flexibility for a non-destructive workflow when using multiple photos on layers. Let’s look at how to use those new options.

Choosing Photoshop Version

Historically, the latest version of Photoshop installed always became the primary external editor without any way to change that, and if you only had one version of Photoshop installed, then it wasn’t really a problem. However, there can be good reasons to have more than one version of Photoshop installed, and if so, you may want LrC to send the copy to a specific version of Photoshop for a given job. For example, perhaps you have the new public Beta version of Photoshop installed, but because it is a Beta version you don’t want to use it for some photos. Alternatively, you might have an older version of Photoshop installed because it still works with a favorite old plug-in, and you might want to use that sometimes. Whatever your reasons, the April update for LrC allows us to choose the desired version of Photoshop from the LrC preferences. Here’s how:

Step One: Ensure you have LrC version 12.3 (or later) installed.

Step Two: Go to Lightroom Classic > Preferences > External Editing (PC: Edit > Preferences > External Editing) to open the preferences.

Step Three: Click the Photoshop Version drop-down menu and choose the desired version of Photoshop (if you have more than one version installed), then close the preferences.

Heads up, at the time of this writing there seems to be a bug in the Windows version of LrC affecting this feature, as I’ve heard from some folks on Windows that no drop-down appears. It is being discussed on the Adobe forum, but I’ve not seen a definitive solution yet. Hopefully this will be resolved soon if it affects you.

In this instance I’ve chosen the Adobe Photoshop (Beta) so that I can experiment with the new Remove Tool on one of my photos. As you can see from the screenshot, I also have an older version of Photoshop installed, and I could’ve chosen that if it fit my needs. Now I can use the Photo > Edit in > Edit in Photoshop command or Command+E (PC: Ctrl+E) as normal and the copy with Lightroom adjustments (because it is a raw photo with edits) will simply open in Photoshop Beta.

Side note, check out this video created by Adobe on how to install Beta apps if you are interested in testing them.

The Remove Tool in Photoshop Beta uses AI to replace the area you brush with new pixels in an amazingly realistic way (learn more about the Remove Tool). There may still be areas that need more TLC with another tool, but I was impressed with how well it removed the branch in front of this turkey’s face. When the editing is done, use the File > Save command as normal to add the copy to your catalog and then return to LrC.

Tune in next week as we finish up this look by exploring new options for opening as smart objects in Photoshop from LrC.

The post New Options in the Lightroom Classic to Photoshop Workflow appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Add and Remove Grain in Masking (LrC and Lr desktop)

When you create a new mask, you’ll find there is now a Grain section in the Effects panel that looks just like the Grain options we’re already familiar with in the main Effects panel. By default, Amount is set to 0, and dragging it to the right will add grain to the masked area. If you’ve applied Grain globally (in the main Effects panel), then you can use this tool to reduce the appearance of the grain in the masked area (or increase it further). Changing the values on the Size and Roughness sliders in the Masking panel will change those same settings in the main/global Effects panel. This connection between Grain in Masking and globally in the Effects panel allows you to fine tune the final effect.

Refine Saturation – RGB Point Tone Curve (LrC and Lr desktop)

There’s a new addition to the RGB point curve in the Tone Curve panel called, Refine Saturation. As soon as you start creating a new point curve you’ll see this slider appear under the tone curve. It starts at 100, which is the same result as we’ve have previously. What’s new is that we can drag it to the left to reduce the amount of saturation that occurs when making an adjustment with a curve. So, let’s say we want to use a curve to brighten up an image, but the colors are already pretty saturated, we can now apply that subtle curve to boost brightness, then use the Refine Saturation slider to throttle the saturation boost that would have normally occurred. First photo below set to 100 (default) and second photo with Refine Saturation set to 8 (set to 0 to retain original color saturation).

Color Mix (LrC)

The Color section of the HSL/Color panel now has indicators that appear under each color that has been adjusted so we don’t have to drill down into each one just to see if there is an adjustment, which is small, but welcome.

Additionally, there’s a new shortcut that’s pretty cool. If you hold down the Option key (PC: Alt) while making an adjustment with the Color Mix sliders or the HSL TAT (target adjustment tool) you will see the hue you are adjusting in color with the rest of the photo in grayscale to alternatively visualize your adjustment.

New Process Version

You may not notice this, but there is a new process version in town called Version 6, and it is a small change to the previous PV to do a better job in reducing banding in some photos.

Book Module Photo Cell Alignment

When making a book, we have new alignment buttons in the Cell panel (select a photo cell to enable this panel) for how the photo is aligned within the selected cell.

Edit Replay (Lr mobile only)

If you’ve ever wanted an easy way to share a short video of how you edited a photo in Lightroom, this new feature is for you. Currently this is only available in Lightroom on iOS and Android. First, go about your usual edit routine. When you’re satisfied that you’re done, tap the Share icon and you’ll see a new option called Create edit replay.

Tapping this will automatically create a short video that you can save to your device or share directly to social media. It shows a before and after view, then shows the stages after each major edit and ends with the final look of the photo. Give it a try and see what you think. If you share to social media and tag @Lightroom you may even get featured.

There was also a significant interface update to Lr for mobile that I think deserves a dedicated post, so stay tuned for that. Enjoy the update and let me know what you think of the new features.

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AI-powered Denoise

A new AI-powered tool has been added to aid us in removing noise from our photos. Built into the Enhance set of features (Super Resolution and Raw details), we now have the ability to reduce noise with a single click. You can launch Denoise from the Detail panel in Develop, or via the Photo > Enhance menu.

With a photo selected, click Denoise to open the Enhance Preview. Here you can adjust the Amount slider (50 is the default) to adjust the intensity of noise reduction (higher values are more aggressive in removing noise and can smooth detail more). Click and hold on the preview to see before and after views.

Once you’ve chosen the Amount value, click Enhance to create the new DNG copy with Denoise applied. Adobe recommends applying Denoise before other adjustments. This feature currently only works on Bayer and X-Trans RAW images. I’ve been very impressed with the results so far, and I think it works better than the existing noise removal tools found in Lightroom making this a great addition.

Enhanced photos will now have a new badge visible in Grid view and the Filmstrip. In addition, there is a new preference setting on the File Handling tab of the Preferences to automatically add a keyword to the enhanced photo indicating whichever of the features were used to create the enhanced version (Denoise, Super Resolution, or Raw Details). You’ll want to check out Eric Chan’s Denoise Demystified article to learn more from the ACR team.

Edit Indicators and Eyeballs

A simple but very useful feature is the addition of new indicators to quickly see which panels contain edits as well as a new eyeball icon that you can click and hold to temporarily disable the adjustments in a given panel. This is a feature that has existed in Lightroom since the beginning and I am so glad to see it has made its way into Lightroom Classic.

Dots will appear under tools in the Toolstrip (like Masking) to indicate if a tool has been used. On each panel, a dark eyeball indicates no settings in that panel have been applied, while a lit eyeball indicates a panel with settings. This can be so helpful determining what settings are included in a given preset, just click the preset and see which lights come on.

Masking Updates

Masking tools continue to evolve and improve. Now, under People masking we have the ability to automatically generate masks for facial hair and clothes.

In addition, Curves adjustments have now also made their way into Lightroom Classic. We have had this in Camera Raw, and I’m glad to see this has been added to Lightroom Classic and Lightroom for desktop.

Edit in Photoshop

Sure, we’ve been able to send photos to edit in Photoshop since the dawn of time, but with this update we’ve gained a couple of cool additions. The first is that we can now choose which version of Photoshop we want to use as the primary external editor. Head over to the External Editor tab of the Preferences to see the new drop-down. This is really helpful for those of us exploring the Photoshop Beta or who just like to use more than one version of Photoshop.

Beyond that, we can now select multiple photos in LrC and use the Photo > Edit In menu to access a new option to open as Smart Object Layers in Photoshop. Very cool! There’s a lot to love and explore in this update. I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts on the new features!

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