Adobe today announced the all-new Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC cloud-based photography service. Launched over a decade ago, Lightroom became the industry’s leading desktop application for editing and organizing photography. Now in an increasingly mobile-centric world, and with major improvements in smartphone cameras, Lightroom is transforming digital photography again. Built for professionals and enthusiasts, the new Lightroom CC fulfills the demands of today’s photographers for a more accessible, cloud-based photography service for editing, organizing, storing and sharing their photos from wherever they are.
Featuring a streamlined user interface, Lightroom CC enables powerful editing in full resolution across mobile, desktop and the web. With Lightroom CC, photographers can make edits on one device and automatically synchronize their changes everywhere. Lightroom CC makes organizing photography collections easier with features like searchable keywords that are automatically applied without the hassle of tagging. And Lightroom CC makes it simple to share photos on social media.
“As the leader in digital photography, today Adobe is unveiling Lightroom CC, our next generation photography service,” said Bryan Lamkin, executive vice president and general manager, Digital Media at Adobe. “Lightroom CC answers photographers’ demand for a deeply integrated, intelligent, cloud-based photography solution.”
What’s the Difference Between Lightroom and Lightroom Classic?
Going forward, the product you’ve known as Lightroom will be rebranded “Lightroom Classic CC”. Why change? We have introduced a new photography service that will now be called “Lightroom CC”. It is designed to be a cloud-based ecosystem of apps that are deeply integrated and work together seamlessly across desktop, mobile, and web. Lightroom Classic CC is designed for desktop-based (file/folder) digital photography workflows. It’s a well-established workflow solution that is distinct and separate from our new cloud-native service. By separating the two products, we’re allowing Lightroom Classic to focus on the strengths of a file/folder based workflow that many of you enjoy today, while Lightroom CC addresses the cloud/mobile-oriented workflow.
What’s New in Lightroom Classic CC
As many of our customers know, Lightroom Classic (originally Lightroom) was born to help you manage your photography workflows and bring your images to life with a fleet of editing capabilities. But while the palette of Lightroom features grew, our performance detracted from these gains. So we took stock of where you were feeling the most performance anxieties, and dedicated this launch primarily to addressing these issues. The concerns that we gathered primarily centered around optimizing Lightroom Classic’s import and editing workflows.
Here are some of the highlights of where we have made gains that we have tested internally and are betting you will see:
- Application launch time
- Preview generation including in Standard, 1:1 and Minimal previews
- Import selection workflow with “Embedded & Sidecar” preview option (tips here)
- Switching between Library and Develop Module
- Moving from photo to photo in the Develop Module
- Responsive brushing
For a complete listing of “What’s New” in Lightroom Classic, click here.
We have also added new tools to make precise color and tone-based selections for Local Adjustments. You can now use the adjustment brush, radial, or graduated filters to define a rough mask, then refine the selection via the new Range Masking options found at the bottom of each Local Adjustment panel. This serves as a nice complement to meet your masking needs with the already existing auto mask feature in place.
Key Lightroom CC capabilities include:
- The most powerful image editing technology: Built on the same imaging technology that powers Photoshop and Lightroom, Lightroom CC offers a new streamlined interface with easy-to-use sliders, presets and quick adjustment tools.
- Edit anywhere: Lightroom CC allows photographers to edit full-resolution photos anywhere – on mobile devices, desktop or the web. Edits made on one device are automatically synced across devices for anywhere access.
- Worry free back-up, cloud storage: Lightroom CC has scalable storage options for safe and secure back up of full-resolution photos – including raw files.
- Powered by Adobe Sensei: Adobe Sensei’s machine learning technology automatically applies searchable keywords to objects in photographs – making organization in Lightroom CC effortless.
- Built-in sharing tools: Lightroom CC makes it easy to share photos directly via social media and to create custom Lightroom web galleries that can be shared via link. Photographers can also share their work through new Adobe Portfolio integration with Lightroom CC.
- Updated award-winning mobile and web experiences:
- Lightroom CC for mobile on iOS: Built-in search functionality powered by Adobe Sensei, keyword support, hierarchical album support, an enhanced iPad app layout and iOS 11 files support.
- Lightroom CC for mobile on Android: Tablet support and a local adjustments brush, along with the same built-in search functionality, keyword support and hierarchical album support as seen in the iOS app.
- Lightroom CC for web: Ability to create and manage a public gallery page, as well as enhanced integration with Adobe Portfolio, which enables subscribers to easily import collections and publish their best shots to a customized Portfolio website in just a few clicks.
Updates to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC
Major updates to Lightroom Classic CC, previously known as Lightroom CC, include an enhanced Embedded Preview workflow that enables users to scroll through large sets of photos to select a subset of images significantly faster than before. Lightroom Classic CC also features new editing capabilities, including a new Color Range and Luminance Masking functionality that enables users to apply precise edits. As contrasted with the cloud-centric, anywhere workflows of Lightroom CC, the new Lightroom Classic CC continues to focus on a more traditional desktop-first workflow with local storage and file and folder control.
Availability, Plans and Pricing
The all-new Lightroom CC is available across three photography plans:
- For photographers that want an all-in-one plan that offers the full benefits of the Lightroom CC service plus the transformative power of Photoshop, the Creative Cloud Photography plan with 1 TB includes Lightroom CC, Lightroom for mobile and web, Photoshop CC, Adobe Spark with premium features, Adobe Portfolio, and 1 TB of cloud storage ($19.99/month, but available at $14.99/month for the first year for existing Creative Cloud Photography customers).
- Lightroom CC has also been added to the existing Creative Cloud Photography plan with an additional 20 GB of storage to help users get started on the new service. This plan remains at $9.99/month and includes Lightroom CC, Lightroom for mobile and web, Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC, Adobe Spark with premium features, Adobe Portfolio, and 20 GB of cloud storage. Creative Cloud All Apps members also have access to the new Lightroom CC service.
- The all-new Lightroom CC plan addresses the needs of photographers who want a cloud-based photography service for editing, organizing, storing and sharing their photos from wherever they are, and includes Lightroom CC, Lightroom for mobile and web, Adobe Spark with premium features, Adobe Portfolio, and 1 TB of cloud storage ($9.99/month).
For those who are truly mobile and don’t require a desktop photography solution, the Lightroom Mobile plan for iOS and Android is available with 100 GB ($4.99/month).
For more information on available plans, please visit https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html.
