Every few years, Adobe adds something new and interesting to their raw file engine. We saw it when they added the Clarity slider, when we lost “Fill Light” and “Recovery” in favour of shadows, highlights and white levels. And we saw it fairly recently when they introduced Dehaze. Now, they’ve added a new “Texture” slider, which is sort of like the Clarity slider, only much smarter.
Along with the new raw engine update, Adobe has today announced updates to various versions of Lightroom, including Lightroom Classic as well as Lightroom for iOS and Android. Adobe Camera Raw, too.
Lightroom
So, first up, let’s take a quick look at the new Texture slider. This comes to Lightroom versions for the desktop as well as Adobe Camera Raw v11.3. Its goal is to help combat and overcome some of the issues people have experienced trying to bring detail back using the clarity slider. The Texture slider is “smart” in the sense that it looks for particular types of detail to enhance, rather than trying to affect everything the way the clarity slider does.
A new Defringe option has been added to the Optics section, allowing you to more easily remove purple or green fringing caused by chromatic aberration in lenses. You can even select the specific colour to target now with an eye dropper.
Lightroom Classic also sees Flat-Field Correction built into the Library module. Previously available as a plugin, it helps to correct for sensor and lens issues that can result in asymmetrical colour casts. For more information on how this works, have a read of this excellent article.
As well as these, the new Camera Raw engine in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw sees the usual updates to camera & lens compatibility. You can see a full and current list of supported kit here.
Lightroom for Mobile
Ok, so iOS and Android are essentially both seeing the same updates, except for one huge one. Lightroom for Android is getting batch processing. Yes, that’s right, you’ll be able to apply your changes to a whole bunch of images at once now from your Android smartphone or tablet. This is a premium feature for Adobe CC subscribers.
So, now the combined new features. First up, interactive tutorials. Within the Home section of the app, there are a bunch of new tutorials available for free showing various editing techniques using the software. You’re able to follow along with the tutorial within the app and even download the original images to follow along step-by-step. These will also soon be coming to Lightroom for Windows and Mac.
For those working teams or who wish to share with friends, Group Albums are now a thing. You’ll be able to invite friends, relatives and colleagues into your albums with either read-only ability or with the option to add to the album. Very handy when you’re working with others on the go.
Lightroom for Mobile also sees the Texture update added to Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera Raw, as well as seeing the new camera and lens support.
For more complete lists of all the updates, have a look below…
The new apps are available to download now through the Adobe Creative Cloud app on the desktop or the App Store and Play Store for iOS and Android respectively.
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