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Adobe Lightroom CC 1.0 user interface

While Adobe has been introducing mobile and cloud-based applications at the furious pace of well-nigh one a month, its flagship products accept stayed focused on their desktop feel–until now. At its annual MAX briefing, Adobe is introducing a cloud-focused version of Lightroom, chosen Lightroom CC (Artistic Cloud). While information technology is still a i.0 and lacks all the features of traditional Lightroom (at present called Lightroom Archetype), Adobe is clearly counting on it to be the future. Besides announced are some sizable updates to Photoshop and many other Adobe apps.

I've been using the new version of Lightroom and the updated Photoshop for a few days. There is a lot to like, but there'southward also plenty of room for future growth.

Adobe Lightroom CC Re-Imagines the Interface

When I commencement saw the prototype of Lightroom at a focus group of pro photographers hosted by Adobe, it was a adequately straightforward application designed to help showcase images. Over the years it has grown, and grown, and become a very-complex tool that does just about everything related to photo workflows. Every bit a result the interface has gotten more and more than cluttered. Lightroom CC has given Adobe a hazard to start from scratch with a new, streamlined, interface focused on the about important tasks and tools the style they are used at present.

Auto-Keywording Really Works

Every year object recognition technology improves, and with Lightroom CC it has really come into its ain. Without any intervention on my role, the images in my Lightroom CC albums (the name it uses for traditional Collections) were analyzed and a wide-variety of objects identified. Obvious terms like tree yielded excellent result, as did slightly more abstruse terms like temple (illustrated below). Amusingly, a model of Chicago'due south Wrigley Field also qualified as a temple, which I'm sure volition make Cubs fans happy:

The coolest feature of Lightroom CC is automatic keywording, as you can see here it did a good job of finding images featuring temples
The autotagging is a bit different than conventional keywording, though. You don't see the full taxonomy, although you can still add your own keywords to images. The system definitely isn't perfect, every bit this image from a museum lobby that Lightroom labeled as a garage, demonstrates:

Automatic tagging is far from perfect, though. This image of the rotunda of the Texas State History Museum was labeled as a garage.

Automatic tagging is far from perfect, though. This prototype of the rotunda of the Texas State History Museum was labeled as a garage.

Lightroom CC Actually is Cloud-First

The new Lightroom CC works with updated versions of the Lightroom app for Android and iOS, too every bit with a web interface. Images are automatically and silently backed upwards to the Adobe Cloud, so accessible on all platforms. Yous tin can optionally keep a local re-create, but you can't turn off the cloud. Interestingly, the splash screen for Lightroom CC at present refers to it as a service, rather than as an application.

Along with the new version of Lightroom and its integrated storage come new subscriptions. Outset, Lightroom CC will be added automatically to existing CC and CC Photography plans, but may non exist very useful with only the included 20GB of storage. For another $10 per month, you tin upgrade your Photography plan to include 1TB of storage. Existing users can go a 50 per centum discount for the beginning year. Additional storage tin can be rented (it's not really purchased), probable for a similar price. If yous're willing to go entirely new school, there is a new Lightroom CC plan, which includes Lightroom CC and 1TB of storage for $10 per month.

The Lightroom CC editing controls are much more straightforward than the ones in Lightroom Classic, and are also laid out in a more intuitive way

Beware the Cloud

In principle the seamless, multi-platform, synchronized workflow of Lightroom CC sounds ideal. Simply log in to your Adobe CC business relationship, and have access to all of your images, in full-resolution, beyond all your devices. Originals are (hopefully safely) stored in Adobe'due south Cloud.

For many users, that may be the perfect solution. Just for others, there are some flies in the ointment. Offset, you're forced to apply Adobe's Cloud. Nearly photographers already accept at least one photo sharing site or cloud storage service they work with. Adobe'southward Deject isn't free (for 1TB it's roughly $120 per twelvemonth additional), so you'll either need to switch or pay for 2 storage solutions. If all y'all want is a place for photos, Amazon Bulldoze features unlimited photo storage (and 1TB of video and documents) for $60 per yr, for example.

Second, there's currently no option to not store all your photos in Adobe Deject. For customers with data caps (like Comcast's 1TB/month) or tiresome internet upload speeds, big prototype libraries could result in complications. I asked Adobe virtually these bug, and they said that Lightroom is a 1.0, and they're looking to work with the photographic customs going forrard, the same way they did with the original Lightroom. So I expect progress over the coming years, but 1.0 won't be for everyone.

The adept news is that desktop Lightroom isn't going away (at least non any time shortly). Adobe is continuing to amend it. Today'south update features quite a number of performance improvements, for case.

Photoshop Also Gets Some Dainty Updates

While there isn't anything truly amazing that'south new for Photoshop CC, in that location are some nice additions. Showtime, at that place's now a wide diversity of tutorials that walk you lot through mutual prototype editing operations. Dissimilar the Guided Edits in Elements, though, they don't operate on your images. Instead, they just testify you some tips using provided sample images:

The new version of Photoshop CC adds a wide variety of tutorials to address the comment complaint that it is too hard to learn

Most exciting to me is editing 360-degree panoramas. Until now this has required using a split tool with its own interface quirks. However, in the limited time I've had with the new version, I couldn't figure out how to make use of it, but I'm certain in that location will exist documentation on it soon. Ane feature I really demand, merely is withal missing, is Export presets for Photoshop like to the ones offered by Camera Raw. They would be awesome time-savers.

One cool-sounding feature is the ability to import depth maps from HEIF images, like those captured by Apple'due south new iPhones. Presumably that would permit improved depth-related post-processing, like masking and manipulating the apparent focus. Adobe is as well quite excited about an overhaul of Photoshop's brush presets. It looks swell, merely I can't claim to utilise plenty different brushes to know how much of an improvement it is.

Other upgrades: Access to Adobe Stock is fabricated easier, and at that place are new features in type and font direction. You can also open up Lightroom images right from the Photoshop File->Open command, which is pretty slick. Ane nice piddling improvement is unproblematic support for re-create and pasting layers. At that place are quite a few other pocket-size improvements and some performance tweaks, in keeping with Adobe'southward annual feature release.

1 Adept Thing About Subscriptions

In a typical review, about here is where I'd stack up the pros and cons of purchasing a new product. In this example, if you lot're reading this, you probably already have the correct to apply it. If you lot don't, and then $120 per yr is a off-white toll for quite a scrap of powerful technology. That leaves the decision of whether to invest in the additional storage needed for Lightroom CC, or be willing to give up on Photoshop and get the Lightroom CC just program that includes storage instead.

Adobe itself is quick to acknowledge that Lightroom CC is a 1.0. So if yous're serious almost working on images on your desktop, I recall it is too early to commit to information technology solely. On the other hand, it is a pretty nice way to do some cross-platform image editing. If you lot use your mobile devices for much of your editing, and only utilize your desktop or laptop equally all the same some other editing platform, Lightroom CC might be perfect for you. It certainly has a much more streamlined interface, although it currently doesn't include all of Lightroom Classic'south functionality.

The new versions of Photoshop and Lightroom should be available for download today, although in some cases not all of the appear features may exist available right away.