New features summary

Use Lightroom on the web for collaborative feedback and commenting

You can now share collections with Lightroom on the web with family, friends, clients, or anyone you need to show your work to. Solicit feedback, comments, and ask viewers to like their favorite photos - Lightroom automatically syncs the information to your Lightroom desktop or Lightroom mobile devices. For example, you can view comments on your iPhone as soon as a friend leaves a comment or suggestion about your photo - and respond from your mobile device right away.

For more information, see the article on how you can share photos for comments and feedback.

What's New in Lightroom 5.5

Lightroom mobile for iPhone

You can now install Lightroom mobile on an iPhone. Set up your iPhone pictures folder to sync with Lightroom mobile automatically, and watch the pictures show up on your desktop or iPad for further editing and cataloging.

Enhancements

Lightroom mobile has been enhanced to sync more information from Lightroom desktop with your iPad or iPhone. Lightroom mobile apps can now display your photos according to the star rating or custom sort order specified in Lightroom desktop.

Sorting order

Now sort pictures in the Lightroom mobile app based on the custom order you specified in Lightroom desktop. In the Lightroom mobile app, open a Collection, tap the name of the Collection, and then tap Custom Order in the menu.

Star rating

View pictures in the Lightroom mobile app based on the star rating specified in Lightroom desktop. In the Lightroom mobile app, open a Collection, tap the name of the Collection, and then tap the star ratings section in the menu.

• Get started with Lightroom mobile!
• For your iPad or iPhone: Help for the Lightroom mobile app.
  
• For your desktop: Help to set up Lightroom desktop to sync with Lightroom mobile.
• Troubleshooting information: The Lightroom Mobile FAQ.
  

What's New in Lightroom 5.4

Lightroom mobile for iPad

The Lightroom mobile app extends the features of Lightroom desktop to your iPad. You could download your DSLR photos to Lightroom desktop, create a Collection, and sync the Collection with Lightroom mobile. Once synced, continue editing the photos on your iPad. All your Lightroom mobile edits are automatically synced back to your desktop.

Or, you could choose to automatically import photos from your iPad's Camera Roll into Lightroom mobile. Whether the photos are from your desktop or from the Camera Roll, continue to edit, organize, sync, and share your photos - right from your iPad.

• Get started with Lightroom mobile!
• For your iPad or iPhone: Help for the Lightroom mobile app.
  
• For your desktop: Help to set up Lightroom desktop to sync with Lightroom mobile.
• Troubleshooting information: The Lightroom Mobile FAQ.
  

What's New in Lightroom 5.2

A ready-reckoner of the new enhancements and refinements:

Color Noise Reduction A Smoothness adjustment slider has been added to the Detail Panel under Color Noise Reduction. The smoothness adjustment helps to reduce low-frequency color mottling artifacts.

Refinements to the Spot Healing Tool

• New Feather control.
• Auto find source method now works better for images with textured areas like rocks, bark, and foliage.
• Auto find source method now prefers source areas within the crop rectangle.

Auto Exposure The auto exposure feature has been improved to be more consistent across images and across different image sizes.

Smart Preview The size of a Smart Preview image has been updated to be 2560 pixels along the long edge.

Local Adjustment Brush enhancements:

• Right-click / Control-click (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to bring up a context menu with options to duplicate or delete the adjustment.
  
• Hold Control + Alt and drag / Command + Option + drag (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to clone (duplicate) the adjustment.
  

What's New in Lightroom 5.0

Radial Filter

In photographs with busy backgrounds, the subject of your photograph can get lost in the ambient colors and textures. Creating a vignette effect is another way to focus attention, but only works if the focal point is in the center of the image.

The new Radial Filter tool in Lightroom 5 lets photographers emphasize the important part of an image by creating off-center vignette effects or multiple vignetted areas to highlight multiple areas. Simply use the Radial Filter to draw an elliptical shape. You can adjust the portion outside the ellipse by ensuring that the Invert Mask checkbox is unchecked. By checking the Invert Mask checkbox, you can make adjustments to the inside of the ellipse.

You can adjust a number of parameters including exposure, contrast, saturation, clarity, and sharpness of the portions inside or outside the marquee area.

For more information and a video on this new feature, see Radial Filter in Lightroom 5.

Enhanced Spot Removal tool

Fix defects with irregular shapes

Physical imperfections (for example, wrinkles, scars, or blemishes) or unwanted elements (for example, people in a landscape, or accidentally included elements) in images can reduce the overall impact of the photograph.

With the enhanced Spot Removal tool in Lightroom 5, it is easy to draw or 'paint' over these unnecessary elements, even if they are irregular shapes. You can adjust the brush size and opacity to give you more control over the areas you are healing.  

For more information and a video on this new feature, see the article on the enhanced spot removal tool.

Visualize Spots

While the Spot Removal tool enables you to remove visible imperfections, some flaws in the photo may not be visible in the normal view (for example, sensor dust, or spots or blemishes on a portrait). The Visualize Spots option available with the Spot Removal tool enables you to see smaller and less-visible imperfections. When you select the Visualize Spots checkbox, the image appears inverted. You can vary the contrast levels of the inverted image to see imperfections more clearly. You can then use the Spot Removal tool in this view to remove any imperfections.

For more information and a video on this enhanced feature, see the article on the enhanced spot removal tool.

Upright - Automatic Perspective Correction

Upright (Develop Module > Lens Corrections > Basic tab) enables you to automatically straighten image content. Upright automatically corrects the perspective of the elements in a photograph. Upright has four settings that you can choose from:

• Auto: Balanced level, aspect ratio, and perspective corrections
• Level: Perspective corrections are weighted toward horizontal details
• Vertical: Perspective corrections are weighted toward vertical details and level corrections
  
• Full: Combination of full Level, Vertical, and Auto perspective corrections

You can apply one setting, cycle through the others, and then choose the setting that is best for your photograph.

For more information and a video on this new feature, see the article on the Upright tool.

Smart Previews

You can now easily work with images without having to carry the original files with you at all times. Store your original image files on an external device, and generate smaller preview files called Smart Previews. Smart previews are stored in the same folder as your Lightroom catalog. If the device that contains your original files is disconnected from your computer, Lightroom uses Smart Previews. In addition to being able to view the photographs, you can edit Smart Previews. When you reconnect the device that contains the original files, all your edits to the Smart Previews are automatically applied to the originals.

For more information and a video on this new feature, see the article on Smart Previews.

Improved Book Creation

The Book Module has been improved to provide greater flexibility to customize book templates. Enhancements include:

• Page numbers, and the ability to start numbering at any page.
  
• Photo text boxes to caption photos and pages are now more accessible.
• Template creation from customized pages, for reuse in other projects or pages.
  

For more information and a video on this enhanced workflow, see the article on creating a photo book in Lightroom 5.

Share Photos with Publishing Services

Behance

Behance is an online platform to showcase and discover creative work. Creatives from across industries use Behance to gain exposure, attribution, and opportunity. You can now use the Behance publishing service to share your photos. Showcase your work, view feedback, post revisions - all from within Lightroom 5.

For more information, see the article on how to publish from Lightroom to Behance.

Revel

In Lightroom 5, the Revel publishing service is not installed by default. To install the service, browse to the Lightroom-Revel plugin page, and follow the instructions provided.

Videos in Slideshows

Lightroom 5 introduces the ability to combine video with photographs and music to create rich slideshows.

Lab Color Values Readout

In the Develop module, the RGB value of the color below the mouse pointer is displayed below the Histogram. In Lightroom 5, you can now get precise readings of Lab values for any color in your image. To view Lab values of a color:

1. In the Develop module, right-click / ctrl+click the Histogram.
2. In the context menu, select Show Lab Color Values.
3. Move the mouse pointer to any location on the open image. The precise Lab values are displayed below the histogram.
   

Loupe Overlay: Grid

A new visualization has been added to check if objects in your image are aligned or askew. The new Loupe Overlay features a resizable grid-like overlay that is visible on the image. You can control the opacity of the overlay to ensure that it does not get in the way of your editing tasks.

Loupe Overlay: Guides

A new guides feature (View > Loupe Overlay > Guides) has also been added. It allows you to position a movable crosshair anywhere on the image. Hold Ctrl / Cmd, and then drag the intersection of the crosshair to move the guide.

Support for PNG files

Lightroom 5 includes full support for PNG files. When you open a PNG format file in Lightroom 5, any transparency is displayed as white color. If you edit the PNG file in Photoshop, or export the file, the transparency settings are maintained.

True full-screen mode

In the Library or Develop modules, use the F key to toggle between application and full-screen view.

Video: 10 not-to-be-missed features