Adobe’s August Update Adds GPU Accelerated Editing to Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw
Creative suite developer Adobe has rolled out several improvements to Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic, their desktop-centric photography programs.
As explained in a post on the Adobe Blog, GPU Accelerated Editing allows ‘Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw take advantage of the more powerful graphics cards (GPUs) while editing, providing a smoother and more responsive experience.’ Specifically, Adobe says the acceleration will ‘more pronounced with larger resolution monitors (4k and above) as well as with more powerful GPUs.’
GPU Accelerated Editing
Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw
Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw take advantage of the more powerful graphics cards (GPUs) while editing, providing a smoother and more responsive experience. GPU acceleration is more pronounced with larger resolution monitors (4k and above) as well as with more powerful GPUs.
PNG export support
Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw
The PNG file format is a popular uncompressed file format often used on the web. Lightroom and Camera Raw have supported importing and opening PNG-based files for some time, and now you can export your photos as PNGs.
Library Module Improvements
Lightroom Classic
As part of our on-going effort to improve speed and performance in Lightroom Classic, significant improvements were made to the Library module while browsing folders.
Color Labels for Collections
Lightroom Classic
Color labels have long been used in Lightroom Classic as a way to quickly visualize different groups of photos and recently we made it possible to add color labels to folders. In this update, we added the ability to also add color labels to Collections. Find what you’re looking for faster by adding color labels to collections, collection sets, and smart collections.
Batch Merge for HDR, Panoramas, and HDR Panoramas
Lightroom Classic
Batch processing is a great way to speed up your workflow by helping you gang up processor-intensive efforts and letting your computer do the heavy lifting without having to wait for each task to be done. The August release of Lightroom Classic makes it possible to batch process HDR and panorama merges. To batch merge, first, make a stack of each HDR or pano that you want to merge (make sure that you’re selecting like stacks, all HDR or all pano merges, without mixing up the two types). Then, select each stack you want to merge and select the appropriate option from the Photo > Photo Merge menu.
New Features Throughout the Lightroom Ecosystem
The August releases for Lightroom, our cloud-centric photography ecosystem, include the ability to recover deleted photos, improvements to the in-app educational tools released in May, as well as improvements to search.
Recover Deleted Photos
Lightroom for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, ChromeOS, and lightroom.adobe.com
A new Deleted folder is now available in all Lightroom apps, making it possible to recover photos that were accidentally deleted for up to 60 days. If you’re using a free version of Lightroom, you can recover your photos on the device on which they were deleted. If you’re a Creative Cloud member or have a Premium subscription, you can recover deleted photos on any device connected to your account.
Create Presets From Discover Posts
Lightroom for iOS, Android, and ChromeOS
Discover posts were introduced in the May 2019 release and allow you to see the editing process applied to a photo. Now you can turn those edits into a preset that you can apply to any of your photos. Tap to open a Discover post and then tap on the three-dot menu at the top-right and select Download as Preset. You’ll be able to find that new preset named after the Discover post within your preset library.
Improved Search Options
Lightroom for iOS, Android, and ChromeOS
Three new auto-complete search tools were added to Lightroom for iOS, Android, and ChromeOS (these tools were already available in Lightroom for Windows and Mac) making it easier than ever to find the exact photo you’re looking for. You can now search for photos shot with a specific focal length, for raw, HDR, or pano phototypes, and for images that include a depth map. To use, start typing “focal length:”, “type:”, or “depth map:” and the search auto-complete will let you pick from the available options in your catalog.
Batch Metadata
Lightroom for Android and ChromeOS
In addition to being able to copy and paste edits to a series of photos, you can now select a range of photos and adjust the metadata of all of the selected photos. You can change the title, caption, copyright, star rating, and flag status for all selected photos at once. This functionality is being worked on for iOS and will be made available as soon as possible.
Full Description of New Features
For more information about all of the improvements and updates in each product, please see the What’s New pages below:
