Final Release of Adobe Lightroom 5 is Available Now

Final Release of Adobe Lightroom 5 is Available Now

After much anticipation, Adobe has just announced the latest iteration of their popular editing and workflow program, Lightroom 5. The early adopters to the Creative Cloud services will be happy to see a notification to download waiting for them right now, while the non-Creative Cloud perpetual license version is available for purchase on Adobe’s website now (and everywhere now). While we reserve full judgement on the program until after a thorough review, let's take a quick look at this final release and see how it handles.

I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time with the latest edition to the Lightroom series and have culled through hundreds of photos and edited dozens with it already. I’ve spent my Sunday afternoon digging through settings, playing with the new features and and most importantly, getting some post processing work done.

Performance

The transition from LR 4 to 5 is simple. Upon installing Lightroom 5, Adobe detected my catalogs from Lightroom 4 and automatically went through the conversion process to make them work seamlessly with its latest software. All of my presets, filters, smart collections and settings were loaded automatically. It did this so seamlessly, I actually had to double check that I was loading up Lightroom 5, and not 4.

The first thing I noticed was the speed of the program. Lightroom 5 is really fast compared to Lightroom 4. So fast in fact, I’ve already uninstalled Photo Mechanic as my culling service for larger shoots which I was using because of the lethargic pace of Lightroom 4. Certainly, the latest software still bogs down a little, but it is nothing compared to what Lightroom 4 does. The previews render much faster now, making it a viable culling application for larger projects (such as weddings). The speed is comparable to what we saw in Lightroom 3. While it still doesn't load as fast as some culling programs available, it does run at a manageable pace. Previews seem to load faster than ever, without the long wait on a blurry photo like you got with Lightroom 4. Switching from Library mode to Develop mode still has a short delay, but the previewing system is faster and makes the entire program feel as though its speeding along.

New Features

The Upright tool (which we played with in the beta) is incredible, allowing you to fix horizons and tilts that you might find in your photos. The tool seems to be extremely powerful and work with incredible accuracy. Though this was something that could be done manually, this tool allows it to be done in a single click and seemed to fix every horizon problem I had with superb accuracy. This feature can be found in the Lens Corrections category, in Develop mode.

The Advanced Healing brush works much like the Content Aware fill does in Photoshop. By allowing you to create custom brush shapes, this tool allows you to remove objects in photos with ease. Simply click, drag and release, and the problem is fixed. Prior to this, we often had to open these photos manually in Photoshop to get the advanced tools we desired. And while this type of tool isn’t new for some of us advanced Photoshop users who adapted to it back in Photoshop CS4, it is great to have the tool available while we’re in Lightroom too.
 
HealingBrush-Example-1

 

The Radial Filter allows you to alter different parts of the photo selectively, much like you’d find in third party apps such as Viveza. By doing this, you’re able to draw the viewers attention to different parts of the photo selectively. You can also use it to increase sharpness at different parts of the photo, and works much like a Layer Mask would in Photoshop. Previously, this could be done with adjustment brushes, but the Radial Filter allows similar editing stills to be done in a more graduate system.

radial gradient filter
 
The Visual Spot setting is perhaps the greatest, and certainly my favorite, new tool to come to this latest release. By temporarily converting your photo into a strange abstract black and white photo, you’re able to see contrastes in the image with ease, which will allow you to clean up any sensor dust or other problems you might not notice right away when looking at it normally.
 
Visualize-Spots-Tool
 

Like mentioned above, Lightroom 5 is available now for $149 at Adobe.com. If you already have a recent version of Lightroom you can upgrade for $79. If you have the Creative Cloud, there is no additional fee. Just activate the download in the Adobe Application Manager.

Over the next couple weeks, we will be asking the important question: "With these new features (things many of us had the opportunity to play with in the beta release), is Adobe Lightroom 5 worth the upgrade?" For me and at this point, after using it for the last few hours in my actual workflow, it is a no brainer. Absolutely, it's worth it. With the faster speeds and useful tools, Lightroom 5 feels like a significant upgrade from its predecessor. Look forward to our full review of Lightroom 5 for some serious scrubbing of what this software can do, but right now I'm pretty satisfied with what I've seen.

For more on what to expect in Lightroom 5, watch Trevor Dayley take you through the new functions revealed in the beta.

Zach Sutton's picture

Zach Sutton is an award-winning and internationally published commercial and headshot photographer based out of Los Angeles, CA. His work highlights environmental portraiture, blending landscapes and scenes with portrait photography. Zach writes for various publications on the topic of photography and retouching.

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How to save $50 to $80 on Creative Cloud (for Pro Photographers)...

If you're like me, and use Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6, you're probably excited about the new Lightroom 5 and the upcoming Photoshop CC.

Lightroom 5 was released yesterday, and I almost downloaded the full version today, but then realized that my beta version is good through June 30. Because I own Photoshop CS6, I have until July 31st to get the $19.99 rate on the Creative Cloud. By continuing to use my beta version of Lightroom 5 through June 30, then downloading trial versions of the full versions of Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC on June 30th, plus whatever other CC software I want to use, which will be good until July 30, I will save over $80, since the Creative Cloud will be $49.99 a month after my 1st year. And if you can't wait to try out Photoshop CC, you can still download trial versions of it and Lightroom 5 when the CC versions are released which will last you for 30 days, which will still save you $50.

IT requires Mac OS X 10.7 and up. I wonder why. I have 10.6 and it is very stable so I will not buy new OS X just for LR5. Not unless there is a big step in performance but I doubt that.

10.8 is only $19.99 and it includes Dictation. Just talk ANYWHERE you can type, and it converts speech to text. This alone makes 10.8 worth the upgrade. (plus you upgrade Safari, and everything else on your Mac).

The price is obviously not a problem(but it would cost me double for two machines). The thing is that I have two Macs with stable systems. And I like how they work. I wonder what LR5 requires that can't be installed over 10.6

I believe TIme Machine was introduced prior to 10.6. Install 10.8, and you only pay once, as it is tied to your Apple or iTunes ID, and you can install it on ALL your Macs), and if you don't like it, you can revert back to 10.6 with Time Machine.

But if you read Apple forums, many who didn't like 10.7 went from 10.6 to 10.8 and love the stability and speed, plus you get to upgrade all your other Apple software, since many upgrades depend on having the latest software.

After watching the keynote yesterday, I can't wait for 10.9. MANY speed and stability improvements.

buggy..... adobe sucks

Does VSCO work with Lightroom 5?

Yeah, I mailed the VSCO support team. They said it will have no issues with LR5 and ACR8. =)) Now I'm just waiting for my iMac 27" to arrive at the doorstep!

Radical Gradient can be done in camera. Just set your flash to 105mm and point it at her face. Set your exposure to 1/3 stop under and your flash power to the correct exposure. There you go, radical gradient. No post necessary.

I've been using Lightroom 3 and love it. You mentioned here how seamlessly Lightroom 4 upgraded to Lightroom 5, and I'm wondering if Lightroom 3 would upgrade equally smoothly. Thanks.

I run LR4 on a very fast machine and find that it never utilises anywhere near all of my CPU, RAM or SSD performance. Apparently they detuned it so it will behave nicely on lesser systems but the side effect is that it won't utilise the full power available. Is LR5 any different? We need an "allow Lightroom to hammer the machine" option.

This thread reminds me of the six blind men and the elephant. LR and PS offer different functionalities - and different photographers have different needs, which means features will have varying degrees of value for each. Why would anyone believe that they're in a position to tell someone else (who they don't even know) what they should or shouldn't use? Telling people to shut up, calling them idiots or implying that their particular viewpoint has no validity - behavior we would normally associate with adolescents.

Unbelievable cheek - that's what the Web seems to have brought out in people these days.

can i use this for watermarking or signing my work?

Very disappointing. I have to upgrade to LR5 because I just bought a new camera that requires LR5 for Raw support. Otherwise it has no features that I need.