Adobe Updates Lightroom, Lightroom Mobile, and Camera Raw, Brings New Features and Interface

Adobe Updates Lightroom, Lightroom Mobile, and Camera Raw, Brings New Features and Interface

Today, Adobe has released several updates for their software, including a new editing interface for their mobile app and a new "Reference View" for the Develop Module in the desktop app.

Lightroom Mobile 

For Lightroom Mobile 2.6 for iOS, Adobe redesigned the editing interface to be more efficient and provide better access to commonly used tools. Similar tools are now grouped into categories, and the interface and corresponding gestures are now designed to be used one-handed. 

Lightroom Mobile has also gained an "Info" section in which photographers can add metadata such as titles and copyright information. But perhaps most exciting is the addition of the same capture interface that the Android version of the app has to the iOS version. This interface allows the user access to a "professional" mode, which is essentially a full manual mode.

Lightroom and Camera Raw

Adobe also released Adobe Camera Raw 9.8, which adds supports for many new cameras and lenses, including the latest additions to the Sigma Art series. New features in Lightroom CC 2015.8/6.8 include camera matching profiles and tethered shooting for the Canon 5D Mark IV, performance improvements (particularly when editing with background tasks running), zoom-to-fit and zoom-to-fill capabilities, and the new Reference View. Reference View is available in the Develop module and allows one to compare two images to make them more consistent with one another. In this mode, one designates a reference photo by dragging it onto the left pane or using the "Set as Reference Photo" option in the Library Module. That photo will now remain visible while editing the active photo, making it a great option for matching more global adjustments such as white balance or exposure.

Altogether, today's update brings some welcome bug fixes, new camera and lens support, performance improvements, and some neat new features. Be sure to let us know what you think of them in the comments!

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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14 Comments

The new reference photo feature is perfect and long overdue.

Queue testing performance improvements... This is the one thing they really need to improve. So here we go.

Let us know what you think, I found it a bit faster!

I'll let everyone else find all the new bugs before I jump in...

Already found one and submitted to Adobe. They're now working on a fix for the "Edit in Photoshop" bug which won't reimport the image back into Lightroom. Instead it pops up a "Save As..." dialog and then requires sycnchronizing the folder to get the PSD (or TIFF) image to appear back in the Lightroom Catalog. Adobe, to their credit, were quick to respond and were able to replicate the issue and hopefully a fix will be out soon.

Please speed up tethering.. If I get a good grip on how C1 works, I will uninstall Lightroom because of this..

dude, you can learn the basics of c1 in an afternoon with a good teacher. After you learn c1, you'll never want to use Lightroom again.

Interface alone is worth the upgrade! And a very welcome improvement to the in-app camera! Though I'm not sure what happened to an HDR option? Would be a VERY welcome improvement to the camera interface where two exposures give you that much more punch... of course if Adobe want's to go REALLY crazy, they could give you a 2 or 3 or even 5 shot options and give you a full HDR interface. Not that I'm that in love with HDR, but even with DNG these cameras are not know for their dynamic range.

can I get palettes please? Dockable, movable, re-sizable palettes please? Still my number 1 complaint that LR does not allow me to customize my workspace like EVERY FREAKING PIECE OF SOFTWARE IN CC!!!

Even Capture One has a customizable work space. Scrolling through the panel is an obstacle to access, and so is solo mode.

Now that Serif has Affinty on the road for Mac and PCs, they need to hunker down and make an affordable kick-ass RAW editor. If they can do what they've done with Affinity and Designer with a RAW editor, they can put both Adobe and Phase One in their place.

Thanks for update Alex. I just put a quick video showing off the new reference photo feature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hxFHo6vJqQ&t=3s

is 5d4 tethering ok now????

I just bought a Fuji X-T1 and I quickly realised how badly Lightroom can handle the files.
There are also nearly no camera profiles at all for Fuji. It's ridiculous! Adobe is really dropping the ball in RAW editing. For now, I pay for my photography plan on the CC. But I would rather switch to Capture1. The only things is that I will have two subscriptions, one for Creative Cloud and one for Capture1. I won't use Lightroom then obviously. That's really a pain in the ass.
I was hoping so baldy that Adobe catches up. But they did not at all. Is there any plan for Photoshop only?

Just look at screenshot and see how they make themselves ridiculous.
Is there any way to contact Adobe directly, so that they finally implement more Fuji profiles?

Adobe seems to become like Canon. Leaning back on the overall status and bringing no innovation or proper updates. They are really stuck in time. Too bad, Adobe.

I now open Lightroom up once a month just to reality check.