Adobe Lightroom Has a Major Upgrade Coming Next Month

From October the 26th Adobe Lightroom introduces its new update, with some great new masking features.

Lightroom has been the core of editing photographs for many many years now. Updating features on a frequent basis to make our lives easier and to help us produce better-edited images. With its new update, Adobe is introducing some really big changes and especially with the masking tools which were well received in Photoshop with the AI-powered Select Subject and Sky Replacement.

The existing engine in Lightroom wasn't as compatible with the AI-powered tools so they readdressed the architecture of the engine to allow for more creative use of the masking features. What did their customers want? More control over selective edits and masks. So the Adobe team worked with its customers to reassess how the selections were made in Lightroom. 

So what are the new features of masking? Well, to start with the Brush tool has been replaced with a new masking button and this is where the excitement starts. From here you have the option to Select Subject or Select Sky, but it doesn't stop there. From here you can create mask groups enabling you to mix and combine any other mask tool including the brush, gradient, luminance, and color range tools. You also have the ability to rename the masks to keep track of your edits.

Check out the video above to see the new masking features in action. Excited to try them? I know I definitely am. Roll on the 26th of October.

Gary McIntyre's picture

Gary McIntyre is a landscape photographer and digital artist based on the west coast of Scotland. As well as running photography workshops in the Glencoe region, providing online editing workshops, Gary also teaches photography and image editing at Ayrshire college.

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11 Comments

pretty snazzy for sure

Yeah really looking forward to the update and giving it a spin.

Nice! I've been asking for hsl on selective edits every time they ask how it can improve. Would be nice if that and frequency seperation were possible. Perfect program for me if that was the case

selective hsl is a must! 100% agree

Thinking out of the box here Jake with the new update, but you may be able to create a selective mask or two and do that using the clarity to a minus and a slight sharpening? It won't be as good as photoshop at it but might be worth a try when the update comes out. Just a thought.

I would love to have full access to the HSL panels on a selection. That would be the biggest game changer for me.

Good news, but I still need beter performance and Canon R6 profiles!

Yes 15 months and still no R5/R6 profiles, let's hope this release includes them.

You can create your own with the DNG profile editor. You will need a 24 colour swatch.

Funny thing is... I got the update yesterday and I have no clue why. I asked my instagram followers if they've seen the new masking options and nobody did so far ;)
Maybe there's a glitch in the update deployment.

and nope! There is still no HSL access in the new masking process :(