Lightroom has made some significant steps forward in recent years, but there is always room for improvement? What would you like to see?
Coming to you from Christian Möhrle - The Phlog Photography, this insightful video outlines a wishlist of features missing from Lightroom that would greatly benefit photographers, especially those specializing in landscape photography. At the top of Möhrle's list is the integration of focus stacking, a technique vital for achieving sharpness throughout an image by blending multiple shots at different focus points. Currently, this necessitates a switch to Photoshop, a step Möhrle finds redundant given Lightroom's capability to merge photos for HDR and panoramas. The video also touches on the potential for a simplified version of Photoshop's Generative Fill in Lightroom, though Möhrle acknowledges this might remain exclusive to Photoshop due to its complexity.
Additionally, Möhrle discusses the need for enhanced control over panoramic image results and improved tools for correcting distortion, areas where Lightroom lags behind other software. The desire for an AI-powered removal tool for complex object elimination and the inclusion of a channel mixer for infrared image processing further exemplifies the specific needs of photographers that Lightroom could address. Moreover, expanding the functionality within masks to include HSL adjustments or split toning locally could dramatically increase the creative flexibility available to users. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Möhrle.
Better cloud management and integration with classic and cloud. For example, what would make my life easier, is an easy way to downgrade cloud originals to smart previews once synced to classic, so I’m not filling up my cloud storage and having to do a convoluted workflow that is currently: find original photos in LR CC desktop, switch to LRC, unsync collections, removed from synced photos, then resync collections.
Syncing of things like faces and keywords and colour labels.
Why this isn’t a solved problem in 2024 I don’t know. Apparently capture one is building a new solution for multi device syncing. If it’s robust I’m going to seriously consider switching.
Automatically add title, description, tags, and location when sharing to Instagram.
Bring the map feature into Lightroom mobile.
Precise color management with ColorChecker and WhiBal support like in DaVinci Resolve
Magnification for the crop tool
Besier/b-spine masks
Automatic sensor dust removal
LUT support
And most urgent is a fix for cloud sink issues, all these "metadata" errors
Luminance waveform diagram in addition to the standard histogram.
Rawtherapee has it and it improves my ability to check for highlight or colour channel saturation, and also to ensure consistent overall exposure between one frame and the next.
Lightroom needs: Module management - preference based management of the modules loaded during startup. It would improve the memory footprint to disable features. It would also be nice to disable presets you elect not to use. A default sRGB workflow for photographers who are not producing fine art prints. Labs and websites use that colorspace.
There's a significant need for a video software product like Lightroom to catalog video and manage metadata. I believe there are products for enterprise that do this, but not at the video boutique level.
Ansel Adams was one of the world's best. He had no "Lightroom". Early Nat Geo photogs had no Photoshop. There pictures were taken with what they had. Why does it have to be so complicated?
He had a complex exposure and development system he followed in order to get the image he wanted. He would vary the development time for each individual image in order to get the tonal range exactly as he wanted it.