LightroomCC
Latest
Adobe's latest Lightroom smooths skin without the 'plastic' effect
Instagrammers and portrait photographers alike use Facetune-style skin smoothing techniques on photos, but it often gives your subject an overly unnatural "plastic" effect. Adobe is addressing that issue with a new plugin called Texture in its latest release of Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. It lets you do subtle retouching on portraits to reduce wrinkles and blemishes without eliminating them completely, while preserving or enhancing fine detail in pores and hair.
Adobe's latest Lightroom CC uses AI to 'enhance' RAW images
Transforming your camera's RAW sensor data into a usable image is calculation-intensive and sometimes, your computer doesn't have the muscle to get it right. For the next version of Lightroom, Adobe has introduced a feature called "Enhance Details" that uses AI to tackle the process, called "demosaicing." The neural network works on Bayer images (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus) as well as X-Trans (Fujifilm) to increase detail while reducing problems like moire and false colors.
Zeiss' first digital camera is the ZX1 full-frame compact
Zeiss has unveiled its first-ever digital camera, the interesting and exotic ZX1 compact. It has a full-frame 37.4-megapixel sensor and a fixed 35mm f/2.0 T* lens, putting it into exclusive company with Sony's RX1 and the Leica Q. The boxy body is distinctive, to say the least, with a triangular grip and bright yellow lettering on the lens and dials. Most notably, Zeiss teamed up with Adobe to build Lightroom CC into the camera, letting you shoot, tweak and share images.
The best desktop photo-editing apps
Last month we covered the best mobile photo-editing apps, but if you're serious about photography you'll need more than the tools a phone or tablet can provide. Professionals rely on software from Adobe and others because of the power these programs afford them. Combined with shooting in the uncompressed RAW format, dedicated image editing suites allow you to adjust white balance, exposure, sharpness and color at a granular level. That might be a little intimidating for folks used to point-and-shoot cameras or a smartphone, but for professionals and hobbyists, this means they can reproduce the image they saw in their minds when they hit the shutters on their DSLR or mirrorless cameras. Beyond editing tools, some of these software suites also offer ways to organize and share your photos without leaving the app.
The best mobile photo-editing apps
There's no shortage of photo-editing apps for mobile devices. But if you want to graduate beyond Instagram filters, the sheer number of listings on the App Store or Google Play can be overwhelming. We've sifted through dozens to find the ones worth your time (and money, in some cases).
Adobe Lightroom uses AI to edit your photos like a pro
Many photo editing apps have an auto-adjust feature that can improve photos, but pros tend to steer clear of it for a reason -- it's more of a vague guess than an informed edit based on experience. Wouldn't it be nice if it learned from the pros? It does now. Adobe has released updates to Lightroom (both CC and Classic) and Camera Raw that use its Sensei AI to improve photos based on examples. The new Auto mode compares your image to "tens of thousands" of professionally edited shots and uses that wealth of info to make smarter decisions. This doesn't guarantee that you'll have Ansel Adams-grade photos with a couple of clicks, but it could limit your editing to minor tweaks. It's definitely a help for newcomers who want pro-quality shots but don't yet know how to achieve those effects themselves.
Adobe remakes Lightroom CC as a hybrid app and 1TB cloud service
Adobe has unveiled a raft of new apps and updates for Max 2017, most notably a big revamp of Lightroom CC to make it more cloud-friendly for mobile users. The centerpiece is an all-new Lightroom CC with a 1TB cloud service -- the "Project Nimbus" app that leaked last year. It features a streamlined version of Lightroom CC that keeps images, edits and metadata synced in Creative cloud across PC and Mac, Android and iOS. For desktop users who prefer the current, non-cloud app, Adobe has re-branded it as Lightroom Classic CC.
Adobe Lightroom quickly makes HDR and panoramas from multiple photos
Since the switch to Creative Cloud, Adobe has been rolling out major updates to its core software regularly. Today, Lightroom is the recipient, gaining a handful of tools that will speed up workflows on the desktop and across mobile devices. First, HDR and Panorama Merge create a single image from multiple RAW shots in a matter of seconds. As you might expect, there are a number of options for fine-tuning what Lightroom builds, but the new tools will save time spent manually creating a wide view or high dynamic range visual. There's also a video slideshow option that can employ a combination of snapshots, video and music to lend a hand with a presentation or scrapbook file. To keep things organized, facial recognition helps find and sort the folks in your photos. Adobe says the software performs better too, claiming that it'll handle edits up to 10 times faster than before.
