February Photography Releases

As fellow photographers and creatives, we care about the impact all Lightroom products have on our customers. We’ve been listening to your feedback and requests and we’re excited to share what’s coming out today and a preview of what we are actively working on for 2020.

For Lightroom Classic, performance, quality, and stability have all been a primary focus for our team. Since October 2018, we’ve released significant performance updates like GPU (graphics processing unit) accelerated editing, faster and more stable tethering, Library improvements, and more. But we’re not done. The team is constantly testing and re-evaluating the speed and quality of new and existing features, and in 2020 we are working to deliver more GPU-enabled functionality to get you to your “done” point smoother and faster.

Image editing, organizing, and workflow efficiency are also important functions to Lightroom Classic that we want to continually improve for both new and long-time customers. Within the last year and a half, we’ve added key updates like the Texture slider, Flat Field Correction, HDR and Panorama Merge, collection color labels, PNG support, AI-empowered features such as Enhance Details and Panorama Fill Edge, and much more.

Adobe is dedicated to developing the best in class tools and experiences to help all photographers find and express their visions. That’s why we’re actively investing in more Develop tools (including AI/ML features), workflow optimization, as well as refining the interface and experience to empower photographers of all levels to achieve desired results faster and easier than ever before. As customers of our own product, we’re personally excited to share these upcoming updates with you in 2020 and the years to come.

Check out the new feature updates and customer requests for Lightroom Classic, as well as bug fixes and feature polishing for Lightroom for Mac, Windows, iOS, iPadOS, Android, and ChromeOS below. Support for new cameras and lenses is also included in the update.

Improved raw default settings

Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw

Streamline your edit workflow with more control over the default develop settings of your raw images. Prior to this version, all raw images used Adobe Color as the default upon import and could only be changed if you knew about the hidden shortcut. Now, you can easily configure default develop settings within Preferences -> Presets to use either Camera Settings, Adobe Color, or a preset of your choice. Defaults can be applied universally (Master), or customized by camera model and even by serial number. If no specific default is specified, then the “Master” settings will be used.

Default by camera settings

Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw

Photographers often take advantage of the picture styles or profiles settings within their cameras. When importing into Lightroom Classic with the default set to Adobe Color, the image may look much different from the camera preview and would require time to adjust it back. With the new raw default settings, you can now use Camera Settings as the default to preserve the “as shot” look and reduce your edit time.

PSB file support

Lightroom Classic

Starting today, you can import, catalog, and edit Large Document Format (.psb) files within Lightroom Classic. Many landscape photographers may stitch multi-gigabyte panoramas within Photoshop and export as a PSB file to maintain the highest quality and resolution. Whether to edit or simply catalog your finished panoramas with the rest of your collections, you can now do so with this new release. Like all files within Classic, the maximum dimensions are 65,000 pixels on the long edge or 512 megapixels.

Performance developments

Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw

More GPU Accelerated Editing

Expanding on our GPU support, we’ve added full GPU acceleration for Lens Correction and Transform adjustments.

Expanding on our GPU support, we’ve added full GPU acceleration for Lens Correction and Transform adjustments. eGPU Empowered Enhanced Details

Enhance Details now leverages external GPUs on macOS 10.15 (Catalina) for faster processing.

Secondary display selection

Lightroom Classic

Work the way you want with the ability to choose which monitor to use as your secondary display. For many editors using three or more displays, opening a second window will now automatically appear in the designated monitor that may have better resolution, color calibration, etc. for your workflow needs.

Auto-Sync improvements

Lightroom Classic

Easily understand when Auto-Sync is enabled and which batch edits are applied. By adding messages and a more visible button, we hope to prevent unintentional batch edits that may set you back on your work. The notifications can be turned off in Preferences -> Interface.

Photoshop Elements 2020 support

Lightroom Classic

You can now import your Photoshop Elements 2020 catalog into Lightroom Classic.

FAQ link for sync

Lightroom Classic

We’ve created a Frequently Asked Questions document for syncing to the cloud from Lightroom Classic to help you understand how sync enables photographers to edit and share photos from the web or any mobile device. You can find the link under the sync status when you click on the nameplate.

Export improvements

Lightroom for Windows and Mac

In addition to exporting in the JPEG or TIFF format, Lightroom on Windows and Mac now also allows you to export in the DNG format. (This feature was already available in Lightroom on Android and iOS.)

Improvements to shared albums

Lightroom for Windows and Mac

When contributing photos to a shared album which is owned by someone else, you can now choose to include or omit metadata. In addition, as the owner of a shared album you can now export photos which other people have contributed to the album.

Improvements to Photo Merge (HDR and Panorama)

Lightroom for Windows and Mac

You can now bypass the Photo Merge dialog when creating an HDR or Panorama and just merge the photos directly using your previous merge settings. To do this, use the following keyboard shortcuts:

HDR: Ctrl + Shift + H

Panorama: Ctrl + Shift + M

Import presets

Lightroom for Android

Previously, you could only import edit presets and profiles in Lightroom on Windows or Mac, and now in this release you can now import edit presets and profiles directly in Lightroom on Android. (This feature will be coming soon to Lightroom on iOS as well.)

Import improvements

Lightroom for Windows and Mac

When importing via drag-and-drop, you can now import to a specific album by dragging and dropping directly onto an album in the Albums list.

Improvements to learn and discover content

Lightroom for iOS and Android

In the Home view, the Discover content is now presented in a two column view for easier browsing. And the interactive tutorials in the Learn section now include a before/after step so that you can really see the effect of the edits in the tutorial.

Split screen

Lightroom for iPadOS

Lightroom on iPad now supports the split screen view. (In this example you can see Lightroom on the left and Safari on the right.)

Full description of new features

For more information about all of the improvements and updates in each product, for both this and previous releases, please see the What’s New pages below:

Lightroom Classic

Lightroom for Mac, Windows, iOS, iPadOS, Android, and ChromeOS