Adobe’s goal for this release is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom. There are also some new features available to CC subscribers.

Note that this version of Lightroom on Mac requires the use of OSX 10.10 and greater.

New features for Lightroom CC Subscribers

Publish to Adobe Stock Contributor Site

You can now submit images directly from Lightroom CC to the new Adobe Stock Contributor Site using the new Adobe Stock Publish Service. As with the previous attempt (late 2000’s) by Adobe to encourage more customers to use their stock photo service I suspect this feature will be of interest to a small subset of  Lightroom users rather than the majority. Nevertheless, for those interested, it’s useful to be able to access the service from within Lightroom itself. For those who are inclined, it provides you with the opportunity to showcase your work to other customers directly inside Creative Cloud applications.

To get started contributing to Adobe Stock you need to go through a one-time on-boarding process in which you set up the 
plug-in.

You can use your Creative Cloud account to login as Adobe Stock contributor. 
Alternatively, if you already have an Adobe Stock account you can use your existing login. When you’ve completed the signup process, select Save in the Stock plug-in dialog.

SYNC ENHANCEMENTS

Avoiding Issue of Unwanted Duplicates

Unlike the traditional import process, Lightroom used to add duplicate copies of photos when the same photo was synced from Lightroom Mobile/Web even when it was already present in your Lightroom catalog. 
To avoid this issue, Lightroom now adds the photo being synced from cloud as a Virtual Copy referencing it to the original photo already present in your catalog. 
For example, say you already have a photo (IMAGE1.xyz) in your Lightroom catalog, but not in a synced collection, then decide to import the same photo into Lightroom web or Lightroom mobile. 
Previously you would have seen copy of IMAGE1.xyz added to your catalog. 
However, with the new behaviour, instead of adding the IMAGE1.xyz again, Lightroom will add a virtual copy for the photo. The following screenshot shows a mix of directly imported and synced photos with virtual copies used in place of duplicate originals for any synced photos.

Updates to ‘All Synced Photos’

Adobe have also made some changes (I’m not convinced it’s improvement though) that is intended to make it easier to access photos you’ve imported into Lightroom CC when on the go via Lightroom for mobile and/or Lightroom for web.

You can now drag images directly to the ‘All Synced Photographs’ collection in the Catalog panel. By doing so, the image syncs with the Creative Cloud, and ensures that you’ll be able to organise, edit, or share the photo across your mobile devices and Lightroom web. However, the workflow of removal or deletion of synced Photo/Collection is now somewhat more complicated. The options available are:

• Delete a synced collection: a dialog box appears asking the users to decide whether to retain their photos in All Synced Photographs, or delete them from there as well, along with the collection deletion.
• Remove a photo from All Synced Photographs: 
a dialog box appears informing the user about removal of the selected image in all synced collections as well.

• Remove a photo from a synced collection: 
a dialog box appears asking the user to decide on whether to remove the photo from All Synced Photographs as well as from the specific collection. 
No = Photo is removed only from the selected synced collection.
Yes = Photo is removed from the selected synced collection as well as All 
Synced Photographs (provided if the photo is not in any other synced collection).

Clicking on the ‘Don’t show again’ checkbox in above dialog boxes mean Lightroom remembers the previous setting.

Where would you use this feature?

Say you have a photo in a synced collection. This photo will also be present in the ‘All Synced Photos (as the photo was in a synced collection). If the image is present in ‘All Synced Photos’ you will have the option to work with them on other devices like Lightroom mobile and Lightroom web. Adobe do not want to limit the photo from being synced, if it was removed from a synced collection. Hence they have given you an option to allow the photo to be in sync (which means it’s present in the ‘All Synced Photos’), or not in sync (by removing it from ‘All Synced Photos’).

Smart Previews for Faster Performance

Since the introduction of Smart Previews in Lightroom 5.0 it has been possible to use Smart Previews in the Develop Module as a way to edit photos without having access to the original files on disk. However, astute users reported faster performance in the Development by using Smart Previews when keeping their original photos disconnected from their computer. Now, you can set a Preference in the Performance tab that will let Lightroom always use Smart Previews when available.

To use this feature,

1. Choose Edit > Preferences.
2. In the Preferences dialog, select the Performance tab.
3. In the Develop section, select Use Smart Previews Instead Of Originals For Image Editing.
4. Click OK and then restart Lightroom.

Note that when you zoom into a photo a 100% (1:1) Lightroom will automatically display the original file rather than the Smart Preview. This will allow you to accurately apply the appropriate amount of sharpening and noise reduction to the photo.

I expect to make good use of this feature during my upcoming trip to New England and Nova Scotia.

‘Display P3’ Colour Space Support

Adobe have added support for Apple’s ‘Display P3’ color space, adding it to the previous default set of color space profiles (sRGB, AdobeRGB, and Pro Photo RGB). ‘Display P3’ was added to the default color space/profile options in the following areas:

• Export Dialog (File Settings > Color Space menu)
• Soft Proofing (Develop Module > Soft Proofing > Profile menu)
• Preferences (External Editing > Color Space menu)
• Print to JPEG (Print Module > Print Job panel > Print To menu)
• Book Module Export Options (Book Module > Book Settings Panel > Book 
popup > JPG/PDF)

New Camera Support

• Apple iPad Pro 9.7′′ (wifi and cellular)
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
• Apple iPhone 6s
• 
Apple iPhone SE
• Canon EOS 5D Mark IV*
• 
Casio EX­ZR4000 (EX­ZR5000)
• Hasselblad H6D­100c
• Nikon D3400

*Note that this version supports the import and editing of jpegs, raw files and dual pixel raw files from this camera model. Adobe do not support any specific dual pixel raw functionality. If you are planning to use Dual Pixel raw files, please read this Adobe KB Doc. Add link

**Adobe has added new Adobe Standard colour profiles for the Canon EOS 5DS and Canon EOS 5DS R cameras. These versions are denoted as V2, and the v2 profiles have lower contrast than the original Adobe Standard (v1) camera profiles.

Disclosure: As an Adobe Community Professional I receive a free subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud.