Category Archives: iPad

Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic & Desktop | June 2020


The latest updates to Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic and the Lightroom Cloud Ecosystem were released to customers on  16 June. Along with all the new features and enhancements the applications also get new branding iconography. Apart from the colour change and rounded corners, the most notable  change is the letter ‘C’, which differentiates Classic from the cloud focused desktop version. Will this addition make it easier for customers to differentiate between the two versions of Lightroom? We’ll see!

Editing Updates

Local Hue (Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom Mac/Win, iOS & Android)

The Local Hue tool can be used for both corrective and creative purposes. Using the Hue tool, you will have the ability to make large or small hue shifts (e.g. uneven skin tones) without affecting the white balance.

Graduated Filter with Local Hue

Note the checkbox labelled ‘Use Fine Adjustment’, which allows greater control over the amount of adjustment applied for a given movement of the slider.

While the screenshot included above shows the Graduate Filter, the new local hue control is also available in the Adjustment Brush and Radial Filter panels.

In below example, I’ve first selected the sky using the Range Mask, then adjusted the sky towards blue.

Before and After Hue Adjustment

For more information on Local Hue Adjustment, checkout this blog post by Greg Zulkie.

Raw Defaults (Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom Mac/Win, iOS & Android)

Raw Defaults was substantially upgraded in the February 2020 update. However, some of the important functionality previously available to users wasn’t included (e.g. ISO specific noise reduction). This omission has been addressed in the latest updates, but is also much more powerful than before. However, before looking at ISO let’s checkout the new set of ‘Default’ Presets, which can be found in the Presets panel.

The new presets are intended to provide quick shortcuts to preview and apply different Default settings. Here are the new defaults provided in the presets panel. If you don’t to use them or appear in the list, then simply make them invisible using ‘Manage Presets’, which can be accessed by right-mouse clicking on the Presets panel .

New Default Presets

ISO Adaptive Presets

Next, and I believe much more useful than the new default presets is ISO Adaptive Presets. However, you should note that this feature in only included in Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw.

An ISO Adaptive Preset allows a single preset to apply different edit settings depending on the ISO used for the image(s) to which it is being applied. In other words, you could have a single preset that automatically applies different levels of luminance noise reduction and sharpening to images with range of ISO values. Therefore, the need to specify settings for every ISO level supported by the camera is no longer required. For example, you may have established that your camera requires zero noise reduction (NR) up to ISO 400 and 20 units of NR at ISO 3200. When your ISO adaptive preset is applied to images with an ISO in-between ISO 400 and 3200, the actual NR value applied will be linearly interpolated.    This process of linear interpolation with ISO Adaptive Presets is particularly useful if you use your cameras Auto ISO mode.

The procedure for creating an ISO Adaptive Preset is set out below:

  1. Select two or more images, with different ISO values.
  2. Edit these selected images according to your liking. You can choose different edit settings for different ISO images.
    (e.g. apply different Luminance Noise Reduction values for different ISO images)
  3. With the images still selected, click on ‘Create Preset’.
  4. Along with selecting the various settings for the preset, make sure to select ‘Create ISO adaptive preset’ option in ‘ISO Settings’ section at the bottom of the preset creation dialog.
  5. Click on ‘Create’ to create an ISO adaptive preset.

If two or more images, with different ISO values, are not selected, ‘Create ISO adaptive preset checkbox will be disabled.

Create ISO Adaptive Presets

For more background information on ISO Adaptive presets, check out this blog post by Lisa Ngo (Lightroom Classic Product Manager).

Centered Crop Overlay (Camera Raw & Lightroom Classic)

Crop overlays can be a useful aid to ensure that the main focus of attention is placed where you want it in the frame. The new Centered Crop Overlay is particularly useful for square format images.

Centered Crop Overlay

Develop – UI Refresh (Lightroom Classic)

Tone Curve

The Tone Curve and Color panels have received a UI refresh with their appearance now more closely matching Lightroom desktop.

New  Tone Curve UI

In addition to the new UI, it’s now possible to adjust the curves using the keyboard.

  • Additional right-click (Control + Click on macOS) options for Point curve have been added:
  • Reset Channel
  • Reset All Channels
  • Copy Channel Settings
  • Paste Channel Settings
  • Snap to Grid
  • Show All Curves
  • For Point curves, grid coordinates of a control point are now shown using absolute values instead of percentages
  • You can adjust an active (highlighted) control point using Up and Down Arrow keys
  • The ability to pin a control point and adjust its value using input/output text-box has been added

Color Panel

The buttons used in new Color Panel UI are a lot more vivid than those in the previous panel. This should make it easier for customers to pick out the individual buttons.

New Color Panel UI

Sync UI (Lightroom Classic)

Sync in Lightroom Classic now has its own dedicated icon in the upper right corner next to  the other main modules.

There are different state icons to indicate the current state of sync.

The new sync info panel is shown below. You can  hover-over the cloud icon for more info about the current state icon. For example, hovering over the cloud icon while a sync is in progress will show the number of assets currently being synced. Clicking on the icon opens a pop up giving more options and details based on the current state of the sync.

New Sync Info Panel

Other Lightroom Classic Enhancements and Improvements

Develop – Edit Sliders Performance Improvements

With 9.3, there has been some optimisation to improve Edit Slider interaction with rendering in Develop module.

As part of these changes, Navigator view, Detail thumbnail, and Filmstrip thumbnail are not updated when dragging a slider without releasing the mouse. They’ll be updated as soon when slider movement ends and mouse button released.

Library Grid – Improvements

With 9.3, there has been some optimisation to improve the Grid scrolling experience on larger catalogs. These improvements will be less apparent if using macOS.

Collection Search – Improvements

New architecture for searching Collections should provide search speed similar to that found in Folder search. Typically, the improvements to search performance will be more beneficial in catalogs with large number of collections.

HEVC Support for Windows

HEVC videos are supported on Windows.

Video and Slideshow Library – Upgraded

  • The Video library for Lightroom Classic has been updated. This upgrade will impact on the workflow related to Videos and all of Slideshow module.

Metadata – Three-Dimensional Projection

A new section has been added to the Metadata panel for Three Dimensional Projections. This addition will enable you view/edit Three-Dimensional Projection metadata info in Lightroom Classic.

Other Lightroom Cloud Ecosystem Enhancements

Watermark (Lightroom Mac /Win)

You can quickly add a customised watermark to your photo using the new Watermark Editor

Lightroom Mac/Win – Watermark Editor

Any changes to settings are also synced across the mobile platforms of Lightroom.

Versions (Lightroom, iOS & Android)

Versions are similar to Snapshots in Lightroom Classic. They allow you to apply multiple edits creatively to the same image. For example, in below screenshot you’ll see that I have applied some basic tonal and colour edits to the original image, then converted to Black and White. Any edits applied as part of the Black & White conversion or subsequently have no affect on the original or the colour version.

Lightroom Mac / Win Versions

Versions sync across the Lightroom Ecosystem. So, will be available on your mobile devices.

Learning and Inspiration

Guided Tutorial and Discover have both received a good deal of attention in this release. If you’re not sure what this is, then below summary by Sharad Mangalick (Lightroom Mac / Win Product Manager) should help.

‘Guided Tutorials (available in the Lightroom Learn section), allows you to learn by doing, and you can actually adjust each slider with guidance and instruction provided by the instructor along the way. Instructors give the critical context for why they made their editing choices, and you can practice using their image directly in Lightroom. These are for when you want to go deeper and practice. Interactive Edits (available in the Lightroom Discover section) let you see the step-by-step edits on a photo, view camera information, and even download a preset to apply the settings to your own images.’

Starting with the June release, you can now contribute your own images and their edits to the Lightroom Discover section. The new “Share Edits” menu option allows you to share your editing process with the world, to help other photographers learn from your edits. When you submit your edit, Lightroom automatically creates a before-and-after sequence that combines your straight-out-of-the-camera image with your final edited image, so that others can see and learn from your edits. You can even let others save your edit settings as a preset that can be applied to their own photos.

Lightroom Mac / Win – ‘Share Edits’

Camera Raw

New User Interface (UI)

On first launching Camera Raw 12.3, you will immediately notice that the UI has a new look and with this improved functionality.

The new UI and operation owes much to Lightroom Classic and more recently Lightroom Mac / Win. The tabbed panels that graced Camera Raw from the first version have been replaced by  scrollable panels on the right side of the content window. There is currently no way to reorder the individual panels.

The toolbar has also be repositioned with buttons similar to those used in Lightroom Mac / Win.

Overall, I find the new UI is much easier to navigate, and it also scales much better on 4K and 5K monitors.

New Camera Raw UI

Update: 23 June 20

Some customers have commented on the absence of adjustment sliders such as Radius, Detail Masking, etc in the ‘Detail’ panel. Fortunately, the sliders haven’t been removed or forgotten by the engineers. Instead, they have been hidden to reduce the vertical height of the panel (i.e. less height = less scrolling). To make the hidden sliders visible it’s a simple matter on clicking on the disclosure triangle as shown in below screenshot. The disclosure triangles are also provided in the ‘Optics’, ‘Geometry’ and ‘Effects’ panels.

Expand Tool Panels with Disclosure Buttons

In addition to the new UI, Camera Raw has received its own share of new features. These are described in What’s New document that I’ve included a link for below.

Additional Information

For more information on what’s new and improved in each product, see the What’s New page for:

Camera & Lens Support

For a full list of supported cameras and lens profiles for Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic,  and Lightroom Cloud Ecosystem see these resources:

Adobe Lightroom 2.4 Cloud-Centric Photo Service | August 2019

The latest update to the Adobe Lightroom Cloud-centric suite of applications was released to customers on  13 August. This update mainly focuses on a feature that enables users to recover deleted photos. It also includes support for new cameras and lenses, and bug fixes.

Recover Deleted Photos

Recovery of ‘accidentally’ deleted photos, which includes entire photo libraries, has been a long standing request (demand?) from customers since the early days of the mobile ecosystem. With this latest update, all applications within the Lightroom cloud-centric ecosystem now have a folder called ‘Deleted’. Basically, any photos deleted by the user are transferred to this folder, which at time of writing, does not count against cloud storage capacity. The photos will remain in the ‘Deleted’ folder for 60 days or until they’re permanently deleted or recovered.

Using the following series of screenshots and text I will go through the process of deleting some photos, then recovering them.

Adobe Lightroom 2.4 (Desktop)

  • As mentioned above, when photos are deleted we’re notified of how many and given the choice to cancel out or proceed.

Delete Photos Dialog

  • In below screenshot, I show that the 41 photos have been moved to the ‘Deleted’ folder in the desktop application and Lightroom on the web. This is also repeated on my mobile devices (i.e. iPhone and iPad).

‘Deleted’ Photos folder on Lightroom Desktop and Web

Having deleted the photos I realise that I’d really meant to remove them from Lightroom rather than put them in the trash. In previous versions of all apps within the Lightroom cloud-centric ecosystem the deleted photos could not be recovered, but Adobe has now provided a recovery tool that can be used with the desktop application, the web based application and our mobile devices. It’s also relatively simple to use.

Now to recover the deleted photos, but first let’s also check out the options available.

  • First, I right mouse-click on the ‘Deleted’ folder.

‘Deleted’ folder context menu

  • For this example, I choose ‘Restore All’

Restore deleted photos

  • In below screenshots we see that the 41 photos that I’d deleted earlier have been recovered and even put back into their original album.

Recovered Photos (Desktop application)

Recovered Photos (Web application)

  • The number of days left before the photos are permanently deleted is also shown.

Days left before permanent deletion

As can be seen from above, the process of recovering deleted photos is relatively fast and simple when using only those applications that are part of the Lightroom cloud-centric ecosystem. If, on the other hand, you’re also using Lightroom Classic, which Adobe actually recommends against, then the process of recovery is somewhat more complex and time consuming.

What’s Changed?

Support for New Cameras & Lenses

For a full list of supported cameras and lens profiles for Lightroom desktop and Lightroom for mobile (iOS and Android), see these resources:

For more information on the latest updates to Lightroom Cloud-centric Ecosystem go to What’s New – August 2019

Adobe Lightroom CC | October 2018

The last major update to Lightroom CC  was back in October 2017 (v 3.0). This latest update (v 4.0) includes several new features that customers have requested over the last 12 months.

So, what’s new in Lightroom CC | October 2018?

People View

(Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS)

People View allows you to quickly find and name people in your photos. It’s powered by Adobe Sensei. Using this machine learning technology from Adobe Lightroom CC automatically tags people in photos and provides you with an easy way to see all the photos the person appears in.

Adobe Sensei-powered People View in Lightroom CC for mobile (iOS)

Improved Search

(Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS)

Searching has always been one of the stronger features in Lightroom CC. This is mainly due to the advanced server side technology (Adobe Sensei). Search suggestions are presented as you as soon as you start typing in the Search bar, recommending things like cameras, lenses, shutter speeds, apertures, ISOs, keywords, locations, and more.

Example of autocomplete suggestions when using Search in Lightroom CC for mobile (iOS)

For example, you can type ‘car’ in the Search bar to quickly search for all photos that have cars in them. You can also search your photos using ‘facets’. With facet’s you type a name (e.g. ‘camera’) followed by a colon ‘:’ to display a list of camera models used. I’ve included a list of currently supported facets below:

  • keyword:
  • camera:
  • lens:
  • location:
  • rating:
  • flag:
  • flash:
  • orientation:
  • iso:
  • type:
  • f-stop:
  • ss:
  • edited:
  • media:

The Filter UI in Lightroom CC for the Desktop has also received some attention.

Improved ‘Filter’ organisation and layout Lightroom CC Desktop

Additional sharing options for Share to Web

Sharing photos has some useful improvements. For example, you can now choose to only share images that are flagged or have a particular star rating while also providing control over the display theme and appearance.

Display options when sharing collections on web in Lightroom CC for mobile

Guided Tutorials

New guided tutorials for First-Time Adjustments and Healing Brush have been added to iOS and the Android versions now has tutorials for First-Time Adjustments, Target Adjustment Tool, and Guided Upright. The new guided tutorials can be found under Help & Support in Lightroom CC for mobile. If you’re not sure what guided tutorials are or don’t use Lightroom CC on a mobile device, then below screenshot shows how they can be accessed in Lightroom CC (Desktop).

Guided Tutorials on Lightroom CC (Desktop)

HEVC file support on macOS

Lightroom CC now supports Apple’s HEVC video format (High Efficiency Video Coding, also known as H.265) on macOS High Sierra (10.13) or later.

For more information, see HEVC video files support.

Camera and Lens Support

A full list of cameras and lens profiles supported by Lightroom CC can be found at:

Adobe release Lightroom mobile 2.4 for iOS

lr-mobile-100I normally don’t get too excited when a new version of Adobe Lightroom mobile comes along, but 2.4 is different. Why?

Well, version 2.4 includes two features that I, and I suspect many other photographers, have long been waiting for. These are Raw support  and Local Adjustments. Unfortunately, they’re only available to ‘Adobe Creative Cloud’ subscribers.

Other minor features introduced in version 2.4 that all users can avail of include:

  • support for keyboard shortcuts. This feature requires an external keyboard, and is activated by pressing down on the ‘Cmd’ key,
  • the ability to add your own copyright to photos, and
  • support for the latest Camera Raw version.

New features are all well and good, but unless instructions on how to use them are provided then users will likely struggle to understand how they work. So, taking each of the new features in turn I’ll try to explain the workflow.

Raw Support

Raw support allows you to import and edit Raw photos taken with your digital camera. These photos can then be synced back to ‘Lightroom CC’ on your desktop computer. Of course the Raw photos must first be imported onto your iPad, and it is here that things get a tad complex.

To import your Raw photos on to your iPad you’ll need to use an Apple ‘SD Camera Card Reader’ or ‘iPad Camera Connection Kit’. Depending on which version of the iPad you have you’ll need to import the Raw photos directly from the memory card or directly from your camera into the Apple Photos App ‘Camera Roll’. Either way, the SD Camera Card Reader or Camera Connection kit is essential.

Apple Photo app Import

Apple Photos App Import Camera Roll

When the Apple Photos App import process is complete you then switch to Lightroom mobile. Here you should notice that a ‘Raw’ badge overlays part of the thumbnail for each Raw photo.

Lightroom mobile - Import to 'Camera Roll' complete

Lightroom mobile – Import to ‘Camera Roll’ Complete

Next, make sure that you have enabled support for Raw photo import in Lightroom mobile. Below screen grab shows where this can be done.

Lightroom mobile - Enable Raw Photos

Lightroom mobile – Enable Raw Photos

At this point you can either select all of the imported Raw photos or a smaller number. In below example, I selected all of the Raw photos.

Lightroom mobile - Select All Raw Photos

Lightroom mobile – Select All Raw Photos

When all of the photos have been added to Lightroom mobile you’ll find that an additional badge (Lr) overlays each of the photo thumbnails.

Lightroom mobile - Completed Raw Photo Import

Lightroom mobile – Completed Raw Photo Import

If you’re satisfied that all of the Raw photos have been imported into Lightroom mobile you can delete the originals from Apple Photos App, thus saving some space on your iPad.

When an internet connection becomes available your Raw files will be synced to the Adobe Cloud and ultimately back to Lightroom desktop. If you have any other mobile devices with Lightroom mobile installed smart previews will be synced to these devices.

Local Adjustments

As with Raw support, Local Adjustments has been on my list of must have features for a very long time. In this version Adobe have chosen to include what they call Linear and Radial Selections (in Lightroom desktop these are called Graduated and Radial filters). Personally, I don’t see why Adobe didn’t stick with the names that users already know. If name changes were deemed essential then Linear and Radial Gradients are more meaningful, at least to me.

Okay, so having got my rant about naming conventions out of the way it’s time to look at each local adjustment in turn. I’ll start with the Linear Gradient, uhh, I mean Selection since it’s the default.

To activate Local Adjustments switch to Edit mode and tap on the ‘Local Adjust’ button. A new button appears on the lower left and tapping on this results in a menu popping up. It has two options at present with the top one (Linear Selection) selected by default.

Activating Local Ajustments

Activating Local Adjustments

Next, you tap on the photo where you want the centre of the gradient to be located. The width of the gradient is adjusted by dragging the top or bottom line up/down, and the centre of the gradient can be reposition by dragging the black dot up or down the screen. Additional gradients can be created by tapping on the ‘+‘ button at top left of screen, and the ‘trashcan’ is used to remove a gradient.

Local Adjustments - 'Linear Selection'

Local Adjustments – ‘Linear Selection’ Tool

Next up, the Radial Selection tool. I find this tool is particularly useful for edge burning portraits, although it has its uses in other types of photo.

Radial Selection Tool

Local Adjustments – ‘Radial Selection’ Tool

The Radial Selection tool is activated and the gradient positioned in the same way as the Linear Selection. At top left of screen you’ll see an additional button. This button allows you switch the gradient from inside the selection to outside and vice versa. To increase  the feathering (soften edge) of the gradient drag the larger handle point on the selection counterclockwise, and clockwise to to harden the edge. (Note: in above and below screen grabs the handle point is on top edge of photo.)

Local Adjustments -

Local Adjustments – Reduced Exposure Outside of Selection

Both Linear and Radial  selection tools support the full range of slider adjustments currently available in Lightroom mobile.

So, having described the two new features I was so keen to see introduced I posed myself a question –  Do I think Raw support and Local Adjustments means that Lightroom mobile is now ready for the ‘big time’? Sadly, I don’t believe so, at least not just yet. Sure, both features are very welcome and certainly make Lightroom mobile more useful to me than before. On the other hand, some photographers might have a different workflow or less demanding requirements. For example, if your iPad has sufficient space to store the imported Raw photos then leaving your laptop at home while on a short vacation might be OK. For longer holidays or large professional photo shoots I think many will likely find the iPad short of storage capacity. Also, syncing photos to the ‘Adobe Cloud’ and later Lightroom on your desktop computer means that sufficient bandwidth will be essential both on location and at home/office. This means that if you’re a professional or advanced amateur  photographer you’ll likely find that  taking a laptop on location/holiday still provides a much more productive and efficient workflow than mobile. To be fair, I don’t think the Lightroom mobile development team see it as the ‘laptop killer’ yet, but it’s certainly getting closer.

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