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So what's new and enhanced?
With previous versions Adobe
tended to hold one or two headline features back for the GM version, but
with Lightroom 5 this isn't the case. Sure, we've got a new logo and a few
tweaks to the UI, but nothing
more substantive. If you're disappointed by that statement then please
keep in mind that the time between Lightroom 4 and 5 shipping is much
shorter than has been the case in the past.
Lightroom 4 was predominantly about Soft Proofing, Books, Geotagging,
Video and Develop module module enhancements. This time round Adobe
have focused their attention on performance within the Develop module.
Obviously, this isn't the only aspect that has seen improvement,
but the fact that attention has been paid to this particular area
should please a lot of photographers.
The
following table lists the headline features included in Lightroom 5:
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Develop: |
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Output: |
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Enhanced Blurb Support - Ability to
print books with Blurb’s "Standard" paper stock. This is a lighter
weight option than "Premium Luster" and may provide some customers
with a less expensive option.
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Ideally,
you should refer to the Lightroom 5 Release Notes for a more
comprehensive list of new new features and enhancements. Especially,
since they'll also include information on Known Issues and limitations.
OK, and
at the risk of repeating myself,
the list shown above is
definitely not as extensive as we've come to expect, but don't let
it fool you into thinking that this is a lightweight upgrade. Far
from it, the engineering work that has gone into Smart Previews
hopefully lays the foundations for some much need performance
enhancements. In fact, even those with hardware meeting the minimum
specifications should find that performance in the Develop module is
much better than earlier versions.
Lightroom 5 System Requirements
When the public beta was released I expected a
fair amount of grumbling when users, especially those using the Mac
platform, read Lightroom's new system requirements. In particular, the
fact that Lightroom can no longer run in OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).
Sure enough, the screams of foul rang out for a few weeks, but
eventually folk began to accept the inevitable. For those who missed
them first time round, the official list of system requirements for
both platforms is shown below.
Mac:
®
processor with 64-bit support
Mac OS X v10.7 (Lion) or v10.8 (Mountain Lion)
2GB of RAM (ideally 4GB)
2GB of available hard-disk space
1024x768 display
Internet connection
DVD-ROM drive
Windows:
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Pentium®
4 or AMD Athlon®
64 processor
Microsoft ®
Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 or Windows 8
2GB of RAM (ideally 4GB)
2GB of available hard-disk space
1024x768 display
Internet connection
DVD-ROM drive
The Internet connection is required for Internet-based
services such as Books and Maps.
Upgrading Existing Catalogs
Unlike
the public beta the GM version of Lightroom 5 can update catalogs from
previous versions, which includes Lr5 beta catalogs. The actual process
of upgrading an existing catalog is fairly straight forward, albeit a
bit time consuming. It's also worth mentioning that your existing
catalog will not be replaced or even deleted during upgrade. Therefore,
if a problem occurs during the upgrade you'll still be able to use the
older catalog.
Library Module and Workflow
Enhancements
As mentioned above, the
Lightroom UI hasn't seen much in the way of change since Lightroom 1.
Sure, we've had new modules, new panels, etc, but the ability for
user configuration is still absent. Personally, I don't have a
problem with this, but I know a lot of users do. Anyway, there is no
point in dwelling on what hasn't happened, especially when there's
plenty of new stuff to drool over.
Lightroom 5 - Library Module Loupe View
The
Library continues to be at the heart of Lightroom in so far as it's
the module that provides most of the tools for managing your photographic
assets. Imported images can be viewed in the Library in various modes
or views. These include the now familiar Grid view (G), Loupe view (E), Compare
view (C) and Survey view (N). Each of these views is
intended for a specific purpose, but users may find one view more
useful than others. For example, Grid view allows the user to see large
numbers of images as thumbnails whilst at the same time providing a
workspace for applying metadata, labels, ratings, keywords, flags and
even quick development adjustments to images in bulk. As with previous
versions of Lightroom, the Loupe view restricts these actions to a single
image. Compare and Survey views are designed to make the tasks of
rating and flagging easier.
Grid Overlay in Loupe View
One
very welcome addition to the Library module is the ability to overlay
a grid in loupe view (see above screen grab). The grid is user configurable using a slider
located on the toolbar just below the content area. To activate
Grid Overlay just click on the toolbar drop down menu and pick
the relevant menu item. Modify the size of the gridlines by
holding the command/control key and click "Size" while dragging the
mouse to the left (to decrease) or right (to increase). This also
works for the adjusting the opacity (Cmd/Ctrl + Option/Alt + 0
keyboard shortcut)
Smart Collections
Smart Collections are
an important workflow tool, but have seen little love for a few
versions now.
However, with Lightroom 5, Adobe have enhanced smart collections
with some new criteria:
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Image size (in megapixels)
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Bit
Depth
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Number of color channels
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Colour Profile
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Smart Preview status* (Filter-> Smart Preview Status)
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PNG*
(Filter -> File Type)
* also
available as filters
Smart Previews
Smart previews is an
all new feature in Lightroom designed to help users with large
numbers of files that they may wish to edit whilst away from their
desktop computer. In the past this has meant that the user had to
maintain copies of their images on a portable disk drive, which was
then taken with them when on the road or away from their normal
workplace. When files were relatively small this wasn't a big problem
but photo libraries containing tens or even hundreds of thousands of
files the ability to transport all files was becoming
increasing difficult, if not impossible. Obviously, Adobe have
recognised the problem and for Lightroom 5 set about making it less
of a issue.
Smart Previews are lightweight files that can be used in place of the
original raw files throughout the application, including the Develop
Module. They reside in the same folder as the catalog and are contained
in a 'lrdata' file folder structure. This is similar to the existing
Preview file structure. If available, the original files are
prioritised above Smart Previews and will be used when available. When
the original files are not available the Smart Preview will be used.
Any edits applied to the Smart Preview will be saved to the Lightroom
catalog. When the original files are reconnected these edits will be
automatically applied to the original. Smart Previews are Lossy DNG
files and are currently limited to 2540 pixels on the long side.
Smart Previews can be created
during or after import, and files having an original and smart preview
can be recognised by a note under the histogram (Library and Develop
modules).
Original and Smart Preview Available
When only the smart preview
is available (e.g. photos offline), files with smart previews can be
recognised by the black rectangle on top left corner of thumbnail or
the note under the histogram.
Smart Previews Only Available
To
create the smart previews during import - check the "Build Smart
Previews" field in the File Handling panel. This checkbox is off by
default and is persistent between Import sessions. The checkbox should
revert to off in between Lightroom sessions. Within Preferences, check
the "Build Smart Previews during Import" option. When enabled, this
will make the "Build Smart Previews" checkbox enabled by default within
the Import dialog. You can still uncheck this on a per session basis,
but it will revert back to the default on Lightroom restart. To create
smart previews after import - in Library, go to the Library-> Previews
-> Build Smart Previews menu command
When
exporting to catalog, there is a "Build Smart Previews" checkbox
available. This will create a new catalog and the Smart Preview lrdata
file will be contained in the same folder as the new catalog.
Keyword List Filter
One of
the most irritating aspects of the 'Filter Keyword' feature in
Lightroom is the fact that it filters on letter sequences irrespective
of whether they're the first letters in a word or just appear somewhere
within it. An example, say I’m searching for the keyword 'el rancho'.
One of the keywords returned by Lightroom is 'religious person'. Now
you might well ask - why did Lightroom display 'religious person' as a
match for 'el rancho'? Simple answer - the sequence of letters 'el'
appear in 'religious'. I could equally have been searching for 'eel'
(as in fish). In this instance, the filter would return words like -
'stainless steel', 'wagon wheel', 'wheeline irrigation', and 'prayer
wheels'. The list of inappropriate suggestions goes on and on.
So,
having drawn your attention to above quirk in Lightroom behaviour you
might expect that I'm going to announce that it's been fixed. Sorry, to
disappoint - it hasn't! No, instead of fixing the silliness, the
engineers have focused their attention on another aspect of keyword
filtering namely 'keywords inside matches'. Now this, for some, might
well be a dream come true, but for me... The new feature or tweak is a
drop-down option within the 'Filter Keywords' search field. When
enabled, 'Show all keywords inside matches' will result in Lightroom
displaying all matches for the word being searched for plus any that
are contained within it (i.e. child keywords within the hierarchy). The
screen grab shown below demonstrates how it works. The first tab shows
my top level keyword list, the second shows what Lightroom will filter
if I search for the word 'civic', and the last shows the list of child
keywords within 'civic buildings'.
Enhanced Keyword List filter
Other Features and JDIs in Library
Upon hiding the Filter bar, an overlay
bezel informs users that the Filter Bar is hidden and can be
restored using the / keyboard shortcut. This occurs in Library, Map,
Book, Slideshow, Print and Web.
Upon hiding the Toolbar,
an overlay bezel informs customers that the Toolbar is hidden
can be restored using the T keyboard shortcut. This occurs in all
Lightroom 5 modules.
A new menu item has been
added to the View menu called Lock Zoom Position. If the menu
item is checked, the zoom position of each image will be remembered,
and when switching between images, the loupe view will be centered on
the point you clicked last time.
New keyboard shortcut 'F12'
to trigger tethered capture.
A Direction field
has been added to the EXIF Metadata panel. Obviously, this only
appears when the files contains GPS with directional data. This field
will show the compass directions as one of 8 options (North,
Northwest, West, etc.). The degree value will shown as a tooltip on
mouse hover. The "Direction" EXIF metadata field is editable. The 8
compass directions (North, North-west, east, etc.) are the only
values that can be entered in this field. This field can be synced
across multiple images using the "Sync Metadata" button.
A new new Import option has
been added to Preferences. When Show the 'Current/Previous Import'
collection during Import" is checked, the customer is shown their
newly imported photos. When unchecked, the photos are still imported,
but the focus will remain on the last previously viewed images (prior
to Import).
Photos can be dragged
directly to Saved Locations and Saved Locations can be dragged
to photos. In both cases, the photo will receive the same location as
the already defined "Saved Location".
There is now a command to
verify the integrity of DNG files (Library>Validate DNG Files). Any
invalid DNG files will be placed in a special collection. Only DNG
files created by Adobe software can be validated. Note that
camera-created DNGs cannot be validated because they do not contain
the necessary checksum).
Develop Module
I have already mentioned
Smart Previews, which, when available will significantly reduce the
initial rendering of files in the Develop module. However, smart
previews are only a small part of the story for the Develop module.
The three headline features in Develop are:
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Upright,
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Radial Filter, and
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Advanced Healing Brush
Upright
Adobe first introduced
serious lens correction tools when they released Lightroom 3. These
were further enhanced in Lightroom 4, but even then some of the most
difficult corrections depended on user interaction via sliders.
However, even the most skilful user often found dealing with the
corrections necessary to fix perspective or even the poor choice of
lens were extremely difficult, if not impossible. Wouldn't it be nice to have such
corrections dealt with automatically? Well, with Lightroom 5 many of
the most awkward corrections can be automatically fixed with the
click of a button. A close-up view of the Upright tool panel along
example of Upright in use is shown below.
Upright tools in Lens Corrections panel
When the user presses
Auto button within the Basic tab the Upright tool will
analyse the image to determine the optimum correction based on the
best balance between level and perspective. In many cases the auto
button will be sufficient. However, in some situations the
Level or Vertical will produce the best results,
and in others Full will be best. Each button has a short
tooltip describing what it does.
Upright - Basic tab in Lens Corrections - Before view (click image for larger view)
Upright - Basic tab in Lens Corrections - After view (click image for larger view)
In above example, Auto mode produced the best results. However, with
other similar images the best result was produced by Vertical mode.
The purpose of me restating this is to enforce the point that the best
results results may not always come from the most likely mode.
Usage
Instructions:
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Within Develop -> Lens
Corrections panel, ensure Enable Profile Correction is checked. Upright
works best when lens profile is enabled.
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Ensure that the image has
not been cropped or manually transformed. Applying Upright will reset
any crop or manual transform adjustments
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Click on one of the 4 mode
buttons to apply a correction.
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Tweak (if necessary) using
the Manual transforms available in the "Manual" tab.
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The Reanalyze button is
helpful if you enable/disable Lens Correction. Reanalyze will force
Upright to calculate a new transformation.
Upright
Modes:
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Off: Upright is
disabled (no adjustment). This is the default option.
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Auto: Apply an
automatic "balanced" correction to the image. It generally tries to
level the image and fix converging horizontal and vertical lines, but
will be conservative (e.g., it will not completely fix converging
verticals if doing so would involve an overly strong correction that
would result in distorting too many image features). In general, Auto
will not be the same as Full, Level, or Vertical.
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Full: Apply a full
3D correction to the image (level + fix converging horizontals and
verticals), even if it involves an extremely strong correction (large
rotations).
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Level: Level the
image (i.e., fix tilts). Similar to an automatic application of the
Straighten tool (crop panel) or using the Rotate slider (Manual tab). Does not fix converging
horizontals/verticals.
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Vertical: Combines
the levelling step (see previous item) with fixing converging
verticals.
Copy/Sync
Behaviour:
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'Upright Mode' will utilize
the same Upright mode as part of the preset or copy/sync. Each image
will be independently analyzed to determine the best transform based
on the Upright mode chosen.
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'Upright Transforms'
utilizes the Upright transformation from that image for presets and
copy/sync. Each image will utilize the exact same transformation.
Radial Filter
The new Radial Filter
can be access from the Develop module toolbar. It's located between the
Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush. The purpose of
this new tool is to allow Lightroom users to apply local adjustments to
a masked area rather than via a brush. While the tool will usually find
use in allowing the user to apply off centre vignettes it will also
enable more creative effects to be applied (e.g. highlight multiple
areas within an image). The shape, size, rotation angle and edge
feathering of the Radial Filter can all be configured by the user.
Radial Filter (click for larger view)
Usage
instructions:
Bounding ellipse can then be manipulated in the same way as the Crop
overlay
Keyboard Shortcuts:
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Shift + M - Expand Radial Filter tool
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Drag - Radial Filter is scaled from centre
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Cmd/Ctrl + double-click: Expand Radial Filter to visible image area
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Cmd/Ctrl + double-click on existing Radial Filter - Expand to
visible image area
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Option/Alt + Cmd/Ctrl + Drag: Duplicate Radial Filter
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H
- Hide Bounding Box
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Apostrophe key ( ' ) - Invert Mask
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Double-click on existing Radial Filter - Apply & dismiss Radial
Filter
Advanced Healing Brush
The last of
the new headline features that I want to discuss is the Advanced
Healing brush. In previous versions of Lightroom it was only possible
heal or clone circular defects such as dust spots. However, if
more complex shaped defects were present in the image then it would
need to be edited using Photoshop's much more powerful and flexible
tools. With Lightroom 5 this shortcoming has been partially addressed
in that we now have brush tool that can be used to heal non circular
objects. The following screen grab shows an example before and after
view of an image with contrails.
Advanced Healing Brush in use
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Usage options:
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Click + Drag - create brush spot
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Single click - create a circle spot from auto-find source
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Shift + Click - connect the selected spot with the new spot via a
straight brush stroke
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Cmd/Ctrl + Drag - Create a circle spot from user-defined source
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Cmd/Ctrl + Option + Drag: Create a circle spot that scales from
centre
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Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Drag: Create a circle spot that scales from
anchor
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Backslash (/) - select new source for existing circle or brush spot
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Shift + Drag - Constrain brush spot to horizontal or vertical axis
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Deletion
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New visualization to help detect hidden spots (such as sensor dust)
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Using the shift-click to "connect the dots" will now automatically
re-evaluate the source selection. In other words, the spot tool will
now account for the fact that the user has extended an existing spot.
Exception: if the user has previously manually set the source for a
spot, then shift-clicking to extend that spot will not invoke the
"auto find source" logic.
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Improve spot tool's ability to patch spots automatically
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Shift+Drag to constrain the brush to horizontal or vertical stroke
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A "Select New Source" command has been added to the contextual menu.
This has the same functionality as the '/' keyboard shortcut.
Other
Features and JDIs in Develop Module
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New keyboard shortcut for
Shift + Q: Toggle between Clone & Heal modes
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A lower resolution preview
(i.e. Camera Raw cache file or Smart Preview) enable the "Loading"
bezel disappears sooner than in previous versions. This will provide
access to certain Develop adjustments (such as Basic panel) while
Lightroom builds a high-resolution preview in the background. The
lower resolution preview is swapped to high-resolution preview once
built and enables full Develop module functionality. When entering
the Develop module individual panels are not loaded into memory
unless they're already open.
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Option/Alt + Cmd/Ctrl +
Drag: Duplicate local adjustments and linear gradients. Since local
adjustment pins cannot be moved, the dragging gesture is treated the
same as clicking, which means both gestures will duplicate the
selected correction in place.
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The before/after views now show the current photo and the
proofed photo in Soft Proofing.
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A new Aspect slider has
been added to the Lens Correction Manual Tab. This Slider allows for
small aspect ratio change that helps to correct image distortions
after applying perspective corrections. Dragging to the left should
make things look more "squat" and dragging to the right should make
things look taller and thinner.
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The new Basic panel with
Lens Corrections includes a checkbox to enable a lens profile,
constrain crop, remove chromatic aberration, and Upright. As in
previous versions, Lens Profiles can be enabled via the Profile tab,
and Chromatic Aberration can be enabled via the "Color" tab.
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Clipping indicators are now
persistent between Lightroom sessions.
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Crop Overlay Aspect Ratios
– Enable via Tools-> Crop Guide Overlay -> Aspect Ratios. These
provide a crop aspect overlay that can be enabled using the 'O'
keyboard shortcut while in the Crop tool.
Output Modules
If
you've already been using the public beta you'll be aware that the
output modules haven't received a lot attention with this release. OK,
so there are enhancements to the Book and Slideshow module, but nothing
on a par with what's been added to Library and Develop modules. The
headline features are summarised at top of page. So, I'll not repeat
them here. Nevertheless, it's worth mentioning that like smart
previews, the work that has been done under the hood in the slideshow
module should pave the way for some really cool enhancements in future
versions. Sadly, a side effect of this work has resulted in Lightroom 5
loosing much of its capacity to create time-lapse sequences. This means
folk who are into creating time-lapse sequences will need to keep
Lightroom 4 around for a while.
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