It is not too long ago that we were here with another Adobe upgrade to its creative cloud apps. The subscription-based model that Adobe adopted is proving beneficial. Instead of waiting years and shelling out a lot of money to upgrade, we are now getting instantaneous and frequent upgrades to the apps. But this is not about the subscription model. It is about Lightroom Classic features in the just-released October 2020 update.
Lightroom has already seen three updates in 2020. From an upgrade to v. 9.2 in February 2020, version 9.3 in June, to the just-released October 2020 v. 10. As with the other releases, Adobe has upgraded some features and introduced new ones.
Performance
The first ‘feature’ standard in most of the updates is to do with performance. Lightroom is now faster and more agile than previous versions: loading times and editing performance have improved tremendously. You will notice that once you have upgraded to v.10, Adobe will ask you to update your catalog as well. Because of improvements to the software, catalogs from the old version of Lightroom are not compatible with version 10. Hence the catalog update. You also get the option of giving your updated catalog a unique name.
Color Grading Tool
New tools have also been added to Lightroom Classic. The most exciting feature is color grading. Color grading not only replaces split toning, but it also offers precise color adjustment in highlights, mid-tones, and shadows. There is also an option to make global color changes. The way the tool is laid out makes color adjustments precise and quick. The colors are in a circle, and they blend into the next color, meaning you get all those different color shades. You can also adjust individual color saturating by moving the slider toward the middle for less saturation and the edge for a more saturated color.
Scrubby and Box Zoom Feature
Enhancements have also been made to the zoom tool. The new zoom tool has additional ways of zooming in and out of the image. The first option is the scrubby zoom. By holding the shift key and pressing the mouse, it will evoke the zooming feature. You will know that zooming has been enabled when you see a small circle with arrows on either side pointing left and right. While holding the mouse and the shift key moving the mouse to the right will zoom in on the image. As long as the mouse is moving to the right, the image will continue to zoom in. Zooming stops and stays zoomed at the stopping point when you release the shift key and mouse. Clicking the mouse will bring the image back to standard view. Zooming out works in the same way when the mouse moves to the left. Note that this method works in the develop module and only works with GPU acceleration.
The second new way of zooming is box zoom. This zooming method is ideal when you want to zoom in quickly on a specific area. All you have to do is press CTRL on PC /Command on a Mac. A small box with a magnifying glass will appear. Using the box and magnifying glass, you draw a rectangle around the area you want to zoom in on. Lightroom will zoom in on that area. Zooming out to standard is by clicking the mouse.
Other Features
Other notable features include improved tethering for Canon cameras. Now when tethered to Lightroom, Canon cameras have live-view support. This means that you can see what your camera is seeing. Live view is useful for composing and ensuring that your image is focused correctly. Also included in the release is support for new cameras and lenses.
Final Word
All in all, this Lightroom release has a lot of new features. The only problem is how quickly Lightroom is evolving. If Adobe continues with these constant updates, it will be difficult for some photographers to keep up with all the changes. For an in-depth demonstration of the new feature in Lightroom, check out this video by Colin Smith of photoshopcafe.com. You can see the latest feature update of Lightroom here.
— Ansel Adams
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