Adobe Creative Cloud Update Revamps Lightroom CC: What’s New?

Adobe made a number of intriguing announcements at its Adobe MAX 2017 conference in Las Vegas, including major Creative Cloud updates such as a completely redesigned Adobe Lightroom CC.

The Creative Cloud updates stretch across Adobe’s applications to add more artificial intelligence (AI) prowess and improve performance with Adobe Sensei. Among the most shocking updates is the completely redesigned Adobe Lightroom CC, which aims to be a next-generation, cloud-centric photography service.

Adobe Lightroom launched more than a decade ago and gradually became one of the most popular tools for photographers. With the new redesign, Lightroom CC now sports a streamlined user interface (UI), easier sharing on social media, a cloud-centric approach, and more.

The cloud-based Lightroom CC now allows users to edit photos in full resolution across all the web, desktop, and mobile, with seamless synchronization. A change made on one device will automatically sync on all others, so users can start editing on mobile and finish up on desktop, for instance.

With Sensei power, meanwhile, Lightroom CC leverages AI to allow users to better organize their photo collections and find certain photos more easily thanks to searchable keywords. Searching for a “sunset” photo, for instance, will retrieve all photos of sunsets. The searchable keywords are applied automatically, so users don’t have to manually tag their photos.

“As the leader in digital photography, today Adobe is unveiling Lightroom CC, our next generation photography service,” says Bryan Lamkin, Adobe’s EVP and general manager of Digital Media. “Lightroom CC answers photographers’ demand for a deeply integrated, intelligent, cloud-based photography solution.”

Not all Lightroom users might appreciate the complete redesign, however, so Adobe is also retaining the familiar experience users have enjoyed so far. To allow for a smoother transition, Adobe has rebranded the existing Lightroom as Lightroom Classic CC, while the redesigned one is now called Lightroom CC.

With two separate products, Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC, Adobe aims to cater to different needs and preferences. The former will continue to serve as a folder/file-based workflow, while the latter will embrace the mobile and cloud-based workflow.

Despite the newly-redesigned Lightroom CC, Adobe assures users that it will continue investing in Lightroom Classic CC as well. To highlight its commitment to this endeavor, the company launched a new Lightroom Classic CC version with a number of notable improvements, such as shorter app launch time, faster preview loading, more responsive brushing, new tools for Local Adjustments, and more.

With digital cameras and smartphones now more accessible and ubiquitous, people take more photos than ever before and this new reality warrants new tools that allow users to easily adjust their photos and sync them across devices without too much hassle. That’s where the cloud-centric Lightroom CC comes into play, aiming to make things easier and more connected.

The Adobe Lightroom CC library is now in the cloud for easier access and management across devices. Upon installation, the new Lightroom CC can automatically import existing libraries. The interface is much more minimalistic, doing away with several link to modules including “library,” “develop,” “book,” “map,” “slideshow,” “print,” and “web.” The simplified Lightroom CC interface simply has different views and upon selecting an editing tool from the right sidebar, it will automatically open the full-screen image in detail view. In the old Lightroom, users had to shift between their library and the “develop” module to edit photos.

With a clear focus on the cloud, the new Lightroom CC also does away with the complex import procedures so it’s now easier to add photos – just select the desired images, select “add photo” and that’s it. Users can still organize their photos into albums and, if they so prefer, choose to store them locally.

Lastly, when it comes to pricing, Adobe offers several options. Users who already have an Adobe CC Photography plan with Photoshop, Lightroom, Spark, and Portfolio, are entitled to 20GB of cloud storage. Those who need more can pay an extra $9.99 per month and get 1TB of cloud storage, albeit the full bundle costs just $14.99 for current users during the first year. A new Lightroom CC plan, meanwhile, is available for $9.99 per month, offering 1TB of cloud storage and access to Spark and Portfolio.

[Featured Image by Adobe]