At MAX Japan, Adobe has once again pushed the boundaries of creativity and innovation with a suite of new features and enhancements across its Creative Cloud platform. These updates, designed to streamline workflows and empower creators, include groundbreaking AI-powered tools, modernized design experiences, and advanced typography enhancements. Here’s a closer look at what Adobe has in store for its users:
Adobe’s latest updates to Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw are all about empowering photographers to take their editing to the next level. Whether you’re looking to remove distracting people from the background of an image, enhance your HDR shots with a single click, or clean up duplicate photos in your library, these new tools are designed to make your workflow faster and more efficient.
Realistically Enhance HDR Photos with Adaptive Profiles
One of the standout features is the introduction of Adaptive Profiles, now available across the entire Lightroom ecosystem—including Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom for mobile (iOS and Android), Lightroom for web, and Adobe Camera Raw. These profiles dynamically adjust the tones and colours of your photos, creating a realistic and enhanced starting point for further editing. Unlike traditional presets, Adaptive Profiles use AI to analyze your image and make tailored adjustments to exposure, shadows, highlights, and more while keeping the actual controls in their neutral position. This ensures a natural yet polished look, saving you time and effort.
Adaptive Profiles build on Adobe’s existing support for HDR workflows, which were first introduced in 2023. They’re just the latest in a series of improvements aimed at making high dynamic range photography more accessible and intuitive.
Distraction Removal: Clean Up Your Photos in a Few Clicks
Removing distractions from photos has traditionally been a tedious and manual process. With the new Distraction Removal feature, now available as a Tech Preview in Adobe Camera Raw and coming soon to Lightroom, photographers can easily identify and eliminate unwanted elements like photobombers or crowded backgrounds.
This tool is perfect for cleaning up family vacation photos or professional shoots, delivering clean, polished results in just a few clicks. Additionally, Adobe has expanded this feature to address window reflections, a common challenge for photographers, making it even more versatile.
Streamline Photo Library Management
Managing and organizing images in your photo library is one of the most tedious and time-consuming aspects of photography. Adobe has introduced powerful new tools in Lightroom on the web to simplify this process. The Clean Up tool, now available in early access, helps photographers identify the right photos for editing and remove unneeded ones.
One of its standout features is Find Duplicates, which makes it easier to track down and eliminate duplicate images that clutter your library. Clean Up also helps you find blurry photos, screenshots, and other unwanted images, ensuring your library stays organized and efficient.
Focus Point Selection for Perfect Shots
For photographers who rely on tethered shooting, Lightroom Classic’s new Focus Point Selection tool is a game-changer. When tethered to Lightroom Classic, you can change your camera’s autofocus mode in the Tether Live View window and simply click on your desired subject to set the focus point.
This eliminates the need to fiddle with auto-focus or manual near/far focus buttons, making it easier to capture the perfect shot every time. This feature is especially useful for tricky setups, such as bird’s-eye-view shots, and is available for supported Sony, Nikon, and Canon cameras.
Project Neo: A New Dimension in Design
For designers, Adobe has introduced Project Neo, now available as a public beta. This innovative tool allows users to add depth and dimension to their designs, creating stunning volumetric visuals. With seamless interoperability with Illustrator Desktop, Project Neo opens up endless creative possibilities, enabling designers to transform 2D designs into immersive 3D experiences.
Even More Lightroom Updates
Adobe continues to refine Lightroom with performance improvements and new features:
- Lightroom Classic Performance Improvements: Experience faster responsiveness when brushing masks, rotating crop angles, and adjusting white balance, especially for images with multiple masks. Optimizations for accessing and reading folders in your catalogue have also been implemented.
- Select Background (Lightroom Mobile): Make selective edits to the background of your photos directly from your phone using improved AI masking tools.
- Dual Monitor Support (Lightroom): Use Lightroom across two monitors for a more efficient workflow. Many photographers prefer having the edit view on one screen and the grid view on the other for maximum productivity.
What These Updates Mean for Creators
Adobe’s latest updates reflect its commitment to empowering creators with cutting-edge tools that simplify complex processes and unlock new creative potential. By integrating AI, enhancing performance, and expanding typography capabilities, Adobe is ensuring that its Creative Cloud remains an indispensable resource for designers, photographers, and artists worldwide.