Lightroom Classic 9.3 released

[davidedric]

From the Lightroom Queen blog: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/whats...m-classic-9-3/

[DanK]

One thing that struck me was the revamped curves tool, but the changes to that particular tool are cosmetic, not functional--e.g., new icons to switch between point-curve and parametric modes. Still doesn't have what I most want added: luminosity rather than RGB adjustment.

Some of the other changes are substantive, e.g., to the adjustment brush.

[Manfred M]

Interesting - Adobe must be using a phased approach to roll this out as Creative Cloud still shows my 9.2.1 as the most current version.

[DanK]

Interesting - Adobe must be using a phased approach to roll this out as Creative Cloud still shows my 9.2.1 as the most current version.

Probably to avoid overburdening the servers. I think I received the automatic notification just this morning.

[Manfred M]

Probably to avoid overburdening the servers. I think I received the automatic notification just this morning.

So it seems. All of the Creative Cloud software that I use, other than Media Encoder is currently being updated. This is one of the largest recent updates I've seen.

[Manfred M]

Photoshop has gotten a huge upgrade as well (V 21.2.0). Selection and content aware functions have been improved even more.

[rpcrowe]

Although the ten bucks a month may seem expensive and I fought against subscribing for a while, I really enjoy the automatic update to the Adobe Photoshop/LR/Bridge subscription service. It is a painless (to me) way to keep abreast of the latest innovations...

[DanK]

Although the ten bucks a month may seem expensive and I fought against subscribing for a while, I really enjoy the automatic update to the Adobe Photoshop/LR/Bridge subscription service. It is a painless (to me) way to keep abreast of the latest innovations...

I've long since lost track of what upgrades cost before the subscription model started, but I would be very surprised if the cost of keeping updated with the perpetual licenses averaged much under $120/year. Of course, it's a different matter for people who updated rarely, but I generally did keep my license up to date.

[davidedric]

Yes, Richard , same with me - though I always thought the monthly subscription worth while

Although the ten bucks a month may seem expensive and I fought against subscribing for a while, I really enjoy the automatic update to the Adobe Photoshop/LR/Bridge subscription service. It is a painless (to me) way to keep abreast of the latest innovations...

[pschlute]

Adobe camera raw has a new look and new features too.

[DanK]

Adobe camera raw has a new look and new features too.

They made the interface far more similar to Lightroom's, which will be a help to those of us who use both. They've placed all of the develop functions in one place, along the right side of the screen.

I've only played with it for a minute, but it looks like they have tied two features together. Lightroom has a "solo mode", in which only the block you are working on stays open in the develop panel. The new ACR has that as well, but it is tied to where you place the filmstrip. If you place the filmstrip at the left, you get this in the develop panel. If you place it on the bottom (I haven't tried that), multiple blocks can stay open at one time.

[Manfred M]

They made the interface far more similar to Lightroom's, which will be a help to those of us who use both. They've placed all of the develop functions in one place, along the right side of the screen.

I've only played with it for a minute, but it looks like they have tied two features together. Lightroom has a "solo mode", in which only the block you are working on stays open in the develop panel. The new ACR has that as well, but it is tied to where you place the filmstrip. If you place the filmstrip at the left, you get this in the develop panel. If you place it on the bottom (I haven't tried that), multiple blocks can stay open at one time.

In my case, one of the reasons I preferred working in ACR is that I found the user interface superior to the one in Lightroom. ACR had been consistent that way since I first started using Photoshop almost 20 years ago.

I can't say I'm necessarily surprised that they finally went this route for the reason that you have pointed out. In my case, I suspect that I will continue to use ACR because I tend to SmartObjects a lot in my work, but equally, I suspect I will probably do more of my raw conversion work in DxO Photo Lab or Capture One, because of their strengths.

[Geoff F]

I still can't make any sense of Lightroom.

Recently I was looking for a particular image which was hiding somewhere among many folders and Bridge was being temperamental which seems to happen occasionally since the last upgrade. So in desperation I tried Lightroom but once again I couldn't get anywhere with it. Once opened it tried to find the last file which had been used there and refused to search for what I wanted. All my efforts just made it more obstinate and I got nowhere.

So I gave up and closed down my computer. On restarting the computer, Bridge became more compliant and I eventually found what I wanted.

Maybe it is just me and the way I work; but I have tried Lightroom a few times without even getting past the first door.

[davidedric]

HI Geoff, you are right.

Lightroom is essentially a workflow tool. You either step in and adopt its assumed way of working, or stay away. What does not work is to try and use your existing way of working within Lightroom (that's behind many of the anti Lightroom posts you can read), or to drop in and out.

Lightroom works very well for me at the centre of how I work. Others hate it. No-one is right or wrong.

[DanK]

Geoff,

Lightroom has very powerful and very simple-to-use search capabilities, but like any other software, you have to invest time to learn how it works. This was really driven home to me by statistical software, which I've used now for almost 50 years. No matter how well designed, it seems awful when you first start.

As for opening on the last image used: that's a setting you can change, but it's turned on by default. I find it helpful and have never changed it. It makes it easy to stop and resume.

As for searching: once you have imported files, the left-hand panel of the library module is an exact replica of the file structure on your hard drive, except that it includes only the folders that you have imported. To search, simply click on whatever level of the file structure you are confident is high enough up to include the files you are searching for. It's such a fast search engine that I simply go to the top-most folder. Then hit ctrl-f, and several search boxes will pop up at the top, allowing you to search for character strings in file names, keywords, metadata, etc. If you are like me, you will end up with a lot of hits, as I have a lot of files with the same name. When you find the one you want in the grid view of the search results, right click on it for a context menu. One of the options is to go to the directory that contains that image, with that image loaded. That's normally what I do.

For years, I made relatively little use of LR's data management, but lately, I have been dipping my toes in the water, and I'm finding it very convenient. For example, I am finally making use of collections, which are basically pointers, that is, faux directories You can put anything from anywhere in the catalog into any number of collections. For example, the images I have on display in one place come from years of directories, and I didn't even have consistent file names. I simply hunted down the images and put them all in a new collection for that exhibit. The files aren't moved when you do this; LR just puts in a pointer to call up the preview or full image when you want to access it from the collection.

Dan

[pschlute]

I used Photoshop Elements for years as a catalogue, and Slikypix DSPro as a raw converter. I rarely touched ACR. Since moving my catalogue to LR I don't use the LR editing tools much. But having recently discovered the benefits of shooting bracketed images, and merging the raw files in LR I have been using ACR more. Silkypix wont process my LR merged files (the latest version does apparently have its own merge tool), but ACR obviously can and what a revelation. The brush tool in particular has helped me out on my latest images where the DR in the scene was very high, and even the merged files needed a lot of highlight taming.

[pschlute]

For years, I made relatively little use of LR's data management, but lately, I have been dipping my toes in the water, and I'm finding it very convenient. For example, I am finally making use of collections, which are basically pointers, that is, faux directories You can put anything from anywhere in the catalog into any number of collections.

I used Collections extensively in PSE, and the import to LR was seamless. They are extremely useful.

On another note I wanted to search LR today for all my images taken with a specific lens. Two clicks in the metadata tab and they are all displayed together. Very handy

[Manfred M]

Geoff - Lightroom started off as a Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool. I remember working with a Beta version of it (looks like around 2006). It also had a very basic parametric editor, as I recall, very similar to ACR. At the time my primary raw convertor / parametric editor was DxO Optics Pro (which is now sold as Photo Lab).

The problem I always had with Lightroom was the need to use the Catalog, which I had no use for. I had been using directories based on project or date to store my files and it was working just fine for me then, as it does now. Having to create a monolithic catalog (which was not all that robust for the first few versions) was more bother than it was worth. I could use Optics Pro or ACR straight from my windows browser or through Bridge (which was a bit slow and awkward to use at the time).

In my view, that is still the basic design flaw in Lightroom, from my workflow standpoint. It's fine if you organize your work that way, but I find it to be a real pain for my workflow. Capture One also has a catalogue, but also uses Sessions, which is better for my workflow. PhotoLab uses something they refer to as Photo Library, which is really an internal browser, so I can live with that.

Lightroom, over time added some other functionality; the Print module was relatively well received, but the Map. Book, SlideShow and Web modules never really got the attention or functionality they deserved. I suspect that people that wanted this functionality often had better tools.

Over time, as Camera Raw (and the Develop Module) improved, I switched over to ACR (if I recall correctly, that would have been when Photoshop CS 4 came out). The user interface in ACR always had a better workflow, in my view as I never had to scroll down to find the functions I wanted. Luckily for me, I used LR often enough when I had to help people edit with that software, so the switch will be seamless for me. That being said, both Capture One and DxO PhotoLab are stronger raw convertors and the only features that ACR still has over LR is native support of both L*a*b* and CMYK colour spaces. Both ACR and LR also support SmartObjects, which I use a lot.

[DanK]

The user interface in ACR always had a better workflow, in my view as I never had to scroll down to find the functions I wanted.

You don't need to scroll in LR if you don't want to. That's the purpose of solo mode, which you can replicate in the new ACR by putting the filmstrip on the left. Here's a screenshot of my develop panel in solo mode:



When you open any of these, whatever you have open will close automatically. It's functionally not much different from the old ACR, which had the icons on the top border and the open function on the right. In both cases, each function has one icon or link, and when you click on it, the relevant dialog opens.

It's fine if you organize your work that way,

I don't understand this. In what way? I have my work organized by shoots, which your post suggests you also do. LR doesn't conflict with that. However, it allows me to overlay lots of other variables on top of that, if I choose to. So, for example, I have a dozen prints from a dozen different shoots over perhaps 4 years in one exhibit. Lightroom makes it trivially easy to go back to that set when I want to, even though the set spans 12 shoots. This doesn't require that the base organization be any different. It just gives me additional options.

[rpcrowe]

For a guy who needs to be retrained in computer skills if I take a lunch break, I am quite surprised how easy the new Photoshop and Adobe Camera interface is for me to use and how much I like it. Obviously, I have just scratched the surface it its capabilities but the new setup seems quite logical and along my workflow techniques.

Additionally, I also like the new user interface in the NIK Collection Three. I have not yet experimented with the new NIK Perspective Efex and wonder if it is superior in capability and ease of use to adjusting perspective using ACR...