Adobe just released Lightroom 6 also known as Lightoom CC.

This is the first major upgrade in almost 2 years, and includes some truly workflow-altering changes!

So has Photoshop been updated also?

Not at this time, however, Adobe Camera RAW has been updated to 9.0,

which matches the changes in the Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC Develop module.

 

Some major changes:

 

• You can now merge multiple RAW images into a Panorama right from Lightroom.

• You can now do an HDR merge of RAW files, without going into Photoshop or another application.

• And the resulting merged images are RAW (dng) files, giving you all the editing options of the Develop module. 

• The result is quickly shown to you in a preview JPG and the work is done by handing it off to the GPU

   on your graphics card so it all works much faster than ever before.

• That speed enhancement basically helps everything in the Develop module.

 

Other major additions include:

 

• Face recognition and face tagging.

• Additions in the Slideshow module

 - including a controllable pan and zoom option on slides

 - the ability to add multiple sound tracks

 - to sync transitions to sound track

 - speedy previews of your slide show using a reduced quality on playback just for previewing and testing.

• Ability to apply a radial or gradient mask and then “brush” out areas of the mask to exclude them.

• CMYK support in soft proofing

• Ability to reposition the Adjustment Brush Pins

• An auto Crop that levels and crops an image

• A “pet eye” correction (similar to red eye correction)

• Import directly into a collection

• “Paint” a  whole set of keywords with the keyword painter tool

• Improvements to Lightroom mobile on iDevices and Android

And

• Tons of lens profiles have been added

 

Of course there are basic system requirements to take advantage of all the new features:

Minimum system requirements: 

• 64-bit only

• OpenGL3.3and up

• Mac OS 10.9 and higher 

• Windows 7 and higher

 

And make sure your video drivers are up to date!

For Mac users, these are updated with the Operating System updates.

For PC users you may need to check your video card manufacturer’s website

to be sure there are no updates - even if your system is saying your drivers are OK!

 

SO what is the difference between Lighroom 6 and Lightroom CC as a subscription?

For one, no Lightroom Mobile on Lightroom 6.

And the continuos updates and additions will only show up on Lightroom CC,

as part of the “Creative Cloud Photography Plan Spring 2015 update”

- that’s the $9.99 a month subscription version for which you not only

get the latest Lightroom but also the full version of Photoshop CC.

 

In the next post, we will list some great resources for learning Lightroom!