Adobe released the new version of Lightroom today! Officially there are two versions, “Lightroom CC 2015” for Creative Cloud subscribers, and “Lightroom 6”, which is the stand-alone perpetual-license version. (you’ll read almost no mention of 6 in the Adobe press release, but it is available.) As always, CC subscribers have access to syncing with Lightroom Mobile and Lightroom Web, but otherwise at this point the two new offerings are exactly the same. Nevertheless, Adobe is probably introducing this dual branding to enable it to offer future new features more quickly to CC subscribers.
This is a relatively small update compared to Lightroom 4 and 5, but it does include some nice new features.
Lightroom 6 Major New Features
- Photo Merge feature for panorama stitching and HDR merge of multiple exposures to increase dynamic range (two fewer reasons for using Photoshop!) Impressively, the resulting files are DNG files – assuming your individual frames were raw files, the resulting DNG is just as much of a raw file, with all of the editing flexibility and advantages of a raw file.
(Note that the HDR feature increases dynamic range, which is the core purpose of HDR. It doesn’t give over-the-top HDR processing looks.)
- Face tagging to assign people keywords to face regions in photos
- Performance improvements, including GPU acceleration to improve Develop slider responsiveness, particularly on 4k and 5k high resolution displays
- Filter brush added to the graduated filter and radial filter tools, to brush on additions or brush away subtractions to/from these filters.
- Slideshow Ken-Burns-style pan & zoom feature and ability to add up to 10 music tracks
- New HTML5 web galleries in the Web module
Watch My “Highlights of What’s New in Lightroom CC and Lightroom 6” Video
The release also includes many smaller feature additions and changes.
For complete instruction on all new features and changes, sign up here to download my new FREE 90-minute, 12-video series, “Learn Lightroom CC / 6 New Features”.[sc:signup_notext]
This also includes a video on how to upgrade to Lightroom Lightroom CC / 6, and sample files. You can also watch many video tutorials from “Learn Lightroom CC 2015 and 6” here.
To Obtain Lightroom CC 2015 or Lightroom 6, You Have Two Choices
1. Subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription program. The most cost-effective version for photographers is the CC Photography Program, which includes Lightroom, Photoshop, and unlimited syncing of photos from Lightroom to Lightroom mobile for mobile devices, and to Lightroom web. The cost is $9.99 USD/month, and all future updates are included in the price. If you already are a CC subscriber, you can download the new Lightroom CC 2015 for free. In my opinion this CC plan is a great deal, but I know it’s not for everyone.
2. Purchase the stand-alone perpetual license “Lightroom 6”. This is priced at $149 USD for new users, or $79 USD to upgrade from any prior version (Lightroom 1-5.) Adobe has honored their commitment to offer this option, but they will not be featuring it, so it will not necessarily be easy to find on adobe.com. Update: here’s the link to purchase Lightroom 6 – it’s toward the bottom of the page. If you’re looking for the upgrade, select the full version, then in the next dialog, change to the upgrade.
For more information to help you make a decision between these two options, including some myth-busting on some widely held beliefs about the CC plan, read my article, “Which Should I Buy, Lightroom CC 2015 or Lightroom 6?”
Read full details of the release here.
Lightroom Mobile New Support & Features – Android and iOS
To encourage users to choose the subscription model, Adobe today also announced the following new Lightroom mobile support options and features:
- Android Tablet Support: Previously only available on Android phones, now you can sync, edit, organize and share on Android tablets as well.
- Native DNG support on Android: Android 5.0 (aka “Lollipop”) now allows you to shoot photos in raw, and saves them as DNG files. You can now import those DNG files directly from your Android device.
- Android SD card support: You can now specify local storage to an SD card rather than internal device storage.
- TIFF support on iOS: If you’re creating TIFF files on your iOS device, you can now import and edit them using Lightroom.
- Improved crop experience on iOS: simplified number of tiles in the crop UI so you can now easily find aspect ratios; added auto-straighten function.
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Love it! But how do I get the version? I tried to update Adobe Creative Cloud, but there is no update. I tried to search for updates from whitin Ligthroom but only get the message No updates are available at this time….
Hi Therese,
In the Creative Cloud app, go into Preferences, the account tab, and sign out and sign back in. I did this this morning and it caused it to update the CC app, and then Lightroom showed in the list.
Thank you!! :)
LR6 will be not an option for me although I have a CC subscription. My windows machine is 32 bit and since Adobe decided to offer LR6 only for 64 bit OS, I’m left in the cold. And I’m not thinking about reformatting my machine to 64 just to acomodate Adobe. It’s an incredible stupidity to force somebody to not upgrade or to go through the hassle to change the OS just to a acomodate Adobe.
Laura, I don’t know if any of your readers found that they could not launch (start, open, etc.) Lightroom CC 2015 (aka LR6) after installing. I had this problem and knowing that LR CC is a brand new download today, I didn’t have any hope that I would find a solution. However, thankfully there are others that had the same issue (see link below).
In a nutshell: Before doing the following make sure you remember your Adobe CC login in password to get back in. This is for Windows. I’m not sure if OS X is the same. Open your Adobe Creative Cloud utility, click on the “gear” in the upper right and select “Preferences…”, and then click on the “Sign Out” button. After you’ve signed out, open this utility again, and sign back in. Lightroom CC / 6 should now start.
http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-cc-2015-quits-on-launch-big-problem
Thanks Laura, and thank you greatly for your “Learn Lightroom CC / 6 New Features” video.
Dean
Thank you very much, Dean! I myself found Lightroom CC not listed in the CC app, and had to go through this process. After signing in, it was listed, and could be installed.
Laura,
Yes. I experienced the problem in two parts. Part 1 was not finding the new update in the Creative Cloud Apps list for my computer. As you said, I had to log out and then back in before it showed up. Part 2 was after I installed Lightroom CC I could not launch it. I clicked on the icon but nothing happened. Again, I logged out of the Creative Cloud utility, and after logging back in, I could then click on the LR CC icon and then and only then would it launch.
Thanks again,
Dean
My problem with trying to load the latest Lightroom started with discovering that Creative Cloud had disappeared from my desktop. I found the exe file using a file manager. When I fired it up it, it went into a long update mode. Then I seemed to be able to update to the latest versions of Photoshop and Lightroom. The Photoshop CC update seems to have worked. Nothing happens when I click on the new Lightroom icon on the start menu and on the desktop. A Creative Cloud icon has appeared on my desktop. So I tried to fire it up so I could try that trick about signing out and signing in. But Creative Cloud just shows a perpetual spinning dial like it is working, but nothing ever happens. I can get to the option of signing out. Fortunately, Lightroom 5.7 is still working and lets me sign in for synching.
I don’t know what the issue is, Bruce – I would post on lightroomforums.net, or see if there is already a thread on this issue.
After much messing which included being unable to start Creative Cloud and unable to start the new Lightroom CC, I got the program to fire up. All looked good until I tried the develop module. No matter what photo I selected, all that appeared was a big white X on a blue background. I wish I could upload here my screenshot. And now my Lightroom 5.7 program keeps turning the synch off. It says I should go to Lightroom Mobile preferences and click on “delete all data.” I don’t like the sound of that.
Hi Bruce,
Deleting all data just removes from the cloud what you have synced – i.e. collections that you see in Lightroom mobile and on Lightroom web. It will not delete anything from Lightroom desktop, and you can just resync. I’m not sure on your Develop issue – try signing out of your Creative Cloud app and signing in again.
Anyone know whether the same catalog can be used for Lightroom CC 2015 and Lightroom 6?
Yes it can, Terry – at least at this point. Down the road if CC gets new features that require a catalog upgrade, then this upgraded catalog won’t be readable by Lightroom 6.
I, too, found that clicking on the Lightroom CC icon would do nothing once the update installed. Thanks to this forum, I saw the trick about logging out and back in to the Creative Cloud and it finally worked. Definitely try that if you’re having the same trouble!
I have all your videos and find them so helpful. Thank you. Unfortunately, I somehow found this latest series a little late and now I have a big mess in my keywords. I had already used keywords to tag all the people in my photos, about 10,00 photos total. With face detection I began tagging everyone before watching your video. My mistake! Now I have two sets of name keywords for everyone and can’t find a way to merge them. I still have a copy of the .lrcat file from Lightroom 5 that I saved in Dropbox. Do you think that the easiest way to start over (even though I’ve done almost half of my photos) would be to reinstall the CC .lrcat file by deleting the thoroughly messed up keyword CC .lrcat file and renaming the Lightroom 5 .lrcat file as you had us do when I originally opened CC? I know this is a confusing question – I’m pretty confused myself right now.
Hi Pat,
I apologize for my delay in responding. Presumably you have resolved this, but here is an article on eliminating keyword duplicates. If you use this, be sure to keep the face tagging version.
Laura,
I have been running the LH CC trial version and have decided to get the standalone LH6. Is it necessary to uninstall the trial before installing the standalone?
Thanks,
Ron