According to Adobe, the 2019 update to Lightroom will answer the number one request made by users – in app learning. What’s more, it’s going to help users of all levels and will eventually roll out to both the desktop and mobile versions.
Adobe is introducing two ways to learn that will initially appear on the iOS and Android mobile version of the app. The Discover section will allow users to see an image and investigate how the edits were made.
There will also be tutorials that take a more traditional approach, showing users how to use specific features. However, it will also be possible to download images and work on them.
Each tutorial will have before and after images with information about the edits. You can then chose to download the original image and work on it following the step-by-step guidance.
The plan is to launch with 60 tutorials, but more will be added from a range of respected Lightroom educators including Matt Kloskowski, Katrin Eismann, Kristina Sherk and Nicole Young.
The desktop version of Lightroom is also set to get contextual help that will give advice from within the app. This advice will be relevant to the active module and available tools.
Texture Control
The other big news is the introduction of a new Texture control to the edit stack. This is a simple sliding control that operates on the midrange details. With a portrait image, for example, it could be used to soften the skin a little without removing the pore detail or fine lines. Adobe’s aim is for it to maintain a natural appearance to the skin.
The Texture adjustment can be applied globally or locally using tools like the Gradient filter.
Shared Albums
Adobe is also set to introduce Shared Albums across all versions of Lightroom apart from Lightroom Classic. In addition, it will be possible to share an album via an email and give contributor access. This means that others will be able to edit files that are shared with them.
The people you invite are able to view and add photos to your albums. When someone contributes, you gain access to their full resolution image in whatever format it was added in.
Mobile Batch Editing
Batch editing is also coming to the Lightroom mobile and will be rolled out to Android first and then iOS. It will enable users to edit an image and then apply those edits to other images.