What’s new in Lightroom 5.0?

It’s official – Lightroom 5 has just been released. Here’s the download link you’ll need.  As with previous versions, it is available as a perpetual license from Adobe and other resellers (full price $149, upgrade $79), as well as being included in the Creative Cloud.

So what’s new?

Most of the new features were in the 5.0 beta, so I won’t repeat the full list again.  If you haven’t tried the beta, here’s my 5.0 beta blog post with a detailed list of the changes. There have been around 400 bug fixes, including a fix for Upright which wasn’t straightening easy horizons. Feathering on the Radial Filter has been doubled, at the request of beta testers. There’s also a new Behance plug-in, and the Revel plug-in is now being maintained by the Revel team.

Performance isn’t specifically mentioned in the release notes, but the feedback from the forums has been excellent, with many users comparing the Develop interactive speed to Lightroom 3.

Camera raw file support has been added for a few more cameras: (cameras in italic were added in the 4.3 release candidate)

  • Hasselblad H5D-60
  • Olympus PEN E-P5 & E-PL6
  • Phase One IQ260*
  • Ricoh GR
  • Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G6 & DMC-LF1
  • Various new lenses too

ACR 8.1 is also now available for CS6, and although it doesn’t have a UI for the new features, it does render them correctly when you use Edit in Photoshop.

Make sure you read the Known Issues in the release notes, as there are a few this time, including Canon tethering issues on Windows 8, a glitch with PV2003 photos in the Develop module, and a possible bug when selecting photos in the Publish Services view (which is proving tough to reproduce, and may have been around for years).

When you come to upgrade your catalog, Lightroom will check the original files to add additional information to the catalog - Image Bit Depth (i.e. 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit), Color Mode (i.e. RGB, Greyscale, CMYK, etc.) and Color Profile (i.e. sRGB, Adobe RGB, etc.) – and that can take a long time if you have a large catalog or your photos are on slower storage (i.e. NAS).  If you’re not interested in that data, taking the photos offline first will speed up the catalog upgrade, but it’s not easy to add that data later. Laura Shoe has an excellent video on upgrading, if it’s your first time.

Finally, a quick update on my Lightroom 5 book.  I’m just adding the finishing touches, so the PDF format should be available in the next few days, with the other formats following shortly thereafter.  And yes, if you own an earlier version, there will be an upgrade discount available, which I’ll email to you shortly after release.  More updates soon!

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June 10, 2013 | Victoria Bampton | LR 5, What's New in this Release

Still confused about how to upgrade your catalog for Lightroom 5?

Confused about how to upgrade your catalogs from previous Lightroom versions?  Here’s the short version:

How do I upgrade my catalog from version 4 to version 5?

If you’re ready to upgrade, first make sure you have a current catalog backup, just in case something goes wrong. Proper measures have been put in place to avoid disasters, but you can never be too careful.

When you open Lightroom 5 for the first time, it should follow any existing Lightroom 4 preferences, and either prompt you for a catalog to open, or try to open your default catalog. If you’ve never run Lightroom on this machine, it will ask you where to create a default catalog.

When you try to open any earlier catalogs, Lightroom 5 will ask you to upgrade your catalog. You can select a different folder name or location for the upgraded catalog if you wish. The new version 5 catalog will be an upgraded copy—your original catalog won’t be changed, although the previews file will be moved to the Lightroom 5 catalog. You may want to move the original catalog to your backups folder once the upgrade is complete.

The upgrade process may take a while, as it checks the original files for additional information, for example, the bit depth and color profile. Note that if the original files are offline, for example, on disconnected external hard drives, then that extra metadata will not be added to the catalog.

 

Need more detail?

Laura Shoe has an excellent video, and many thanks to Jim Wilde for the guest post below, which covers the extra points to look out for if you used the beta for ‘real work’.

 

If you used the beta for real work…

If the public beta was installed prior to the installation of the general release version, I would recommend proceeding as follows:

If the LR5 Beta catalog is no longer required: Optionally uninstall the LR5 beta software first (may not be necessary, but perhaps beneficial to ensure a clean environment for the new install), then remove the beta catalog (zip it up if needed for archival purposes, else delete it). After that you can proceed as if doing a clean installation and upgrade of the previous version catalog, as per the basic instructions above.

If the LR5 beta catalog is required, and is to be merged with existing previous version “master” catalog: in this situation, even if the LR5 beta software is uninstalled first, when starting LR5 general release for the first time it will open using the LR5 beta catalog. This can be circumvented by resetting or deleting the LR5 preferences file first, but for this note I’m assuming this is not done. So, with the beta catalog open, go to File menu > Open Catalog and select the previous version “master” catalog in the resulting file browser window. This will result in the catalog upgrade dialog appearing, as per the basic instructions above. When the upgrade is complete, and the catalog opened into LR5, you can then proceed to File menu > Import from another Catalog. In the resulting file browser you need to select the LR5 beta catalog, and proceed to make the appropriate selections to achieve the merge of the 2 catalogs.

Note: It is possible to proceed the “other way round”, i.e. open the beta catalog first, then run the catalog merge by importing the previous version catalog using the File>Import from another Catalog procedure. However, the problem with this approach is that all Publish Service collections that you may have setup in the previous version catalog will be lost, as “import from another catalog” does not transfer these. So if you are a user of Publish Services, proceed with caution if trying to merge an LR5 beta catalog with a previous version catalog.

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June 12, 2013 | Victoria Bampton | LR 5

Adobe’s changes… let’s stop and take a breath

Well Adobe’s Creative Cloud announcement has certainly had a reaction!  There are a lot of photographer’s being understandably vocal about the changes.  Are Adobe listening?  Er, yes, they can’t miss it!

 

In a dpreview interview, Winston Hendrickson (VP of Creative Solutions) said “[we know there's] currently there’s not a lot of photography-specific value in our subscription products”. Adobe clearly knows that they have a LOT of work to do to win back photographers. But to be honest, that could be the best result possible for us as users.

 

“I’m taking my business elsewhere”

I’m hearing a lot of people saying “I’m taking my business elsewhere” or “I’m looking for alternative software”, but the reality is, you won’t hurt Adobe by shooting yourself in the foot. Your current software has been working, and will continue to do so. You’ve already paid for it, and you know how to use it. Lightroom meets most of our needs as photographers, so if you don’t like the changes, hold fire and stick with CS6 for the moment. Adobe have promised to continue supporting CS6 for the next Windows/Mac operating systems, and make ACR8 available for CS6 with new camera support and Lightroom 5′s Edit in Photoshop compatibility.  So even if you don’t like the idea of subscription, there’s no rush to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.

 

A New Playing Field for Developers

These changes have just completely opened up the playing field. Other developers are going to jump on it and make the most of it. Some will do well and some will fail. I would suggest that now’s not the time to be making reactive decisions about your future photography software. Adobe are no longer the only game in town, and they’re going to have to work really hard to make their software great value, if they want to get photographers on board again in the future. That’s a great thing for us as users. And if they don’t do it, then we’ll be in a far better position to see which developers ARE then meeting our needs. The playing field will change significantly over the next year or two, so it makes far more sense to take a deep breath, sit tight and see who comes out in front.

 

Lightroom 5

There’s been some confusion over whether Lightroom’s going subscription-only in the future. In the dpreview interview, Bryan O’Neill Hughes (Photoshop Senior Product Manager) said “We don’t have plans to make Lightroom a subscription-only option but we do envision added functionality for CC members using Lightroom.” Yikes, what did he mean by that?!  There hasn’t been an official announcement on that yet, but logic would suggest he was referring iPad/tablet/cloud facilities that Tom previewed on The Grid last week, which of course would require some kind of cloud subscription, otherwise it wouldn’t work!  That doesn’t mean the Lightroom perpetual license software is about to be dumbed down or hobbled.

EDIT – I’ve just had confirmation that Bryan’s comment was a mistake and there won’t be a different CC version of Lightroom. The future iPad/tablet/cloud facilities might not even be linked to Creative Cloud.

 

Hold that thought…

The software you already own has been working just fine, and Lightroom 5′s looking like a great perpetual license upgrade, so there’s no reason to throw our toys out of the pram and look elsewhere yet. They’ve heard the reaction. Let’s hang tight and see what Adobe does next before making any decisions.

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May 8, 2013 | Victoria Bampton | Creative Cloud, External Editors, LR 5, Photoshop

Adobe goes subscription-only (but not for Lightroom)

At the AdobeMAX event today, Adobe announced that they will no longer be selling perpetual license for the Creative Suite. That’s now been rebranded as Creative Cloud, and will be available by subscription only. Technology, and life in general, are moving faster and faster, and 18-24 month upgrade cycles just don’t work that well anymore. Adobe wants to focus on providing changing technology as fast as they can. You can read their official letter and watch the keynote here.

So what does that mean for photographers? Let me see if I can answer some of those questions…

 

What’s going to happen to Lightroom and Photoshop Elements?

Tom Hogarty has confirmed that Lightroom will continue to ship as a standalone product by electronic download or as a boxed copy, as well as being available in the Creative Cloud. There’s no official word on Photoshop Elements or Premiere Elements yet, but the expectation is the same will apply.

There are some rumblings around the web suggesting that Lightroom will soon go subscription only too. Nothing Adobe’s said suggests that’s true – exactly the opposite, in fact. Lightroom has a completely different target market to the main Creative Cloud software, so I’m not anticipating changes there in the foreseeable future.

 

What if I want Photoshop but not the whole Creative Cloud?

There are individual subscriptions available, and a year’s worth of a single-product subscription (i.e. Photoshop) costs about the same as the yearly upgrade.

Also, Tom Hogarty announced on The Grid recently that Adobe want feedback from photographers on what YOU want from the cloud. Do you want a photographer’s cloud with a subset of programs, perhaps?  They’re listening, so this is your chance to influence the future of Adobe.

 

Do I have to go on subscription?

They are continuing to sell perpetual licenses for CS6 for the time being, and they’re going to continue adding new camera support to CS6 too. So if you only use Photoshop for retouching, you’re not being forced into upgrading.  That said, the new features in Photoshop CC are well worth considering.

 

I already own a perpetual license – any upgrade discounts?

Yes! If you have CS3 or later, you can get discounts of up to 60% off on single app or the whole Creative Cloud for the first year! Single apps cost just $9.99/month for the first year.

 

Will Adobe stop innovating once they’ve got everyone tied into a subscription?

No! If they’re going to stop users looking elsewhere for suitable software, they’ll have to keep innovating and pushing boundaries. They’re going to be working just as hard, but the flexibility should mean they can use some of their time to clean up some of the older irritating bugs and smaller features that make our working experience better.

 

I don’t want to be tied to the cloud – what if I’m offline?

The programs are installed on your computer, as they are at the moment. They ‘phone home’ once a month to confirm you’ve paid, but if you’ve paid for an annual membership, you can go up to 180 days even if you’re offline.

 

Where can I find more information?

There’s further FAQ’s on Adobe’s website. If you can’t find the answer to something, ask in the comments and I’ll see what I can find out for you.

 

Edit – Jeff Tranberry’s just posted a good FAQ too http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/2013/05/answering-your-questions-about-photoshop-cc.html

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May 6, 2013 | Victoria Bampton | External Editors, Lightroom

Tom Hogarty previews Lightroom on the iPad

Just a few minutes ago, Tom Hogarty finished chatting live with Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski on The Grid. Adobe doesn’t usually share its plans before release, but on this occasion Tom gave us a sneak preview of their future plans for photographers. If you missed it, the replay should be available, usually within about 24 hours, at http://kelbytv.com/thegrid/

In the meantime, here’s a quick summary of the discussion:

Photographic software has changed a lot in the last few years. It used to be a closed system – mainly a camera and a desktop computer. These days, there’s a huge choice of additional software, multiple computers, laptop, tablets, and phones involved. Photographers are having to cobble together their own workflow solutions, using a variety of different apps like Dropbox, Flickr, and SmugMug.

Adobe want to solve that issue, and focus on a solution that extends beyond the desktop. The new Smart Previews included in Lightroom 5 beta are just a start. Those Smart Previews are tiny in comparison to the original raw files – Tom said they’re 2-4% of the original raw file size. Imagine pushing those to the cloud, and those photos seamlessly appearing on your other devices – computers, tablets and phones. Adobe Revel started exploring that workflow, but it’s limited to JPEGs. Imagine being able to select and rate your photos on your phone while you’re sat on the train or lounging in front of the TV. Imagine being able to edit your raw photos on your tablet using exactly the same Devleop module sliders as Lightroom… and then when you get back to your Lightroom catalog, all of the changes are there waiting for you.

It’s already in progress. It’s some way from shipping yet, but Tom showed a working demo on his iPad. Adobe are looking for feedback. They want to know what you want to be able to do on your tablet, and how you think it should work.

They then went on to talk about the Creative Cloud. Technology’s moving faster and faster, and waiting 18-24 months for a software update is an eternity in computing terms. As a subscriber – either to the Creative Cloud or just Photoshop alone – you get access to updates to new features as soon as they’re available.

At $50 a month, the Creative Cloud’s a brilliant deal for users who need multiple programs, but if you’re a photographer, not so much…  But did you realise you can subscribe to Photoshop alone?  It’s just $19.95 a month, and it has to be one of Adobe’s best kept secrets!

But Tom went further. They want feedback.  What do YOU want as a photographer?  Do you want your own Photographer’s Cloud?  What would you like to see included? Lightroom?  Photoshop?  The new tablet/cloud offering? Anything else?  And what would you consider a fair subscription price for that service? Now’s the chance to have your say. You can catch Tom on Twitter as @LR_Tom, on the Facebook Lightroom page, or you can leave your comments on this blog post and I’ll make sure they’re forwarded on to him.

What do you think?

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May 1, 2013 | Victoria Bampton | LR 5, Other Related Links
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