Adobe Lightroom 2019

Adobe Lightroom CC 2019 (officially Adobe Photoshop Lightroom) is a creative image organization and image manipulation software developed by Adobe Inc., as part of the Creative Cloud subscription family. It is supported on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and tvOS (Apple TV). Its primary uses include importing/saving, viewing, organizing, tagging, editing, and sharing large numbers of digital images. Lightroom’s editing functions include white balance, tone, presence, tone curve, HSL, split toning, detail, lens corrections, and calibration manipulation, as well as transformation, spot removal, red eye correction, graduated filters, radial filters, and adjustment brushing.

Overview

Unlike Photoshop, Lightroom is a non-destructive editing software that keeps the original image separate from any in-program edits, saving the edited image as a new file. While Photoshop includes doctoring functions like adding, removing or altering the appearance of individual image items, rendering text or 3D objects on images, or modifying individual video frames, Lightroom is a library and development software. Lightroom can store and organize photos once imported into the platform database, and is currently compatible with TIFF, JPEG, PSD(Photoshop), PNG, CMYK (edited in RGB color space) and raw image formats.^[5]

Initially, Adobe Lightroom was only available on desktop operating systems. However, in 2017, it was expanded to support mobile operating systems with the release of Lightroom Mobile. Also in 2017, Adobe released a brand new variant of Lightroom, called Lightroom CC to be more cohesive with their mobile software. The existing version of Lightroom was renamed Lightroom Classic CC. While similar in some ways, all three Lightroom variations have significant differences in how they store images and interact with Adobe’s cloud storage offering and in feature parity. Lightroom CC actively stores all uploaded photos and RAW files on a cloud server, while Lightroom Classic CC holds the software power designed for desktop systems.^[6] Both CC platforms and Lightroom Mobile also allow users to create, upload, and export Lightroom presets, a batch copy of an image’s in-program edits. There is currently a large market for Lightroom presets as a tool for both mobile and digital photographer looking to build their brand, develop their skills, and improve their workflow process.^[7]

Lightroom Classic CC ^[8] and Lightroom CC feature the following workflow steps:

Library

Similar in concept to the ‘Organizer’ in Adobe Photoshop Elements and other image organizers, this module imports and exports images, creates image collections, organizes images by their metadata, and allows for users to flag, rate, tag, and color code images. Library is the gateway into Lightroom. Library is home to Lightroom extensions, extras, and plug-ins like focus finder.

Develop

Supports non-destructive editing of images in batch form. This module is more for retouching and manipulations, such as enhancing and improving digital photographs by changing color balance, improving tone, sharpening, reducing noise, cropping, straightening, and converting to black-and-white. Lightroom cannot create or edit non-photographic images, such as drawings, symbols, line arts or diagrams or maps, or render text or 3D objects. It has very limited photo doctoring features, including spot removal, brush adjustments, radial and graduated filters, and red eye removal. Another often used feature in the Develop module is the ability to synchronize edits from one selected photo to the whole selection.

Upon download, Lightroom provides users with several standard presets for color correction and effects, and supports sharing custom presets online. There is currently a large market for both desktop and mobile image manipulation packages. Photographers and creators with large followings on Instagram and Facebook sell Lightroom Presets to their audience, marketing to their ease and versatility after download. Presets are attached to .XMP and .LRTEMPLATE files that can be imported to Lightroom via the presets pane and include all adjustment settings from the originally doctored photo. Presets are around 4 Kilobytes in size and can range in price from free, to upwards of $200.^[9]

Map

Added in Lightroom 4, this module facilitates geographically organizing photos based on embedded or manually added geolocation data (since end of 2018 this is no longer supported for up to Lightroom CC 2015.x / Lightroom 6.x).^[10]

Book

Added in Lightroom 4, this module allows users to create and format photo books. Books can be exported to the self publishing vendor Blurb or printed at any local press as a PDF.

Slideshow

This module creates slideshows from any number of photos, to which music or a background can be added.

Print

Allows users to print images and adjusts printing parameters such as layout and orientation.

Web

Allows website owners or editors to create simple or sophisticated HTML5 web galleries from their uploaded images. This module has several templates available to users that create layout suggestions. The design and HTML can be exported locally to the device or directly to a site’s server.^[11]

History

Lightroom release timeline

In 1999, veteran Photoshop developer Mark Hamburg began a new project, code-named Shadowland (a reference to the 1988 KD Lang music album of same name^[12]). Hamburg contacted Andrei Herasimchuk, former interface designer for the Adobe Creative Suite, to start the project.^[13] It was an intentional departure from many of Adobe’s established conventions. Forty percent of Photoshop Lightroom is written in the scripting language Lua. In 2002, Hamburg left the Photoshop project and in fall of the same year he sent a first experimental software sample, name PixelToy, to his former teammate Jeff Schewe for review; in 2003, Hamburg presented Schewe a first version of Shadowland in a very early UI version.^[12] After a few years of research by Hamburg, Herasimchuk, Sandy Alves (the former interface designer on the Photoshop team), and Grace Kim (a product researcher at Adobe), the Shadowland project accelerated around 2004. However, Herasimchuk chose to leave Adobe Systems at that time to start a Silicon Valley design company. Hamburg then chose Phil Clevenger, a former associate of Kai Krause, to design a new look for the application.^[13]

Photoshop Lightroom’s developers work mostly in Minnesota, comprising the team that had already created the program Adobe ImageReady. Troy Gaul, Melissa Gaul, and the rest of their crew (reportedly known as the “Minnesota Phats”^[14]), with Hamburg, developed the architecture behind the application. George Jardine was the product manager.