lightroom recently updated v13.0.1 And it’s certainly a significant upgrade. In fact, when opening a legacy or older catalog, you will be prompted to upgrade to the current V13 version.
There is no reason to worry as your new and previous catalog version will now remain in the same parent folder.
Adobe’s Photography subscription, which includes Photoshop, Lightroom, and Bridge, is currently $171.50 per year, and it seems like good value as we’ve seen a fairly steady stream of regular and very useful updates.
We’ll get into the latest V13 additions in a minute, but let’s revisit some of the most recent changes we can honestly say have happened over the past few months: Revolutionary Both in terms of image quality and reduction in post-production time.
A drumroll for denoise
The Denoise function that uses AI to control unsightly blotchy color grain is an absolute game changer. Shooting at higher than ISO 6400 in the past resulted in photos that were borderline ‘unprofessional’.
Now we can shoot comfortably up to ISO 6400 and ISO 51,200. Just press denoise and problem solved.
Denoise is not only great for low-light images taken for event photography, but it also works well with landscapes – especially where you usually need to match the shadow details of the ground and highlights in the clouds. The effort requires a graduated filter. Sky.
Denoise is also a savior for photographers who need high shutter speeds in low light to capture fast-moving animals, birds, and athletes.
A tip – at the time of writing, we have found that it is better to denoise before developing the image rather than applying it after developing. So select all the ‘hero’ images to condemn and have a coffee as this usually takes 15-20 seconds per image.
amazing masking system
The AI improvement of the masking system has also been fantastic. If you’re shooting a portrait and the background is too bright or too dark, or the white balance is different – it’s much easier to adjust this in Photoshop rather than selecting or dodging and burning. Additionally, we can now select the skin or clothing of a human subject, be it hands, feet, face, teeth, whites of eyes, etc.
Recently it saved us at least 15 minutes from posting a portrait of someone who had warm-toned foundation on her face, but the skin on her arms and legs were cool and blue. No problem – just mask their appendages automatically (except their face) and warm the skin by adjusting the white balance.
It’s also great for flat-lay or portraits with a white background that isn’t pure white. Now it takes just a few seconds to correct the background brightness while leaving the exposure of the subjects immaculate.
In fact, applying a mask in post can save you time during shooting. Instead of adding lighting with reflectors and strobes, as long as you have a good looking histogram, you can often get away with just fixing it in post.
13.0.1 Additions
Add Blur and Bokeh Effects Using Lens Blur
It is currently in ‘Beta Mode’ i.e. ‘Early Access’ in Lightroom parlance. While Photoshop launches and tests things in beta versions, it also means you default to using the beta version, thus having 2 versions of Photoshop running continuously (each with 5 gigs of HD space. By using).
So the implementation of adding a new feature to LR and calling it ‘Early Access’ should be appreciated.
We tried lens blur on several images and it’s a bit hit-and-miss, but it’s easy to forgive when it’s in beta form.
Interestingly, you can choose not only the amount of blur, but also five types of Bokeh.
circle: modern spherical lens
bubble: Standard spherical shape with over-corrected spherical aberration
5-Blade: Penta effect, commonly seen in older lenses
ring: Commonly seen in reflex or mirror lenses, also known as “doughnuts”
cat eye: Usually caused by optical vignetting in some lenses
Additionally, you can also choose ‘depth of focus’. So if you have an image that has been shot with great depth of field (everything is clear), you can choose how much of the image will be in focus. For example, you can take the person in the foreground out of focus and make the background sharp.
Edit and export to HDR
It’s true that HDR is found on many new smart phones and some monitors – but it’s still not a standard format. If you’re considering getting an HDR monitor, you’re also considering paying a premium. Also editing in HDR on SDR displays is a non-starter. So being able to edit and export in HDR is a nice feature, but kind of a little premature for general use.
So Lightroom V13 allows you to edit, display, and save images in High Dynamic Range (HDR), which theoretically will mean brighter highlights, deeper shadows, and increased depth of field with vivid colors. HDR displays offer greater brightness and contrast than standard dynamic range (SDR) displays. Images optimized for HDR displays should result in more impressive looks and a better sense of realism.
color point
It allows you to use an eye-dropper to select a color in the image, then add other colors so you can alter them individually in an effort to create a more consistent color palette.
Other performance improvements
• Fast image conversion to DNG.
• Improved performance of metadata operations such as reading, writing and metadata state.
• Fast response on XMP writes and reads.
• Improved stability and performance of folder transfer operations and folder deletion operations.
• Fast image loading in Develop Loop View during normal, fast and turbo walk or random image selection.
• New camera RAW support for recently released cameras – including: Panasonic G9M2, Sony A7CII and A7CR, Apple iPhone 15, Olympus TG-7 and Fuji GFX100II.
• New lens profile
You can read more about the latest updates Adobe website.