Powerful photo editing, easier than ever. Explore the latest from Lightroom at Adobe MAX 2023

Each month, we listen to tens of thousands of Lightroom users via the Adobe Community Forums, in-app feedback, and other channels. Your input is invaluable in helping us address your photo editing needs and make Lightroom the best it can be.

Our goal is to empower you, whatever your level of expertise, to create the best photos possible when and wherever inspiration strikes.

And so today at Adobe MAX, we’re excited to unveil a range of innovative Lightroom features that make it easier than ever to express your creative vision, now with more choice over where your images are stored.

Here’s an overview of what’s new:

Lens Blur (early access)

Available on Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom for mobile (iOS & Android), Lightroom for web, and Adobe Camera Raw

Lens Blur adds an aesthetic optical blur effect to any photo with a single tap. The interactive experience and flexible controls also enable you to achieve fun, creative looks that make your photos pop. Lens Blur is perfect for up leveling your images no matter how they were originally captured.

Using revolutionary AI, Lens Blur can estimate the depth map for any image to achieve natural blur effects. Adjusting the Blur slider simulates adjusting the aperture or f-stop settings on a camera lens. You can also further customize the blur effect by adjusting the focus area and/or the bokeh shapes. We are excited to share early access to Lens Blur and look forward to hearing your feedback.

Faster mobile photo access and editing experience

Available on Lightroom for mobile (iOS & Android)

Now you can find your favorite editing features faster with a new streamlined toolbar. The enhanced interface on Lightroom for mobile prioritizes the most commonly used editing tools, making it faster and more intuitive to edit photos on your phone.

You no longer need to scroll to find your tools or import photos just to see them in Lightroom for mobile. Just tap on Device on iOS and Gallery on Android to instantly access all your images and videos. Then use the streamlined toolbar to see the entire toolset in one view, making it easier to edit a photo in just a few taps.

The new editing flow feels more natural for editing on your phone, and it’s easier to explore and tap through each tool, which helps you to improve and share your images much more quickly.

HDR Optimization

Available on Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom for mobile (iOS & Android), and Lightroom for web. Requires a display that supports HDR.

In an industry-first, Lightroom now provides a full end-to-end High Dynamic Range (HDR) workflow, from capture (on mobile) to edit and export — all in one place. This means you can create stunning HDR photos that look truer to real life by taking advantage of the latest display technologies. It even works for photos that weren’t originally captured as multiple-exposure HDR!

If you’re using an HDR monitor, iPhone X and newer, and Pixel 7 phones and newer, you can view, edit, and output photos in true HDR, similar to how a human eye perceives a scene. View and edit images with a much wider tonal range and color fidelity in even greater detail, and then save HDR photos in new industry-standard formats such as AVIF and JPEG XL, which offer higher quality at smaller file sizes.

Read more about Lightroom’s HDR advancements here.

Point Color

Available on Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Adobe Camera Raw, and Lightroom for web

Point Color lets you make targeted adjustments with great precision. It allows flexible color selection with the selector tool, as well as additional color input refinement across three dimensions (Hue, Saturation, and Luminance).

You can make accurate color refinements without affecting colors elsewhere. The advanced settings give you detailed control over the individual colors in your image. Point Color can be used, for example, to adjust specific colors in product photography, correct unwanted color casts in shadow areas, or fix color shifts in skin tones.

The feature works independently of the Color Mixer, which uses a more general predefined color model.

Locally edit and store in Lightroom

Available on Lightroom only

You now have the option to work with your photos and videos in Lightroom without having to import or sync them to the cloud. This means you can choose to access files directly on your computer’s internal drive, an external drive, or a server — whatever matches your ideal storage system.

Of course, you can still work entirely in the cloud if you prefer or choose to sync only specific files or batches of files to the cloud.

You’re in control of your workflow and can even use both local storage and cloud storage to sync just the photos of your choosing. Sync your favorite edits to the cloud for sharing or as a backup for safekeeping. Working on-the-go? Sync only your most current project to the cloud to work on it across devices.

Even more Lightroom features

There are also several new updates that will help you sharpen your skills, engage with the community, and give you more flexibility in using Lightroom.

Lightroom Academy

Lightroom Academy is a free inspirational learning resource for photographers and educators of all levels and interests.

Use the ever-growing library of unique inspiring and engaging content to improve and expand your photography skills or to refine your Lightroom workflow and editing techniques to develop a unique style. You can learn via interactive illustrations and On Your Own assignments to strengthen essential skills and knowledge.

In the coming months, additional articles will be released in Food Photography…

• Steam & Smoke Wizardry
• Photographing Cold Beverages
• Food is Personal
• Tools of the Trade

… and in Lightroom in B&W:

• The Objective Eye
• Captivating Contrast
• A Touch of Color
• The Power of Presets

New supported file formats for the Content Authenticity Initiative

Available on Lightroom only

We’re continuing our commitment to the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) by supporting new format types including AVIF, DNG, and TFF. Creators in Lightroom can use Content Credentials to obtain proper recognition and promote transparency in the content creation process.

Discover is now Community

Available on Lightroom, Lightroom for mobile (iOS & Android), and Lightroom for web

Whether you're a mobile photo enthusiast, a seasoned hobbyist, a working professional, or just interested in editing your favorite photos, we encourage everyone to share their Lightroom edits with the Lightroom Community.

Browse through thousands of images to view the step-by-step edit processing, download countless Lightroom presets to try on your own images, and use the Remix feature to process other Lightroom Community members' images.

Filter based on likes and comments

Available on Lightroom only

You can now search for photos based on whether people have liked or commented on them in your shared albums.

This much-requested feature enables you to select an album and filter it, so that it shows only photos that have received “likes”, only photos that people have commented on, or photos that have both “likes” and comments.

Because likes and comments are album-specific, this filter is disabled if you have selected multiple albums at the same time, or if you are not in an album.

Try out the new features from today

The latest features in Lightroom for mobile will gradually roll out everywhere, starting today, and can be downloaded in the Apple App Store, Samsung Galaxy Store, and Google Play Store. Lightroom for web features are available today at lightroom.adobe.com, no download required. The features in Lightroom for desktop are now available and can be downloaded via the Creative Cloud Desktop app.

Learn more about these updates and improvements to Lightroom:

• Lightroom for mobile
• Lightroom for web
• Lightroom for Mac, Windows, iOS, iPadOS, Android and ChromeOS
• Lightroom Classic

Join us at Adobe MAX over the next few days for great workshops and sessions on photography. Here’s an overview of all the photography sessions at MAX.