Adobe had
released a free public beta version for the Lightroom 5 in April. After adding almost 400 tweaks to the beta version, the company has now
officially launched the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.
The software is
available for both Mac and Windows computers. Adobe has given the option of buying the software with a standalone license as well as a part of the Creative Cloud. For previous Lightroom customers, the software can be upgraded for $79. For those who are new to the editing tool, the software will be available for $149. The Lightroom 5 is available as a free update to members of the Adobe Creative Cloud service.
The major enhancements in the new version of the photo management and editing software are:
- Advanced Healing Brush: The advanced healing brush on the Lightroom 5 works similar to the clone tool on Photoshop, however this one is both easier and quicker to use. Adobe's demonstration video shows how quick it is to remove an object or features such as wrinkles in a photograph using the new healing tool. You first choose the area that you need to 'heal' and then replace it with a 'source'.
- Smart Preview: When dealing with high resolution photographs, editing can be time consuming. In order to save both memory and time, Lightroom 5 comes with an option with creating a smart preview of an image on to your system. The smart preview for the image will have only 5% of the original file size. So, you can use the smart preview to make any changes that you wish to add to the original file. Once the source of the original file is connected to your computer, Lightroom syncs all the metadata to the original file as well.
- Upright: The upright feature on the Lightroom 5 fixes all the tilted images. While the same result can be achieved by rotating and cropping an image, the process on Lightroom 5 takes just the click of a button. If desired, the scaling and fixing can be done manually as well by adjusting certain levels.
- Radial Filter: The Radial Gradient tool lets you create off-center vignette effects, or multiple vignetted areas within a single image. This feature can be used for focusing on certain parts of an image.
- Video Slide Shows: The new Lightroom also lets you combine still images and video clips alongside music to create HD videos. This feature can be used to create video slideshows of your work.
Lightroom 5 is a competing tool with Apple's Aperture Software for the Mac OS. It is important to note that Aperture has not received a major upgrade in the recent past. Also, the fact that Lightroom 5 is now being offered as a part of the Creative Cloud might be the company's strategy to encourage more people to shift to the subscription based service.