Software


Lightroom Just Expanded to Video Editing in Major Update

June 14, 2022

By Hillary K. Grigonis

© Adobe

Photographers can now create consistent looks between photos and video, thanks to the latest Lightroom update. On Tuesday, June 14, Adobe announced a round of updates to Lightroom and Lightroom Classic, in including new video support. The updates bring video editing to Lightroom, while both versions of the photo editor see AI-powered presets and other updates.

Beginning today, Lightroom users on Mac, Windows and even mobile users on iOS and Android can edit video within the software. The update applies the different sliders to video, as well as adding tools to trim the beginning or end of clips. Adjustments from a photo can also be copied and applied to a video. The video capabilities, however, are only being added to Lightroom at this time, not Lightroom Classic.

The same edit controls that you already use to make your photography shine can now be used with your videos as well.

Adobe isn’t trying to replace Premiere Pro with Lightroom—rather, the update includes simple video editing tools that will allow multimedia shooters to apply the same effects to both photos and video. That could help photographers create a consistent style when sharing both photos and video to social media. For photographers already familiar with Lightroom, video editing within the familiar platform may be simpler than learning a new program. While Lightroom will be able to color edit, adjust exposure, and shorten a clip, it’s not made for stitching videos together or editing audio.

Adaptive Presets.
Adobe says its Adaptive Presets are an entirely new class of presets. “Building on the powerfully advanced Artificial Intelligence capabilities of the Select Sky and Select Subject masks, it’s now possible to apply presets which automatically target a particular part of the photo.:

Both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom also gain several new preset features with the update. Adaptive Presets mix Lightroom’s Select Sky and Select Subject with presets. These adaptive presets apply changes only to the sky or only to the subject. That makes it possible to apply local editing to multiple images at once, even when the sky or subject isn’t in the exact same spot in the photo. Adaptive Presets will be available in both versions of Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW, but won’t yet be part of smartphone and tablet versions of Lightroom.

Similarly, when pasting the effects from one photo to another, any Select Sky or Select Subject masks will automatically be adjusted to the subject or sky within the new photo.

Lightroom updates.
The Preset Amount Slider allows you to adjust the intensity of presets that you apply to your photos and videos. 

Desktop Preset Slider.

Presets will also gain sliders. The slider allows editors to make a preset effect stronger or softer without individually making changes to each adjustment. Users will also gain access to five new Premium Preset packs. Both the preset sliders and new preset packs will be available across Lightroom Classic, Adobe Camera RAW, and Lightroom, including for mobile devices.

Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW now also have a one-click red eye removal. Adobe explains that, unlike the tool in Classic, the AI-based red eye removal doesn’t require circling each eye.

side-by-side comparisons in Lightroom.
You can now compare two photos side-by-side in Lightroom.

Lightroom also gains Classic’s ability to compare two photos side-by-side. Other enhancements include the ability to invert grouped masks. Lightroom also adds forward and back buttons as well as more storage options, including purging the cache. Additional updates enhance the Discover section inside Lightroom.

Batch/Copy/Paste function.

More Improvements include updates to Masking, specifically Batch Copy/Paste of AI Masks. The “Select Sky” and “Select Subject” masks, powered by Artificial Intelligence, can now be copied and pasted to other photos, and the masks will be recomputed automatically, with no need to manually apply the new masks to each photo. This allows you to incorporate these powerful AI features into your batch editing workflow.

Adobe says that the updates and video support in Lightroom will be available beginning today, with all users seeing the option to download by the end of the week.