Lightroom Classic CC: Adobe improves, rebrands, then plans to kill the app you used to love

 

 

In addition to the all-new Lightroom CC, Adobe has announced a rebranding and update for the classic Adobe Lightroom software, which is now fittingly called Adobe Lightroom Classic CC. Let's take a look at what's new in the updated "Classic" Lightroom experience.

While a lot of attention has unsurprisingly been given to Lightroom CC, the LR Classic experience features a number of cool improvements. The software is faster than ever before. Preview generation is quicker, moving between the Library and Develop modules is faster and local adjustment brushing is more responsive.

On the editing side of things, the big additions are color and luminance range masking for making selective adjustments. In addition to these new ways to create masks, there is also better noise reduction applied when using Lightroom Classic CC's "auto mask" functionality.

 

Lightroom Classic CC includes new color range masking.

While there are not nearly as many big new features to discuss as there is for Lightroom CC, Lightroom Classic CC will continue to be an important piece of software for many professionals and advanced users alike and the improvements to responsiveness within the software and the new masking tools will surely be welcomed.

 

Before and after comparison of an image edited using the color range mask seen above.

Lightroom Classic CC is available as part of the Creative Cloud Photography Plan, which is available in two different storage tiers. The lower cost tier with 20 gigabytes of storage is $9.99 per month and a 1 terabyte plan is available for $14.99 for existing CC members (for one year only at the promotional price) or $19.99 per month for new users. In case you're wondering if there will be a standalone Lightroom 7, Adobe says no. Lightroom 6.13 will be released on October 26 with support for the Nikon D850 and no additional camera support will be added beyond 2017.