Adobe Lightroom adds new AI tech and better masking

Adobe's Lightroom has received a number of new updates, including AI powered Denoise, expanded Adaptive Presets, new masking abilities and more.

There's a fair amount to unpack, so lets start with the headline feature, AI Denoise.

AI Denoise is available for Lightroom for Mac/Win, Lightroom Classic, and Adobe Camera RAW (ACR).

“Never miss another photo opportunity because of poor lighting,” explains Adobe.

“With Lightroom’s latest advanced AI-powered feature, Denoise, you can remove digital noise from your images to improve quality without losing any details.”

Unfortunately the feature is only currently working on RAW files, although Adobe has said support for additional file types will arrive soon. Denoise AI works with just a single click, similar to competitor products like Topaz Photo AI.

If you're interested, Adobe has also shared some of the details behind the tech in a blog post here. 

The new feature is located in a new subset of the Detail dropdown in the Develop module.

Next up are new Adaptive Presets for portraits, and these can be found on Lightroom for Mac/Win, Lightroom Classic, ACR, iOS, Android, and Lightroom on Web.

Another AI powered tool, Adaptive Presets are also a one-click solution, this time to enhance a particular part of a photo — the newest additions are Polished Portrait, Darken Beard, and Enhance Clothing added to the existing library that already includes Enhance, Glamour, Whiten Teeth, and Texturize Hair, to name a few.

The presets also extend to the web versions of Lightroom, in addition to new AI masks on the web versions as well. This includes AI Masking for both Select Subject, Sky and Background.

In addition, adaptive presets including Whiten Teeth, Glamour, and the new portrait presets too. And, speaking of presets, Adobe has added in an additional 18 'premium' travel presets to all versions of Lr as well.

Next up is Black & White for video, available on Lightroom for Mac/Win, iOS, Lightroom on Web, and coming to Android soon.

As it says on the tin, this tool gives the ability to quickly convert any video to black and white. In addition, the same black and white treatment can be applied to multiple video clips to create a cohesive look and feel.

There's also Curves in masking, available for Lightroom for Mac/Win, Lightroom Classic, and ACR, which allows for curves adjustments to be applied to specific parts of an image.

As Adobe says, "this combination provides fine control over tonality and color in specific regions of a photo to help you achieve the perfect look. Use this feature in a landscape photo that needs a specific part edited, for example, to bring out shadow detail, correct color, or add creative effects. Or refine a portrait by selectively adding warmth or brightening areas without impacting the overall exposure."

Finally, Adobe has also launched a 'tech preview' of a new feature called Content Credentials. This tool adds attribution to files beyond traditional exif and metadata. 

When enabled, Content Credentials gathers an overview of edits, activity and attribution information associated with work created in the software. According to Adobe, this verifiable metadata travels with content wherever it goes.