You can’t argue with a good release candidate.
Adobe on Monday announced the availability of the latest version of its prosumer photo editing software, Lightroom 5.2. The new version, a 467.2 megabyte download via MacUpdate, offers the following fixes and changes:
New features:
– A Smoothness adjustment slider has been added to the Detail Panel under Color Noise.
– Reduction. This helps to reduce low-frequency color mottling artifacts.
Refinements to the Spot Healing Tool:
– New Feather control.
– Auto find source method now works better for images with textured areas like rocks, bark, and foliage.
– Auto find source method now prefers source areas within the crop rectangle.
– Smart Preview size has been updated to 2560 pixels on the long edge.
Refinements to the Local Adjustment Brush:
– Right Click (PC) / Control-click (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to bring up a context menu to duplicate or delete.
– Control+Alt+Drag (PC) / Command+Option+Drag (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to clone (duplicate) that adjustment.
Bug fixes:
– Catalog containing images processed with PV2003 were adding a post-crop vignette when catalog upgraded to Lightroom 5.
– Pressing the “Reset” button while holding down the Shift key caused Lightroom to exit abruptly.
– Output Sharpening and Noise Reduction were not applied to exported images that were resized to less than 1/3 of the original image size.
– Incorrect photo was selected when trying to select a photo in segmented grid in Publish Services.
– The Esc key did not exit the slideshow after right clicking screen with mouse during slideshow playing.
– Import dialog remained blank for folders that contain PNG files with XMP sidecars.
– Metadata panel displayed incorrect information after modifying published photo. Please note that this only occurred when metadata was changed after the photo was published.
Lightroom 5.2 is available for both Mac and PC platforms. Mac users will need a multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support, running OS X 10.7 or later along with at least 2GB of RAM (4GB recommended) 2GB of available HDD space, and a 1024×768 resolution to install and run.
The software is available from Adobe’s website for US$79 when upgrading from an earlier version, or US$149 for new users. Those already subscribed to Adobe’s Creative Cloud service will find that the new software is included in their memberships.
If you’ve tried Lightroom 5 and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.