There are several new features introduced with Lightroom 6 (LR6). Two that interested me the most were the HDR and Panorama capabilities. In Lightroom 5, I use plug-ins to enable these capabilities (Nik Software and Photoshop Elements respectively). Some initial observations:
- Merged files (panoramas and HDRs) are returned to the collection of the source files (this was not always the case with Elements and Nik)
- The output is a RAW file
- The round trip is much faster and more user friendly
- The blending of the input photographs into the final result looks good; it’s smooth
- LR6 can do both vertical and horizontal panoramas.
- Keywords, attributes and EXIF data are carried over
- LR6 Capabilities appear less functional than the plug-ins I currently use. For example, Nik Software offers a number of parameters to control the HDR process, LR has few. Photoshop Elements offers more options to generate panoramas and with the other PE capabilities distorted images that result from a merge can be pulled back into shape.
My initial impression, however, is quite positive. Both capabilities appear to be sufficient for my needs. That the output is in RAW format and the workflow is much easier and faster to complete, compensate for the short-comings I’m currently aware of.
The biggest challenge turned out to be actually getting the desktop / standalone version of the application. While my edition of LR5 reported the update, the link to download the update was broken. Thus I needed to find the download page myself on the Adobe Site. Yet at the Adobe Site I could find only Creative Cloud versions. The desktop version was very well hidden. I found this particularly frustrating. Reading through the comments on the DPreview announcement I did find a link to the standalone download page. Problem solved.
The Help link is also broken which is unfortunate because it makes it difficult to find the new features and understand how to use them.
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