Adobe's latest updates let you cull at the speed of Light(room)

Logos: Adobe

Adobe has rolled out a handful of updates to Photoshop and Lightroom aimed at smoothing out common editing bottlenecks. The latest additions include tools for composite photos, organizing complex files, finding images with natural-language search and managing work from large shoots.

In Lightroom, Adobe is delivering on some features it showed off at its Adobe Max conference in October of last year. One is the improved search functionality, which allows users to search with natural language, much as they may be accustomed to in cloud-based photo management tools from the likes of Apple and Google. It was previously available in Lightroom for the Web, but is now available in the desktop version as well.

The AI Filters in the Assisted Culling tool allow users to quickly sort out images that are in focus. Image: Adobe

Another Max-previewed feature that is now fully available is Assisted Culling, which makes it easier to sort through large quantities of images. The tool is an AI-powered filter that allows users to quickly narrow down images by sorting out those that are properly exposed and in focus. It gives users control over how picky they want to be, and still lets them select or reject images that the system would have done the opposite.

Speaking of speed, Adobe says that interactive slider performance will be five times faster in this update. It's also added support for all Sony a7 V formats, since it previously didn't support the new compressed Raw format Sony introduced with that camera. Lastly, there are new film-inspired presets for those interested in editing to create a more retro look.

The Rotate Object tool is found in the Contextual Task Bar, making it faster to access transformation tools. Screenshot from Adobe's demo of the feature.

In Photoshop, Adobe has made its Rotate Object tool widely available, following the feature's public beta release in March. Rotate Object makes it much easier to refine composite images, saving users from the traditional multi-step process of adjusting an object's position with separate Transform tools. It essentially turns a 2D object into a rotatable 3D image, allowing users to adjust its angle and perspective in real time to make it fit more naturally into a scene.

Adobe also added a Layer Cleanup tool to Photoshop, which can streamline and declutter files by renaming layers and automatically removing empty ones. Plus, Firefly Boards are now integrated with Photoshop, making it easier for creatives to move from concept phases to final execution.

All of the new features are available in Photoshop and Lightroom as of today.