I love Adobe because they are a company dedicated to the digital image across the board.
The gold standard, the one to go to. And of course after the Apple Final Cut Pro X miss-step, Premiere is becoming a go-to pro edit system.
Lightroom 5 has been working great.
Last year when they moved any updates to the Cloud, and forced you to subscribe to keep up, there was a lot of backlash. I still haven’t gone that way.

Last week, they announced the latest updates to Lightroom on the Creative Cloud

Is it time to subscribe? $10. a month to have the latest versions of Lightroom and Photoshop all the times is not bad, if you add up the cost of the software alone, figuring in upgrade costs.
To use the all too common metric of Starbucks coffees as a measuring stick of cost, it’s only about 2 cups of specialty coffee. You can get LR6 as a standalone, non rental.about $150.00

Whats New:
2 frame HDR: Sure, if you have lightened up shadows using sliders in your files, maybe you see the value. I think most HDR images look overdone. 3 images, shot using a tripod, comped,and tweaked. Now with only 2 frames needed, maybe you can make something subtler.

Pano building in LR
Always had to move images to Photoshop for this, and after multiple versions would get a reasonable pano.
Now you can do it right LR. Handy, but still watch your match points

Facial recognition:
Good for filtering your subjects on an assignment, but not in love with results. Snoop had a shot right under his face and it didn’t call it.

It’ll get better, no doubt.

Rhythym detection software for music on your slide shows.
For those that create slide shows right out of LR, you now get a Ken Burn-type with Pan-Zoom
Plus you can pick a track that an algorithm will adjust the changing of images based on the music. Easy-Peasey, and maybe a great project to try is a family album or birthday slide show with the subjects favorite song.

The Radial tool, can making you live more on Lightroom than Photoshop
Time to go to the cloud for this tool? Hmmmm.

Here is a link to a comparison of Creative Cloud Lightroom, Lightroom 6, and Lightroom 5. you know what you need

It’s not broke, so not sure I need to fix it. Over 130K images, and things seem good living on LR5.

And now the official word:

Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced a major update to its Creative Cloud Photography plan with the release of an all-new Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC that delivers lightning-fast performance and new tools to edit, enhance, organize and showcase beautiful photos. With Lightroom CC and the legendary magic of Photoshop CC, Adobe Creative Cloud Photography empowers photographers to transform photos into amazing shots. Creative Cloud Photography also includes unique sophisticated mobile capabilities: automatically syncing photos with Lightroom CC on the desktop, Lightroom on mobile devices lets users access and edit their entire catalog of photos on iPad, iPhone as well as Android smartphones and tablets. At just $US9.99 per month, Adobe’s photography plan champions photographers of every level — bringing the tools relied on by photo pros worldwide within reach of anyone who loves photography.

“Photographers at any level are driven by their passion to capture the perfect shot and make it incredible,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president of Digital Imaging Products, Adobe. “Whether you shoot with a DSLR or smartphone, the Creative Cloud Photography plan gives everything you need to organize, edit and share amazing photos on mobile, Web and desktop –- thanks to the imaging power of Lightroom and the magic of Photoshop.”

Photoshop and Lightroom have been fundamental in the evolution of digital photography. Today, Creative Cloud Photography is leading the transition from a traditional desktop-based process to a more mobile, connected workflow for digital images. Anchored by a major update to Lightroom CC, Creative Cloud Photography is the must-have solution, offering powerful editing and photo organization across multiple devices, all powered by Adobe’s industry-defining imaging technologies.

Work Seamlessly Across Desktop, Mobile and Web with New Lightroom CC

The standard for photo enthusiasts and professionals, Lightroom CC is essential for perfecting and organizing photos. New features in this release include:
· HDR Merge –- Create natural-looking or surreal images from extremely high-contrast scenes by easily combining multiple shots taken with different exposure settings into a single raw high dynamic range image.
· Panorama Merge — Capture super wide fields of view and amazing detail by stitching together multiple images to create stunning raw panorama shots.
· Performance Improvement & GPU Enhancements — Perfect photos up to 10 times faster than ever.
· Facial Recognition — Quickly find and categorize images of family and friends.
· Advanced Video Slideshows — Create beautiful, polished slideshows using still images, video and music along with professional effects like pan and zoom.

Bring Out the Best in Your Photography –- Anywhere

For anyone who loves photography, it’s essential they can organize, edit and share photos from mobile devices. Automatically synced with Lightroom CC on the desktop, Lightroom on mobile devices lets users access and edit their catalog of photos across a full range of iOS and Android devices. This release includes a major enhancement for Android with DNG raw file support on compatible Lollipop-enabled devices, providing customers the full power of raw file post-processing on their Android smartphones and tablets.

Take It to the Next Level with Photoshop CC

In addition to Lightroom CC, Creative Cloud Photography plan includes Photoshop CC, the imaging software that continues to redefine creativity in the digital age. Celebrating its 25th birthday this year, Photoshop’s legendary magic touches virtually all the inspirational imagery that surrounds us. Now, thanks to Creative Cloud Photography, photographers have a powerful round-trip editing workflow from Lightroom to Photoshop CC. Even cut out and combine photos on your iPhone and iPad with Photoshop Mix, connect to Creative Cloud, then refine your work in Photoshop CC.

Share Compelling Stories in Exciting New Ways

In addition to sharing instantly with social networks such as Facebook, Flickr and Instagram, new to Lightroom is the ability to create beautiful, polished video slideshows using still images, video and music, featuring professional effects like pan and zoom. After using Creative Cloud Photography to produce stunning images, anyone can craft amazing stories that place photos at the center of the narrative, using two groundbreaking storytelling apps from Adobe: Slate and Voice.

New Lightroom CC Available to Creative Cloud Members Worldwide

Adobe Creative Cloud has approximately 4 million paid memberships worldwide and all Photography and complete plan members are able to access the new version of Lightroom CC today –- at no extra charge –- showing, once again, the incredible ongoing value of Creative Cloud. Creative Cloud features the world’s leading creative desktop apps; a growing family of mobile apps that are seamlessly integrated with the desktop apps and creative assets; expert training; and access to a dynamic creative community, where creatives can discover inspiration and opportunity. A free 30-day trial version of Lightroom CC is also available.

Getting Started Is Easy
Creative Cloud Photography plan is designed to make onboarding easy whether you’re a beginner or pro, or have previously used Photoshop, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements or Apple Aperture. Available now is an easy-to-learn library of photography tutorials aimed at all levels.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan (US$9.99 per month) includes Lightroom CC across desktop, Web and mobile, Photoshop CC and Photoshop Mix (for iPhone and iPad). All products are also available as part of Creative Cloud complete plan. Information on Adobe Creative Cloud pricing and plans can be found at: https://creative.adobe.com/plans. For more detailed information about Lightroom CC product features, upgrade policies, pricing and language versions, please visit: www.adobe.com/go/lightroom.