It’s time.
Lightroom 5.0 is here.
I’ve had the Beta,took it for a test drive like a lot of folks, and the question is always:

Do I really need the upgrade?

Here’s what I have been using and loving:
The new healing brush is a huge improvement for precision. Photoshop has always been the best environment for me to clean up an image.
That was then, this is now.
Due to travel, I have a whole lotta hard drives I end up carrying if it’s an extended assignment.
With Smart Previews, I can edit older images, and the corrections take place once the drive with the original file is connected.
Those were the 2 main changes for up, but significant.
Try it for 30 days and see if it makes a diff in your life.
$80 or cloud sub service, but seriously, I’m using LR daily and the upgrade is a no brainer.

The official word:

SAN JOSE, Calif. — June 10, 2013 — Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the availability of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 for Mac OS and Windows. The product is available as an individual license or as part of Adobe Creative Cloud. Designed for both photography enthusiasts and professionals alike, Lightroom 5 adds critical photo editing capabilities and creates groundbreaking workflows. Lightroom 5 was initially released as a free, public beta in April 2013.

“Lightroom was originally conceived through the requests of Adobe customers, and this feedback continues to drive each new iteration,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president of products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “As the digital photography landscape advances and evolves, Lightroom is the best solution for photographers and passionate hobbyists who want to get the most out of their digital images.”

New Features in Lightroom 5
Lightroom 5 adds powerful new editing tools to help photographers create better images faster. The Advanced Healing Brush enables customers to fix irregularly shaped imperfections such as dust spots, splotches, and other distractions with the precision and flexibility of a fine brush. The Upright tool analyzes each image to automatically straighten objects such as buildings and level horizons. Radial Gradients offer customers the control to make photo subjects stand out by applying off-center and multiple vignettes in a single image.

Lightroom 5 also brings extended sharing and publishing capabilities. New video slideshows enable customers to combine still images, video clips and music in a creative HD slideshow that can be viewed on almost any device. Updates to the Book module bring the ability to create, personalize and print elegant photo books from a variety of tailored, easy-to-use templates, as well as create customer-specific templates.

Smart Previews, new in Lightroom 5, enable photographers to make edits to their images offline, without bringing their entire library of original files with them. Edits and metadata changes to Smart Preview files are automatically applied to the original images when they are reconnected.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 is available now for immediate download for Adobe Creative Cloud members. Standalone software is available at Adobe.com and participating retailers for US$149 or US$79 for upgrades. For more detailed information about product features, upgrade policies, pricing and language versions, please visit www.adobe.com/go/lightroom.
Customers can also connect with the Lightroom team directly on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lightroom), via Twitter (www.twitter.com/lightroom) or on the Adobe Lightroom blog (http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal). For Lightroom how-to videos, visit http://www.youtube.com/lightroom.

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