Portrait photographers can spend hours perfecting a single headshot in Adobe’s apps — everything from erasing skin imperfections to making the subject look much younger than they really are. Some of those advanced photo-retouching techniques just got a lot easier, as today Adobe announced several AI-powered Lightroom upgrades, including automatic beard darkening.
AI-Powered Beard Darkening (And More)
First introduced last year, Adobe’s Adaptive Presets are AI-guided filters designed for portrait photography where only parts of an image need a very specific correction or enhancement applied — such as whitening the subject’s teeth. The new Adaptive Presets, available through a Lightroom update released today, include ‘Polished Portrait,’ which smooths skin and enhances lighting, ‘Enhance Clothing,’ which increases the contrast, colour saturation, and texture of a subject’s outfit, and ‘Darken Beard,’ which automatically masks facial hair and makes adjustments to help graying hairs look less pronounced.
Denoise in High ISO Shots
It’s an issue that has plagued photography since its earliest days, right on through to the modern digital era. When a photographer has to compensate for poor or inadequate light by boosting the ISO and the sensitivity of their camera’s sensor, noise is going to rear its ugly head and make images look less sharp. Lightroom’s AI-powered ‘Denoise’ tool can strip away the unwanted artifacts from an image, but is currently only compatible with RAW files. Support for removing noise from other file types is promised to be coming soon.
Travel Presets
For those whose priority when travelling is making sure their social media accounts are filled with enviable photos of their latest destination, Adobe is also adding 18 new travel presets to Lightroom that aim to make mundane shots look like something straight out of a National Geographic magazine. The presets automatically apply multiple adjustments and enhancements to an image, improving the impact of even photos snapped by novice photographers.
But the presets also provide a way for those just starting to learn apps like Lightroom to see how its various tools and settings can be used to improve or change the mood of their shots. They can be useful shortcuts, but also work like the digital equivalent of disassembling a clock radio to see how it works.
For a full breakdown of all the new tools and improvements made to the various versions of Lightroom, head on over to Adobe’s website.