Interesting stuff — the spot removal update is pretty cool, and the improved object detection is also going to be useful. I think I’ll go check it out (in ACR) shortly!
Quite a big number of enhancements coming with LR 15. Given Adobe's track record I plan on waiting a bit, while the early adopters sort out any obvious bugs, before making the jump. Good place to watch is the Lightroom Queen's blog.
LRC 15 changes some of the ways in which AI Denoise, makes, etc., data is saved/stored:
ACR Sidecar Files: If you write to XMP, Lightroom Classic now writes large pixel-based edits, such as AI Masks, Denoise, and Super Resolution, to a separate sidecar *.acr file for proprietary raw files, so the *.xmp file goes back to being a small file. This may also reduce the size of your catalog, especially if it’s ballooned since the June 2025 release, as the XMP-formatted metadata is duplicated in the catalog. The Camera Raw plug-in already uses this format for performance reasons. Any existing sidecars will be updated if you manually write to XMP (Metadata menu > Save Metadata to File), even if you haven’t made any other changes. If you have Catalog Settings > Metadata tab > Automatically write changes into XMP checked, they’ll get updated the next time you edit the photo.
The potential benefit is that the instructions for the AI edits are kept in the XMP file while the actual pixel-edits are in the ACR file. To save space, the ACR files can be discarded (to be confirmed!) and if images need to be processed again, LRC will recompute AI edits based on the instructions in the XMP files. The only downside appears to be the time required to recompute the edits, which could be a factor for large image sets.
Still only white crop tool outlines. I've been asking for alternative outline colors for years. Still white on white when editing seamless, cloudy or snowy backgrounds. No better in CaptureOne either.
Two days and no one is b*tching about subscriptions yet . . amazing. I am impressed with the new features, I think the culling feature will be a big plus for me once they add animals (birds).
For whatever reason, generative healing in LR still sucks so much worse than the exact same cloning in photoshop, and they both appear to be using Firefly now. LR generations often have really bad color casts/non matching color vs the Photoshop output.
I'm holding my breath for when they start charging us Firefly credits for simple fixes in LR...that will be painful.
Can you disable the AI in general when not wanted? Certain image processing needs to be technically correct to the original scene, but needs pre-processing from RAW to an output they normally use as further input.
Not really (ie there is no on/off switch) but the main sliders (except AI Denoise) don't use AI in any case. So you just need to avoid using the AI driven processes if it's important.
This is what AI says about AI () in LRC ,,,
AI Overview
Lightroom Classic uses AI for tasks such as automated selections (Subject, Sky, People, Objects), generative object removal with Generative Remove and Content-Aware Remove, noise reduction with Denoise, automatic photo adjustments, and intelligent dust and spot removal. The AI-powered Assisted Culling feature helps organize photos by identifying the best ones and rejecting low-quality ones.
The real highlight of Lightroom 15 is that this memory leak in the GPU RAM has finally been fixed. Now Lightroom runs stably and quickly, even with hundreds of masks.
Upgraded LRc to 15.0 and it works well but I found it took several (maybe 5) minutes to close when I did a backup. I just quit without backing up and it still took several minutes to close.
This is on a M3 Max MacBook Pro on Sequoia with 48gb RAM and nothing else running
Anyone else experiencing the same?
UPDATE: Seems to only occur when the MacBook is connected via OWC hub to external monitors, SSD and DAS. LRc quits immediately when MacBook run on own (unattached)
UPDATE 2: Culprit was a bad cable. only saw the hint of metal wire on back side of cable when examining closely.
mcbroomf wrote:
Not really (ie there is no on/off switch) but the main sliders (except AI Denoise) don't use AI in any case. So you just need to avoid using the AI driven processes if it's important.
This is what AI says about AI () in LRC ,,,
AI Overview
Lightroom Classic uses AI for tasks such as automated selections (Subject, Sky, People, Objects), generative object removal with Generative Remove and Content-Aware Remove, noise reduction with Denoise, automatic photo adjustments, and intelligent dust and spot removal. The AI-powered Assisted Culling feature helps organize photos by identifying the best ones and rejecting low-quality ones.
I wish posting what AI "says" was an instant permaban.
I wonder if they finally made masking in LR as good as (or even close to) PS? LR masking is so horrible that I never use the program for that reason. Some other features are nice though.
mcbroomf wrote:
Not really (ie there is no on/off switch) but the main sliders (except AI Denoise) don't use AI in any case. So you just need to avoid using the AI driven processes if it's important.
This is what AI says about AI () in LRC ,,,
AI Overview
Lightroom Classic uses AI for tasks such as automated selections (Subject, Sky, People, Objects), generative object removal with Generative Remove and Content-Aware Remove, noise reduction with Denoise, automatic photo adjustments, and intelligent dust and spot removal. The AI-powered Assisted Culling feature helps organize photos by identifying the best ones and rejecting low-quality ones.
My experience is with these tools in ACR, but I suspect that they may work in a similar way in LR. (I have LR and occasionally use it, but my workflow is ACR->Photoshop.
I guess you could still try to select stuff the old way — painting masks very, very carefully.
You do still have some other choices. There are three tool options for removing stuff (in ACR, anyway) — there's the generative AI, heal, and clone. Each has its place, and in some complicated situations I might end up using 2 or 3 of them. (I generally prefer heal for removing spots and things like contrails and power lines. I prefer generative for taking out larger objects. Occasionally the old clone function works well — sometimes I first clone into an area and then use one of the other two otpions.)
) in LRC ,,,