Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6

Overview

What this release is

Lightroom 6 is the version photographers hold onto because it was the last one you could simply own. Everything that came after it moved to a subscription, and for a photographer who edits from local disks and has no interest in renting an application, this release remains the natural home. It manages a library, develops raw files, and prints, all from a permanent licence with nothing to renew.

The catalogue model is the same one that made the program a fixture. Photographs stay in folders on your own drives, the catalogue is a database you back up and move yourself, and nothing is uploaded anywhere. Ratings, flags, keywords, and collections organise a growing library without touching the original files.

The develop module carries the raw processing that defined the program: exposure and colour adjustment, the tone curve, local adjustment brushes, graduated and radial filters, lens corrections, and a full black and white conversion. Edits are non-destructive, stored as instructions against the original rather than baked into it.

This is a large and stable release that runs on hardware going back several Windows versions. It installs offline and activates through the included step rather than an online account, which is the whole point of choosing it over the subscription line.

Feature set

What you get

Changes in this build

What changed

• Repackaged with the final update for the standalone release rolled in
• Added lens profiles for a wider set of bodies and lenses
• Improved catalogue open speed on large libraries
• Fixed the import hang on certain camera raw variants
• Reduced preview cache growth on repeated imports

Installation

How to install it

1. Extract the archive to a short path after disabling real time protection.
2. Run setup as administrator and choose the interface language.
3. Back up any existing catalogue before opening it in this version.
4. Point the preferences at a fast drive for the preview cache.
5. Apply the included activation step and work from the local catalogue.

Hardware

System requirements

Package

Release information

Questions

Before you start