Known Participant

Answered

P: New Camera Raw features not available in Lightroom Classic

Forum|Forum|2 months ago
May 29, 2026
19 replies
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Not as much of a question, but more a critical remark. Recently I noted that some new features in the latest Camera Raw update were not available in Lightroom Classic. Specifically I mention some masking features like "Depth Range" and the "Feather" and "Edge" options in the "Sky" mask. Earlier on we had "Denoise" in Camera Raw not needing to create a separate DNG file, when Lightroom Classic's Denoise resulted in an extra large additional DNG file.

This is very inconvenient. To use these (very useful!) features, I now have to open a raw file as a smart object in Photoshop to continue with raw editing and save the result as a very large psb file. Later when continuing with the edit, I have to reopen the psb file from Lightroom Classic.

I hope it is not Adobe's policy to continue with supporting new features in Camera Raw first and only later in Lightroom Classic, I find it cumbersome and annoying when Lightroom Classic lags with feature updates, complicating the workflow and resulting in bloated storage requirements.

Correct answer Rikk Flohr_Photography

Camera Raw is the Edit/Develop Engine powering the Lightroom clients. New Edit features must be built in Camera Raw before the Lightroom clients can adopt them. Unburdened by the additional cataloging, syncing, and other workflow functionalities, Camera Raw can move more quickly to get these desired new features into your editing workflow. Our goal is to eventually port these features into the Lightroom clients.

J

jrsforums

Inspiring

Ok….after all that explaining…..why I Generative Expand available on desktop & mobile, but not Classic?

dj_paige

Legend

Ok….after all that explaining…..why I Generative Expand available on desktop & mobile, but not Classic?

This was explained by @Rikk Flohr_Photography

J

jrsforums

Inspiring

No, Rikk explain why things start on Camera Raw….the the Lightroom community. Not why some Lightroom products are left without a new function.

dj_paige

Legend

Your patience has been rewarded. Some of the new ACR features, like feathering and edge sharpness in AI masks, are now in Lightroom Classic 15.5, released today (August 4, 2026).

But as far as Adobe testing features in ACR before these features are incorporated into LrC, I believe that based upon the comments from @Rikk Flohr_Photography , this practice of putting features into ACR first will continue to happen. I don’t foresee that changing.

dj_paige

Legend

This is explained by an Adobe employee here:

So to summarize, when will these ACR features get added to Lightroom Classic? When they are ready. (And in my opinion, this is a very good policy)

Cliff_DeYoung6815

Participant

It’s frustrating to see ACR get features way ahead of LRC. I know that I can open ACR directly from inside of LRC but when I come back into Lightroom the masking changes that aren’t yet supported in LRC are gone.

Adobe needs to do a better job of maintaining parity between ACR and LRC. The delays and the subscription model are starting to push people over to other solutions (DXO Photolab and Luminar).

Conrad_C

Community Expert

But, as Rikk from Adobe explained in the featured reply, the issue with Lightroom is that, unlike ACR, Lightroom has to be adjusted to accommodate new features in its cloud syncing architecture, which means the feature also has to work on the mobile and web browser apps; and Lightroom Classic has to be adjusted to accommodate new features in its catalog architecture.

So if you want no-lag parity, what Adobe could do is not release a feature until it’s ready to work, even in beta/preview form, on all desktop/mobile/web OSs, devices, and architectures. The net result of that illusion of simultaneous release would be the opposite of what you want: We would have to wait even longer until new features work everywhere, which would be much later than what we have now, where they become available sooner on the platform where they’re the simplest to implement (Camera Raw).

I’m not unsympathetic, in fact I’m waiting for several ACR features to appear in Lightroom Classic. But it’s also evident where the complications are, system-wide. (Although there are some features that many of us have been waiting for years to show up in Lightroom Classic, such as the color samplers in Camera Raw and Photoshop.)

Dozer_86

Participant

Non c’è modo di modificare la densità delle maschere e non c’è modo di gestire la sfumatura delle maschere, entrambe funzioni presenti in photoshop e molto importanti.

dj_paige

Legend

Non c’è modo di modificare la densità delle maschere e non c’è modo di gestire la sfumatura delle maschere, entrambe funzioni presenti in photoshop e molto importanti.

Perhaps the translation to English is poor, but there is indeed a way to manage the shading of the masks and the density of the masks.

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Correct answer

Camera Raw is the Edit/Develop Engine powering the Lightroom clients. New Edit features must be built in Camera Raw before the Lightroom clients can adopt them. Unburdened by the additional cataloging, syncing, and other workflow functionalities, Camera Raw can move more quickly to get these desired new features into your editing workflow. Our goal is to eventually port these features into the Lightroom clients.

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

A

addielemanAuthor

Known Participant

Understood, thanks.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Camera Raw lives in its own little world. It does not have a catalog to deal with and it does not sync with anything in the cloud. That makes it a lot easier to add new features to Camera Raw to test, and to see how the general public responds to these new features. It only makes sense that the Lightroom apps cannot be updated to work with these new features at the same time they are added to Camera Raw.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

dj_paige

Legend

I think Adobe wants to do due diligence to make sure the code for these features is ready in LrC before turning them on, and if they feel the LrC code isn’t working or ready, they delay the implementation until the code is working. So will Adobe continue to do this in the future? I think that is likely. But really, I cannot speak on behalf of Adobe.

For now, you can (this is a workaround) send the LrC photo to Photoshop, it will open in ACR (if it was a raw photo), you can make your edits in ACR and then click on Done. Back in LrC, read Metadata from File will then display your edits from ACR in LrC. No bloated storage that I can see other than the storage required by the mask.

A

addielemanAuthor

Known Participant

I figured out the workaround, thanks.

I don't know the reason behind Camera Raw features front-running Lightroom Classic. If it were only about using Camera Raw as a test-bed, then I'd say, release the features in Lightroom (Classic) as well and label them as beta/experimental/technology preview/whatever. But again, there may be other reasons, so I'd like to hear from an Adobe spokesperson what's behind this and if this approach can be changed.

dj_paige

Legend

Adobe gets criticized by some for releasing products too early which have too many bugs. Others criticize Adobe for not moving fast enough. No matter what they do, the criticism comes in.

I’m okay with the way they are doing it.

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