For decades, photographers have lived between two worlds — the still image and the moving one — often forced to abandon familiar tools when crossing from one to the other. Adobe's expansion of Lightroom into video editing acknowledges this quiet friction, offering creators a way to carry their visual language across formats without learning a new craft. The update, arriving in June 2022, is less a revolution than a thoughtful bridge — one that also brings AI-assisted refinements and smarter preset tools to a platform already trusted by millions.
Adobe Lightroom expands beyond photos with native video editing capabilities
Consistent aesthetic across both photos and videos
Mark
So Adobe is saying photographers can now edit video in Lightroom. Does that mean Lightroom is becoming a video editor?
Mimi
Not really. It's more like Lightroom is borrowing some of its own logic and applying it to video. If you know how to warm up a photo or add contrast, you can do the same thing to a video clip now. But there's no timeline, no way to layer clips together.
Luke
Right—and that's the key limit. You can't actually make a video in Lightroom. You can adjust a single clip, trim it, maybe color-grade it. But if you want to do anything that requires sequencing or layering, you're going back to Premiere or DaVinci Resolve anyway.
Mimi
Exactly. Adobe's own Benjamin Warde said the real value is consistency—matching the look of your photos to your videos without switching tools. That matters if you're building a visual brand.
Mark
Who does that actually help? Who's the person this is for?
Mimi
Content creators who shoot both photos and video. Someone posting to Instagram or TikTok who wants their video clips to feel like they came from the same shoot as their photos.
Luke
But we should be clear: Adobe hasn't said how many people actually do that workflow, or whether this moves the needle for Lightroom adoption. It's a nice-to-have feature, not a game-changer.
Mark
What about the other stuff—the presets and the red-eye removal?
Mimi
Those are more incremental. The adaptive presets are interesting because they adjust to different images instead of applying the same settings uniformly. And automatic red-eye removal saves photographers from clicking on every red eye individually.
Luke
Though automatic red-eye removal is only in the newer versions of Lightroom, not Lightroom Classic. So there's a split in the product line.
Mark
Why would Adobe do that?
Luke
Probably because the AI features are newer and they want to push people toward the subscription versions. Classic is the older, perpetual-license product.
Mimi
The side-by-side comparison view is straightforward—just lets you pick the best shot from a batch. Photographers have wanted that for a while.
Mark
So the headline is video, but the real story is Adobe making Lightroom incrementally more useful for its existing users?
Mimi
That's fair. Video gets the attention, but the presets and AI tools are probably more useful day-to-day.
Der Puls
- Photographers who shoot both stills and video have long faced a disruptive context switch, abandoning Lightroom's familiar controls the moment they touch a video clip.
- Adobe's new video tools bring contrast, warmth, and color grading directly into Lightroom — but without a timeline, the feature stops well short of challenging Premiere or DaVinci Resolve.
- Adaptive presets now intelligently read each image before applying a style, while AI-powered red-eye removal eliminates the tedious eye-by-eye correction that slowed down event photographers.
- The update lands as a practical win for social media creators seeking visual consistency across formats, even as deeper integration with Adobe's video ecosystem remains unannounced.
For decades, photographers have lived between two worlds — the still image and the moving one — often forced to abandon familiar tools when crossing from one to the other. Adobe's expansion of Lightroom into video editing acknowledges this quiet friction, offering creators a way to carry their visual language across formats without learning a new craft. The update, arriving in June 2022, is less a revolution than a thoughtful bridge — one that also brings AI-assisted refinements and smarter preset tools to a platform already trusted by millions.
Adobe has added video editing to Lightroom, the long-trusted home base for photographers managing and refining their image libraries. As of mid-June 2022, users can apply the same color grading, contrast, and warmth controls they use on photos directly to video clips — a move designed not to replace dedicated editors, but to let creators maintain a unified visual style without switching applications.
The video tools are deliberately modest in scope. Basic trimming and preset application are supported, but there is no timeline, meaning multi-clip sequences remain out of reach. Adobe's Benjamin Warde framed the feature around efficiency: photographers already know Lightroom's controls, so the learning curve is nearly zero. For single clips headed to social media, the workflow gain is real, even if serious video work still demands a fuller tool.
The update also deepens Lightroom's preset system with adaptive presets — a new category that reads each image before applying a style, with early examples targeting skies and subject separation. Five premium preset packs from working photographers round out the offering, each accompanied by intensity sliders for fine-tuned control.
Elsewhere, an AI-powered red-eye removal tool now scans and corrects entire images automatically, replacing a manual process that required photographers to address each eye individually. A new side-by-side comparison view also arrives, helping photographers choose between similar frames without toggling back and forth.
The video features are live across Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. Adaptive presets and automatic red-eye removal are available on Mac, Windows, Adobe Camera Raw, and Lightroom Classic. Adobe has not announced plans to integrate Lightroom more deeply with its dedicated video products, but the direction is clear: Lightroom is reaching toward creators who move fluidly between still and moving images.
Adobe is bringing video editing to Lightroom, the image organization and editing software that has long been the standard tool for photographers managing and refining their photo libraries. Starting today, users can apply the same editing controls they use on photographs—adjusting contrast, warmth, color grading—directly to video clips. The company is positioning this not as a replacement for dedicated video editors like Premiere or DaVinci Resolve, but as a practical extension for creators who want to maintain a consistent visual style across both photos and videos without jumping between applications.
The video capabilities include basic trimming and the ability to apply Lightroom's existing image presets to video footage. Benjamin Warde, speaking for Adobe ahead of the announcement, emphasized the efficiency of the move: photographers already know how to use Lightroom's editing tools, so the learning curve for video editing is essentially eliminated. More importantly, he noted, the feature allows creators to achieve a unified aesthetic across their photo and video work—a workflow that matters for anyone building a cohesive visual brand across multiple formats.
There are real limits to what Lightroom's video tools can do. The software lacks a timeline, which means you cannot layer multiple video clips and images together to create a composite sequence. Anyone doing serious video work will still need to move to a full-featured editor. There is also no integration yet with Adobe's other video products. For now, the video functionality is most practical for quick edits to single clips destined for social media—a modest but genuine use case for content creators who shoot both photos and video.
Beyond video, Adobe is expanding Lightroom's preset system, which allows photographers to apply pre-configured editing styles with a single click rather than adjusting every parameter manually. The company introduced adaptive presets, described as an entirely new class of preset that intelligently adjusts to different images. Two examples are available now: one that enhances skies and another that makes the main subject of a photo stand out. Adobe also released five new premium preset packs created by photographers including Ayesha Kazim, Jessy J., and Megan Sumpton, along with intensity sliders that let users dial preset effects up or down.
The update also includes an AI-powered red-eye removal tool that automatically detects and corrects red eyes across an entire image. Previously, photographers had to manually point Lightroom's red-eye tool at each affected eye individually—a tedious task when editing photos from events or indoor shoots. The new automatic version should eliminate much of that busywork. Finally, Lightroom now offers a side-by-side comparison view, letting photographers evaluate multiple versions of the same shot to pick the strongest one—a practical feature for anyone who shoots dozens of similar frames and needs to narrow down the selection.
The video editing capability is now live across Lightroom for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. The adaptive presets and automatic red-eye removal are available in Lightroom for Mac and Windows, Adobe Camera Raw, and Lightroom Classic. The expansion signals Adobe's effort to make Lightroom a more versatile tool for creators who work across multiple media formats, though the company has not announced plans to deepen integration with its dedicated video products. For photographers who occasionally shoot video and want to maintain visual consistency without learning a new interface, the update removes a meaningful friction point in their workflow.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
If you can edit photos in Lightroom, now you can edit videos in Lightroom, and it allows you to achieve a consistent aesthetic across both photos and videos.— Benjamin Warde, Adobe
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