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Adobe releases Lightroom 5 inside and out of Creative Cloud

The latest version of Adobe's Lightroom has exited beta, and is now available as either a stand-alone product or part of the Creative Cloud.

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The latest version of Adobe's Lightroom has exited beta, and is now available as either a stand-alone product or part of the Creative Cloud.

(Credit: Adobe)

Like earlier versions of the photo-editing and cataloguing software, Lightroom was in beta for several months before the final release. The newest version features several incremental updates to photo-management features like proxy editing of offline images, called Smart Preview. If you are working with images located on disconnected network drives, the software will generate smaller versions of the photos for editing, and then sync the changes to the full-sized version once the drive is reconnected.

Also new to Lightroom 5 is the advanced healing brush, which boosts the spot-removal tool, letting you heal or clone using brush strokes. Horizons and levels can be adjusted automatically with one click.

Last month, Adobe product manager Tom Hogarty addressed concerns that Lightroom would be absorbed fully into the Creative Cloud subscription-based software model, like other Adobe products. Hogarty said that Lightroom would continue as a stand-alone product "indefinitely".

Lightroom 5 is available for an outright price of AU$99 (upgrade) or AU$186 (full) from Adobe's Australian store. As part of the Creative Cloud, subscriptions start from AU$49.99 per month for new users, AU$19.99 for a single desktop application or AU$29.99 for upgrade users from CS3 or later.

Click here to read CNET senior editor Lori Grunin's review of Lightroom 5.