When the Adaptive Color Profile came out in Lightroom Classic a few months ago, I only played a little with it and didn’t see a great benefit. Then I had a bit more time and thought I’d see if it was worth the hype. I initially didn’t see a lot of difference overall in the photo until I played around with the highlights, which as you may know, I’m a big stickler about maintaining detail in your highlights.
I’m now convinced.
Above, the first photo shows the older, venerable Adobe Color Profile and lower, the new Adaptive Profile. So how does it work? Think of the Adaptive Color Profile as using AI (haven’t you gotten so sick of that phrase is such a short period of time?) to analyze your photo and make adjustments behind the scene. Think of it as Auto Tone on steroids. The additional benefit of Adaptive Color is that is makes changes to the photo without moving the sliders, so it gives the slides more mojo when you do move them.
Note that the Adaptive Profile prefers Auto Tone not being applied first. In fact, you’ll get a warning if you apply the Adaptive Color Profile when you’ve used Auto Tone. My recommendation is to switch Auto Tone for Adaptive Color Profile and apply it when importing new photos. Here’s how:
- Verify either in Lightroom Classic or the Creative Cloud app Lightroom Classic is up to date.
- In the Develop module, choose a RAW file and select Adaptive Color from the Profile drop down.
- On the left side, to the right of Preset, click the + button and choose Create Preset.
- Call the preset Adaptive Color.
- Click Check None at the bottom, (so you are deliberate about what you include the preset).
- Check Treatment and Profile, then Create at the bottom.
- Navigate to the Library module, click Import in the lower left corner, and choose your Import New Photos preset.
- On the right under Apply During Import, click the Develop Settings dropdown menu, go to User Presets, and select the Adaptive Preset your created.
- Save the new settings by clicking the dropdown menu next to your Import New Photos preset and choose Update Preset “Import New Photos.”
The Adaptive Color Preset is a welcomed addition to getting Lightroom Classic to do more of the image optimization for us so we can spend more time away from a screen!