Lightroom Gets New ‘Reference View’ for Comparing Photos as You Edit

Adobe just announced its latest update to Lightroom CC. Aside from new camera support and performance improvements, the main feature found in version 2015.8 is the introduction of the new Reference View.

Reference View is a new view mode in the Develop Module that lets you compare two different photos side by side in order to make sure they’re visually consistent. If you’re editing a set of photos and you’d like to make sure your edits are cohesive, this tool should come in handy.

“This is helpful when making a group of images from a single event look similar or setting the white balance appropriately in mixed lighting conditions,” Adobe says.

To use the tool, visit your Develop Module and then click on the new Reference View on your tool bar (you might need to show your Toolbar first if you’ve hidden it). Once you’re in the view, you can drag any photo into the left pane to make it your Reference Photo to compare with the one in the right pane.

You can also select a photo and click the “Set as Reference Photo” option in the menu while you’re in the Library Module. Once your Reference Photo is set, it will remain displayed on the left while you edit your main photo on the right.

To get started with Reference Photo, download the latest update to Lightroom through Adobe Creative Cloud.