In a teaser of features planned for 2025, Adobe shared that it's working on adding a tool to speed up the culling process in Lightroom. The list of Adobe’s 2025 sneak peeks include a feature designed for choosing the best photos faster with a tool that automatically notes the best images on import. Adobe also teased that more time-saving AI tools are planned for next year, along with more one-click editing options and new sharing tools.
Culling is the industry term for the often tedious process of going through hundreds, or sometimes even thousands, of digital photos to choose which ones to edit. In a blog post, Adobe said that it's working to dramatically streamline this process “by automatically identifying the best photos during import.”
Adobe didn’t clarify how the tool would work, but looking over the company’s 2024 announcements and similar photo-culling software from competitors, an AI-based tool seems most likely. The past year the software giant has launched a number of AI-based tools that now include options like generative expand, generative remove, and an AI-based distraction removal.
As a wedding photographer, culling photos is my least favorite part of the process. While I’m not sure I would trust an AI to choose the best emotion, I would trust software to eliminate the shots that ended up out of focus, or to choose the group photo where no one is blinking.
Adobe’s list of updates – which also includes a planned price hike for monthly subscribers – include “more power, precision, and time saved with AI.” Adobe didn’t specifically name which time-saving AI tools would arrive in 2025, but said that it plans to add “features similar to Generative Remove in Lightroom and Distraction Removal in Photoshop, that make it easier to remove people, wires and poles, improve blemishes and remove dust from images.”
From that statement, I wouldn’t be surprised if Photoshop’s new distraction removal tool for removing power lines and people from the background also launches to Lightroom in 2025. Does “improve blemishes” mean an AI-based tool for removing acne? I can only hope, but such a tool would also need to have the ability to differentiate acne from things like freckles and moles that should remain intact in portrait editing.
Adobe also said that it plans to introduce more intelligent one-tap edits by expanding the Quick Actions. Finally, Adobe says that “streamlined sharing” is also on the list of planned updates for 2025.
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