Alright guys it's update time! If you haven't caught on to the "schedule" just yet, Adobe releases "major" updates to Lightroom (and other software) about every two months - pretty consistently. The last update in April, most notably, brought us Profiles. There's nothing quite that exciting in release 7.4 but there's some good stuff here. Below is a quick rundown.

I'm a huge fan of Lightrooms' ability to help users organize images and folders and there was a pretty nice update in 7.4 in regards to that. You can color label your Folders and then organize by color. To add a color label simply right-click or ctrl-click on a folder and select "Add Color Label" (see images above). Easy and useful!

One update that nobody seems to be talking about but proves Adobe is paying attention to users (and quite possibly our little group since this was brought up by a member - kidding they don't know we exist) is the new easier to see grid lines when using the Crop Tool. This one, however, comes with a slight caveat. If, in your preferences, you do not have "Use Graphics Processor" checked you won't notice a difference in the Grid line size (see the pics above. The left is without Use Processor Checked and the right is with it checked). This is a bug that Adobe is aware of they will address it in another "non-major" update soon. 

Another nice little improvement is the ability to "Manage Presets". If you right-click or ctrl-click on the plus (+) sign next to the Presets title you will now see the option to "Manage Presets". You can then select (check) or hide (uncheck) the Preset Categories that you want visible. 

And you can do the same with "Profiles". Simply open the profiles panel and right-click or ctrl-click on a Profile name to get the sub-menu and choose "Manage Profiles". Again, a check mark indicates it will be visible and un-checking will hide the Profile Category.

The last update that I wanted to touch on was the new ability to "Stack" images together when creating an HDR or Panorama image (we haven't discussed either of these two image options but we will!). Previously you would have to create your HDR or Pano image and then create a stack - if you wanted them stacked(which I mean why not??). Now you have the option to select "Create Stack" when in the HDR or Panorama dialog box and Lightroom will automatically stack them when the process is complete, leaving the HDR or Pano image at the top of the stack. In the images above I have shown the dialog box and then the Stacked photos and also the un-stacked photos. You can see, in this demonstration, that I used 3 images for an HDR and Lr stacked 4 - the 3 originals and the final HDR. I also show you the 4 images as being unstacked with the HDR image circled in blue. 

And there ya have it! The main points of interest from the Lightroom Classic 7.4 June 2018 Updtate. There were of course other small bugs that were squashed and new cameras and lenses added to the Lr database but this is what I felt was the important stuff. Let me know if you have any questions!