Lightroom Point Color’s ‘Variance’ Is Definitely the Update I’ll Use On Repeat

Step-by-step Tutorial for the new variance develop slider

Both edited with My Week Moodier Magic
Right Photo has Variance on top

Holy heck, what a week it has been for creative tech.

Adobe released a bunch of updates. The thing I'm most interested in is the updates in Lightroom. (that’s what today’s post is about).

Canva also held a big event with a ton of new releases—I’m especially intrigued by the video tools (more on that soon). And interestingly, Canva acquired Affinity, which is now available inside their ecosystem. I need to dig in and see what I think.

Oh, and Nikon dropped the most brilliant firmware for my Nikon Zf. I’ve never been this excited about a firmware update. So good. I’ll record a video on it, and I’m praying these features roll out across the Z line because my Z8 needs ALL of it.

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Lightroom Point Color Variance

So today, though I want to talk about the point color variance slider that is part of Lightroom Classic 15 and Lightroom Desktop 9. And I'm going to show you why I love it basically by showing you how I'm using it. I think for creatives like us, this is going to be a brilliant addition to our workflow, and it will be an opportunity to really create extra depth and uniqueness in our images.

Let’s Take a Look

What ‘Variance’ actually does

Point Color lets you sample a specific color and nudge its hue, saturation, and luminance. ‘Variance’ blends nearby colors toward your pick when you pull it left, and pushes them apart when you drag right.’

You can access variance both in develop and inside the mask panel.

Moodier Magic’ from My Week Toolkit. Right: increased Variance on the leaves.

Moodier Magic’ from My Week Toolkit. Right: Reduced Variance making the autumn shades pop.

Moodier Magic’ from My Week Toolkit. Right: Increased Variance

Join me for Lightroom Refresh

If you want my full 2025 edit flow, come to Lightroom Refresh. I’ll share how I’m using the latest Lightroom tools (masking, ai removal, variance and more) in a repeatable workflow.

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