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Posts Tagged LR

Lightroom 2.0 Released

Jul 29

Posted by Haydn in Photography | No Comments

Lightroom version 2.0 has officially been released. Obviously there's the official Adobe page, but the "Lightroom Journal" blog run by the Lightroom team also has some more info. There's plenty of other stuff floating around the web  already, and the release is covered on sites like John Nack's blog, Scott Kelby's blog, and Lightroom Killer Tips.

Lightroom 2 - no longer a beta version

More specifically, there are feature reviews on computer-darkroom.com, lightroomnews.com. John Nack has promised to keep his list of resources up-to-date, so it's probably worth checking back there fairly regularly. In terms of tutorials, you've got the NAPP LR2 Learning Center, some free videos at PhotoshopCafe.com, and a demo of the new retouching features by Terry White. There are loads of lessons on the Kelby Training website, which apparently offers a free trial, but I've not tried it so I don't know how much you can view before having to pay. And of course, there's some info on the Adobe website itself, including a complete list of all new features, and some helpful videos in the "Design Center".

Lightroom 2.0 can now use Export Plugins, along with Develop presets and a variety of web galleries. You can find these new Export Plugins along with the more familiar presets and galleries at the Adobe Lightroom Exchange site. There are only 16 listed at the moment, but it looks like this could be quite interesting as people find different uses for them.

In the midst of all the Lightroom 2.0 excitement, it's probably worth noting that Adobe have also released a couple of other bits of software at the same time. Camera Raw has been updated to v4.5, and now supports edits made in v2.0 of Lightroom. In addition, it adds support for DNG Profiles. These are a new feature which allow you to tune the default Camera Raw rendering of your raw files. For example, you could set up presets to match the JPG presets on your camera; it could be a really useful feature if you're not a big fan of the default ACR settings. Instructions on how to create custom profiles are on the Adobe labs site. There's more information in that computer-darkroom.com review.

Finally, it turns out that it costs more to download the 1.0 > 2.0 upgrade than it does to actually have a physical box/CD posted to you- go figure!

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Lightroom 2.0 Beta released

Apr 2

Posted by Haydn in Photography | No Comments

Hot on the heels of version 2.0 of Apple's Aperture comes a beta-release of Adobe Lightroom 2.0. The beta is intended to give users a preview of the features to be expected in version 2.0, but that is all. Adobe have been careful to point out that not all of the adjustments made in the beta will be transferable to the final release, nor will the beta open or convert catalogues created in the 1.x releases.

Lightroom 2.0 Beta Panel

You can download the beta from the Adobe Labs website, here. I'd highly recommend reading the release notes too (pdf) for details of new features, bugs (there's quite a few!) and installation info.

Major new features include:

  • Localised adjustments. It's now possible to apply Exposure, Brightness, Saturation, Clarity and Tint adjustments selectively to only certain parts of an image.
  • Photoshop Integration. When you open an image in Photoshop via Lightroom, there is no longer any need for LR to first save it to the disk as a TIFF, and then open the TIFF in PS. In addition, you can now open images as Smart Objects, merge them as Panoramas, or open as HDR images in PS.
  • Multiple Monitor Support. You can now have an extra window open on a second monitor, whilst you work on your main display. This secondary display can show Grid, Loupe,  Compare and Survey modes (regardless of what module the main display is showing). This will allow you to re-order images, see an overview whilst you edit a zoomed-in version, or compare your current edit with the original. A very useful addition (that probably should have been included in v1.x!).
  • Smart Collections. Specify some search criteria, and Lightroom will thereafter automatically add to that Smart Collection any images that meet the search criteria. You no longer have to re-run searches to ensure they include your latest images.
  • Exporting and Sharpening. Export options have been updated, to allow you to export to the same folder as the original (or a subfolder), and also to automatically add the exported image to your catalogue. In addition, sharpening algorithms have been added to automatically sharpen appropriately for the desired output (based on output type and resolution).
  • Print to JPG. If you send JPGs to you printer instead of printing images yourself, then you're in for some good news! Instead of having to print to a PDF, then open the PDF in PS, then save the PDF as a JPG, you can now just print straight to JPG. Easy peasy!
  • Vignette cropped images. Maybe not a big one for most people, but I was looking for this the other day and cursing Adobe for not implementing it!
So, those are the changes; some excellent improvements, and pretty fast moving from Adobe following the release of Aperture. I'll confess I've just installed the 30-day trial of Aperture, so I'll have to give it a go and see how they compare.

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Adobe Lightroom resources

Feb 9

Posted by Haydn in Photography | 4 Comments

Earlier today I gave an introductory seminar on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom at the Nottingham and Notts Photographic Society, and thought it would be useful to provide links to some of the resources I mentioned during the tutorial. I have created a set of "cheat sheets" showing keyboard shortcuts in each of the Lightroom modules – you can download them for Mac here or Windows here. And here are some other links which may prove useful…

Most of the pages have links to more resources, so you could probably spend all day clicking around and learning loads of cool stuff. If you were at the seminar and want to ask me any more questions (or even if you weren't there and just want to ask me anyway) then feel free to drop me a line and I'll do my best to help you out.

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