Digital Camera News and Reviews

Today Adobe has launched version 2 of their popular RAW converter program called Photoshop Lightroom. There are lots of changes and additions from Lightroom 1.4 to version 2.0. One of the most significant changes to Lightroom 2 is that you can do local adjustments to a picture. This means you can select an area of the picture you want to change and use a tool to adjust that area. This feature can be used with the gradient tool and the local adjustment brush which can change exposure correction, brightness, contrast, saturation, clarity, sharpening and toning.
Other new features for Photoshop Lightroom 2 are dual-monitor support, a software development kit (SDK) that allows third party developers to make plugins for the program, new print module and much more.

Personally Lightroom is my most used program when I develop my RAW-files because it makes my work flow very fast. I’m very excited these new changes to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom!

If you are a new user of Lightroom version 2 will cost you £175 / $299, but if you are upgrading from version 1 it will cost you £69 / $99.

Press release:
Adobe Releases Photoshop Lightroom 2

Major Software Upgrade Further Simplifies Photography Workflows

SAN JOSE, Calif. — July 29, 2008 — Adobe Systems Incorporated
(Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe
Photoshop Lightroom 2 software, the photographer’s essential toolbox for
managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs.
With new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in
non-destructive localized image correction, and streamlined search
capabilities, Lightroom 2 is a compelling upgrade that simplifies
photography from shoot to finish. As Adobe’s first application to
support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel
processors and Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit operating systems,
Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with
large scale images.

“A worldwide community of photographers provided valuable insight and
feedback, as part of the Lightroom 2 public beta program, ultimately
helping us deliver a better product,” said Tom Hogarty, senior product
manager for Lightroom and Camera Raw at Adobe. “We’ve considered their
requests which helped us develop useful features that make it easier
than ever for our customers to quickly refine, enhance and present
brilliant photographs.”

Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate

The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and
accelerate photographers’ workflows. With the ability to visually
organize images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its
powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the
images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers
keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their
own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand
their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organize images in
a way that maximizes an additional display.

In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers
fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust color, exposure
and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new
Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to
larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment
effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any
combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently
by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with
flexible and customizable templates to maximize paper and ink.
Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for
screen or print, producing crisper images faster. Developers can further
extend the Lightroom workflow with Web, Export and Metadata Software
Development Kits available at the Adobe Developer Connection,
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/.

Ground-Breaking Innovation in Raw Technology

New raw technology gives photographers access to flexible camera
profiles. Camera profiles are the visual starting point for the raw
processing workflow, but image preferences vary for every photographer.
To minimize surprises, Adobe is supplying default camera profiles that
closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing
from their favorite camera, while also providing the ability to create
highly customized profiles to suit different tastes. Camera profiles are
available for immediate download on Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com)
for use with Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5, along with the DNG Profile
Editor for the community to test and create their own profiles.

The Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and DNG Converter 4.5 are also now
available on Adobe.com and support over 190 camera models including the
Olympus E 420 and E 520 models.

“One of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among
serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very
vocal user community,” said Scott Kelby, president of the National
Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). “Adobe really listens to
the issues and challenges today’s photographers face and they’ve built a
complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it
really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom
2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate
freedom to produce professional images quickly.”

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available now through the Adobe Store at
www.adobe.com/store in English, French and German with the Japanese
language version planned to be released at a future date. The estimated
street price is USD$299 for new users with an upgrade price of USD$99
for registered users of qualifying Lightroom customers. Recommended
system requirements are Macintosh OSX 10.4, 10.5 1 GHz PowerPC G4 or G5
or Intel based processor, or Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or Windows
Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise, Intel Pentium
4 processor, 1 GB RAM and a 1024×768 resolution screen. Additional
information on product features, upgrade policies, pricing, and language
versions is available on www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.

Adobe has released updates for Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4. The updates fixes some issues with the EXIF time date field of images and problems with artifacts in Olympus JPEG files when exported.
The latest version of Adobe Lightroom can be download here and the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw can be downloaded here.


From the Adobe blog:
The Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera Raw 4.4.1 updates have been posted to the following locations: Lightroom(Mac, Win), Camera Raw(Mac, Win). The updates provide all of the changes included in the original Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 releases but also include corrections for issues described below and in previous blog posts. The Camera Raw plug-in will also be available later this evening via the Adobe Update Manager and the Lightroom update can be located by choosing ‘Check for Updates…’ under the Help menu. The Lightroom and Camera Raw team apologize for any inconveniences caused by the issues presented in the initial updates

Lightroom

* Lightroom 1.4 incorrectly modified the EXIF time date field of images that had a metadata update applied. This incorrect modification does not appear in Lightroom or Bridge and is only viewable through third party EXIF tools. This error has been corrected in Lightroom 1.4.1 and all files in a Lightroom catalog that have been incorrectly modified will be corrected on their next metadata update. (Metadata can be updated by selecting the files in the Library grid view and choosing Command or CTRL + S to save and update the metadata.)
* Olympus JPEG files could render incorrectly in Lightroom 1.4, displaying an artifact in the exported file.
* Any conversion to DNG in Lightroom 1.4 (Windows Only) would cause the DNG file to become unreadable by Lightroom’s Develop Module or Camera Raw 4.4 in Photoshop. The issue has been corrected and files can be converted to DNG again in order to resolve the issue for existing files. Returning to the original native raw files is not necessary. The affected DNG files can be selected and converted again using the DNG Converter 4.4.1 available at www.adobe.com/dng/. This process is not required but recommended to ensure that a correct validation value is stored within the DNG files.
* Lightroom 1.4 provided degraded import performance relative to Lightroom 1.3.

Camera Raw

* Camera Raw 4.4 incorrectly modified the EXIF time date field of images that were saved as TIFF or JPEG files from the Camera Raw dialog. This has been corrected in Camera Raw 4.4.1
* Olympus JPEG files could render incorrectly in Camera Raw 4.4, displaying an artifact in the exported file.

The program package Adobe Creative Suite CS4, which includes Adobe Photoshop CS4 among other programs, are planed to get 64-bit support. This means that Photoshop will be able to handle more internal memory in the computer, which means better performance and the possibility to work with larger photo files more effectively.

Mac will probably not get support for 64-bit until Creative Suite CS5 is produced due to technical difficulties.

Adobe has announced that they have opened their popular photo tool Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 up for beta testing.

The beta of Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 is available for download here. The beta will only work for 30 days if you are not an existing Lightroom user.


PRESS RELEASE: Adobe Delivers Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 Beta

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 2 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 beta, a public preview of new and improved functionality to be delivered in the next major release. Lightroom is the professional photographer’s essential toolbox, providing one application for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs. Lightroom 2.0 beta will feature enhancements such as dual-monitor support, localized dodge and burn correction and will be the first Adobe application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Intel Macs and Microsoft Vista 64-bit operating systems.

“Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 beta provides early access to requested improvements over version 1.3 and continues our ongoing dialogue and open communication with the photography community,” said Tom Hogarty, senior product manager for Photoshop Lightroom and Camera Raw. “We’re excited not only for our existing customers, but also for the general public who will have an opportunity to take Lightroom 2.0 beta on a test run.”

New in Lightroom 2.0 beta

An improved layout in the Library module allows for a more intuitive approach to image organization by simplifying the location of the features needed to find and filter photographs. A new feature called Smart Collections automatically updates collections with images that match desired criteria such as star-rating, keyword or other metadata. “The Suggested Keywords feature eases the task of keywording by making recommendations based upon keyword associations across a catalog as well as the use of keywords in neighboring images.”

Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 beta includes improved memory handling through 64-bit support for OS X 10.5 Intel Macs and Vista 64-bit operating systems. Additional enhancements in Lightroom 2.0 beta include support for a dual monitor configuration that maximizes a photographer’s workspace and can be easily adjusted to meet a particular workflow. Additionally, the Develop module has been updated to provide the ability to correct specific parts of an image without affecting other areas. Now, fundamental photographic techniques such as dodge and burn can be performed using the same non-destructive approach, allowing unprecedented control within the Lightroom program.

Beta Availability

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 beta is available as a 30-day trial for free download on Macintosh and Windows platforms at http://www.labs.adobe.com/downloads. Existing Lightroom 1.0 customers will be able to test the beta for an extended period until Aug. 31 and can invite friends to take part in this trial period. Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OSX 10.4, 10.5 1 GHz PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel-based processor or Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate or Enterprise, Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1 GBRAM and a 1024×768 resolution screen.