Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3 Review

Ian Lyons over at Computer-Darkroom has posted an in-depth review of the latest version of Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom.

So, here we are at Lightroom version 1.3 and the question most users will be asking is – what’s new? On the surface very little, but just like an iceberg there’s lots beneath the surface.

You can read the entire article here.

Adobe Posts Updates for Phtoshop, Bridge, Lightroom, and Camera RAW

Man, talk about getting all of your ducks in a row before the Holidays. Adobe has announced updates to Photoshop CS3 (download 10.0.1 for Mac, Win), Bridge CS3 (2.1.1 for Mac, Win), Camera Raw (4.3 for Mac, Win), and Lightroom (1.3 for Mac, Win). Each download page contains more details about the corresponding update. Thanks to John Nack at Adobe for the summary:

Photoshop 10.0.1 update mainly addresses the many issues with the print module and preserving XMP metadata (including copyright) via Save For Web. This update does not have a fix for Mac OS X Leopard.

Bridge 2.1.1 adds a new preference to enable High Quality Preview.

Lightroom 1.3 improves compatibility with Mac OS X Leopard, adds a 1:1 preview render option when importing, and numerous bug fixes. LightroomNews aptly named it an ‘iceberg update’, not so much on the surface, but look out below. New cameras supported in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and the DNG Converter include: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, Canon PowerShot G9, Nikon D3, Nikon D300, Olympus E-3, Olympus SP-560 UZ, and Panasonic DMC-L10. The applications also now support the sRAW format produced by the Canon 1D Mk III, 1Ds Mk III, and 40D.

There is also a preview available of the Lightroom Export SDK for developers on Adobe Labs. They can find out more details at the Lightroom Journal.

Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System Photoshop Manual

Photoshop master Scott Kelby has a new book out on CS3. Please note, I have not yet received a copy for review for the Media Shelf, so this just an announcement. However, those of you who have relied of his instruction for helping you use Photoshop and Lightroom may want to check out Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 at Amazon.

He also has a video post here describing his new 7-point system.

Black and White Digital Photography – From Conversion to Print

Northlight Images has posted an interview with Keith Cooper in which he discussed Black and White digital conversions as well as printing.

The first article covers black and white digital photography in general, the second article covers aspects of digital black and white printing.

PhotoPresets for Photoshop Lightroom and Camera RAW

For those of you who use Adobe’s Lightroom (and if you haven’t, why not try it for 30 days), Jack Davis of onOne Software has made a very nice comprehensive suite of Develop Module Presets.  This is a great way to get started and understand how certain changes can effect your images.  The best news, they’re free.  Sign up for your download here.

You can go here for his PhotoPresets for Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), but only if you use Photoshop CS3.

Adobe Camera Raw 4.2 and Photoshop Lightroom 1.2 updates are now available

For all of you Photoshop CS3/Elements and Lightroom users, Adobe has updated Camera Raw 4.2 (download for Mac|Win) and Lightroom 1.2 (Mac|Win). You can also get these via your applications update manager (choose Help->Updates within Photoshop or Lightroom).

Camera Raw update gives all of you lucky new Canon 40D users support. If you don’t have CS3, you can use the free DNG convertor to bring it back into CS2.

Lightroom of course brings in the new Camera Raw settings along with a host of other welcome bug and stability fixes:

• Lightroom 1.1 catalogs with user-specified sort order could not be imported into another catalog
• Lightroom 1.1 for Windows could at times display gray boxes instead of image thumbnails
• The preference to write XMP metadata automatically in Lightroom 1.1 could attempt to write metadata indefinitely for offline images causing significant performance problems
• Images could be dropped from the Quick Collection upon reordering of the source folder
• Catalogs could not be exported to drives smaller than 250MB
• The Web Module was not accessible in Lightroom 1.1 on the Macintosh platform when Lightroom was installed on case-sensitive volumes such as the Case Sensitive HFS+ (Journaled) volume
• Errors occurred exporting to a Linux SMB network volume
• Scroll position in the grid view was not maintained when changing the view option using the J shortcut key
• The tokens for image number and image count were not displaying properly in the Slideshow module
• The metadata panel could display incorrectly on Windows
• Slideshows on the Macintosh platform did not display properly when a 256MB ATI graphics card was connected to 30 ” LCD
• The Lightroom 1.1 Web module export did not position the copyright tag in the same location displayed in the preview
• The auto-eject functionality on Windows ejected the card reader device in addition to the card
• Noise reduction adjustment for all cameras with Bayer Pattern sensor: The base point noise reduction applied at the demosaic stage of raw processing has been reduced. The resulting effect is that images with zero luminance noise reduction applied in Lightroom 1.2 will contain more noise than the identical settings in Lightroom 1.1 but less noise than identical settings in Lightroom 1.0.
• 1:1 previews were not discarded according to the timing set in the Lightroom preferences
• 1:1 previews are not built for an entire set of images when requested after import

I have just downloaded it this morning. I’ll give everybody an update later on if it has helped improve my performance.

Thanks to John Nack at Adobe for the update.