• The application feels faster, switching between modules is quicker and when scrolling through the library thumbnails snap into focus much quicker (note I’m using a Macbook with one gig of RAM, YMMV).
• Vastly improved sharpening tools. In the Develop module the sharpening slider has been replaced with four individual controls (Amount, Radius, Detail, and Masking). This could be a mixed bag, on one hand you have more fine-grained control on the other hand it takes longer — it would nice if this were a “advanced” option.
• “Clarity” controls. A new Develop module feature which Adobe says “adds depth to an image by increasing local contrast.” I haven’t had time to really get the hang of it, but in certain situations it can give images that extra “pop” that editors are always asking for.

At the O'Reilly site I found 3 interesting posts. First there's a short piece by James Duncan Davidson that details changes in Photoshop Lightroom version 1.1, a post by Mikkel Aaland called What I Like about LR 1.1, and a story by Colleen Wheeler that brings some news about a much anticipated Lightroom book.

Photoshop CS3 Upgrade Options And Bundles From The Adobe Store

Photoshop CS3 Extended is ideal for film, video, and multimedia pros and for graphic and web designers using 3D and motion. Get the full version for US $999, or upgrade for US $349. The standard version of Photoshop CS3 is available for US $649, or as an upgrade for US $199. See all upgrade options at the Adobe Store.

Photoshop Extended is also available as part of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, which combines all-new CS3 versions of Photoshop, Flash Pro, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat 8 Pro. Upgrade options for customers in Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Asia can be found at the Adobe International Store.

85 Free PhotoPresets For Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Mike Wong at onOne Software has some nice Lightroom presets to give away. Here's the whole story from his blog: "Last week we announced the immediate availability of 85 presets for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom that we're calling PhotoPresets with One-Click Wow! that everybody can download for free.



"We worked directly with Photoshop Guru and Hall-of-Famer Jack Davis. The presets are unique from others in that they do not try to be everything to everybody or a one-size fits all. Presets that were developed by someone with some image may not necessarily work on your image (were the white balance corrections the same, what about HSL settings? the list goes on). This doesn't mean that we won't come out with other presets that help you recreate a specific look, but in general for color correction, the feedback we've gotten from most users out there who are over-whelmed and somewhat intimidated by the numerous sliders and curve adjustments available in the Develop module, welcome these kinds of presets with open arms.

"As such, the PhotoPresets that Jack developed for us help walk you through the process of fixing and properly adjusting your photos. Start with a White Balance correction, then move into Tone Curve adjustments. Next, HSL (hue, saturation & luminosity) where you can push everything to grayscale except a color (i.e. blue eyes). Next, you can change to black and white, add a custom hand-tint and finally a variety of vignettes can be added. It's really quite simple when you go through the presets. The cool thing is that once you find a look that you like by combining these presets, you can save that preset as your own and in one-click, you're there!

"So if you're using Photoshop Lightroom, go download a copy of our PhotoPresets for Lightroom. They're free! In the next few days, we'll be posting several video tutorials that Jack Davis created specifically for these presets. If you're not a Lightroom expert and don't know where the presets go, don't worry, we've created an installer that puts the presets in the right place. Just run the installer and relaunch Lightroom."

Adobe Lightroom Released - Special Discount Price

Adobe Lightroom 1.0 is now shipping and is available in the US and Canada through the Adobe Store at a special discount price of $199.

Adobe Lightroom enables professional photographers to import, manage and present large volumes of digital photographs. With more than 500,000 photographers participating in the public beta program over the last 12 months, Adobe Lightroom now includes a wealth of innovative features that streamline digital photography workflows.

Recognizing the photography community for their efforts, Adobe is offering Adobe Lightroom at a special introductory price of US $199 through April 30, 2007 at the Adobe Store. Photoshop Lightroom will later sell for an estimated street price of US $299.

Adobe Lightroom includes new functionality added since beta 4.1, with significant changes to the Library and Develop modules complementing improvements to the Slideshow, Print and Web components. While in the Library module, new advanced keywording tools help photographers filter through large collections, and an improved import dialogue with more flexible file handling allows more choice when determining file location.

New to the Develop module, Virtual Copies and Snapshot tools help present multiple versions of the same image, providing the most choice to clients without the confusion of saving separate physical versions.

Additional tools added include a Hue, Saturation and Luminance targeted adjustment tool for precise and intuitive image edits. Clone and Healing features provide non-destructive edits to eliminate sensor dust across one or many images.

The announcement of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 signifies the official conclusion of the groundbreaking Lightroom beta program. Users of Lightroom beta will have access to the program until its expiration on February 28, 2007.

Visit the Adobe Store for more purchasing details.

Photoshop Lightroom Adventure - A Journey to Iceland to Master Adobe's Lightroom 1.1

"Field testing in Iceland turned out to be a stroke of brilliance," enthuses George Jardine, pro photo evangelist for Adobe Systems, about Mikkel Aaland's new book, Photoshop Lightroom Adventure.

Aaland turned his experiences from a once-in-a lifetime photography expedition to Iceland into a striking guided tour of Lightroom. Along the way he shows readers how they, too, can use Lightroom to create exciting new images. More importantly, Aaland, an award-winning photographer and bestselling author, inspires readers -- everyone from photography enthusiasts to working professionals -- by providing a far deeper experience than most instructional manuals. Part Icelandic road trip, part photo essay, "Lightroom's" photo-rich pages come packed with beautiful, exciting, and emulate-able photographs from a dozen talented working photographers.

Buy Photoshop Lightroom Adventure at Amazon.com ($26.39 - 34% savings).

Read full story...

Nik Software Announces Plug-in Update for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 - Plus 15% Discount Coupon Code
Nik Software announces that Viveza, its popular digital photographic plug-in filter is now available for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 and higher. The update is free to current owners of Viveza.

"This new update makes one of our most valuable plug-ins available to anyone using Lightroom who’s passionate about photography," said Michael J. Slater president and CEO of Nik Software. "Now photographers can use U Point powered Viveza to precisely and selectively control color and light with a few clicks of their mouse in Lightroom."

Nik Software Exclusive 15% Coupon Code
Enter our exclusive discount coupon code - NIKPSS - during the checkout process at Nik Software for an instant 15% discount on any Nik Software product. This exclusive discount coupon code can be applied to all the latest Nik Software Photoshop plugins, including Silver Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Viveza, Sharpener Pro, and Dfine.

"We’re happy to see companies like Nik extending the value of Lightroom with their plug-ins," said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Professional Digital Imaging at Adobe. "One of Lightroom’s goals is to help photographers focus on the art of photography and Viveza provides added creativity and control in pursuit of their vision. Today also marks the release of Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3 and we’re excited that our customers will be able to take advantage of the new camera support available with these offerings."

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3, is available immediately for download at www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/. The Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3 updates, originally posted as release candidates for community testing on Jan. 23, provide raw file support for the newly-released Nikon D3X and Olympus E-30 cameras and support for eight additional languages.

Viveza installs as a plug-in filter for Lightroom 2 and is accessible via the Lightroom Photo>Edit In… menu. Edits made using the plug-in within Lightroom are non-destructive in nature, with edits applied automatically to a newly generated TIFF file and not the original. Viveza also takes advantage of Lightroom and its efficiencies for every day tasks, like the ability to edit multiple images in one session, saving time for photographers.

All Nik Software plug-in products now feature Nik Software’s patented U Point technology which revolutionizes the way photographers edit. U Point powered Control Points give photographers precise selective editing functions without the need to create complicated selections and layer masks. This innovative technology is easy to use and works directly on the image, empowering photographers to make selective enhancements in a fraction of the time needed by using other methods.

The fully compatible Viveza product, offering support for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Apple Aperture, is available immediately for electronic delivery directly from Nik Software.

Nik Software also announced that all of its remaining photographic filter products are being updated to support Lightroom as well, beginning with Color Efex Pro 3.0. As these Lightroom-compatible versions become available, current owners will receive updates free of charge. All products are expected to be available by the end of the second quarter of 2009.

Viveza retails for $249.95. Customers interested in purchasing all 5 Nik Software products for Lightroom or Aperture only may pre-purchase the Nik Software Complete Collection for Lightroom or Aperture for $299.95. Customers who pre-purchase the Complete Collection for Lightroom or Aperture will receive email notification for each product as they become available.

Download a free Trial version. Enter our exclusive discount coupon code - NIKPSS - during the checkout process at Nik Software for an instant 15% discount.

Exclusive 15% Discount On All Topaz Plugins - Use Coupon Code PHOTOSHOPSUPPORT - Includes Bundles And Upgrades

Topaz Labs Photoshop plug-ins are specifically designed to expand a photographer's creative toolbox by harnessing powerful image technology developments.

Enter our exclusive discount coupon code PHOTOSHOPSUPPORT during the checkout process at Topaz Labs for an instant 15% discount on any Topaz product, including bundles and upgrades.

Photographers everywhere are now taking advantage of the creative exposure effects, artistic simplification, unique edge manipulation, and top-of-the-line noise reduction offered in Topaz products. The Topaz Photoshop Bundle includes the following Topaz plugins:

Topaz Adjust
Deliver stunning and dynamic images with this uniquely powerful plug-in that features HDR-like abilities and enhances exposure, color and detail.
Topaz Detail
A three-level detail adjustment plug-in that specializes in micro-contrast enhancements and sharpening with no artifacts.
Topaz ReMask
The fastest and most effective masking and extraction program with one-click mask refining.
Topaz DeNoise
Highest-quality noise reduction plug-in that removes the most noise and color noise while preserving the most image detail.
Topaz Simplify
Provides creative simplification, art effects, and line accentuation for easy one-of-a-kind art.
Topaz Clean
Take control of the detail depth of your images with extensive smoothing, texture control and edge enhancement tools.
Topaz DeJPEG
Drastically improves the quality of web images and other compressed photos.

Learn more about the Topaz Photoshop Plugins Bundle. Download a free trial version.

Find the latest Lightroom 2 tutorials on our Photoshop Lightroom 2 Tutorials page. Visit the Adobe site to download a free 30 day Photoshop Lightroom trial free download.

Using Photoshop Lightroom, Part 1 - By Ben Long

creativepro.com senior editor and digital photo go-to guy Ben Long has posted his first installment of tips and strategies for using Adobe's free beta 4 of Photoshop Lightroom to import and organize your photographs. From the intro:

If you're a digital photographer who normally works in Photoshop, you owe it to yourself to try Photoshop Lightroom, a workflow-management/image-processing tool that's now a free beta and should ship in a final version early next year. While Lightroom lacks many of Photoshop's editing functions -- there are no brushes, rubber stamps, layers, or text tools in Lightroom -- its digital photography workflow may be better for you than a combination of Photoshop and Bridge, or Photoshop and your operating system's file manager.

I'm going to look at a few simple concepts that will make your switch from Photoshop to Lightroom easier. Don't worry; this "switch" is not a one-way trip. If you decide you're not interested in continuing with Lightroom, you can easily go back to your current workflow.

In this first installment, I'll cover Lightroom's importing and organization features. In Part 2, I'll go into Lightroom's editing tools and how they compare to Photoshop's. Part 3 will cover output.

What You'll Find in Lightroom
Photoshop is the best general-purpose graphics application out there. Everyone from photographers to Web designers to pre-press experts to feature film special effects companies use Photoshop. But because it can be all of these things to all of these people, it's not designed specifically for the way a photographer needs to work. For example, when you're just back from a shoot, you typically want to work through your images quickly, sorting them and applying corrections. Lightroom makes that post-production much faster because you don't have to hassle with open and save dialogs, or with keeping track of files.

You should find that Lightroom can handle 80 to 90% of your editing tasks. What it won't handle is selective editing -- the type that usually requires a masking operation -- and painting operations.

Read tips and strategies for Photoshop Lightroom by Ben Long.

New Adobe Lightroom Podcasts From George Jardine

PhotoshopNews reports that Adobe Pro Photography Evangelist George Jardine has posted two new iTunes Podcasts that cover Adobe Lightroom. Here's a summary of the shows from PhotoshopNews:

"In Adobe Lightroom Beta Podcast Episode 1, Kevin Tieskoetter (Lightroom engineer), Mark Hamburg (Lightroom 'Founder') and Jeff Schewe (photographer) talk about some of the background of Adobe Lightroom, printing from Lightroom and where Mark sees Lightroom features going. In Episode 2, Bruce Fraser, author of Real World Camera Raw, Tom Fors, the author of the original ACR Calibrator script and Jeff answer Lightroom users call-in questions."

You can find the podcasts by launching iTunes, clicking on Podcasts, and then doing a search for Lightroom. Or you can subscribe via RSS.



Adobe Lightroom Articles Roundup

Photoshop product manager John Nack has posted some Lightroom info at the Adobe Blogs. There's a list of interesting Q&As, where he answers who's it for, whether it replaces Bridge, if it will be available for Windows, how it will bundle with Photoshop, and a hint of the anticipated price range.

MacWorld has a Lightroom First Look article by digital photography go-to guy Derrick Story, who says,"The first impulse most photographers will have is to compare Adobe's just announced Lightroom to Aperture, Apple's pro level photo app. And well they should. We may have a real clash of the titans on our hands here."


Adobe Lightroom Beta: First Impressions

[ARS Technica - by Dave Girard] Adobe's public beta of Lightroom is now available. Since it's out, I thought I would briefly share some impressions. Those of you looking for the typically long Ars review will have to wait for the finished product to ship.

I know that many people are probably thinking that Lightroom is a disguised copy of Aperture, but this program has clearly been in the works for a while. It's possible Adobe got wind of Aperture before it was released, but screaming "Aperture copy!" is a little off base since other, lesser-known import, convert, keyword workflow apps have been making good money in the professional photography market for some time.

In particular, when you see the modal design of Lightroom, that splits the interface into Library, Develop, Slideshow and Print, you'll see that it's also a big departure from Aperture's all-in-one interface.

Read the full article (click on the "discuss" link at the end of the story for great commentary from readers).


Take A First Look At Adobe's Lightroom

Creativepro.com has a nice and detailed article by Ben Long that takes you on a tour of Lightroom and lists the pros and cons. From the intro: