When you are working with a company whose sole mission is to make your images better, and your work flow more productive, each product revision deserves your close attention and consideration.
And Adobe has been very, very busy as of late.
Photoshop CS5 has just been released and we’re working on highlights review for you, as we speak.
Now we have the standard in photographic editing software, Lightroom, taking a huge leap forward.
You speak, they listen.

What’s new in Lightroom 3?

It all starts as soon as you out a CF card into your reader. There is a seamless import screen that displays a graphic of your import vessel (HD, camera) and across the screen, the import options are displayed. Along with pre-set choices, what’s on the rest of you computer, etc.
In other words, they have streamlined the import system, while improving your ability to customize the process.Very slick.
Of course you still have that double backup button so you can save in 2 places at the save time. A standard around here.

Then you now have the ability to import motion files at the same time. Brand new feature. Save em’ where you want.
You can also screen them to see what you have but remember, they are only really usable in the Library mode.
Edit in your program of choice. At least they are on the computer now.

The overall image processing has taken a new look, and you are recommended to update your previously imported images to the new , and improved processing.
Yes, and no.
Yes, check it out and see if the image you are processing is improved to your eye by the new deal or not.
No, do not batch process your entire collection till you truly see the individual images, or those within a similar shooting situation.
Since this is a non destructive process within LR3 you can always go back and change your mind, reverting to the previous processing engine.

Let’s get to the crazy good stuff:

Lens correction.

Now if you have shot with a wide angle 15mm lens and that was the only way to get the shot, you will have some edge distortion. You can now adjust the lens distortion, based on know parameters or custom ones you set.

(the circle at the end of the line is also for releasing the shutter)

Tethered shooting right into Lightroom! Heck Yeah!
Sure there have been programs to maneuver through, or import to, get your work done elsewhere, and come back for asset management
The convergence is here and now you seamlessly import to Lightroom, set up your 2 screen system if you like, and you’ve just streamlined your workflow. Thank you, Adobe!
No 3rd party software, no workarounds, just clean and simple. we love that.

Ok, there were some big promises made on the Noise Reduction front and they delivered.

We still like to endlessly tweak the correction on this feature, as it’s a fine line for us with noise (or grain) and mush.
Many times, just getting the color artifacts out will do it, as we do not fear the grain.

One of the big things for us was the ease of drag and drop uploading to photo sharing sites like Flickr, where you can also get the comments sent back to Lightroom so you can see what may be working for a client or not. You do know you can make that stuff private on Flickr, right?
We are about to incorporate the Flickr module in the Photoinduced group uploads, so while we work on new things in LR3, we’ll know what your comments are on the previous photographs.

We like grain, coming from a film background, and sharper, tight grain is the goal.
There are some plug-ins out there that can duplicate specific film grains, but now you get some sliders to do it your self right here in the place you are working, LR3.

They do keep improving some basic tools like the print module with adjustable sizes, is pretty darn easy to configure. You can either do it custom per project, or save the format for a series.
There are some other cool improvements, that you can discover on your own.

The bottom line is: If you use Lightroom, the $99 upgrade is a no brainer. Faster, stronger, more tools, better tools, streamlined, and you can stay within the one program to get most of your work done.

You still have the easy smooth transition to Photoshop for that extra special image treatment.
If you haven’t made the move to Lightroom yet…….not sure what you were waiting for, but now would be a darn fine time to get on board.

Check out the specs and details here, and remember, Adobe is always good for a free 30 day trial.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 9:01 pm and is filed under Photo News, Product Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.