Introducing Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2
July 28th, 2008 | Published in Adobe, Featured, Lightroom | 19 Comments
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.
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.
Lightroom 2 on Adobe.com
http://www.adobe.com/lightroom
Camera Raw 4.5
Camera Raw was updated to 4.5 at the same time that Lightroom 2 was released. It provides exactly the same rendering obtained in Lightroom 2.
Camera Raw/DNG Macintosh
Camera Raw/DNG Windows
Camera Profiles and DNG Profile Editor
Profile Editor
Profiles
Community Help and Resources
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/2.0/
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/photoshoplightroom/
Lightroom 2 SDK
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/photoshoplightroom/
Lightroom Journal blog post
http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/
July 28th, 2008 at 9:29 pm (#)
But does it support the Nikon D700? Sign me up if it does.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:39 pm (#)
Of course it does! That camera came out eons ago.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:54 pm (#)
You cost me $99 for the upgrade but saved me hours of frustration with Nikon Capture. Thanks!
July 28th, 2008 at 10:01 pm (#)
Excellent! Solving my one and only criticism with previous versions…library management across multiple hard drives. The graduated filter also sounds interesting…might this tool be similar (in post) to the effect of a ND filter on-camera when shooting landscapes?
July 28th, 2008 at 10:04 pm (#)
You got it Scott. The Graduated Filter is like a ND filter. However it can effect other settings besides just exposure. For example Clarity, Saturation, Brightness, etc. OR even combinations of those settings. Get it to where you want it, then save it as a preset. Power.
July 28th, 2008 at 10:59 pm (#)
Can you fill us in on what happens to the Beta as of today -will it continue to work or die? Or is it just time to update and shell out the cash etc…. Would make for a great post to fill in all your Adobe faithfull…
Or Free D700’s with every 99 buck upgrade to thank all the Beta users? Hmmm…. dreams are fun…
July 28th, 2008 at 11:12 pm (#)
The Lightroom 2 beta will continue to function throughout the month of August. Or you could download the Lightroom 2 30-day trial. OR you could just buy Lightroom 2.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:56 pm (#)
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July 29th, 2008 at 11:15 am (#)
thank you, I just wish I could of stayed up later then 2am playing with LR2.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:37 pm (#)
Thanks for the reminder about the general update to Camera RAW. I’ll update PS CS3 tonight with Camera RAW 4.5 tonight.
Smart Collections and Library Collections across drives have made my year. Purchased last night I’m looking forward to evaluating and using the new version later today.
Congrats on the release!
July 29th, 2008 at 8:37 pm (#)
Frederick, thank you and the Lightroom team for all the hard work! I LOVED LR 1 and it looks like you guys did an incredible job with LR 2. It’s a fantastic product. I upgraded today and can’t wait to start using all the new features. My only problem is, I don’t really know how to use the new features yet.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:44 pm (#)
Thanks @molson! Learning Lightroom 2’s new features is easy, there are a ton of resources at your fingertips. I’d start here:
http://www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom2/
July 30th, 2008 at 4:30 pm (#)
Fredrick I am going to upgrade today based on your words. I hope LR2 is worth it! I love LR1 but like all Adobe products it is rather expensive.
July 30th, 2008 at 7:12 pm (#)
Frederick, does LR2 have masking capabilities?
Did you see Lisa Bettany’s blog about you? LOL
July 30th, 2008 at 7:37 pm (#)
Hey @John,
LR2 creates masks automatically when you apply your adjustments with the brush. Pressing the ‘o’ key toggles the masks visibility.
The “auto mask” control is an intelligent masking algorithm that detects edges and constrains your mask to the area of similar values under your brush.
Pretty magical stuff.
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:36 pm (#)
[...] sites, but I’m gonna go with my favorite authority when it comes to Adobe and that would be Introducing Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 by Frederick Van (he actually works for [...]
August 4th, 2008 at 7:49 am (#)
Folks:
I came across this excellent blog during a web search, and am hoping some of you more seasoned Lightroom folks may have some tips, or point me in the right direction.
I am currently using View NX as my browser function (Lame, I know, but it has worked up until now). I need to upgrade, and Lightroom looks like the ticket for archiving and managing my photos.
However, how do I go about moving my photos into Lightroom? Will it handle that task easily?
Regards,
Mark
August 17th, 2008 at 5:50 am (#)
“Only Just” getting into Bridge / Lightroom (until few months ago done everything manually). Am curious of V2. From the Adobe site Trial is 62MB, wheres the full version is 97MB. What do we “NOT” get to see in the trial, as clearly in the full version, there is half as much again, file wise that is. Cant find anything about limitations of the trial anywhere. ???
August 17th, 2008 at 8:18 am (#)
@CJ I’m not sure why the trial is smaller. AFAIK the trial is exactly the same as the full version.