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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Adobe lightroom beta 4 beta available

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Seems the time for everybody to have their new beta available, have just received an email with an anouncement for Adobe Lightroom beta 4...
Dear Lightroom Beta participant,

We're pleased to announce that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom beta 4 is now ready for you to download and use. This is the first release to reveal the full name we are giving to the product, as Lightroom takes its place as the newest member of the Photoshop family of digital imaging and photography software.

Beta 4 is our biggest milestone to date, with several enhancements and additions, including the achievement offull feature parity between the Windows and Mac OS versions of Lightroom. No matter which platform you prefer, you can now bring the full power of Lightroom beta to your photos.
Lightroom Beta 4 also features:

Groundbreaking changes in the way tone curve adjustments are made and displayed, giving you the highest quality results in an interface that's easier to use than ever before.
More streamlined and elegant user interface - We've made several changes to the look and feel based on your feedback in the earlier beta releases.
Customizable interface - You can now display only the controls you want to be visible.
Precision white balance selection tool
Facility to easily rename and convert files to DNG after they've been imported to the Lightroom library
Increased interaction between Lightroom library organizational structure and the underlying file system
Filter and search presets to more quickly find the photographs you want
Better performance and improved interface for the Web module features
Develop control improvements based on community feedback, including comments from the Pixmantec user community (welcome!)
Macs and PCs may get it here:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/
As usual, post here your feeling about the improvements!
but also to Adobe lighroom forum to help them to improve even more before their final release, this why betas are distributed!

[EDIT] C'mon Dxo! We need to try your V4 beta for Macs!
 

Dierk Haasis

pro member
I'd like to know if similar things happen for others.

My OS - Windows XPSP2 etc. - is of course in German [bought my comps in Hamburg]. When I installed LRb4 it was automatically set to "German", that is LR came up with the utterly sub-optimal first German version of the UI. I prefer to have a say in what language is used.

One probable side effect of German being chosen can be seen here:

lr_start.PNG


Whatever one can say about German, some of the special characters here are simply wrong.

I have also noticed that the right-hand pane's contents is right-aligned without any scroll-bar, making it impossible to do anything meaningful. Is that seen on English Windows, or on Macs:

lr_main.PNG
 

Dierk Haasis

pro member
Sid, I just wanted to add the information of how to overcome the shown problems [which are language dependent]:

Delete the language files/folders from LR's Resources directory.

Even the right-alignment is cured by this.
 

John_Nevill

New member
I only had 15 mins to play with the LRWb4 this morning and to be honest I was very impressed.

Some of RSP features have crept in namely, highlight, shadow and vibrance. Speed seems to have noticeably improved, along with some interface tweaking.

Its looking good and I hope to delve in deeper later today!

BTW, I downloaded it twice as the first copy was corrupt, I also noticed a filesize change on the 2nd download.
 

Tim Armes

New member
I'm really looking forwards to getting home so that I can try this beta.

I've read through the release note and Adobe appear to have made some great progress (and a terrible name change - what were they thinking??).

Now for some questions:

The email that you quoted above says "Increased interaction between Lightroom library organizational structure and the underlying file system". Other than the ability to rename files, what are they talking about?

If it faster on Windows?

Unless I've missed it, the promised functionality of stacks or other methods of keeping original derived versions together hasn't yet arrived. Is this the case?

Tim
 

Daniel Harrison

pro member
Well I jsut installed this Beta and have to say that Adobe has caome a long way since beta 3. I REALLY like this program, the workflow is sooo much better than how it was and the speed is greatly improved. The rating system is easy to use and the tools in the develop section are wonderful, I even see almost all of what I love in RSP in there! I think both Adobe and Pixmantec have treated RSP customers extreamly well and I am really looking forward to the final release. THings I would like (maybe dreaming now)
1. a library system that is self reliant (with thumbnails) and adds data to the files so they can be tracked if moved (aka portfolio)

2. the patch tool (not likely in RAW but hey!)

These 2 things and I will have died and gone to heaven :)
 

Will_Perlis

New member
"1. a library system that is self reliant... "

That would be nice. I'll have to see if I can confuse it now. The last version kept scratching its head when I moved or deleted a picture file with another program.
 

Sid Jervis

pro member
Dierk Haasis said:
Sid, I just wanted to add the information of how to overcome the shown problems [which are language dependent]:

Delete the language files/folders from LR's Resources directory.

Even the right-alignment is cured by this.
The Lightroom forums (fora) have been busy today. The LR B4 software is very nice, the folk at Adobe have been busy.

Very nice indeed, burning to CD, Photo binder for laptop to host transfers (among other things).
No big issues on the Mac with LR beta 4 yet.
 

JasonSmith

New member
Sound file linking

Hi,

Anybody know how to link the .wav soundfile that Canon can record to go along with the picture and be able to view it in Lightroom?
 
I donwloaded the new beta (I'm on XP Pro) and gave it a quick 5 min whurl..

*Much* better compared to the prior beta.
Looks like one can actually use it, at least on a fast machine...

All in all, I can see a chance for LR to become a Bridge + ACR replacement...
 

John_Nevill

New member
I spent a few hours this evening seriously using LRWb4. I decided to put 600 images from an outing on Sat through it and then sort and output. Here's my impressions.

1) Its faster than b4 by far but its not in RSPs league, still some work to do on this i'm afraid. If you import a folder with nested sub folders it grinds!

2) To my eyes colours seem a little warm and saturated (1DN and 20D files) but pleasing.

3) I really like the revised tone curves and tonality adjustments, especially now its inherited some of RSPs features. The auto adjust function seems way off, it tends to over adjust upper midtones and highlights, although there was no sign of clipping. The ouput reminds me of Bibble's perfectly clear function.

4) I struggle with the crop tool, its just doesn't feel natural. It also crashed on me a couple times while cropping (bug forwarded to Adobe)

5) Image sorting is comprehensive and works well.

6) The slideshow feature is very comprehensive but I see little value in it as I mainly print or output to web.

7) I still dont see the effect of different print profiles on the image preview, so no wysiwyg printing yet!

8) I find the adjustment sliders very erratic to use, especially while background processing. I realise one can type in actual figures, but the click and drag approach is painful, especially when trying to straighten an image. It just jumps around or carries on rotating well after you have let go!

9) The "edit in photoshop cs" still sends a ProPhoto RGB profiled image to CS2, so you have to resort to going back to the libary from develop to do an export.

10) Ok its a beta, so I wont delve further.

I still have mixed opinions about it. I'm getting use to the GUI and can see it as a RSP replacement (at release), but for me its probably got too many bells and whistles.
 
Tim Armes said:
The email that you quoted above says "Increased interaction between Lightroom library organizational structure and the underlying file system". Other than the ability to rename files, what are they talking about?

This is something you should really test and tell Adobe what you think - in their forum.

Basically it affects what happens with shoots if you choose the Copy to Lightroom Library (ie not by reference). Under the hood, the files go into a subfolder of a folder defined as the Managed Space, and the new shoots become subfolders. You can move files between these shoots, and they also move in the underlying subfolders. You can drag these shoots under other shoots, and the underlying subfolders move too. These shoots are really folders, not shoots. Think of it as an imaginative reinvention of the folder tree.

It does work well with moving stuff between computers using the export/import binder method.

But the big pain is that if you don't think it's a good idea to keep your files in that managed space, you still have no ability within LR to move files around or see where they are, other than right clicking and choosing Show in Finder/Explorer. There's some irony in this when Lightroom's Mac-only competitor announces it was copying what everyone liked about LR - letting you import files "by reference".

So test it, decide if you like it or not, and let Adobe know what you think.

John
 

John_Nevill

New member
John,

I suppose thats the beauty of Iview, one can see the underlying folder/file structure and maintain it inside or outside the application. Why Adobe didn't implement such a simple and inherent system surprises me.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
iview has a long way to go but that's what I like and use!

I cannot use very large catalogs as the DAM book suggests as I get stuck waiting or the program crashes.

Against all the advice of Peter, I split hte catalogs up and every so often combine them by catetegory, so Art will be separate form Weddings and social events. Travel will be on its own etc.

It is robustness I want.

So if Lightroom and / Aperture is not fragile as iview, I'll migrate.

Now THAT is one of the key features that Peter Krogh and I believe, you, John, have always talk about.

We know software improves and the idea is that one should only regard ones hard drives and software and also RAW processor as temporary solutions.

So migration is what we need to be able to do but without going crazy and losing metadata.

Asher
 
John_Nevill said:
I suppose that's the beauty of Iview, one can see the underlying folder/file structure and maintain it inside or outside the application. Why Adobe didn't implement such a simple and inherent system surprises me.

John

Yes, I agree. But right now LR is still a beta and this DAM area has been bypassed while they got the raw processing up to scratch. This managed space (and unmanaged area chaos) is still at a "transitional stage" and I'm encouraging people to test this and let Adobe know if it works, or not. I think it's important, and possible , for them to get it right.

John
 
Asher Kelman said:
So if Lightroom and / Aperture is not fragile as iview, I'll migrate.

Now THAT is one of the key features that Peter Krogh and I believe, you, John, have always talked about.
You've probably heard my line about DAM being like a life of serial monogamy. Nothing will last forever. The great thing about iView is that it offers you a cast iron prenup - when you decide it's time to move on, you take all your metadata with you.

John
 
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