For this latest version Adobe went back to the drawing
board and revisited aspects of the application that photographers have
highlighted as areas in need of most attention, namely performance and
image quality. The objective was to make Lightroom the "best in class"
application for digital photographers whether they be a professional
photographer with a growing collection of high mega pixel images or an
amateur with a relatively small photo catalog.
In comparison to the
public beta for Lightroom 2, the beta for Lightroom 3 doesn't contain
many new features. Nonetheless, those that are present should make for
significant workflow improvements, especially when the many minor
changes and enhancements are also factored in. The following
table lists some of the new and enhanced features found in Lightroom
3 public beta.
|
Workflow and Library: |
Faster thumbnail scrolling and Module switching |
| |
Completely redesigned Import module |
| |
Publish Collections |
| |
Backup on exit |
| |
Enhanced sorting (i.e. sort by aspect ratio) |
| |
Enhanced collection and smart collection functionality |
| |
Import CMYK files |
| |
New thumbnail badge to show when photo is in a Collection |
| |
Optimise catalog command included in File menu |
| |
|
|
Develop: |
Improved raw conversion |
| |
Improved sharpening |
| |
Improved colour noise reduction |
| |
New Grain filter |
| |
Fill Light applied when Auto Tone button is pressed |
| |
Improved Post-crop vignette |
| |
Collections panel |
| |
Simplified local adjustment brush and graduated filter panel |
| |
|
|
Output: |
Enhanced Slideshow export, which includes HD video |
| |
Music selection on Mac simplified and decoupled from iTunes |
| |
Sync slideshow length to duration of selected music track |
| |
Custom Print Package allowing free-form layout of multiple photos on
a page |
| |
Enhanced Watermarking |
| |
|
The list of new features may not be as extensive as
some might have wished for, but it is worth reminding ourselves that
this beta is still pretty early in the cycle. Even so, some of the most
requested features identified in previous versions have been included,
which goes to show that submitting a feature request does pay
dividends. You should refer to the Lightroom 3 beta Release Notes for
details on other new features and enhancements along with information
on Known Issues. The release notes also highlight changes to the
minimum system requirements. In particular, the ram requirement has
increased to 2GB. Mac users should also note that the beta and
eventually the shipping version will not run on PowerPC or G5
processors.
31
October 2009
I have posted a PDF copy of the keyboard shortcuts
for the Mac version of Lightroom 3 beta. A Windows versions will be
available shortly.
Lr3 beta Keyboard
Shortcuts (Mac)
The Lightroom 3 beta will not overwrite or interfere
with existing version 1.x or 2.x catalogs nor will it allow you
to upgrade a catalog from an earlier version. It should also be safe to
work alongside your existing catalogs. Nevertheless, it 's important to
mention a few important caveats to using the Lightroom 3 beta. I have
already mentioned the first, namely that it is not yet possible to
upgrade an existing Lightroom 1 or 2 catalog, so you will be forced
into creating a new version 3 catalog. The second is that, as with all
beta software, bugs do exist and it is therefore important that you
work on copy images, especially if you decide to save develop settings
back into the image. The third is that develop settings applied to
images in the public beta are not guaranteed to transfer correctly to
the final shipping version. In other words, the Lightroom 3 Beta is
intended for testing purposes and to provide users with an opportunity
to provide feedback to the development team.
As mentioned above, the main areas of focus for the
development team were to improve both interactive performance and raw
processing quality. In doing so, the first and most obvious problem for
the engineers was to find the right balance between performance and
quality, and it is here that Adobe would like you to focus most
attention.
In terms of performance, users should find that
scrolling thumbnails in the Grid and module switching are much faster
and smoother than in earlier versions. This type of performance
improvement is referred to as interactive performance. However,
the very substantial improvements in image quality have come at the
cost of reduced non-interactive performance. In particular,
preview rendering is noticeably slower than it is in Lightroom 2. No
doubt the engineers will work to improve the rendering speed, but it's
unlikely that it will match, let alone beat the performance of
Lightroom 2.
I have already mentioned that the raw processing and
noise reduction algorithms have been significantly reworked. However,
the extent to which they have been changed is such that for the first
time since the Camera Raw Plug-in was released, it has been
necessary to introduce the concept of Process Versions. By
default, images that contain develop adjustments from previous versions
of Lightroom will continue to use the original process version, but
newly imported images will use the new process version. It's when a
catalog contains both process versions that users will compare and
clearly see the
difference between the two, both in terms of image quality and
increased preview rendering times. In my opinion, the improvements in
image quality, particularly high ISO colour noise, are so great that
the increased time required to render the previews is worth it, but
others might not be so happy.
At present luminance noise is not applied to any images
and the slider control in the Develop module Detail panel has
been disabled when images have been converted to the new process
version. This is by design and reflects the fact that Adobe are still
working on the luminance noise algorithms. This lack of luminance noise
should not be a problem for low ISO images, but there may be a
graininess to higher ISO images. That being said, the improvements in
colour noise and noise patterning are so great that the graininess
actually looks quite natural.
There hasn't been much in the way of UI changes, so the
overall appearance of the Library module should be familiar to anyone
who already uses Lightroom 2. The Library continues to be at the heart
of Lightroom in so far as it's the module that provides most of the
tools for managing your photographic assets. Imported images can be
viewed in the Library in various modes or views. These include the now
familiar Grid view (G), Loupe view (E), Compare
view (C) and Survey view (N). Each of these views is
intended for a specific purpose in the your workflow, but you may find
one view more useful than others. For example, Grid view allows
you see large numbers of images as thumbnails whilst at the same time
providing a workspace for applying metadata, labels, ratings, keywords,
flags and even quick development adjustments to images in bulk. As with
previous versions of Lightroom Loupe view restricts these actions to a
single image. Compare and Survey views are designed to make the tasks
of rating and flagging easier, although some users will be irked to
find that they still can't preview at 1:1 in Survey view.
Figure 1 - Library module Grid view (Click image for larger view)
Other minor enhancements within the Library module
include:
-
Collections can be created directly within a collection
set by right-clicking on the collection set mages can be sorted by
aspect ratio
-
The name of a collection is displayed when an image is
added to a target collection
-
Stack badges can now be toggled on or off independently
in the filmstrip via an interface preference
-
Erasing with the spray paint tool now requires the use
of the Alt key
-
Select a folder in the Library module and choose a new
option Import to here to launch the import dialog with that
folder preselected as the destination
-
The import dialog provides source folder and
destination volume capacity information
-
The option to include items from subfolders has been
included in the primary Folder panel drop down menu
-
Choose Library -> Show Missing Images to locate
offline or missing files
-
An icon has been added to grid thumbnails to indicate
that an image is part of a collection. Click on that icon to view
and/or visit the collection
-
Favourite sources can be added to the filmstrip source
pop-up menu for quick access to specific collections or folders
-
Flash state is now included as part of the smart
collection filter criteria
-
When the ëspray caní is used to add an image to a
collection, the collection name is now displayed upon application
Import
For Lightroom 3 Adobe has completely rewritten the
Import module. Not only does it now look as if it belonged in
Lightroom, but the functionality provided goes way beyond addressing
many of the criticisms levelled at earlier versions. By default, the
Import module will open into the expanded mode (figure 2 below). This
view makes it much easier to visualise the whole process of importing
your images. The Source devices and volumes are listed on the
left side track and Destination on the right side track. It's
important to note that both source and destinations panels give
Lightroom access to all folders and subfolders on any connected hard
disk, not just those containing images.
The thumbnails view of the images are located in
between the two panel tracks. From here, individual images can be
included or excluded by clicking on the checkmark. However, it's also
possible to use keyboard shortcuts whilst scrolling through the
thumbnails (e.g. P = Pick, U = Unpick, X = Unpick).
Holding down the Shift key whilst applying a shortcut will auto advance
to next image. Applying develop presets, keywords, metadata, etc is all
done on dedicated panels within the destination panel track. Likewise
renaming images on import and defining the initial preview size.
Figure 2 - Expanded view of Lightroom 3 Import module (Click image
for larger view)
In addition to the expanded mode Adobe have also
included a compact mode (figure 3 below). This mode removes most of the
complexity associated with the source and destination panels. The
underlying idea is that Import Presets will already have been
configured by the user.
Figure 3 - Import module Compact mode
The Import module also allows you to browse supported
images on any connected hard disk in much the same way as a
conventional File Browser (e.g. like Adobe Bridge). It's even
possible to switch between Grid view (G) and Loupe view (E).
There is even a zoom tool (Spacebar) that allows scaling from
1:4 through 11:1
Figure 4 - Import module in File Browser Loupe mode (Click image
for larger view)
Lightroom 3 beta will import the following file
formats:
In addition to RGB, Lightroom 3 beta will also allow
the import of CMYK*, LAB and Greyscale images.
* Any output, with the exception of export original,
or develop adjustments to these images will take place in an RGB color
space.
Publish Collections
Publish Collections is new to Lightroom 3 and is
intended to allow you to easily publish your images to your favourite
file sharing site directly from within the Lightroom Library module.
The Lightroom 3 beta ships with a plug-in that gives you direct access
to the Flickr photo sharing site. Obviously, you will need a
Flickr account before the feature can be used. To set up the connection
within Lightroom 3 beta is fairly straightforward in as much as all you
need to do is click on the Flickr Set Up button within the
Publish Collections panel. Pressing the button will open the Lightroom
Publishing Manager window as shown in Figure 5 below.
Figure 5 - Lightroom Publishing Manager (Click for larger view)
The name you use within the Publishing Manager must be
the same name as you use when connecting to Flickr via a web browser.
The account must also be activated from within Lightroom before your
Flickr Photostream will become available within the Publish
Collection panel. Once the account has been activated publishing your
images to Flickr is a simple matter of dragging your photos on to the
Photostream collection then pressing the Publish button.
Lightroom 3 beta will automatically begin the process of uploading the
images to Flickr. Figure 6 below shows how Lightroom 3 beta shows the
progress of the upload.
Figure 6 - Display of Photo Publishing in progress (Click
image for larger view)
Viewing the images after they have been published to
Flickr is relatively straightforward - right click on the Photostream
to open the context menu then choose Go to Published Collection.
Assuming you have an active internet connection will launch your
default web browser at the Flickr page containing your images.
Figure 7 - View Published images at Flickr
Clicking on the Publish button any time after the
images have been published to Flickr will import any comments, ratings,
etc that viewer may have posted to your Photostream. These will be
displayed in the dedicated Comments panel located on the right
side panel track, just below the Metadata panel (see figure 8 below).
Flickr Pro Account holders can subsequently modify their images and
republish them to Flickr using the same procedure as described above.
Figure 8 - Photostream Comments
Library Filter Bar
The Library Filer Bar was first added in
Lightroom 2. At the time many were critical of the amount of screen
area that it took up, but were even more vociferous in their criticism
of the developers decision to make the metadata filter operate at local
level. Even worse was the decision to make the filter sticky.
Thankfully, the latter two criticisms have been addressed in Lightroom
3 beta. By toggling the padlock button on the top right corner
open/close you can dictate whether Lightroom will apply the selected
filter to an individual folders/collections (local) or to all
folders/collections (global).
Figure 9 - Library Filter Bar
Apart from the padlock enhancement little has changed
in the Library Filter Bar. Nevertheless, and for the benefit of new
users, it's worth repeating some of the description I provided in my
review of Lightroom 2.
There are four sections to the Filter Bar:
Text,
Attributes, Metadata and None. The first three are
used for a filtered search of the contents of your catalog and the last
(i.e. None) is used to switch the Filter Bar off. The Filter Bar is
activated from the
Library>View menu or by pressing on the '\' key. By default,
it contains four columns, but is easily configured to display between 1
and 8 columns (i.e. via menu on the top right corner of each column).
The actual column layout can be saved as a custom preset by clicking on
the Custom Filter pop-up located on the top right corner of the
Filter Bar. Figure 8 above shows an example of the Filter Bar in use.
One of the most useful aspects of the Filter Bar
is filtering by keyword. The Filter Bar uses 'AND' between the
columns and filtering within a column is an 'OR' function (i.e.
hold down Ctrl/Cmd key then make appropriate selections within
column). Using multiple keyword columns it is therefore possible for
both 'AND' and 'OR' keyword filtering.
As mentioned above, the Filter Bar is also the location
in which text based searches and attribute based filtering is carried
out. The rule set for text based searches has changed little since
Lightroom 1.x and they remain relatively self explanatory. However,
it's worth mentioning a few of the less obvious filtering rules that
come in handy for fine-tuned searches within the text entry field. For
example, placing a '+' at the beginning of a word is the same as
Starts With, placing a '+' at the the end of a word is the
same as Ends With, and placing a '!' at the beginning of
a word is the same as Doesn't Contain. Also, worth noting that
the Attribute bar now contains White and Gray label chips for Custom
Label and No Label respectively. Finally, multiple filters
are activated by shift clicking the respective filter name (e.g. click
Text then Shift+click Attribute followed by Shift+click
Metadata).
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