Lightroom® 3 – Public Beta 2 Announced
March 23, 2010
Adobe® announced an updated version of the Lightroom Public Beta released on October 22, 2009. This new version of the beta incorporates new functionality as well as performance improvements in speed and program accuracy over the first beta. While it is still too early to call this second beta, feature-complete, it has evolved quite a bit since October.
New Tethered Capture Dialog
New or Enhanced Features Include:
- Tethered Capture
- A Redesigned Import Module
- Support for Digital Camera Video
- An enhanced Tone Curve
- Easy Crop Orientation
- Image Quality Improvements in Sharpening and Noise Reduction
- Process Version Augments
- Improvements to Watermarking
- Improved Publish Collections
- New Vignette Options
- Increase in Max Print Resolution
- New Fill Light and Highlight Recover Algorithms
- And a host of smaller changes
Better Tone Curve Control with Point Curve
While the above list is by no means inclusive of all the changes from Beta 1 to Beta 2, and is also not a complete list of those items which will find their way into the final release, it does represent a host of new toys to use and evaluate prior to the official release of Lightroom Version 3. The new version is lining up to be a very significant upgrade in terms of workflow and image quality. I urge you to check it out and give Adobe feedback on the product.
Import and Management of Camera-created Video Files
If you are fortunate enough to be in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota on March 24, 2010, I will be demoing Tethered Capture, Point Curve and Video Import Support at the Twin Cities Lightroom User Group. Members of the Lightroom team will also be on hand to present information and field comments on the beta.
More information can be found on Lightroom 3 public beta 2 at Adobe Labs. And at the Lightroom Journal.
Rikk Flohr © 2010
