Adobe has released updates to the Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in to correct for issues found in Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4. The Lightroom and Camera Raw teams apologize for any inconveniences caused by the issues presented in the initial updates.

The Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera Raw 1.4.1 updates are available immediately as free downloads at http://www.adobe.com/downloads. Senior Photoshop Lightroom Product Manager, Tom Hogarty, has included a complete list of the corrections on his blog at http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal.

The Lightroom 1.4 update for Mac and Windows has been temporarily removed from the Adobe.com web site. Those Lightroom users who have installed Lightroom 1.4 should uninstall the update and install Lightroom 1.3.1.(Mac, Win) until a further update can be provided.

For those not in immediate need of the updated camera support available in Camera Raw 4.4 or the DNG 4.4 Converter, it’s recommended that you also continue working with the 4.3.1 versions. (Mac, Win) This decision is based on the following errors that have been discovered with the recent update:

The Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 updates have been posted to the following locations: Lightroom(Mac, Win), Camera Raw(Mac, Win). The updates include support for the following new camera models:

Bert Monroy, digital artist, author and host of pixel perfect (a weekly videocast about Photoshop starring Bert) talked to Jeff Schewe during a break at the last Photoshop World. The streaming video is about 10 minutes in length. Bert and Jeff talk about raw, Camera Raw and digital photography in general. Click the link to view the Episode 65 - Camera Raw video.

Photo by Michael Reichmann shot with his new Nikon D3 (I wasn’t sure I would show up on a Nikon capture but I did).

You may have noticed I didn’t make any posts last week. I was busy! (and 10-12 hour taping days really takes it out of ya). Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape was in Chicago with his trusty video pal Christopher taping Michael and I doing our upcoming Camera Raw video tutorial.

It should be out in a month or so but what we though was going to be a relatively simple 2-3 hour tutorial seemed to grow as we shot. In addition to the usual fare of how to use Camera Raw in Bridge and Photoshop turned into quite a production. We cover a lot of ground…including Camera Raw, shooting tethered with the new 1DsMIII, Smart Objects, camera calibration (we invited Tom Fors the author of the AcrCalibrator to “teach Michel” how to do it right) and we even taped Thomas Knoll, the founder and primary author of Camera Raw answering questions about Camera Raw. So, I’m pretty sure the final video tutorial will be running a few hours longer (6+ hours is a guess). But hey, Mike and I had fun again–notice the boring and conservative shirt he’s wearing? This time it was Michael shooting snapshots and he’s going to post a few later when he gets them edited.

Oh, did I mention we taped a segment on wine?
:~)

Press Release: SEBASTOPOL, Calif. — “Raw data is the holy grail of digital photography,” said award-winning photographer and best-selling author Mikkel Aaland, when his book Photoshop CS2 Raw was published two years ago.

The same is still true today.

“Anyone who is serious about digital photography and wants to produce the best possible picture needs to shoot and process Raw,” notes Aaland in the introduction of his new book, Photoshop CS3 Raw (O’Reilly, $34.99 U.S.).

Aaland’s up-to-the-minute edition focuses on the important features of Adobe Photoshop CS3, including Camera Raw’s new retouching tools, expanded controls and ramped up sharpening features.

Due to an issue with certain raw files (Compressed NEF) and a possible artifact when opening Olympus E-3 files, Adobe has released a second version of Camera Raw 4.3 bringing the current version to 4.3.1.

Check the Camera Raw product page for downloads.

Real World Camera Raw for Adobe Photoshop CS3 written by Bruce Fraser and myself just hit #1 on Amazon’s category of Adobe Photoshop books! Yeah! Must have been that glowing (but biased review) Michael Reichmann of the Luminous Landscape posted today. Read the review here.

Thanks Michael! But wait, there’s more…

There has been confirmation of an issue with the most recent version of Camera Raw (4.3) and Lightroom version 1.3 when processing Nikon D100 raw captures(additional cameras that use compressed NEFs are also effected including; D1H, D1Hs, and D1X) when the camera is set to compress the NEF file. The results are incorrect color casts. The suggested work around is to either:

1. Set the camera to use uncompressed NEF files. (The bug is limited to compressed files.)
or
2. Use the DNG Converter version 4.2 (not 4.3) to convert the compressed NEF files to DNG, and then use them with Camera Raw 4.3 or Lightroom 1.3.

Indication are that there is going to be a Camera Raw 4.3.1 interim update to address this issue in the very near future. It’s expected that a minor update to Lightroom will also be released. No exact time table has been indicated other than “soon”.

The Lightroom User to User forum had a post outlining the issue with confirming posts by Thomas Knoll regarding the problem. See: v1.3 and Nikon D100 NEF files - Not so good!

Since the release of a slew of updates late Thursday night, November 15th, 2007, many users have downloaded updates for Photoshop CS3, Bridge CS3, Camera Raw 4.3 and Lightroom 1.3. However, many people seem unable to get to the product updates because regional servers have been slow to get updated URLS.

Usually, going to the New Downloads urls will allow users access to all the recently uploaded updates for all of Adobe’s products. However, many users from outside of the US and Canada are reporting that when they attempt to access the same download links, they are getting “not found” errors.

The problem is thought to be a failure of mirrored servers getting properly updated urls throughout Adobe’s extensive network. While some people in northern Europe like Sweden don’t seem to have a problem, users in the UK can not seem to get to the same download pages.

In the meantime, if your Adobe Updater can’t seem to find the updates or your locale’s local country servers haven’t been updated, you should still be able to access Adobe’s public FTP servers. The main public FTP is ftp://adobe.com.

To access Photoshop updates (including Camera Raw) go to: ftp://adobe.com/pub/adobe/photoshop.

To access Bridge updates, go to: ftp://adobe.com/pub/adobe/bridge.

To access Lightroom updates, go to: ftp://adobe.com/pub/adobe/lightroom.

Camera Raw 4.3 Update has been released (it may take a bit before the update shows up on Adobe Updater). The Camera Raw 4.3 update is suggested by all users of Camera Raw under Photoshop CS3, Elements 5 & 6 for Windows or Elements 4.01 for Mac. Adobe DNG Converter has also been updated to version 4.3.

Lightroom 1.3 has also been released for Mac and Windows. Both updates offer new camera compatibilities as well as bug fixes and in the case of Lightroom 1.3, certain new functionality.

Contrary to what you may have heard about a delay, Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS3 is shipping–NOW! And, boy, am I happy.

RWCR CS3 (I kinda like to shorten the title a bit because I’ve gotten real tired of typing the whole phrase, over and over) was a labor of love that was done to honor the lasting memory of Bruce Fraser, my co-author, business partner and good friend. And while he isn’t around to see the end result, I have a pretty good idea that Bruce would be pleased.

I kept a lot of Bruce and did a good job (or so I’m told) of updating the book for Camera Raw 4.x, which as you know is arguably the largest and most impressive update yet to Thomas Knoll’s little raw processing plug-in. In fact, Thomas reviewed the new chapters and made sure I didn’t screw up hardly at all. I also owe special thanks to Zalman Stern, the “other” engineer on Camera Raw who answered a lot of my really stupid questions and actually admitted that several “inconsistencies” I found with Camera Raw while writing were actually bugs and not me going crazy.

When Photoshop CS3 with Bridge 2 shipped, RapidFixer kinda got broken…so now Peter Krogh, author of The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers has updated RapidFixer for CS3 compatibility.NEW! Photoshop CS3 Compatibility: The first RapidFixer version for CS3 is now ready to ship and they have made significant changes to the interface, and updated the software to control the new Adobe Camera Raw 4.0+ tools.

NEW! RapidFixer now works on DNG files, as well as JPEG and TIFF files. (In all cases, you must apply a Camera Raw Default to the image first).

NEW! RapidFixer has settings for working on Black and White Negatives. This lets you use a digital camera to copy negatives, and make adjustments in Camera Raw. Check out the last half of the movie to see it in action.

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