Tom Hogarty, Lightroom product manager has posted a story about the release of the new Lightroom 3 Beta 2 available now on Labs.Adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3.

Here’s a quick summary of what’s new in this release:

Adobe today announced the immediate availability of Lightroom 2.6, Photoshop Camera Raw 5.6 and DNG Converter 5.6 on Adobe.com. Originally posted as release candidates for community testing on Adobe Labs, these final versions include raw file support for 20 new popular camera models, including the Canon EOS 7D and Nikon D3s. Additional DNG support has been added for the Leica M9 and Ricoh GXR camera models. A full list of the newly supported cameras is below.

Adobe has announced that Photoshop Camera Raw 5.6, Lightroom 2.6 and DNG Converter 5.6 Release Candidates are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs. The term ‘release candidate’ means this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing to provide the highest quality experience for customers working on a variety of hardware and software configurations.

The updates add raw file support for 19 new popular camera models, including the Canon EOS 7D and Nikon D3s, with additional DNG support added for the Leica M9 camera model. A full list of the newly supported cameras is below. The Release Candidates also provide a fix for an issue affecting PowerPC customers using the final Lightroom 2.5 and Camera Raw 5.5 updates on the Mac. The issue, introduced in the demosaic change to address sensors with unequal green response, has the potential to create artifacts in the highlight area while using the Highlight Recovery tool in raw files from Sony, Olympus, Panasonic and various medium format digital camera backs.

Adobe today released the final Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4 updates, available for immediate download at www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/. Both updates bring additional raw file support to 31 camera and camera back models including the Canon EOS 500D, Nikon D5000 and 18 Hasselblad models. A full list of the newly supported camera and camera back models is below.

Click to view movie

This movie extract is from  Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop.

One of the top requests for Camera Raw and Lightroom has been to include perspective corrections, so that users can apply perspective corrections to raw images. It so happens there is already a method in Camera Raw and Photoshop that will allow you to correct the perspective of a raw photograph while keeping the image in its original raw file state. This isn’t exactly a hidden feature in Camera Raw, but this movie does demonstrate a workaround for correcting perspective of raw files while keeping them fully editable in Camera Raw. Here’s how it can be done.

Please note this video is in Quicktime format. A player can be downloaded from apple.com.

Adobe has released the final versions of Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3, available immediately for download at www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/.

It seems some people see Conspiracy Theories where there really aren’t any. To address some users’ question Scott Kelby took the “easy way” out and did a video with Matt Kloskowski and talked about the timing of Lightroom 2, Photoshop CS4 with Camera Raw 5. I say “easy way” because it was easier for Scott and Matt to sit around talking than having to actually write (his words, not mine).

So check this post out (and watch the video if the mood strikes you–post comments on SCOTT’s blog, not here). Lightroom 2 vs. CS4 & Lightroom Conspiracy Theories

Press Release: BERKELEY, CALIF. (Aug. 25, 2008)— Peachpit today announced the publication of Lessons in DSLR Workflow with Lightroom and Photoshop , by seasoned photographer Jerry Courvoisier. This detailed guide, loaded with tips and techniques, delivers a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera workflow that allows readers to spend less time at their computer and more time behind the camera capturing great images. 

On Scott’s blog, Photoshop Insider, Scott has announced that all the book sales of his new Lightroom 2 book for Digital Photographers from today will be donated to the Spring of Hope organization that runs is building a care center for orphans in Kenya.

Now Scott isn’t just donating a portion of the proceeds, he’s donating the entire purchase price of all Lightroom 2 books sold today. Here’s a link to the story and a link to purchase the book from Kelby Training.

IMPORTANT: This opportunity to help out is available only today, Monday August 25th, 2008. Scott’s book is scheduled for delivery in early September. Not available with any other discounts. As always, Shipping & Handing is extra.

Lightroom-News.com (Photoshop News’ sister site) has posted an interview with Tom Hogarty, the Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (can you say that in one breath?). Tom is also Product Manager for Camera Raw and DNG. Our own Martin Evening did the interview (pretty much by email although I think there were a few phone calls thrown in as well–particularly about a “permissions” issue).

Read the interview here.

Note: the portrait of Tom is uncredited (and no, I didn’t do it).

Check out Eric’s thoughts on the DNG Profile Editor and the new DNG Profiles for Camera Raw 4.5 and Lightroom 2.0 in this post on John Nack’s blog.

Adobe has released new beta camera profiles for Camera Raw 4.5 and Lightroom 2.0 as well as a beta of the new application called DNG Profile Editor for editing DNG profiles. The betas of the profiles and the editor app are on Adobe Labs.

Adobe has released the final version of Camera Raw 4.5 as well as the DNG Converter 4.5. The updates are available for download from the Camera Raw Product Page.

In addition to new camera support (now at over 180 cameras), Camera Raw 4.5 and DNG Converter 4.5 also adds support for rendering the newly released Lightroom 2.0 functionality.

The direct download pages are here; Macintosh, Windows

Major Software Upgrade Further Simplifies Photography Workflows

Press Release: SAN JOSE, Calif. — July 29, 2008 — 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® 64bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

George Jardine, Adobe evangelist for Lightroom and digital photography is leaving Adobe effective the beginning of this month, July, 2008. George has winamp posted his farewell on his blog and can be read here.

This is the second time George has done time at Adobe. He had worked with Russell Brown during the 1990’s acting as evangelist for Photoshop. He left and turned to working in video and other mediums. He came back to Adobe for the purpose of working on Shadowland (AKA Lightroom) with Mark Hamburg. You can read the PSN story on Shadowland’s development here.

George will be missed but not forgotten and I suspect he’ll be around Acronis the industry working on different projects after he takes his summer vacation. I know that after our recent bike trip together he went out and bought a new K1200 GT BMW motorcycle that he’ll be touring around on. We may hook up for another trip later in the summer.

I personally would like to say a hearty thanks and congratulations to George on the work he has done and what he has brought to Adobe. Thanks George…see ya around!

George Jardine has just posted a video podcast of photographer, Martin Evening at work in his London studio, using and discussing how Lightroom fits in with his studio workflow. It shows all the steps in a typical fashion shoot from discussing the brief to looking at the finished shots, as well as discussing his upcoming book on Lightroom 2.

Click here to read the LRN article.

Click here to go to George’s podcast info.

Mark Hamburg, founder of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and former architect of Photoshop is leaving Adobe for a post at Microsoft. Mark, who was the second engineer hired to work on Photoshop after Thomas Knoll, has been at Adobe for over 17 years. He joined Adobe in the fall of 1990–the year Photoshop 1.0 shipped.

He left the Photoshop team after Photoshop 7 shipped and spent time in Adobe’s Advanced Technology Group (ATG) where he worked on a “sandbox project” originally called PixelToy which was later renamed Shadowland. Adobe changed that name to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom when it was released as a public beta in January, 2006. See the PSN story The Shadowland/Lightroom Development Story for more info.

Since Mark has been a good friend and co-conspirator over the years, I decided to use some miles and fly out for his going away party at Adobe last week. Mark’s last day at Adobe was Wednesday, April 23, 2008.

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.

Press Relsease: SAN JOSE, Calif. – April 2, 2008 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 beta, a public preview of new and improved functionality to be delivered in the next major release. Lightroom is the professional photographer’s essential toolbox, providing one application for managing, adjusting, presenting large volumes of digital photographs. Lightroom 2.0 beta will feature enhancements such as dual-monitor support, localized dodge and burn correction and will be the first Adobe application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Intel Macs and Microsoft Vista 64-bit operating systems.

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:

PSN posted a story earlier today noting that CNET has posted a poll about Poll: Which is better, Aperture or Lightroom?

Well, so far the poll results as of 5:45PM Central have Apple’s Aperture out ahead by a whopping 63.4% to Lightroom’s 36.6%. Could it be that people are really that more impressed with Aperture than Lightroom?

I suppose it could be…but since this is the season of politics and polls, I though I would look into this a little bit.

Source: CNET
Posted by Stephen Shankland

The good news is that there’s some competition again for software to edit and catalog raw images, the detailed and flexible file formats from higher-end cameras. The bad news is that anybody buying the software has a harder choice to make.

With the new Aperture now available and Lightroom just celebrating its first birthday, I thought it opportune to survey readers. What would you buy? What would you advise somebody else?

Read entire story and vote in the poll

Adobe has launched the new Lightroom community help system, which provides core Adobe documentation for Lightroom as well as links to additional learning content from around the web.

The new site takes the current online help—LiveDocs—and makes it more useful and interactive. You can still navigate to topics using links the left side of the browser.

But now, when you click a topic to read about it, you’ll find a Basics panel with Adobe documentation as well as a Learn More panel that offers links to tutorials, white papers, technical articles, and other instructional content.

This site is administered by Adobe, moderated by community experts, and developed with the assistance of a panel of Lightroom Learning Advisors. So you’ll also find links to the moderators’ and advisors’ favorite Lightroom sites, plus links to troubleshooting sites and a page that lists third-party presets, galleries, and extensions.

Source: CNET
Written by Stephen Shankman

Good news for photo enthusiasts who wish they could they could use Photoshop Lightroom for high dynamic range photography and panorama stitching: support is on Adobe Systems’ radar screen, if not necessarily its roadmap.