Huzzah! Its Lightroom Wednesday!
Every week I compile a nice list of the goings-on, as it were, in the Lightroom world. Blog posts, tips, tricks and even video tutorials and freebies adorn these pages. So gear up, get ready for some book (or at least screen) learnin’ and lets have at it.
Ok, lets get the big news out of the way:
I know, exciting right? So before you run off and dedicate your life to it, remember that it is beta. For me, I can’t even get the non-develop modules to load. I just get a “error switching modules” alert and a blank screen. So sad me.
I did get to use the Develop module and find the simplicity in the new basic slider levels a HUGE improvement – less bouncing around. This is much easier to teach than the previous method (What is the difference between blacks and contrast? What is the difference between exposure and brightness).
Soft Proofing is nice for those who still print at home (I moved to a pro lab years ago and am not looking back), but it was something I advocated for big time back in the LR 2 days. I still have an old Epson R2400 sitting over there that hasn’t even been turned on in 4 years. Wonder if the print heads are clogged?
Books? Awesome. I wish I could play with it. I remember when this was a feature in Kevin’s eye in the 2 timeframe. Oh I wanted it then, and books have only become more important. This was the one big advantage Aperture had (even if their printer sucked).
The Map feature? I can’t for the life of me figure this one out. I mean, a whole module just to see where my pictures were taken? I can’t see a lot of pros caring about this, frankly.
Email? Who emails photos anymore? I guess some do – but when you mail them to me I curse and wonder why you don’t host them online and save me the download bandwidth. Shrug.
As expected, they bumped SmugMug’s plugin. I knew this was coming, but now I gotta figure out in the holy mess that is exchange where the new one is. Of course, this helps SmugMug rev the plugin easier. Being tied to a box software release cycle can suck.
I don’t do much video, but I’m looking forward to how the improvement works with movie files. I think video has mostly stood the test of “is this a core feature for photographers” and deserves a spot in my library.
Small but important changes:
- Presets in Import (and Quick Develop) are now hierarchical. HUGE! Still need more thinking around preset management here (I had some great ideas years ago).
- Flags are global. Thank goodness.
- DNG improvements. I use DNG for everything. Faster is better. Hope it actually *is* faster.
- Print adjustments are cool for those who still print. Maybe we’ll have a renaissance of home printing with tools that finally support it.
- Lossy DNG? Hmm. Maybe for family shots and non-work stuff. Save lots of space on that RAID array.
Here is a nice rundown from some other awesome people:
Here are some tutorials:
Here are a few non-beta things to pay attention to:
That is it! Have a great Wednesday.
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