Updated: Photoshop Lightroom 4, and Adobe Camera Raw 7 (included with Photoshop CS6) tutorials, how-to’s, notes, tips, and instructional videos. In the countdown to the official Adobe CS6 announcement, Adobe Labs has released a free download of Lightroom 4 beta to the public, giving us a taste treat of some new features Adobe has been working on.
Download Free Photoshop Lightroom 4 Beta download from Adobe Labs
Lightroom 4 and Adobe Camera Raw 7 have some new, exciting, and potentially confusing features, if user response is any guide.
Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Senior Photoshop Product Manager, has released a new Sneak Peek #1 video, revealing that the Lightroom 4 beta features, listed below, will also be incorporated in Adobe Camera Raw 7 (Photoshop CS6).
PhotographyUNcapped.com has been gathering some notes on Lightroom 4 including transcribed details, Tutorial Videos, and additional ‘how to’ and New Feature Notes:
Lightroom 4 instructional videos from Julieanne Kost have been published on Adobe TV
(see Lightroom 4 Video links down below this section)
Some important Lightroom 4 New Feature highlights are detailed here:
- The Lightroom 4 beta should not be used for your Lightroom 3 catalogs
- The actual shipping release version will be fine with your existing catalogs
- Don’t use original files with the beta
- This is beta software
- Use duplicate files for testing, not your only originals
- As with all betas:
- Back up your system before installing
- Read the Lightroom 4 beta Release Notes
- Don’t do ‘mission critical’ work with a beta
- As my grandmother the hacker says:
- Don’t beta; be happy!
- The beta will expire at the end of March, 2012
- Lightroom Product Manager Tom Hogarty strongly implies that
- Beta users will not be left hanging by the time of expiration
- Likely official Lightroom 4 announcement prior to the end of March
- Lightroom 4 uses a different Process Version 2012
- Basic Panel is much improved in the new version, if you do the following:
- Change to the new Process 2012 in one of the following ways:
- Camera Calibration>2012
- Under Settings>Process>2012
- Opt/Alt + Click the process version warning ‘!’ in the lower right corner
- Only if you’ve previously opened the file in an earlier version of LR
- Basic Panel sliders default to 0 (zero)
- Use a recommended ‘top to bottom’ workflow on the new sliders
- Exposure
- Contrast
- Highlights
- Shadows
- No ‘Fill’ slider anymore
- More controlled effect on shadows only, not midtones
- Whites
- Blacks
- Clarity slider improved
- Enhance sharpness
- No more ‘halos’
- Tone Curve improvements
- Point Curve has new RGB channel sliders
- Lens Correction
- Greatly improved Chromatic Aberration correction
- Targeted Adjustment Brush (Localized Adjustment tool) sliders match Basic panel sliders
- Adjustment Brush Color Temperature + Tone controls
- Paint in Color Balance locally
- Add / Remove noise now possible
- Localized Noise Reduction brush in same panel
- Ability to Save your custom Process’es as Presets within same folders
- Soft Proofing
- Toggle at bottom of window
- Toggle Soft Proofing with Keyboard Shortcut ‘S’
- Soft Proof Off is against light gray background by default
- Changeable background color (Right Click)
- Soft Proof On brings up a ‘paper white’ background
- Changeable background color (Right Click)
- Histogram updates for Soft Proof
- Number values change to RGB
- Gamut warnings
- Monitor Gamut warning
- Monitor profile chooseable
- Destination Gamut warning
- Destination Profiles selectable
- sRGB
- Paper Profiles
- Targeted Adjustment tool can bring in out-of-gamut colors
- HSL adjustments – local and refinable
- Profile added to copy file as metadata
- Print Module adjustment
- Selectable Brightness and Contrast just for Print output
- No on-screen preview
- Modifies file as sent to the printer only
- DNG features
- Embed Fastload Data
- Loaded into the Develop Module
- Up to 8x faster loading of files into Lightroom
- DNG Lossy Compression!
- What? Lossy? (This one is likely to be controversial!!!)
- Optimized (like jpg) compressional ready preset
- No compression variables available
- Reduces file size approximately 75%
- DNG Export
- Lossy Compression option
- Image Dimension Size reduction (pixel dimensions)
- What’s New in Lightroom 4 Beta – Adobe TV by Julieanne Kost
- Introduction to Lightroom 4 Beta – Some Lightroom 4 basics
- Develop Module Advancements – Developing Module changes – Process 2012
- Working with dSLR Video – New Lightroom Video features + sharing
- Mapping your photos – Geo-tagging made easier
- Book Module Basics – Layout + design books in Lightroom 4
- Modifying Book Layouts – like the name says – customize your books
- Advanced book features – Captioning and making templates
The above Adobe TV video tutorials, with 3 centered on book creation, seems a bit over emphasized to us here at PhotographyUNcapped.com. We think that the new Develop Module Process 2012 is the big winning feature set in Lightroom 4. Assumptions are being made that the same, or similar features will be carried into the impending CS6 rollout of Adobe Camera RAW 7. We certainly hope so, anyway.
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Many of these new features lead us to think that Adobe is subtly moving CS6 towards an eventual ‘non-layer’ based workflow. That is, as the tools in Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW improve, and give more options for non-destructive RAW file (and jpg) editing, it’s like getting Smart Object capabilities without the attendant SO logistics + limitations. We like it!