You haven’t missed anything – there was no 3.1.  The numbers have been shifted to match up with ACR’s .2 release to prevent further confusion.

Lightroom 3.2 - http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Lightroom_3.2

ACR 6.2 - http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_6.2

As usual, there’s support for new cameras:

• Casio EXILIM EX-FH100 (improved support)
• Leica S2 (improved support)
• Panasonic DMC-FZ100, DMC-FZ40 (FZ45), DMC-LX5
• Pentax 645D
• Samsung NX10, TL500 (EX1)
• Sony A290, A390, Alpha NEX-3, Alpha NEX-5

There are also new lens profiles available and a few existing ones were improved.  Publish Services has also gained a Facebook option.

But then some of us get really excited – sticky filters are back!  If you preferred the old LR2 behavior, where you switched to a different folder and when you came back that folder’s filter was still active, this will make your day.  Go to File menu > Library Filters > and turn on Lock Filters and then return to that same menu and choose Remember Each Source’s Filters Separately.  If you prefer the new LR3 behavior, where filters are reset each time you switch folders or are locked to a single filter as you browse different folders, you can ignore this.  (And yes, the File menu does seem like a strange place, I know….)

There’s also a loooooooong list of bug fixes on the official Lightroom Journal post, and a very small note that additional fixes may also be added before the final release too.

So, if you’ve been affected by the performance issues that many have seen, then run, don’t walk, over to the Adobe Labs website to download this RC and see if your issues are solved.  If not, post on the official Adobe Forums or fill out the Official Bug Report form so that those problems can also be tracked down and hopefully fixed.

Oh, if you bought my book and wondered why I hadn’t sent out the updated PDF with the hyperlinked index yet, then I’ll let you in on a secret – this is why!    The new PDF download links should go out in the next 24 hours, updated with those changes of behavior and the newly hyperlinked index.  It’s just popped up on Amazon a couple of days ago, but it’s looking a little lonely at the moment, so if you’re enjoying the book, I’d really appreciate some pretty star ratings…

Here’s the official announcement: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/

Of course there’s a brand new 30 day trial for you to try before you buy.

And the download link, of course!  https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_lightroom

So what’s new…? I’ve included the new features that were available in the beta versions, for those who haven’t tried them, and the features new to the final release are in bright red….

Image Quality

The primary improvements in 3.0 are image quality. Lightroom’s been taken back to its bare bones and the raw processing engine has been given a complete overhaul. Even the demosaic algorithms have been substantially improved to give a cleaner file which will respond better to subsequent noise reduction and sharpening.

Performance

While Lightroom was back on the drawing board, the underlying architecture has been completely reworked to improve the performance, particularly with large catalogs. It’s still a work in progress, but the basis is there for future improvements.  The preview system has also been redeveloped, so the thumbnail grid won’t keep going fuzzy as you scroll!

Import

• Entirely new Import dialog, with compact and expanded views, depending on the level of control you need.
• It has panels like the main modules, including Source and Destination.
• Folder browsing has improved – you can now dock and undock folders to navigate through deep hierarchies.
• Destination folders that will be created by the import as shown in italics so you can see exactly what will happen.
• Import presets can now be saved and reused in both compact and expanded views.
• There’s a new Loupe view within the Import dialog for viewing embedded previews.
• The import backup now backs up with the new filenames if you’re renaming while importing.
• CMYK files can now be imported, although all editing and output will still be RGB.
• Video files from most digital cameras can now be imported and managed like photos.
  
• If you right-click on a folder in Library module, there’s an ‘Import into this Folder’ option which opens the Import dialog and automatically sets the Destination folder.
• Drag/drop importing is now working again.
  
• Lots of fixes and everything works pretty well now.  It’s much more responsive than the beta builds.
  

Library Module

• Publish Services
  • Publish Services provides integration with photo sharing websites, keeping them up to date with the changes you make in your Lightroom catalog.
  • Sync runs 2-way, so comments made on your Flickr account appear back in Lightroom.
  • Flickr is the first to be available and more are sure to follow.
  • Jeffrey Friedl has already been busy updating his plug-ins for other websites.
  • Sync to hard drive is also available, and useful for syncing photos to your iPhone, screensaver, other networked computers, etc.

• Video Management
  • Videos can be tagged, rated, filtered, added to collections, saved in smart collections, and managed just like the rest of your photos.
  • The little video camera icon identifies the videos and shows the length.
  • Double clicking on the video, or clicking on the icon, will launch the video in your default video software.
  • Video support does not include editing within LR – that’s not its job.
    

• Tethering
  • No need for extra software or watched folders – built-in tethering makes its debut!
  • Limited set of certified cameras to start with, but more will be added. The officially supported list is:
    Canon 1D Mk2 (firewire only, not Windows x64), 1Ds Mk2 (firewire only, not Windows x64), 1D Mk3, 1Ds Mk3, 1D Mk4, 5D (not Windows x64), 5D Mark II, 7D, 20D (Mac only), 30D, 40D, 50D, 350D / Digital Rebel XT / Kiss Digital N, 400D / Digital Rebel XTi / Kiss Digital X, 450D / Digital Rebel XSi / Kiss X2, 500D / Digital Rebel T1i / Kiss X3 Digital, 1000D / Digital Rebel XS / Kiss F
    Nikon D3, D3s, D3x, D200 (Mac only), D300, D300s, D700, D90, D5000
  • You can view the camera settings but you can’t change them remotely.

Develop Module

• Lens Corrections!
  • This is the big one!  The new lens corrections are available in Lightroom 3 and they are STUNNING!
  • Really easy to use – intelligently picks the correct profile.
  • You can tweak the settings to taste, so you can choose to apply profiled chromatic aberration correction without correcting distortion, or various other combinations.
  • Switch to the Manual tab to apply manual corrections and perspective adjustments.
  • If your lens isn’t supported yet, you can build your own using the Lens Profile Creator.  It’s not as complicated as it looks!

• Process Version
  • Because so much work has been done on the base ACR engine, a ‘process version’ has been introduced to differentiate between the old process and new processes.
  • Any images with existing settings will be set to the old 2003 process version to get an almost identical rendering as 2.7. Any new images imported into 3.0 will be assigned the new process version.
  • There’s a warning exclamation mark to the lower right of the image (it’s moved) if it’s set to the old 2003 process version – click it if you want to update. You can also find process version under the Settings menu, in the Calibration panel and the Sync dialog, as well as the right-click menus).
  • New 2010 process version affects highlight recovery, fill light, sharpening & noise reduction, but not the post-crop vignette any more.

• Curves
  • Point curves make an appearance by popular demand!

• Noise Reduction & Sharpening
  • Lots of work has been done on improving the noise reduction without losing fine detail.  It is vastly improved, and can now compete with specialized noise reduction software.
  • There are now extra sliders, but don’t feel you have to use them on every image – they’re there for control over particularly difficult images.
  • The Edge Detail slider refines the edges on extremely noisy images at extremely high ISO.
  • Values have changed – old settings updated to the new process version may be too strong.
  • There have also been changes to the capture sharpening, particularly with the sharpening halos.
  • The Develop preview now shows sharpening & noise reduction at less than 1:1 view when using PV2010.
  • Minor additional changes to sharpening since beta 2.

• Grain
  • Film-style grain sliders added give a very natural looking grain.
  • It shares a new Effects panel with Post-Crop Vignette.

• Post-Crop Vignette
  • New more natural vignette instead of just painting white or black on the edges.
  • Color Priority mode retains more natural colours under the vignette with softer shadow transitions.
  • Highlight Priority remains heavily saturated under the vignette.
  • Paint Overlay brings back the effect of the post-crop vignette in LR2.
  • Highlights slider brightens the highlights under a dark vignette.

• Adjustment Brush
  • The buttons are gone, so it’s now either a single drop-down and amount slider, or the range of sliders.
  • New icon shows when no color tint is being applied.
  • Show/hide pins and overlays are now in the toolbar when the Brush/Gradient are active, so no more having to remember the shortcuts.
  • Oh, I missed one! The sharpening adjustment brush, when set to -50 or greater, now becomes a ‘blur’ brush!
  • Rikk Flohr says I’ve missed another one – Auto Mask works on the Eraser now too!
    

• Crop
  • The list of crop ratios has been tidied up to combine identical ratios like 2×3 and 4×6.
  • There’s now a keyboard shortcut to swap crop orientation, for those who hate the magic touch required to swap it – press the X key!

Slideshow

• Slideshows can now be exported to MP4 video format for uploading to video sharing websites, including your music track. It now prepares previews in advance so your slideshow doesn’t stall.
• Mac version is no longer tied to iTunes, matching the Windows behaviour.
• You can now sync the length of the slides to the music track length.

Print

• Custom Print Package
  • New custom layout option for different images in different sizes (without resorting to hacks!)
  • Drag and drop to create a flexible layout.
  • Images can now rotate within the cells for better print layout.

• Page background color can now be changed.
• Maximum print resolution has increased to 1200ppi for JPEG and 720ppi for printers.

Web

• Website developers can now write in ActionScript3.
  

Watermarking

• New watermarking allows a simple text or graphic watermark to be applied in Export, Publish, Slideshow, Print and Web.
• Watermarking has improved further in beta 2, allowing different positioning and sizing options.

Export

• Export can now be limited to a kb size which automatically adjusts the quality slider – great for uploading to websites.
• It now creates a history state at the time of export.
  

Backup

• Backup has moved to quit rather than startup, by popular demand!
• There’s a new checkbox in the backup dialog to run optimize catalog after the backup.

A couple of keyboard shortcut changes

• Auto-Sync is Ctrl-Alt-Shift-A (Windows) / Cmd-Opt-Shift-A (Mac)
• Match Total Exposures is Ctrl-Alt-Shift-M (Windows) / Cmd-Opt-Shift-M
• Crop to Same Aspect Ratio is now Shift-A not S
• Switch Crop Aspect Ratio is new – X
• Hide Tethered is Ctrl-T (Windows) / Cmd-T (Mac)
• New Tethered Shot is Ctrl-Shift-T (Windows) / Cmd-Shift-T (Mac)
• Spot Removal is now Q, not N, freeing up N to go back to Survey mode, as per Library module
• I’m busy working on the updated shortcut sheets, which should be available in the next few days.  I’ve run out of time!

Other bits and pieces

• The breadcrumbs bar on the filmstrip now has a Favorite Sources option.
• The Select Catalog dialog has had a facelift.
• Library menu > Find Missing Photos creates a temporary collection of all missing photos instead of having to go through Synchronize Folder.
• Camera raw cache can now be increased to 200gb, from a previous limit of 50gb. That’s a great help for speed!
• Updated SDK with access to collections and keywords, as well as Publish Services.
• New Develop presets and templates for Web & Print.

System Spec Changes

• System specs have increased to a minimum of 2gb of RAM on Windows
• No more PPC for Mac, Intel processors only.
• No more Tiger – Leopard or Snow Leopard only.

Upgrading

Lightroom 3 can upgrade Lightroom 1, Lightroom 2 and Lightroom 3 Beta catalogs and also Photoshop Elements 6, 7 or 8 catalogs

My Lightroom 3 book has already had a great reception, and I’ve received loads of really positive emails, so thank you very much! I’ve had loads of really useful feedback on the rough cut, and made loads of adjustments accordingly, so I’m just finishing off the formatting and the final release should be available shortly.  In the meantime, you can pre-order from: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/lrqebook3.php I’ll get back to finishing the formatting now, while you go and play with the final release! Have fun!

For a start, there’s a difference between a demosaic and a process version – they’re entirely different concepts.

In basic terms, the demosaic is the initial translation of the raw data into an image, which applies to all of the photos regardless of your settings. Lightroom 2.6 and ACR 5.6 and earlier use the old demosaic.  LR 2.7, LR 3, ACR 5.7 and ACR 6.0 all use the new demosaic.  It’s such an integral part of the program that you can’t switch between demosaic versions, so if you’re using 2.7/5.7 or later, you’re going to be using the new demosaic.  That means even existing photos show more detail than 2.6, but they may also show a little more noise.

Further down the line are the processing algorithms, such as noise reduction and sharpening, which have changed so significantly this time that they now come in 2 different versions – 2003 and 2010.

• LR 2.7 just has the new demosaic and doesn’t understand process versions or the new LR3 features such as grain.  Those new LR3 settings will not be backwards compatible to LR2.
• ACR 5.7 for CS4 has the new demosaic, and it also understands PV2010 and the new features (grain, etc) in PV2003, for full compatibility with LR3 beta 2.  It doesn’t, however, have a UI to change those settings.
• ACR 6.0 for CS5 has the new demosaic, is fully compatible with LR3 beta 2, and it now has a UI to be able to adjust those settings using the ACR dialog if you wish to do so.  It is missing the new cameras which were added in 5.7, due to a difference in timing, but those will be added in 6.1.

If you want to test any of this for yourself, open a file into LR3 beta 2 and apply a heavy grain setting.  Save the metadata back to the file using Ctrl-S / Cmd-S and then open the file in LR 2.7 and ACR 5.7.  LR3 and ACR 5.7 will show the grain, but LR 2.7 won’t.

Clear as mud?

Lightroom 2.7

Windows – http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4673

Mac – http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4672

ACR 5.7

Windows – http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4683

Mac – http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4682

As usual, there’s support for new cameras:

• Canon EOS 550D (Digital Rebel T2i/ EOS Kiss X4 Digital)
• Kodak Z981
• Leaf Aptus-II 8 and Leaf Aptus-II 10R
• Mamiya DM40
• Olympus E-PL1
• Panasonic G2 and Panasonic G10
• Sony A450

There’s also been some extra work behind the scenes – Lightroom 2.7 and ACR 5.7 now use the new demosaic which has been available in Lightroom 3 beta for some time.  This new demosaic retains extra detail in your image, making them sharper and respond better to subsequent noise reduction, however it does mean that images may show a little more noise at default values.  This change does apply to your existing images as well as new images, therefore you may wish to check your noise reduction values, possibly increasing the luminance noise reduction by 15-20 to get a result closer to that of Lightroom 2.6 on some images.

ACR 5.7 is now compatible with Lightroom 3 beta 2, so any images opened directly into Photoshop without an interim TIFF/PSD file will now render correctly.  Images with settings created by LR3 beta 2 and stored in XMP will also convert correctly, however there are no sliders in the ACR 5.7 dialog to make further adjustments to those new settings – making adjustments will require returning to LR3.  Lightroom 2.7 is NOT fully compatible and won’t understand Lightroom 3 beta 2 settings.

Here’s the official announcement: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/

And the download link, of course! http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/

So what’s new so far…? I’ve included the details from beta 1, for those who are interested, and the features new to beta 2 are in bright red….

New cameras

Camera support brings it level with 2.6, so added:

• Canon 1D Mk4, 7D,  G11,  S90
• Leaf Aptus-II 5
• Mamiya DM22, DM28, DM33, DM56, M18, M22, M31
• Nikon D3s
• Olympus E-P2
• Panasonic DMC-FZ38
• Pentax K-x
• Sigma DP1s
• Sony A500, A550, A850

And also now adds preliminary support for:

• Canon 550D (Rebel T21/Kiss X4 Digital)
• Olympus E-PL1
• Panasonic G2, G10
• Sony A450

Image Quality

One of the primary improvements in 3.0 beta is image quality. Lightroom’s been taken back to its bare bones and the raw processing engine has been given a complete overhaul. Even the demosaic algorithms have been substantially improved to give a cleaner file which will respond better to subsequent noise reduction and sharpening.

Performance

While Lightroom was back on the drawing board, the underlying architecture has been completely reworked to improve the performance, particularly with large catalogs. It’s still a work in progress, but the basis is there for a great final release.

The preview system has also been redeveloped, so the thumbnail grid won’t keep going fuzzy as you scroll!

Import

• Entirely new Import dialog, with compact and expanded views, depending on the level of control you need.
• It has panels like the main modules, including Source and Destination.
• Folder browsing has improved – you can now dock and undock folders to navigate through deep hierarchies.
• Destination folders that will be created by the import as shown in italics so you can see exactly what will happen.
• Import presets can now be saved and reused in both compact and expanded views.
• There’s a new Loupe view within the Import dialog for viewing embedded previews. Loupe view now works from memory cards as well as hard drives.
• The import backup now backs up with the new filenames if you’re renaming while importing.
• Performance has improved, and it doesn’t start scanning until you select a folder.
• CMYK files can now be imported, although all editing and output will still be RGB.
• Video files from most digital cameras can now be imported and managed like photos. It’s stopped crashing!
  
• If you right-click on a folder in Library module, there’s an ‘Import into this Folder’ option which opens the Import dialog and automatically sets the Destination folder.

Library Module

• Publish Services
  • Publish Services provides integration with photo sharing websites, keeping them up to date with the changes you make in your Lightroom catalog.
  • Sync runs 2-way, so comments made on your Flickr account appear back in Lightroom.
  • Flickr is the first to be available and more are sure to follow.
  • Additional title options for uploading to Flickr.
  • Added option to limit to kb size which automatically adjusts quality setting.
  • Sync to hard drive is also available, and useful for syncing photos to your iPhone, screensaver, other networked computers, etc.
  • Republishing a file now replaces the existing file for Pro accounts without breaking the link to the page.
  • Publish will now allow you to upload a video too.
    

• Video Management
  • Videos can be tagged, rated, filtered, added to collections, saved in smart collections, and managed just like the rest of your photos.
  • The little video camera icon identifies the videos and shows the length.
  • Double clicking on the video, or clicking on the icon, will launch the video in your default video software.
  • Video support does not include editing within LR – that’s not its job.
    

• Tethering
  • No need for extra software or watched folders – built-in tethering makes its debut!
  • Limited set of certified cameras to start with, but more will be added. The officially supported list is: Canon 1Ds Mk2*, 1D Mk3, 1Ds Mk3, 1D Mk4, 5D*, 5D Mark II, EOS 40D, 450D, 500D, EOS 7D, EOS 1000D, Nikon D3, D3X, D3s, D300, D300s, D5000, D700, D90. Other Canon cameras may also already work, other Nikon options are a bit more limited at the moment.
  • You can view the camera settings but you can’t change them remotely.
    

Develop Module

• Process Version
  • Because so much work has been done on the base ACR engine, a ‘process version’ has been introduced to differentiate between the old process and new processes.
  • Process versions 1 and 2 have been renamed 2003 and 2010, relating to the year that processing was introduced
  • Any images with existing settings will be set to the old 2003 process version to get an almost identical rendering as previous versions. Any new images imported into 3.0 beta will be assigned the new process version.
  • There’s a warning exclamation mark to the lower right of the image (it’s moved) if it’s set to the old 2003 process version – click it if you want to update. You can also find process version under the Settings menu, in the Calibration panel and the Sync dialog, as well as the right-click menus).
  • New 2010 process version affects highlight recovery, fill light, sharpening & noise reduction, but not the post-crop vignette any more.
  • 3.0 beta will not be fully compatible with any ACR version at this point in time. Rendering may vary depending on the settings used – for example, noise reduction for images set to PV2010 would render very differently using ACR 5.6 and LR 3.0 beta.

• Curves
  • Point curves make an appearance by popular demand!

• Noise Reduction & Sharpening
  • Lots of work has been done on improving the noise reduction without losing fine detail.
  • Color noise reduction is already vastly improved, and has been tweaked further for this beta 2.
  • Luminance noise reduction is now enabled again for the 2010 process version, and it’s very very good.
  • There are now extra sliders, but don’t feel you have to use them on every image – they’re there for control over particularly difficult images.
  • There’s a new Edge Detail slider which refines the edges on extremely noisy images at extremely high ISO.
  • Values have changed – old settings updated to the new process version may be too strong.
  • There have also been subtle changes to the capture sharpening.
  • The Develop preview now shows sharpening & noise reduction at less than 1:1 view when using PV2010.

• Grain
  • Film-style grain sliders added give a very natural looking grain.
  • It shares a new Effects panel with Post-Crop Vignette.

• Post-Crop Vignette
  • New more natural vignette instead of just painting white or black on the edges.
  • Color Priority mode retains more natural colours under the vignette with softer shadow transitions.
  • Highlight Priority remains heavily saturated under the vignette.
  • Paint Overlay brings back the effect of the post-crop vignette in LR2.
  • Highlights slider brightens the highlights under a dark vignette.

• Adjustment Brush
  • The buttons are gone, so it’s now either a single drop-down and amount slider, or the range of sliders.
  • New icon shows when no color tint is being applied.
  • Show/hide pins and overlays are now in the toolbar when the Brush/Gradient are active, so no more having to remember the shortcuts.
  • Oh, I missed one!  The sharpening adjustment brush, when set to -50 or greater, now becomes a ‘blur’ brush!

• Crop
  • The list of crop ratios has been tidied up to combine identical ratios like 2×3 and 4×6.
  • There’s now a keyboard shortcut to swap crop orientation, for those who hate the magic touch required to swap it – press the X key!

Slideshow

• Slideshows can now be exported to MP4 video format for uploading to video sharing websites, including your music track.  It now prepares previews in advance so your slideshow doesn’t stall.
• Mac version is no longer tied to iTunes, matching the Windows behaviour.
• You can now sync the length of the slides to the music track length.

Print

• Custom Print Package
  • New custom layout option for different images in different sizes (without resorting to hacks!)
  • Drag and drop to create a flexible layout.
  • Images can now rotate within the cells for better print layout.

• Page background color can now be changed.
• Maximum print resolution has increased to 1200ppi.

Web

• Website developers can now write in ActionScript3.
  

Watermarking

• New watermarking allows a simple text or graphic watermark to be applied in Export, Publish, Print and Web… and now Slideshow too.
• Watermarking has improved further in beta 2, allowing different positioning and sizing options.

Export

• Export can now be limited to a kb size which automatically adjusts the quality slider – great for uploading to websites.
  
• One bug to look out for, which is yet to be fixed – don’t take a jpeg original and try to export over the top with it set to ‘overwrite without warning’ as it will delete the file. You have been warned!

Backup

• Backup has moved to quit rather than startup, by popular demand!
• There’s a new checkbox in the backup dialog to run optimize catalog after the backup.

A couple of keyboard shortcut changes

• Auto-Sync is Ctrl-Alt-Shift-A (Windows) / Cmd-Opt-Shift-A (Mac)
• Match Total Exposures is Ctrl-Alt-Shift-M (Windows) / Cmd-Opt-Shift-M
• Crop to Same Aspect Ratio is now Shift-A not S
• Switch Crop Aspect Ratio is new – X
• Hide Tethered is Ctrl-T (Windows) / Cmd-T (Mac)
• New Tethered Shot is Ctrl-Shift-T (Windows) / Cmd-Shift-T (Mac)
• Spot Removal is now Q, not N, freeing up N to go back to Survey mode, as per Library module
• I’m busy working on the updated shortcut sheets ready for final release

Other bits and pieces

• The breadcrumbs bar on the filmstrip now has a Favorite Sources option.
• The Select Catalog dialog has had a facelift.
• Library menu > Find Missing Photos creates a temporary collection of all missing photos instead of having to go through Synchronize Folder.
• Camera raw cache can now be increased to 200gb, from a previous limit of 50gb.  That’s a great help for speed!
• Only English is officially supported for this beta, but it works in all of the standard Lightroom languages too.

System Spec Changes

• System specs have increased to a minimum of 2gb of RAM on Windows
• No more PPC for Mac, Intel processors only.
• No more Tiger – Leopard or Snow Leopard only.

Upgrading

This is still a beta – not a release candidate – so there are still bugs. It’s not likely to blow up your computer, but you are strongly recommended not to switch your entire workflow over to the beta at this stage. It won’t allow you to upgrade 2.x catalogs to the beta, but the final release will.

Lightroom 3 Beta is still not quite feature-complete – there’s more yet to come in the final release.

My Lightroom 3 book is already getting a great reception, and I’ve received loads of really positive emails, so thank you very much!  I’m just finishing off the beta 2 update, which should be emailed out in the next day or so, and you can read the sample sections and download it right now from http://www.lightroomqueen.com/lrqebook3.php I’ll get back to finishing the formatting now, while you go and play with the beta!  Have fun!

Here’s the official announcement: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/

And the download link, of course! http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/

So what’s new so far…?

Image Quality

One of the primary improvements in 3.0 beta is image quality. Lightroom’s been taken back to its bare bones and the raw processing engine has been given a complete overhaul. Even the demosaic algorithms have been substantially improved to give a cleaner file which will respond better to subsequent noise reduction and sharpening.

Performance

While Lightroom was back on the drawing board, the underlying architecture has been completely reworked to improve the performance, particularly with large catalogs. It’s still in early stages at the moment, but the basis is there for a great final release.

The preview system has also been redeveloped, so the thumbnail grid won’t keep going fuzzy as you scroll!

Import

• Entirely new Import dialog, with compact and expanded views, depending on the level of control you need.
• It has panels like the main modules, including Source and Destination.
• Destination folders that will be created by the import as shown in italics so you can see exactly what will happen.
• Import presets can now be saved and reused in both compact and expanded views.
• There’s a new Loupe view within the Import dialog for viewing embedded previews.
• The import backup now backs up with the new filenames if you’re renaming while importing.
• CMYK files can now be imported, although all editing and output will still be RGB.
• If you right-click on a folder in Library module, there’s an ‘Import into this Folder’ option which opens the Import dialog and automatically sets the Destination folder.

Library Module

• Publish Services
  • Publish Services provides integration with photo sharing websites, keeping them up to date with the changes you make in your Lightroom catalog.
  • Sync runs 2-way, so comments made on your Flickr account appear back in Lightroom.
  • Flickr is the first to be available and more are sure to follow.
  • Sync to hard drive is also available, and useful for syncing photos to your iPhone, screensaver, other networked computers, etc.
• Filters are no longer sticky – they reset as you switch folders unless you click the padlock icon on the Filter bar.
• There’s a new badge on the thumbnails showing photos that are in a standard or Publish collection.

Develop Module

• Process Version
  
  • Because so much work has been done on the base ACR engine, a ‘process version’ has been introduced to differentiate between the old process and new processes.
  • Any images with existing settings will be set to the old process version to get an almost identical rendering as previous versions. Any new images imported into 3.0 beta will be assigned the new process version.
  • There’s a warning triangle in the histogram if an image is on the old process version – click it if you want to update (also found under Tools menu).
  • Need to update to the new process version in order to use the new noise reduction, grain and vignette tools.
  • 3.0 beta will not be fully compatible with any ACR version at this point in time. Rendering may vary depending on the settings used – vignette and noise reduction would render very differently using ACR 5.5 and LR 3.0 beta.
• Noise Reduction & Sharpening
  • Lots of work has been done on improving the noise reduction without losing fine detail.
  • Color noise reduction is already vastly improved.
  • Luminance noise reduction (new process) is disabled for the beta but will be back in the final release.
  • There’s a new Edge Detail slider which refines the edges on extremely noisy images at very high ISO.
  • Any old settings updated to the new process version will probably be too strong.
  • There have also been subtle changes to the capture sharpening.
  • The preview now shows sharpening & noise reduction at less than 1:1 view when using the new process version, although it still needs a little work.

• Grain
  • Film-style grain sliders added give a very natural looking grain.
  • It shares a new Effects panel with Post-Crop Vignette.

• Post-Crop Vignette
  • New more natural vignette instead of just painting white or black on the edges.
  • Color Priority mode retains more natural colours under the vignette with softer shadow transitions.
  • Highlight Priority remains heavily saturated under the vignette.
  • Contrast slider brightens the highlights under a dark vignette.
• Adjustment Brush
  • The buttons are gone, so it’s now either a single drop-down and amount slider, or the range of sliders.
  • New icon shows when no color tint is being applied.
  • Show/hide pins and overlays are now in the toolbar when the Brush/Gradient are active, so no more having to remember the shortcuts.
• Crop – the list of crop ratios has been tidied up to combine identical ratios like 2×3 and 4×6.
• Greyscale has been changed to Black & White throughout.
• AutoTone now includes Fill Light.
• Sync/AutoSync now has a switch next to it to easily switch between the two.

Slideshow

• Slideshows can now be exported to MP4 video format for uploading to video sharing websites, including your music track.
• Mac version is no longer tied to iTunes, matching the Windows behaviour.
• You can now sync the length of the slides to the music track length.

Print

• Custom Print Package
  • New custom layout option for different images in different sizes (without resorting to hacks!)
  • Drag and drop to create a flexible layout.

• Page background color can now be changed.

Watermarking

• New watermarking allows a simple text or graphic watermark to be applied in Export, Publish, Print and Web.

Backup

• Backup has moved to quit rather than startup, by popular demand!
• There’s a new checkbox in the backup dialog to run optimize catalog after the backup.

Other bits and pieces

• The breadcrumbs bar on the filmstrip now has a Favorite Sources option.
• The Select Catalog dialog has had a facelift.
• Library menu > Show Missing Photos creates a temporary collection of all missing photos instead of having to go through Synchronize Folder.

System Spec Changes

• System specs have increased to a minimum of 2gb of RAM on Windows
• No more PPC for Mac, Intel processors only.
• No more Tiger – Leopard or Snow Leopard only.

Upgrading

This is still in early stages – even earlier stages than the 2.0 beta – so there are plenty of bugs. It’s not likely to blow up your computer, but you are strongly recommended not to switch your entire workflow over to the beta at this stage. It’s been released for testing and feedback on the new features, and the beta period is likely to be longer than that of 2.0 beta. It won’t allow you to upgrade 2.x catalogs to the beta, but the final release will.

Lightroom 3 Beta is not feature-complete – there’s more yet to come in the final release.

If you want to keep reading, there’s some more great blog posts:

Gene’s Lightroom Secrets http://lightroomsecrets.com/2009/10/lightroom-3-beta-is-here/

Ian Lyons’ Computer Darkroom http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr3_preview/lr3-preview-1.htm

Jeffrey Friedl’s Plug-in Update Post http://regex.info/blog/2009-10-21/1339

John Beardsworth’s http://www.beardsworth.co.uk/news/

Clicio Barroso (in Portuguese) http://clicio.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/adobe®-lightroom®-3-saiu/

Richard Earney’s Inside Lightroom http://insidelightroom.com/?p=415

Sean’s McCormack’s Lightroom Blog http://lightroom-blog.com/2009/10/adobe-launch-lightroom-3-beta-missing.html

Rob Sylvan’s Lightroomer’s http://lightroomers.com/my-take-on-lightroom-3-beta/662/

And I’ve been busy… my new book release updated for Lightroom 3 Beta is available for immediate download! Read on to the next blog post for more information!

Download links:
Windows http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4508
Mac http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4507

Lots of new camera releases including Canon 500d/T1i, Canon SX1 IS and Nikon D5000.

There’s a few bug fixes, including the irritating crop bug:

And new DNG options for those who use the DNG format, taking into account the updated DNG specification and still allowing for backwards compatibility.

Further details at Lightroom Journal.

It’s a good stable update, so download it now!

The release candidate has had really positive feedback, so it’s a pretty safe bet.  There have been a few more bug fixes since the release candidate, so it’s worth heading over to Adobe’s website for the updated downloads: Windows – Mac

New cameras: Nikon D3X, Olympus E-30, and now also preliminary support for the Epson R-D1x raw format.

The biggest and best bug fixes – well, the 2.2 memory leak has to be the best fix in this release.  That solves many of the performance problems seen in earlier releases.

And here’s a bug you’ll be pleased to see if the back of, if you’ve ever been affected…. the Ctrl-Z bug!  In some circumstances, pressing Ctrl-Z to undo the last action could undo a whole series of actions, in some cases undoing a lot of work.  Nasty!  But the good news is, the team have found it and fixed it!

It also solves the ‘disc burning failed’ bug for some Windows customers, an sFTP bug for Windows customers, and a odd slideshow bug, where it randomly reverted to the first image while playing.

As in the release candidate, it also fixes the Canon 5D MkII magenta shift on sRAW files which was introduced with the Canon 1.0.7 firmware and these new languages are now officially supported: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, Italian, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish & Swedish.

It’s a great update – Enjoy!

ACR 5.3 is also available from: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_5.3

The release candidate status it’s one step up from a beta version – it means that it’s been through some testing, but it would benefit from additional testing on a variety of different machines.  It’s your opportunity to catch any bugs before it goes final, but it shouldn’t kill your machine.

New cameras: Nikon D3X, Olympus E-30.

It also fixes the Canon 5D MkII magenta shift on sRAW fileswhich was introduced with the Canon 1.0.7 firmware.

There’s a list of bug fixes in the readme file, but particularly notable are fixes (hopefully!!) for the memory issues that appeared in 2.2 for files with local adjustments.

There are also new languages supported: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, Italian, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish & Swedish.  There’s a little more work to do on the translations yet.

If you find any bugs, the Official Feature Request/Bug Report Form is just here.

Enjoy!

New cameras: Canon 5D MkII, Powershot G10, Panasonic DMC-G1, DMC-FX150, DMC-FZ28, DMC-LX3, Leica D-LUX 4.

If you use one of the Panasonic or Leica cameras noted above, and you usually use the DNG format, do check the readme for further details.

The new color profiles will be installed, if you haven’t done so already, and it now defaults to the new Adobe Standard profile rather than the old ACR 4.4 matrix profile.

There’s a list of bug fixes in the readme file, but particularly notable are the improvements to the performance of the Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter, which is improving with each release.

Enjoy!