Lightroom 4 Public Beta launched

Impspeed

Impspeed

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David
Edit My Images
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I haven't had chance to download it, or even see what the improvements are yet, but just seen Adobe post on Twitter that the new Lightroom 4 Beta is available for public download.

Knock yourselves out...

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4/
 
I'm a bit underwhelmed tbh. The most exciting thing for me is the flags being global which should help with my iPad/Photosmith workflow (assuming it is added to the API). The new processing should be good, but I hope it hasn't been dumbed down too much.

It will be interesting to use Photobooks & maps, but not at all fussed about video.
 
When's the final release out?
 
Not sure on final release. This Beta is active through until the 31st March but following the LR3 progress they launched a couple of public Beta's.

I'm mainly interested in seeing the shadow/highlight recovery and how the noise reduction works, although to be fair LR3 suits me fine.


DB
 
Ok cheers, do you know if you can run LR 3 and this beta together on the same PC?
 
I've installed it but having imported a folder with 1600 geotagged via sidecar file CR2's in it, LR4 is grinding to a halt. Click and drag a slider and nothing happens. 2 or 3 seconds later it updates. Maybe 1600 is too many for it :)

I'll try removing most and restarting it. So far I can't see much worth upgrading for. The map module is a bit strange. You can't even see the markers on the original view and have to zoom in to where you know they are.
 
Apparently won't run on Windows XP!! There are still a hell of a lot of XP machines out there.
 
Impspeed said:
Not sure on final release. This Beta is active through until the 31st March but following the LR3 progress they launched a couple of public Beta's.

I'm mainly interested in seeing the shadow/highlight recovery and how the noise reduction works, although to be fair LR3 suits me fine.


DB
Click to expand...

Noise looks GOOD, not tried others yet
 
Is this beta free? I don't have Lightroom but would happily have a slightly bug-ridden version if it's free!
 
Impspeed said:
I'm mainly interested in seeing the shadow/highlight recovery and how the noise reduction works, although to be fair LR3 suits me fine.


DB
Click to expand...

It's much improved on LR3.

I've been testing this against LR3 for the last hour or so.

Preliminary conclusions so far are..

1- That it is more resource hungry than LR3.

2- The map feature is a nice touch and is similar but better than the one in the recent release of ACDseePro4.

3- The develop module improvements are well worth the upgrade alone as there is even less reason to transfer to PS .

As a example this original image.
140832521.jpg


Had to be transfered from LR3 to PS as two exposures one for the sky and one for the truck and then combined as it was impossible to keep the detail in shadow and highlight in LR3 for the look I wanted.

Combined images in PS from LR3.
140832520.jpg


Now using LR4 without the need for further processing in a outside editor.
140832519.jpg
 
This one expires when the final version ships.

After ten minutes with it, selective colour balance, highlight/shadow and noise get thumbs up from me.
 
The video tutorials linked to above are pretty good. Like the new basic module and some of the video features. Not sure if I'd use the book stuff and it'll be interesting to see how the GPS/map module works in reality.
 
I've not tired it yet, but I suspect that all the little incremental improvements will add up to make this a better tool, and one that is more mature. Not sure yet if it will justify the upgrade cost.
 
Video working well for me here - including videos from a P&S reencoded in x264 and muxed in avi, video direct from 5D2 and even files recorded off BBC HD!

Also liking the changes to the basic development panel. Much more intuitive.
 
That fire truck looks very fake now though....very HDR
 
Well, video crashed, but now working again. Like the fact you can apply some exposure/colour effects to video files easily and then export. I've just made one of my videos into a sepia video.... The H.264 encoder uses all 8 cores of my CPU too which is good. Muxes to mp4 files so should be OK with most streamers.
 
I like the look of the improved brush tools; shadows and highlights in the basic develop tools.


Not sure how the other features will help me but will watch the rest of the videos over the next couple of evenings.





PS Paul - thanks for the fire truck example - does look good - the LR4 copy has a pink tint to the paint - presume this is just becuase it was a quick edit rather than anything in LR4 itself?
 
have the integrated book printing into the print module. I.e book layouts

Do you thing they will cut the price to match appeture? I think it's about $80 on the US assume uk pricing is similar
 
pablo_paul said:
have the integrated book printing into the print module. I.e book layouts

Do you thing they will cut the price to match appeture? I think it's about $80 on the US assume uk pricing is similar
Click to expand...

Aperture about £49 or £50 here in UK.
 
I hope they have not just added a load of extra "bloat".

I've been using LR3 for 3 months now and can't really think of any extra features that would really interest me at the moment as I mainly just use it to adjust WB, contrast curve & Exposure settings.

The only thing I would ask for is the ability to remove the revolting "develop presets" that I have to scroll through constantly. They all look gross :puke:
 
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boliston said:
I hope they have not just added a load of extra "bloat".

The only thing I would ask for is the ability to remove the revolting "develop presets" that I have to scroll through constantly. They all look gross :puke:
Click to expand...

Presets are better organised if that's any good to you
 
cjevans said:
Presets are better organised if that's any good to you
Click to expand...

That is pretty good marketing - employ an extremely annoying "bug" into a product (the inability to remove unwanted develop presets) and then get customers to pay to upgrade to a product where the bug has been fixed.
 
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Just tried it and I only have one question... When it goes live will I be able to keep my catalogue?

Oh and I wish there were a way to import an existing catalogue because before I've even got to the video I can see no reason to use the old one!
 
JohnN said:
Just tried it and I only have one question... When it goes live will I be able to keep my catalogue?

Oh and I wish there were a way to import an existing catalogue because before I've even got to the video I can see no reason to use the old one!
Click to expand...
99.9% likely from LR4beta to LR4 and definitely LR3->LR4. The beta can't import LR3 catalogues as it's a beta, the full product will be able to (source Adobe product manager on Scott Kelby LR launch preview I'm watching at the moment).
 
boliston said:
My own saved presets are always right at the very bottom of the long list of useless presets, hence the tedious scrolling.
Click to expand...

I dont use any presets, but cant you create your own collection of presets and just shrink the default ones? *goes to have a look*
 
...yeah, if you save yours in "user presets" you can just click the arrow/triangle on the left of "lightroom presets" and they will all be hidden.
 
As above, the best way is to hide them by collapsing them and moving your presets to a different folder.
 
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