Lightroom 2.0 ships

[Martin_Doudoroff]

Lightroom 2.0 is now shipping; upgrades can be downloaded from the Adobe store.

Luminous Landscape has released their new video tutorial for Lightroom 2.0. (US$35)

Adobe also released a beta of a new product: the DNG Profile Editor, which you can snag a copy of from Adobe Labs, and also Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plugin (for compatibility with Lightroom 2.0 and the DNG Profile Editor).

For a quick introduction to the DNG Profile Editor, see Luminous Landscape's article.

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In addition to the above resources, John Nack has listed a heap of links to more information on Lightroom 2.0 and the related releases on his blog.

[Martin_Doudoroff]

I'm much of the way through Luminous Landscape's 7 hour tutorial video for Lightroom 2.0. It's good, but I've noticed that it's even more oriented towards viewers who already know Photoshop/ACR and/or Lightroom 1.4. A neophyte plunging into this video is probably going to quickly get left behind, because Reichmann and Schewe don't really stop to fully explain Lightroom 1.4 functionality. The focus is on what has changed and how that relates to Lightroom use and Photoshop use.

[DougAxford]

Thanks for the links Martin.

The first few days LL had bad links for the DNG editor page and today I finally was able to read it. The ability to make or alter our own profiles is a huge change and one that many people (especially lots on this forum) will appreciate.

Quote for the article:
With the launch of these two programs Adobe is now making available profiles for virtually ever digital camera ever made. These are freely downloadable from the Adobe Labs web site. In addition to the Standard profiles, (which are variations on Adobe's standard interpretation as seen in previous versions of Lightroom and Camera Raw), for current model Nikon and Canon cameras they are also making several additional profiles available which Adobe calls Color Matching profiles. These profiles closely match the color rendition which Canon and Nikon provide for their cameras, which one normally gets from in-camera JPGs, or from using Canon's DPP and Nikon's Capture NX raw processing software. In other words, these Color Matching profiles allow the new versions of Lightroom and Camera Raw to create images which accurately reproduce the colour and tonal rendition that one gets from in-camera JPGs, or from using Canon's DPP and Nikon's Capture NX raw processing software.

It MAY even convince me to shoot more raw.

DougA

[Martin_Doudoroff]

Having now made it through the entire Luminous Landscape Lightroom 2 tutorial, I think my initial impression is accurate: this video is a piece of continuity and will be most useful to those who have watched their previous Lightroom videos (apparently no longer available).

The format of these videos is commentary: Schewe and Reichmann basically work their way through the application from head to tail and talk about their experiences with it. In fact, the video isn't really a tutorial, per se. Rather, it's a like a sort of advanced discussion. There's heaps of valuable information throughout, but newcomers will labor to make sense of it. For newbies, I would strongly recommend they work through a different soup-to-nuts tutorial before attempting the LL video. Lightroom veterans should be delighted, however, particularly those who share affinities with the likes of Reichmann and Schewe.

[ChrisPerry]

I don't use LR - never have. I hear things - all good- about it. I use DPP and now that LR has the profiles i'm a bit more interested, but have a couple of questions/concerns - not sure they can be answered, but I'll ask anyway.

I have a workflow and it's working for me - I don't have any specific 'issues' I want solved, but I'm always looking for ways to improve things - either with less work (less time spend at the computer) or better output.

So what does LR do that will help me either as business person or artist? I know it will cost me money to buy and time to learn it, then I may have to train employees on it's use as well. Hell, the video you mention is SEVEN hours and from your review, it won't teach me all I need to know.

If it helps, I shoot RAW - weddings, seniors, babies and misc stuff. I either do little in PS (weddings, babies) or a lot (Seniors).

[Martin_Doudoroff]

Originally Posted by ChrisPerry

So what does LR do that will help me either as business person or artist? I know it will cost me money to buy and time to learn it, then I may have to train employees on it's use as well. Hell, the video you mention is SEVEN hours and from your review, it won't teach me all I need to know.

If it helps, I shoot RAW - weddings, seniors, babies and misc stuff. I either do little in PS (weddings, babies) or a lot (Seniors).

The short answer is that Lightroom may not do a damn thing to help you. LR really is not a tool for everybody, and the more specialized your workflow needs are, the poorer a fit it's likely to be for you. And LR is certainly not designed with organizations in mind: it's oriented towards meeting the bulk of the needs of an individual "general purpose" photographer.

The long answer would either be really long (in order to be comprehensive) or really speculative, so I won't attempt it. But if you have any specific questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them.

[BobSmith]

I recently returned from a two week workshop in Ireland where I forced myself to live on nothing but Lightroom for the duration. It drove me nuts initially but once I got used to its way of thinking/working I grew to love it more and more. It really takes some serious working time to get used to its flow but many will find it very useful... especially if you're somewhat of a higher volume shooter. What sets Lightroom apart from most any other software (except maybe Aperture) is that it is a cataloging database AND an image processing tool rolled into one. As such it's advantages have as much to do with organization as they do with image processing. If you're not used to using a cataloging type of software, learning to think in those terms will seem very foreign at first. Give it some time and you may have a new best friend.

Bob Smith

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