Continuing the tradition of the previous two releases. A Public Beta release of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has been posted to Adobe Labs.

This version is not feature complete but is a viable snapshot in time. Suffice to say, there is more to come!

WORDS OF CAUTION!

• This beta won’t upgrade previous Libraries, please use it on separate copies of files, for ultimate safety.
• The beta will coexist with 1.x and 2.x versions.
• Develop Settings created and applied during your use of the beta may not transfer to the final version

New in Lightroom 3 Beta

Fundamental reworking and updating of the core ‘engine block’ of the application. This is to ensure that the basic architecture is set for the the increased demands of large and numerous Raw files from modern digital SLRs.

The Raw processing engine has received an overhaul so you should see improved demosaicing, sharpening and  noise reduction.

New Import experience
with a compact and expanded view depending on your preference.

Publish Collections
Direct access sites such as Flickr, with the ability to pull comments back into the Library. Developers can create Plug-ins for other services, which will perform the same functions

Image Quality
Sharpening and Noise Reduction: although this feature is not fully finished you will see improved algorithms being used to extract detail from your images. Luminance Noise reduction is disabled for this beta, but you should focus on Color Noise Reduction and Capture Sharpening.

Grain: A new grain tool allows you to create film and creative effects for your images

Vignette: Following feedback, the post-crop vignette tool has been improved and you now have more options for subtlety with Color Priority and Highlight Priority modes.

Process Version: The process version specifies which version of certain Camera Raw image processing elements should be used when rendering and editing files. Process Version can affect raw, DNG, TIFF, JPEG, and PSD files.
To update to the latest Process Version you select the notification triangle that includes an exclamation point above the left hand side of the histogram.

Slideshow Export
You can  now export high quality movies of your Slideshows in H.264 format.

Custom Print Package
There is a new custom layout version for photographers who desire complete control

Watermarking
This lets you embed your identity or other information in your images. You can apply text or graphic watermarks to a photograph with adjustable size, position, and
opacity. This is available in the Print and Web modules as well as the Export dialog.

There are lots of other minor features ,which you can find out in the release notes, on the Labs forums and in posts from other Lightroom testers.

Other Links
Lightroom Journal, Lightroom News, Lightroom Blog, Jeffrey Friedl, Lightroom Queen, Lightroom Secrets, Ian Lyons, John Beardsworth, Utiliser Lightroom (French),  Photo News (Portuguese), and Lightroomers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 5:02 am and is filed under Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.