lightroom

'Lightroom Adventure' useful for newbies and beyond

If you want a book to learn or better understand Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, I can recommend Mikkel Aaland's Photoshop Lightroom Adventure (O'Reilly Media) as a good option.

But you'd better move quickly. Lightroom is changing fast--probably a lot faster than the book publishing business can. The software has moved through beta to 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 in recent months, and at this rate, a major update might not be far off.

I've been a big fan of Lightroom as a way to make shooting "raw" photos--the unprocessed data … Read more

Underexposed blog: links of the day

Optical zoom to become a standard feature of 5-megapixel camera handsets - Digitimes predicts better optical zoom coming to cell phones. My reaction: eyes rolling. Who needs more megapixels and zoom when the camera already suffers a microscopic sensor, cheesy plastic lens covered with pocket lint, and scratches from car keys? Nova Scotia News: thoughts on a Photoshopped Christmas photo - A plea to avoid overprocessed family portraits. "Inevitably, the holiday portraits I most admire prove to be the homemade kind, squints and grins and crooked greenery included." Lightroom Journal: Debugging printing on Leopard with Lightroom 1.3.1 … Read more

Underexposed blog: Links of the day

Here's some of the backlog from a virus-induced hiatus that knocked me out for a couple days.

PhotoAcute Studio. Leading super-resolution technology for better photos. PhotoAcute's product description: "It increases image resolution, removes noise without losing image details, corrects image geometry and chromatic aberrations and expands the dynamic range." PhotoAcute Review. Uwe Steinmuller's testing of super-resolution software that combines multiple images into one. Lightroom Journal: Lightroom 1.3.1 and Camera Raw 4.3.1. Lightroom update fixes Nikon D100 and Olympus E-3 compatibility problems, tweaks SKD's FTP export module. New Lightroom Galleries--O'Reilly Digital Media Blog. … Read more

Canon updates EOS 40D firmware

Canon has released an update to the firmware for its new EOS 40D SLRs designed to fix file format compatibility problems with some Adobe software.

Version 1.0.3 of the firmware worked with Adobe's raw-image editing software such as Photoshop and Lightroom, but the version 1.0.4 that shipped with some newer cameras broke compatibility, according to photographer and consultant Rob Galbraith and forums at Adobe, DPReview and elsewhere. Version 1.0.5 of the firmware can be downloaded from Canon's Web site.

The new firmware also fixes some Spanish and Korean language issues, corrects a … Read more

Should Lightroom 1.3 have been called 1.0?

I was delighted by a surprise speed boost that Adobe Systems tucked into version 1.3 to Photoshop Lightroom released last week, but the magnitude of the improvement left me feeling that the update might better have been labeled version 1.0.

Lest you think I'm just being crabby, let me explain what I mean and why fundamentally I'm not really peeved about in effect being Adobe's guinea pig for the last several months.

It appears to me that some Adobe programmers did a lot of optimization work to speed up the core code that one might … Read more

Lightroom SDK: Better ties with microstocks?

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is taking its first look at the world beyond its own photo-editing boundaries, and stock-art photographers are among those who stand to benefit.

Adobe's software development kit for its Lightroom software, released Thursday evening along with the Lightroom 1.3 update, is only a preview edition with limited abilities, but already one potential use for the software is evident: easier photo uploads to "microstock" photo-sale sites.

The SDK preview involves only image export from Lightroom, but it includes several features for interacting with Web or FTP sites on the Internet.

Uploading photos can be … Read more

A treat, fix, and update for Adobe Lightroom users

Adobe on Thursday issued three upgrades for users of its Photoshop Lightroom software.

The biggest news for some may be that Adobe Labs is offering a preview copy of Lightroom Export SDK, an application that will allow Lightroom users to export photos to Web sites, third-party software, and devices.

Meanwhile, the Lightroom 1.3 update should fix compatibility issues with Apple's Leopard Mac OS X 10.5. Previously, Adobe had warned that Leopard users could experience problems when trying to use Lightroom, though it was still safe to use most features. Adobe had previously announced that the fix would … Read more

Brace yourself for Adobe's Photoshop overhaul

Adobe Systems wants to transform its flagship Photoshop software with an interface customized to the task at hand, a potentially radical revamp for software whose power today is hidden behind hundreds of menu options.

A new user interface will help Photoshop become "everything you need, nothing you don't," said Photoshop product manager John Nack, describing aspirations for the Photoshop overhaul on his blog Monday.

"We must make Photoshop dramatically more configurable," Nack said. "Presenting the same user experience to a photographer as we do to a radiologist, as to a Web designer, as to … Read more

Lightroom update for Leopard users on the way

An update to make Lightroom 1.2 fully compatible with Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 should be available mid-November, Adobe has announced.

The company says photographers can continue using the photo management software in Leopard without too much issue, but stressed that the current version of Lightroom 1.2 is not fully compatible with Apple's new operating system.

Adobe recommends that users refer to a list of known compatibility issues published on Adobe's Lightroom Journal Web site before deciding whether to use the current version of Lightroom with Leopard. It also issued this warning:

"The interaction … Read more