My Lightroom 4 review just got published by CreativePro.com, so if you’re still on the fence about this major upgrade to Lightroom, you can read about my take on the new features and changes!
Go to Review: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4
Photoshop CS6 public beta is ready for you to download and try out
Adobe has posted a free public beta of Adobe Photoshop CS6! You can download it from Adobe. [Update: Because the final CS6 software shipped in May 2012, the beta software link now redirects to the Photoshop product page where you can download the free trial version of Photoshop CS6, or buy it.] That page contains the download link, important information, and links to resources for learning Photoshop CS6.
Lightroom users: Photoshop CS6 contains Camera Raw 7, which includes full compatibility with the new Develop module controls in Lightroom 4.
Among the first to report on Photoshop CS6 are Digital Photography Review and Macworld.
Remember, this is a prerelease version. Read the public beta page carefully, and back up any irreplaceable images before editing them with pre-release software. Have fun!
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Lightroom 4 is out!
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is officially released. I’ve had a great time with the public beta and am really looking forward to using the final version. Want to learn more about it? Try these links, which I update over time:
Announcement on the Lightroom blog at adobe.com (includes a list of changes from the Lightroom 4 public beta)
List of changes between Lightroom 4 and Lightroom 3 by Victoria Bampton
Before you order, remember to check all of your professional memberships and educational associations to see if discounts on Adobe software are part of your membership. I used a discount code to save 15% on my upgrade price.
Potential gotchas
List of known problems. (March 12, 2012) The official Lightroom blog has posted a Lightroom Hot Issues document, including the point curve conversion bug reported by A.J. Wood. If you’re running into a problem with Lightroom 4 or just want to know what you’re in for when you upgrade, check there first. Lightroom Queen Victoria Bampton adds a few issues of her own.
Before you convert your Lightroom 3 catalog, optimize it and back it up! This can help prevent problems during conversion. To optimize, choose File > Optimize Catalog. When backing up, if you don’t want to turn on automatic backups, in the Catalog Settings dialog box you can select When Lightroom Next Exits and it will back it up just that one time, while also checking the catalog for integrity.
If you open raw files from Lightroom 4 into Photoshop, keep in mind that the raw processing engine inside Lightroom 4 is now ahead of the one in Camera Raw 6, which comes with Photoshop CS5.5. To successfully preserve the raw settings from Lightroom 4 in Camera Raw 6, you’ll need a newer version of Camera Raw. While that isn’t officially available yet, a test version is available at Adobe Labs. Since it isn’t final, if you run into problems you can report them to Adobe. If you don’t want to go through all that, when you open raw files from Lightroom 4 into Photoshop and the Camera Raw warning appears, just click the Render Using Lightroom button. That converts the raw file into Photoshop format while preserving how it looked in Lightroom 4.
Can’t find Fill Light and Recovery anymore? It isn’t a problem; those features are still present but work differently in Lightroom 4 when adjusting the redesigned and renamed Basic panel sliders when using the new Process Version 2012. The intent was not to take those features away, but make them more effective overall. Read more about this on the Lightroom blog.
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Protecting your photos online: Realistic strategies for today’s web
The Know Your Rights video below is an insightful panel discussion about how to protect your copyright when you publish photos online today. It’s a balancing act between the need to show your best work online in a way that’s big and beautiful enough to attract photo buyers, and the culture of today’s web which is inclined to copy and reuse anything they see on a web page. Business models are evolving beyond the old mentality of “block all copying and add a big watermark,” and successful photographers like Trey Ratcliff and Zack Arias explain why. An important part of the discussion is about whether Creative Commons Noncommercial licensing works as part of a profitable business model.
(The video might play a short ad at the beginning. Mobile users see the note at the end of this article. )
I was impressed that photographer Catherine Hall asked a lot of the same questions I would have. Whether or not you decide to share your photos as openly as some of the panelists do, chances are you’ll gain a new perspective that will help you make decisions about sharing your own images on today’s web.
This video is also a great example of the many Google+ Hangouts now held by the rapidly growing and influential photography community on Google+. You can connect with me on Google+, of course!
Recorded in August 2011 by Keith Barrett for Vidcast Network, which hosts a number of photography-related Internet video shows and Google+ hangouts.
Note: Apologies to those viewing on devices without Flash; their video is hosted at justin.tv which does not seem to supply a non-Flash alternative outside of their mobile app. To view this video on iPhone/iPad, download the Justin.tv app from the App Store and search for “Catherine Hall hangout” .
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Canon EOS Utility updated for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
(see bottom for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion info)
If you’ve had any trouble running Canon EOS Utility on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, you’ll be happy to know that a new version of EOS Utility was just released, and it’s listed as supporting Mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7. To download it, go to the Canon USA Digital SLR Cameras web page, click the picture of your camera, and then click Drivers and Downloads. (Update: Canon changed the page and link, so I updated the link and the Canon page now looks different than the screen shot below.)
Although it isn’t necessary to install the Canon software if you use software such as Lightroom, Aperture, or Camera Raw to import and process your Canon DSLR images, you may find Canon EOS Utility easier for a few things such as tethered shooting and camera configuration.
(via robgalbraith.com)
[Update on October 4, 2012: Changes to USB device handling in OS X 10.7.5 may have broken Canon tethering, according to this blog post: OS X 10.7.5 breaks Canon tethering]
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion update
Canon now provides a Mac OS X 10.8 choice in their Choose Operating System menu. As I write this update (September 2012), the only downloadable item listed is the latest firmware update. Other categories say new software will be available in October 2012, so you should check it again.
[Update on October 2, 2012: Canon EOS Utility version 2.11.4 may crash on Mountain Lion when tethering a Canon 5D MKIII. For details, see this post on another blog: Canon software crashing on OS X 10.8]
conrad chavez | blog 