The Blog of Colin Smith (aka kiwicolin)

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What’s new in Lightroom 3 beta?

Import
The import module has been completely re-written. This is clearly obvious when you go to import photos from a card or a hard drive. This is a welcome change, I always thought that Lightroom was a little weak in this area. When you choose Import, you will be faced with an interface that simplifies the process. The “mini” import dialog box offers most of the features you need in a simple dashboard. Clicking the arrow at the bottom (5) will expand to offer more options than you can shake a stick at. The addition of an import preset will save a ton of time and clicking.

1. Choose the source
2. Choose what happens to the images (Convert to DNG, copy, move or add).
3. Where does it go?
4. Apply a metadata preset (Copyright info etc). Also fintune the destination, subfolder etc.
5. Click this button to expand the view to see thumbnails and other information

The expanded view offers more information and features than the Lightroom 2 importer.

For those who value their time. You can create an import preset that remembers all the settimgs so you don’t have to re enter them every time.

Social Network Collections.
This is perhaps the most exciting new feature for me. Adobe has realized that we don’t live in a bubble and that cloud computing is the way of the future (For some of us, it’s the way of now). You can now integrate Lightroom with Flickr. All you need to do is drag your photos into the Photostream. From there you can automatically upload to Flickr by clicking Publish. You can also add captions and photonames which will also appear on Flickr. But wait… it’s a 2 way communication. You can also view favs and comments right within lightroom from Flickr. Can I say “Brilliant!!!”

There’s more though. If you decide you want to edit the appearance of your photos, you can and update them to Flickr. Each time you press upload, evertything will sync with Lightroom’s Photostream and Flickr. Other services could possibly be added on the final release. Also 3rd party services should be able to write their own modules just like in Lightroom 2.

Drag the thumbnail to add to the Photostream

Click publish to upload or update your photostream with Flickr

Forgot to edit your photos? No problem. Do it while the photos are in the photostream or already on Flickr. It doesn’t matter. Everything will sync anyway.

They will appear right there in Flickr. (You will need a pro account for many of the features)

Oops, forgot to change the filenames. These aren’t pics of Hippos! Either change the names in Flickr or in the metadata panel in Lightroom. Hit publish and all is well on both ends!

Oh, I can read the comments from Flickr in Lightroom? WOW! Ok, busted, the zoo isn’t the best place to shoot animals.

Watermark
A highly requested feature is watermarking. Good news is it’s here. You can also automatically add watermarks to your photos that you share on Flickr. Add them to prints, to slideshows, wherever you like.

Choose the settimngs from publish manager to apply watermarks to photos destined for Flickr.

You can add text or image watermarks from the new Watermark editor.

Slideshow
Slideshows have always been a favoriate for Photographers. There are 2 big features in Lightroom 3 beta. The first one is that mac users can now add music without being tied to iTunes. You can actually choose a song now, and not a playlist. The second, which you will love, is the ability to export a slideshow as video! You can create an H.264 video with music. This is the same format for iTunes and iPods. Photographers can now offer slideshow videos to their clients as an extra service. You can also time the slideshowto the song.

Print package
Biggest addition? The ability to create custom packaged. Simply drag images onto th page. Resize how you like. Tip: Press the Ctrl/Cmd key to move a photo within a frame. You can drag and drop a photointo a frame to replace the existing photo.

Other stuff?
Lightroom 3is loaded with other new goodies including all new vigeting and grain effects. You can simul;ate film grain or just add a little for effect while softening photos. The noise reduction has been rewritten. The RAW conversion engine is all new. The demosaaic is much better, resulting in better conversions from RAW. Speed is also better.

Visit the Lightroom Learning Site