Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta is available Now!
Adobe has released the first public beta of Lightroom 3 and it’s packed with tons of new features. The 3 videos below show the most important new features included in the public beta but keep in mind that the final product might be significantly different. Adobe has announced that by releasing early this public beta will allow them to listen to the user community and implement as much of the suggested functionality in the final product as possible.
Included in this beta is a new faster and more efficient rendering engine which allows you to quickly preview and move from one image to the next without having to wait for long time for the image to properly render. (NOTE 1: In my initial testing using my MacBook PRO 2.33GHz with 3GB RAM the image rendering is actually slower than in the current version of Lightroom. I will continue to test and perform some benchmarking and submit my comments to Adobe)
They’ve also added a noise reduction facility, watermarking (finally), film grain simulation tool (very cool), a new and improved import module. They have also added the ability to publish to the web directly from inside Lightroom 3 library to different popular photo sharing sites. Plug-ins for additional photo sharing sites will be available from the third party vendors but connecting to Flickr was a breeze.
One of the features that I really like is the ability to create exportable Slide Shows in the popular and dynamic H.264 movie format. This module allows you to create export slide shows from 320×240 suitable for small personal players to full High bit-rate 1080HD (1920×1080). We can finally create and share slide shows from inside Lightroom and share them with our clients. (NOTE 2: I’ve created a Slide Show of 323 pictures with background music and I clicked on the “Export Video” button when I started to write this post at 7:11PM and is already 8:33PM and the export is only half way done (I need to learn how to be a faster writer) I’m very impressed with most of the features included in this Lightroom 3 Beta, but so far I’m not impressed with the performance of this version AT ALL but I trust Adobe will correct all of this annoyances soon.)
Adobe also added a custom print package that allows you to create custom print layouts but I hope the final release includes a full blown book printing module like the one found in Aperture 2 or better. PLEASE ADOBE, add a functional book printing module that is second to none in the industry and allow for direct upload to quality printing services.
WHAT’S NEW IN LIGHTROOM 3 – PART 1
WHAT’S NEW IN LIGHTROOM 3 – PART 2
WHAT’S NEW IN LIGHTROOM 3 – PART 3
For more information and to download Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta, please visit Adobe Labs.
Tags: adobe, beta, features, film grain, flickr, free download, H.264, HD video, lightroom 3, lightroom beta, lightroom beta 3, lightroom features video, lightroom version 3, new lightroom, noise reduction, video, watermarking
