HOT new features in LightRoom 4 beta 

I’ll try to keep this short and sweet. If you’ve been on the fence about purchasing Lightroom then I would download their beta from the Adobe lab site. Instead of the 30 days you would get from downloading the final version (3.6 right now) you will get until Lightroom 4 is released. I think you’ll be convinced by then.

New Adjustment brush options

In both the library module (Quick develop) and Develop module (Basic) they have added to the way you make your adjustments..  My personal taste is to go straight to the Develop module and make my changes there.

Once there you now have the Highlight and shadow option instead of the fill light and blacks but I think they perform pretty much the same.. Time will tell on that one.

Develop module: Adjustment brushes

If you want to know how they work or if they are really different then hit Adobe killer tips and see what they have to say. But right now they are still playing with it them selves..

Two big Menu items added

The Map option

I am going to be using this option whenever I take a trip and I tell my readers here at Traveling Scenic New England or at my fall foliage resource website (www.jeff-foliage.com).

First, if your camera is one with a GPS function built in, then you will find that the GPS coordinates will be already in there (assuming it’s enabled in the camera).

I haven’t tried with a third party GPS tracker yet, so if your 3rd party tracker doesn’t write to a RAW file (like mine) you will have some leg work to get the GPS coordinates attached to your file.

Second,  if you remember where you took the shots then you just click on the image in the bottom row and drop in on the “Google” map… Can we say Adobe is now in bed with Google? I wonder if this is a bad thing…

Now as you see in the image, the coordinates where the image was dropped is in the right hand GPS panel and you can add more info such as a secondary location or city, etc.  If you drop a Raw image on the map it will remind you that it can’t write to Raw files and will inform you that it will be in the sidecar.  (more to follow as I play with it more…)

The Book option

Adobe has also “partnered” with Blurb for building a book directly in Lightroom and either exporting it to a PDF (inelegant option) or uploading it to Blurb and having them print your book for you. (not cheap)

I built a 12 page book in a few hours and I found the process pretty straight forward. If you look under the highlighted page (#9) you will see a orange band and there is a pull down arrow there with page layout options to build a page.

The confusing part is that if you click “book”, it will automatically build a book for you when it opens based on the folder you are looking at. So before you start pick and choose your images and put the virtual copies in a new folder.

You will still want to (probably) clear all the pages to start. (hit the right panel “clear layout) and then below that add page or add blank page, and choose how you want to go.

In the page option you will again see the pull down arrow and hit the mother load of options for building a page…

The downside so far…

First, the PDF you create is not protected so if you put it up out on the net, it can be downloaded and the images pulled.  They are 24bit depth images and large enough for someone to make something with them. So let the sharer beware…

Second, the ability to add text right in Lightroom is available and works great BUT! you can only do it on their pre-designed pages. If you look at page 10/11 you will see a big blank space where I would love to put some text but this template doesn’t allow nesting a text box on a page not set up for it.. (not a big deal but it would be nice)

Third, the PDF option is ugly and I would love to see a flash output that looks like a book with the pages turning and a moblie option so it would be sized correctly for smart phones.. (Come on, Adobe owns Dream Weaver, so how hard could that be?)

Conclusion

All in all I give it two thumbs up, but is it enough to upgrade for… For me, yes. I love new software and playing with it. But if these new toys aren’t things you would use all the time? Then you could stay with 3.6 for some time and be quite happy.

Jeff “Foliage” Folger
My Art & Stock Photography site
My fall foliage resource website