Lightroom 3

[Jay Beckman]

Thought a separate area for LR3 was appropriate.

I downloaded the Beta 3.2 and was pleased to find you can now lay a graphic in as a watermark.  The AzAP .PNG file works quite nicely:

[redsox223]

Very Nice, any other cool features that should make me want to try the beta.

[Jay Beckman]

The "out of the box" sharpening seems a tad stronger and while I don't have any images handy with which to test it, I understand the noise handling functions are better/smoother as well.

[Dave S.]

Wow, guess it's time to upgrade from v 1.4!!

[Jay Beckman]

Meant to mention that with graphic watermarks, you can pick which quad it's anchored in as well as V and H indent and opacity.

You can build watermark presets as well so no need to manually tweak placement for landscape or portait orientation shot by shot.  Just build one of each, save them and it's a one click dropdown to choose which way you want it.

Dave, um, yeah...   

[Chris V]

Thats pretty sweet, great more money to try and dig up from somewhere. Guess that means I have to go through the garage again looking for stuff to Ebay to upgrade at some point.

[Rob Silliman]

Lightroom 3 is currently in public beta.  Which means anyone can download it and try it before buying it.

All you need to do is create an account w/ Adobe.

[strongly recommend trying it before you buy it - and also - it allows you to see if your computer can handle running it]

[F-16_fixer]

I'm pretty impressed with the noise reduction feature of LR3 Beta 2. 

[Rob Silliman]

If you are looking for plugins to improve Lightroom - take a look at;

http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies

Includes custom uploaders for;

    * Export Plugin for Zenfolio
    * Export Plugin for SmugMug
    * Export Plugin for Flickr
    * Export Plugin for PicasaWeb
    * Export Plugin for Facebook
    * Export Plugin for Photobucket
    * Export Plugin for Expono

[Jay Beckman]

I use the Export Plug-Ins for Zen and FB .. They're great and worth every penny one would care to donate to the author!

[Jbong]

I know this is a old subjust but does light room replace PS or can you use both?

[Dave S.]

Jason,

They are two completely different programs, but there is some overlap between their capabilities.  Lightroom is essentially an awesome database program that also allows you to make minor tweaks and adjustments (with an ever expanding list of adjustments that it can do), adding watermarks, adding IPTC data, exporting to online directories...).

PS is a powerful image editing program that I would hazard a guess that aviation photographers use about ~ 10% to 15% of it total capabilities.  In some ways, it reminds of the 'using a sledgehammer to kill a fly analogy'.

One of the great features of Lightroom is the ability to perform non-destructive edits.  That means that all of the edits that you do to an image (cropping, exposure adjustments...) are essentially performed on layers (using PS parlance).  The original file remains untouched.  I can attest to this by stating that, during a fat-fingered user error, I deleted my catalog file.  The catalog file is where all the information, used to make the adjustments, are saved.  Thus, I was left with ONLY my original images, losing all of my adjustments.

So, this brings up one other, very important concept.  Remember to BACKUP all your information: image files, Lightroom catalog files and any other information you create when editing your images.

[cpasley]

I recently "obtained" a copy of LR 3.3 since everyone has suggested it, I really like it there are so many possibilities and easy enough for me to understand, except one, I cant figure out how to edit then export without dramatically compressing my photo, granted I still shoot jpeg but would be nice to be able to export closer to the 3-4 meg but it comes out like 300 kilo, PLEASE HELP.....................

[Jay Beckman]

I recently "obtained" a copy of LR 3.3 since everyone has suggested it, I really like it there are so many possibilities and easy enough for me to understand, except one, I cant figure out how to edit then export without dramatically compressing my photo, granted I still shoot jpeg but would be nice to be able to export closer to the 3-4 meg but it comes out like 300 kilo, PLEASE HELP.....................

Look carefully at the entire EXPORT menu and you should see both a slider for quality and a radio box with a field to enter a file-size limit in Kb.  Make sure the first is up closer to 80% than 20% and make sure the second one isn't checked with some really low number in it.

The exports that get uploaded to my website are 100% quality JPEG in sRGB and average right around 8Mb per image @ 5000 on the longest side.  I think you've got something set differently that's squashing your stuff.

While we're on this subject, anyone know how to Screen Cap Lightroom?  Apparently, SHFT + Print Screen doesn't copy the entire raster such that it can be pasted in Photshop...

[cpasley]

Thanks a million Jay as I sit here going through my photos from Yuma some came out perfect except if I want to lighten and would hate to compress for a little brightening