Category: General

Lightroom 4.1 Now Available on Adobe Labs

Lightroom 4.1 is now available as Release Candidates on Adobe Labs.   The ‘release candidate’ label indicates that this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers.  The final release of Lightroom 4.1 may have additional corrections or camera support.

Bugs Corrected in Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate

The following bugs that were part the Lightroom 4 releases have been corrected. The team appreciates the very detailed feedback the community has provided on Lightroom 4 and we’re excited to correct a number of issues experienced by our customers. These issues have been FIXED:

  • Point Curve adjustments made in Lightroom 3 and before have been restored.
  • Lightroom 4 did not properly open external applications when using the “Edit In” functionality.
  • Addressed performance issues in Lightroom 4, particularly when loading GPS track logs, using a secondary monitor, and the controls within the Develop module.
  • Ability to update DNG previews and metadata for more than 100 photos has been restored.
  • This update allows for improved viewing of subfolders and stacks in folders with a large number of photos.
  • It was possible that a layout of a saved book could be lost after quitting Lightroom 4.
  • Please provide feedback on your experience with the Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate in our Feedback Portal.

New Camera Support in Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate

  • Canon EOS 5D Mk III

Thank You

A big thanks to everyone who submitted bug reports, posted entries in the U2U forums and blogged their issues so that we could improve the Lightroom 4 experience in this update.

Raw support in Lightroom and Camera Raw

There have been a number of questions around raw support for Lightroom and the Camera Raw plug-in.(ACR) Below is a list of new support by version. (Skip the background if you just need to know if your camera is supported)

Background
It’s a busy time of year for the team as we just released Lightroom 4, the Photoshop CS6 beta was introduced last week and some of the new flagship cameras are beginning to have broader availability.  Our consistent goal is to provide new camera support as quickly as possible.  We also try to keep it simple by aligning Lightroom and ACR updates both in terms of timing and camera support.  However for the few months around the launch of Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6, we forfeited alignment in favor of getting support out as quickly as possible.  That’s why the ACR6.7 release candidate supports the 5D Mk III but the Lightroom 4.0 release does not.   You’ll also note that ACR7 available with Photoshop CS6 beta, is lagging the most in updated camera support.  This is based on when we lock down or “bake” the code for each release.   Even though ACR7 was only released last week it was “baked” before Lightroom 4.0 and Camera Raw 6.7.  Similarly, Lightroom 4.0 was finalized before Camera Raw 6.7.  We’ll get Lightroom and Camera Raw in sync soon but in the interim, here’s the latest incremental support list for each product, relative to Camera Raw 6.6 and Lightroom 3.6:

Photoshop CS6 beta with ACR7

  • Canon PowerShot S100V
  • Fuji FinePix X-S1

Lightroom 4.0

  • Canon EOS 1D X
  • Canon PowerShot G1 X
  • Canon PowerShot S100V
  • Fuji FinePix F505EXR
  • Fuji FinePix F605EXR
  • Fuji FinePix HS30EXR
  • Fuji FinePix HS33EXR
  • Fuji FinePix X-S1
  • Nikon D4
  • Nikon D800
  • Nikon D800E

Photoshop CS5 with ACR6.7 (Release Candidate) and Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate

  • Canon EOS 1D X
  • Canon EOS 5D Mk III
  • Canon PowerShot G1 X
  • Canon PowerShot S100V
  • Fuji FinePix F505EXR
  • Fuji FinePix F605EXR
  • Fuji FinePix HS30EXR
  • Fuji FinePix HS33EXR
  • Fuji FinePix X-S1
  • Nikon D4
  • Nikon D800
  • Nikon D800E

Additional Notes:

  • If you need access to the latest camera support and your current Adobe product does not have support, the DNG Converter 6.7 is a free application that will convert that latest camera support above from a proprietary format to the DNG format that can be read in earlier versions of Adobe’s products. (The DNG Converter is the second option on the download page of the 6.7 release candidate site)
  • For those that have been asking, Canon EOS 5D Mk III support will be added to the next update to Lightroom this week.
  • Lightroom 3.6 is the last update to Lightroom 3.  New camera support will only be added to Lightroom 4 going forward.
  • And yes, we are aware of the existence of the Fuji X-Pro1 camera and like all new camera models we are working to add support as quickly as possible.

Thanks for everyone’s patience and support during a busy and exciting season for new cameras and software.

Lightroom 4 Hot Issues

Update – Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate is now available and helps address many of the concerns listed here.  Please visit http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4-1/ to download and install Lightroom 4.1 RC.

 

The team would like to provide an update on several issues discovered since last Monday night’s launch. Thanks for your patience while we investigated and compiled this list.  

Point Tone Curve Migration
In Lightroom 3, the Tone Curve panel added a “point curve” adjustment option in addition to the default parametric curve.  When a customer upgrades their Lightroom 3 catalog to Lightroom 4, any images with point curve adjustments will lose those specific settings.  This is a high severity bug and we are working hard to provide a solution as quickly as possible.  Several members of the community have already started helping us test a fix that can be applied to an upgraded Lightroom 4 catalog.  We’ll be providing updates via this blog and the following Lightroom Feedback thread.

“Edit in” Workflow for External Editors/Plug-ins
There is a bug on both Mac and Windows that can cause the “Edit in…” workflow to fail for third party applications and plug-ins.  Many of our customers working with Nik plug-ins have found that they’re unable to launch their plug-ins from within Lightroom 4. (This is more prevalent on Windows)  We are testing a solution for this problem and it will be included in our next update.  Feedback on this bug is captured here.

Edit in Photoshop Workflow
Currently, the Edit in Photoshop workflow asks that you have the Camera Raw 7 plug-in installed.  Please note that the Camera Raw 7 plug-in is not available at this time.  The correct plug-in for Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS5 compatibility is Camera Raw 6.7, currently available on Adobe Labs Please keep in mind that currently Camera Raw 6.7 is a a Release Candidate version of the plug-in. A “release candidate” label indicates that this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers.

Reverse Geocoding Delays
We had a temporary loss of reverse geocoding results on Tuesday.  This problem has been resolved and we’re monitoring the issue with Google’s help.

Serial Number Delivery from Adobe.com Store
A small group of customers that ordered Lightroom 4 as a software download(not a boxed copy) on Tuesday or Wednesday did not receive serial numbers.  We’ve corrected the error and we’ll be monitoring this issue going forward.  If you’re included in that group and have not received a serial number yet, please contact Jeff Tranberry, our Chief Customer Advocate, with your order number and any support case numbers you have.

Upgrade Details
We’ve had several questions around who is eligible for an upgrade to Lightroom 4.  Any Lightroom 1, 2 or 3 version of Lightroom, education editions included, can utilize the upgrade version of Lightroom 4.  The prior version of Lightroom does not need to be installed on the computer, however you will need the prior version serial number at the time of installation of Lightroom 4. (If the prior version is still installed on the computer, Lightroom 4 will automatically pick up that serial number so you don’t need to go digging through boxes or your email)

Upgrade policy for those that just purchased LIghtroom 3
We’ve seen quite a few questions from those who have just purchased Lightroom 3.  If you purchased Lightroom 3 very recently you may be eligible for a complimentary upgrade to Lightroom 4: http://www.adobe.com/go/pa 

We’re listening
If you have additional workflow or how-to questions visit our user community on Adobe.com: http://forums.adobe.com/community/lightroom

To report Issues or Ideas on how to improve Lightroom, visit our Feedback Site on Photoshop.com: http://feedback.photoshop.com/

What happened to Fill Light and Recovery?

Recovery and Fill Light are popular and powerful tools. However, they also have some limitations. For example, Recovery can result in muddy highlights, and Fill Light can lead to visible halos at high-contrast boundaries. Furthermore, it is difficult to transfer the technology behind these controls to local adjustments.

With Process Version 2012 in Lightroom 4, we have introduced a new set of Basic tone controls that overcomes these limitations and results in much higher image quality. For example, the Highlights and Shadows tools are optimized for very high contrast images, produce much smoother highlight and shadow gradations, are available as local adjustments, and minimize halo artifacts.

We recommend starting at the top of the Basic panel and working down through the controls. Start with the Exposure and Contrast controls to set the overall desired image brightness and contrast. Proceed to the Highlight and Shadow controls, using them to establish the relationship of the highlights and shadows in your image to the midtones. If needed, fine-tune your image’s tonal end points using the Blacks and Whites sliders.  Note that Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, and Shadows are also available as local adjustments.

There is a bit of a relearning process, but once you have become used to the new controls we think that you’ll love them.  Of course,  you still have access to Fill Light and Recovery if you so choose by changing the Process Version to PV2010 in the Camera Calibration panel on the bottom right hand side.

Lightroom 4.0 Resources

Lightroom 4 is out and we’re compiling a list of online resources dedicated to educating photographers on Lightroom 4.  Adobe maintains an official YouTube channel with many great videos and tutorials, but its often helpful to get additional perspectives.  Please submit additional content through the comments section and we’ll add them to the list.

Lightroom 4.0 Now Available

The Lightroom team is proud to announce the availability of Lightroom 4.0.  With over 300,000 downloads of the Lightroom 4 public beta we’ve heard some resounding feedback that photographers would like to start using Lightroom 4 on a daily basis and migrate their previous Lightroom work to this latest version.  We’re also excited to announce new pricing for Lightroom 4: $149 for those new to Lightroom and $79 for the Upgrade and Student/Teacher editions.  (You can upgrade from any version of Lightroom to Lightroom 4)

Download Lightroom 4.0
Get Started with Julieanne Kost’s fantastic video tutorial series

Changes since the public beta:

  • Reverse geocoding now available in the Map Module
  • Revamped and improved auto tone in Develop based on new controls
  • Increased range of local white balance controls (temperature and tint)
  • Updated Develop presets plus added new presets for video
  • Maximum Blurb book size is now 240 pages
  • Over 800 bugs found and fixed! (Thank you Lightroom 4 beta customers!)

Important Release Notes

  • We found a late bug in the Lightroom 4 book module that would cause text errors if Courier New, Times or Callibri is the selected font.  Please preview your books as a PDF before submitting to blurb when using those fonts
  • Norton Antivirus 2012 incorrectly flags video related program files in Lightroom 4 as possible threats. Please instruct Norton Antivirus 2012 to exclude Lightroom 4 files from its scan.
  • McAfee Virus Scan prevents emails from being sent from Lightroom 4. Please instruct McAfee Virus Scan to exclude Lightroom 4 files from its scan.
  • AVCHD support is limited to MTS and M2TS video files. Dedicated video editors (such as Premiere Pro) may need the AVCHD file structure to process the files.
  • Lightroom can sometimes crash when printing to PDF in Windows 7. Lowering the resolution of the PDF in the print driver can help mitigate this.

New Camera Support in Lightroom 4.0

  • Canon EOS 1D X
  • Canon PowerShot G1 X
  • Canon PowerShot S100V
  • Fuji FinePix F505EXR
  • Fuji FinePix F605EXR
  • Fuji FinePix HS30EXR
  • Fuji FinePix HS33EXR
  • Fuji FinePix X-S1
  • Nikon D4
  • Nikon D800
  • Nikon D800E

New Lens Profiles Supported in Lightroom 4.0

Lens Mount Lens Name
Canon Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
Canon Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX II 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
Canon Tokina AT-X 165 PRO DX 16-50mm f/2.8 (IF) ASPHERICAL
Canon Tokina AT-X 535 PRO DX  50-135mm f/2.8 (IF)
Canon Tokina AT-X M35 PRO DX 35mm f/2.8 Macro
Canon Tokina AT-X M100 AF PRO D 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Canon Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX 11-16mm f/2.8
Nikon Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
Nikon Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX II 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
Nikon Tokina AT-X 165 PRO DX 16-50mm f/2.8 (IF) ASPHERICAL
Nikon Tokina AT-X 535 PRO DX  50-135mm f/2.8 (IF)
Nikon Tokina AT-X M35 PRO DX 35mm f/2.8 Macro
Nikon Tokina AT-X M100 AF PRO D 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Nikon Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX 11-16mm f/2.8
Nikon Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G
Nikon Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 II DC OS HSM
Leica LEICA APO-SUMMICRON-M 75 mm f/2 ASPH.
Leica LEICA APO-SUMMICRON-M 90 mm f/2 ASPH.
Leica LEICA APO-TELYT-M 135 mm f/3.4 ASPH.
Leica LEICA ELMAR-M 24 mm f/3.8 ASPH.
Leica LEICA ELMARIT-M 28 mm f/2.8 ASPH.
Leica LEICA ELMARIT-M 90 mm f/2.8
Leica LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90 mm f/4
Leica LEICA NOCTILUX-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH.
Leica LEICA SUMMARIT-M 35 mm f/2.5
Leica LEICA SUMMARIT-M 50 mm f/2.5
Leica LEICA SUMMARIT-M 75 mm f/2.5
Leica LEICA SUMMARIT-M 90 mm f/2.5
Leica LEICA SUMMICRON-M 28 mm f/2 ASPH.
Leica LEICA SUMMICRON-M 35 mm f/2 ASPH.
Leica LEICA SUMMICRON-M 50 mm f/2
Leica LEICA SUMMILUX-M 21 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
Leica LEICA SUMMILUX-M 24 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
Leica LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
Leica LEICA SUMMILUX-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
Leica LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 18 mm f/3.8 ASPH.
Leica LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21 mm f/3.4 ASPH.
Pentax Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC HSM
Pentax Sigma 50-200mm F4-5.6 DC HSM
Sony Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX 11-16mm f/2.8
Sony Tamron 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III VC B011
Sony Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC HSM
Sony Sigma 50-200mm F4-5.6 DC HSM
Sigma Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 II DC OS HSM

 

Thank You

The Lightroom team would thank our community of photographers for participating in the Lightroom 4 public beta.  We would also like to thank those “Most Valuable Contributors” who have worked very hard to provide guidance, plug-ins and support via various online forums.  MVC support has been crucial in helping many of our new customers and beta customers understand and learn all of the new features and functionality in Lightroom.

Magic or Local Laplacian Filters?

The Lightroom and Camera Raw team has been very pleased with all of the positive feedback on the new image processing(PV2012) available in the Lightroom 4 beta. (It will also be available in the next major version of the Camera Raw plug-in)  The ability to recover shadow and highlight detail with a straightforward set of controls without introducing artifacts or over-the-top faux-HDR effects is a huge leap forward in image processing.  I thought Scott Kelby summed it up quite well when he said, “Your photos look better processed in Lightroom 4. Period.”  Often, when a product from the Photoshop family produces something incredible, it’s referred to as magic.   However, the real magic is how the talented engineers at Adobe convert cutting edge research into elegant, easy to use software solutions.

The cutting edge research in this case is a paper titled, Local Laplacian Filters: Edge-aware Image Processing with a Laplacian Pyramid.   The title is certainly a mouthful and the body of the paper will be difficult to comprehend unless  you’ve spent a fair amount of time with equations that contain more Greek letters than numbers.  But don’t let the complexity prevent you from downloading the paper and perusing some of the sample images that demonstrate the challenges and results using various processing techniques.  The research is so impressive that it was published in SIGGRAPH 2011*, a prestigious journal in the computer graphics industry.

Why am I sharing this very technical piece of information?  The team would like to share the praise that we’re receiving for the new processing controls with the authors of this research paper:

Sylvain Paris
Adobe Systems, Inc		 Samuel W Hasinoff
Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago and MIT CSAIL		 Jan Kautz
University College London

 

Note: There is also some contributing knowledge from this paper as well: http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/67030 

* ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2011).

Exclusive Photoshop Event – FREE Sneak Peek!

Senior Photoshop Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes is traveling east for 2 exciting events that you’re invited to.  He’ll be joined by professional photographer and School of Visual Arts Theatre alum Sarah Silver for a look at Photoshop that you won’t want to miss.

Its free, but space is limited.

Thursday – http://www.meetup.com/Adobe-Photowalk/events/51022502/

Saturday – http://www.meetup.com/Adobe-Photowalk/events/51022982/

Both Tom Hogarty and I will be there as well, so we’d love to meet you in person!

Lightroom 4 and Windows XP

As many have noticed, the Lightroom 4 public beta we released last week does not support Windows XP.  This decision did not come lightly and was based on a number of factors.  With each version of Lightroom, our goal is always to provide a consistently excellent customer experience.  Developing and testing across Operating System versions and platforms to ensure that we’re achieving this goal is a significant effort that takes time and resources.  XP is substantially different from Windows Vista and Windows 7, and requires a independent testing matrix, which increases the complexity of our development efforts.   Every cycle we need to make difficult resource tradeoff decisions and operating system support competes heavily with new features and performance enhancements planned for each version.  The decision this cycle was to end XP support for Lightroom going forward.

NOTE: On the Mac platform we needed to make a similar decision to end support for systems that are not 64-bit capable.

Lightroom 4 beta resources

This is a list of various resources dedicated to educating photographers about Lightroom 4 public beta.  Please submit additional content through the comment field and I’ll add them to the list.  Adobe maintains an official YouTube channel that provides information about Lightroom 4 public beta but it’s often helpful to review other resources for a different perspective.