Category: General

Several photographers have asked about running Lightroom 2 as a 64-bit application on Windows XP x64. Lightroom will not install as a 64-bit application on Windows XP by default because it’s not an officially supported platform for our 64-bit version.(Lightroom is officially supported on Vista x64)   But when you run the Lightroom installer and choose to "Open the Specified Folder" in the Files are Ready dialog (Be sure to uncheck the option to "Launch the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 Installer")  you’ll see an Adobe Photoshop Lightroom directory that contains "setup32" and "setup64" executables.  I’ll let you pick the one you think most appropriate.  

Again, just to be clear, running Lightroom 2 as a 64-bit application on Windows XP x64 is not a supported configuration.  The testing required to certify an additional operating system is a significant effort but there was not enough evidence to suggest that we should completely disable the configuration. 

Why all the excitement about a 64-bit version of Lightroom?  64-bit capable operating systems and applications can take advantage of more memory than 32-bit systems.  If you have a 64-bit environment with more than 4GB of RAM you’re most likely to see improvement in the responsiveness of the Develop module where Lightroom is loading large amounts of information into memory. (A common misconception is that 64-bit systems will see an improvment in import or export performance. Those operations are largely disk-bound so they’re dependent on the speed of your hard drive for performance improvements.)

There has been quite a bit of discussion around the concept of plug-ins for Lightroom. When photographers think of plug-ins it typically brings to mind very unique or specific filters designed to adjust the appearance of an image. Photoshop has a rich history of supporting these image processing plug-ins. The extensibility of Lightroom is different in that we’ve been focused on workflow extensibility that allows developers and photographers to extend the application as a workflow platform that connects to third party services, allows for custom web galleries or custom metadata to adapt to a photographer’s workflow. Photographers would still like to see image processing plug-ins in Lightroom and I agree with them. But for a plug-in to actually behave like a plug-in it can’t break the non-destructive workflow. There has been a little flurry of discussion around the Aperture 2.1 image processing “plug-in” API and the subsequent utilities released behave less like a plug-in and almost exactly like the external editor functionality that has been available since Lightroom 1.0. If a plug-in requires that a derivative TIFF or PSD file be created and block access to prior non-destructive adjustments it’s not really plugged into the application is it? 

However, if external editors are what you need, we’ve got them.  In Lightroom 2 we’ve added the ability to define as many external editors as you want. And you don’t have to wait for software manufactures to create a custom “plug-in” for Lightroom, just utilize the existing standalone application like the one available for Noise Ninja. The optimal implementation of an external edit interface at this point is the use of a smart object workflow with Photoshop CS3. I’ve used it many times with PTLens and I really appreciate the fact that I can go back and adjust raw settings after I’ve applied the PTLens correction.(Then revisit the PTLens settings) This is an incredibly powerful link between the raw and rendered workflow and half measures with marketing spin labeled as “plug-ins” are not the highest priority for the Lightroom team.

The Camera Raw 4.5 and DNG Converter Release Candidates (RC) are now available on Adobe Labs. The ‘release candidate’ label indicates that the plug-in is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers. The Camera Raw team would like the community to help verify the quality of the plug-in through normal usage as this will ensure that the plug-in is tested on a diversity of hardware and software configurations not available internally at Adobe.

This release includes new camera support for the Olympus E 420 and E 520 camera models.

Please provide feedback on your experience with the Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and the DNG Converter on the Camera Raw User to User forum

For Lightroom customers who would like to use the new support provided for the Olympus cameras, download the DNG Converter release candidate and convert your raw files to DNG before importing them into Lightroom 1.4.1.

The Lightroom 2 beta has two expiration dates.  If you already own Lightroom it’s August 31st.  If you don’t own Lightroom it’s 30 days after you started testing the beta.(A 30 day trial)   I don’t think anyone disagrees that it’s important to reward the current owners for their purchase and use of the first version of Lightroom but we also don’t want to discourage new customers from providing feedback on the future of Lightroom.  To that end, we’ve provided current Lightroom customers with the opportunity to invite friends or folks they meet on the forums to enjoy the beta through the end of August.  Don’t be shy.  If someone has taken the time to provide feedback on the forums and wants to continue using the beta beyond 30 days, send them an invitation.  It’s a quick process and I’ve already sent many invitations myself. 
The invitation link is here: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs_lightroom_invite
Enter your Lightroom 1 serial number to authenticate the process and you’ll be able to send up to 5 invitations at a time. (The invitee will receive an email with a serial number for use with the beta)

The Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera Raw 4.4.1 updates have been posted to the following locations: Lightroom(Mac, Win), Camera Raw(Mac, Win).  The updates provide all of the changes included in the original Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 releases but also include corrections for issues described below and in previous blog posts.  The Camera Raw plug-in will also be available later this evening via the Adobe Update Manager and the Lightroom update can be located by choosing ‘Check for Updates…’ under the Help menu. 
The Lightroom and Camera Raw team apologize for any inconveniences caused by the issues presented in the initial updates

Lightroom

• Lightroom 1.4 incorrectly modified the EXIF time date field of images that had a metadata update applied.  This incorrect modification does not appear in Lightroom or Bridge and is only viewable through third party EXIF tools.  This error has been corrected in Lightroom 1.4.1 and all files in a Lightroom catalog that have been incorrectly modified will be corrected on their next metadata update. (Metadata can be updated by selecting the files in the Library grid view and choosing Command or CTRL + S to save and update the metadata.)
• Olympus JPEG files could render incorrectly in Lightroom 1.4, displaying an artifact in the exported file.
• Any conversion to DNG in Lightroom 1.4 (Windows Only) would cause the DNG file to become unreadable by Lightroom’s Develop Module or Camera Raw 4.4 in Photoshop.  The issue has been corrected and files can be converted to DNG again in order to resolve the issue for existing files.  Returning to the original native raw files is not necessary.  The affected DNG files can be selected and converted again using the DNG Converter 4.4.1 available at www.adobe.com/dng/.  This process is not required but recommended to ensure that a correct validation value is stored within the DNG files.
• Lightroom 1.4 provided degraded import performance relative to Lightroom 1.3.

Camera Raw

• Camera Raw 4.4 incorrectly modified the EXIF time date field of images that were saved as TIFF or JPEG files from the Camera Raw dialog.  This has been corrected in Camera Raw 4.4.1
• Olympus JPEG files could render incorrectly in Camera Raw 4.4, displaying an artifact in the exported file.
  

The Lightroom 1.4 update for Mac and Windows has been temporarily removed from the Adobe.com web site.  Those Lightroom users who have installed Lightroom 1.4 should uninstall the update and install Lightroom 1.3.1.(Mac, Win) until a further update can be provided. For those not in immediate need of the updated camera support available in Camera Raw 4.4 or the DNG 4.4 Converter, it’s recommended that you also continue working with the 4.3.1 versions. (Mac, Win)  This decision is based on the following errors that have been discovered with the recent update:

• EXIF Time Stamp Error: There is an error in the EXIF time stamp update technology that causes Lightroom to believe that the files are out of sync with the correct time stamp as displayed in Lightroom. Any ensuing metadata update will attempt to incorrectly modify the EXIF time stamp in the original raw file itself.  This is the only metadata field that Lightroom will write to an original proprietary raw file. This error will not impact the integrity of your image data.  The Camera Raw plug-in also will incorrectly change the EXIF time stamp in files converted by the plug-in.  The information written to the XMP sidecar files or XMP metadata in the converted files will remain correct.
• DNG Conversion Error(Windows Only): With the latest version of the Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 applications, Adobe has included technology to verify that the image data in a DNG file is unchanged from when it was originally converted to DNG.  Unfortunately, when converting to DNG using Lightroom 1.4 on Windows, the application will write an incorrect verification tag to describe the image data.  When Lightroom attempts to work with those files in the Develop module, the application reads that incorrect tag, believes that there is something wrong with the raw data and will present an error.  Rest assured, there is nothing wrong with the integrity of your image data or metadata.  For those that have already converted their files to DNG using Lightroom 1.4(Windows only) we recommend using the DNG 4.3.1 converter to convert the DNG files you’ve created with Lightroom 1.4.
• Olympus Conversion Error:  There is an error in converting Olympus JPEG files to other formats in Lightroom 1.4 and the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in. 

To uninstall Lightroom 1.4 please see the instructions per your platform:
Mac: Delete the Lightroom application in the Application folder(Mac) and Delete the following file:  Library/Receipts/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg
Windows: Choose the Uninstall Lightroom 1.4 menu item from the Windows start menu.  The Add/Remove Program utility on Windows will also achieve the same result. 

To replace the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in with the 4.3.1 plug-in, follow the manual installation instructions provided on the download page linked above.

I will post additional updates to this blog as we have more information on the timing and scope of the future update.