Lightroom 2 is Here!
Last night Adobe went public with the brand new version of Lightroom - Lightroom 2.0! If you recall, there was a public beta released back in April which caused quite a stir with it's new targeted localized adjustment tool. Well now Lightroom 2 is officially shipping and not only does it have all the cool features you remember from the beta, but its got some brand new stuff as well.
Over the course of the coming weeks I'll have lots of videos, news, and tips on taking advantage of Lightroom 2. To keep you busy today though, I figured I'd share some links I've come across as well as some of the videos that we've been working on:
• Tom Hogarty (Lightroom's Product Manager) has the inside track, so his blog is always a good place to start when a new version is released.
• Scott Kelby, RC, and I created the NAPP sponsored Lightroom 2 Learning Center. Of course you'll find out about all the new features there, but there's a few videos that Scott and I did that are worth some extra attention - even if you've seen all the new features. Once you go to the page, look at the list on the right and you'll see we did a Lightroom vs. Bridge (and Photoshop and ACR) comparison video. We get asked this all the time so we finally made a video to cover it.
• While you're on that NAPP Learning Center check out the "Other improvements and changes" video at the bottom of the list. We cover some of the smaller (but still really cool) stuff in there that may sneak by some people.
• Terry White shows that Lightroom 2 can be used for retouching too.
• Scott Kelby talks Lightroom 2 on his blog and announces that his Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers is available for pre-order. This will be THE Lightroom book of the year so get on the pre-order list now.
• I've created a 3-part training series at Kelby Training on Lightroom 2 called Lightroom 2 In Depth. Part 1 is all about importing and sorting your photos and where to store them. Part 2 is about developing and editing. Part 3 is about showing off your work and printing. Check it out here at Kelby Training's website.
• I've also created the Lightroom 2 Power Session. This one just dives into the new features of Lightroom 2 so if you've already used Lightroom before (and know it pretty well), and you just want the scoop on the new stuff, then it may be better for you.
Finally, I'd like to ask 2 favors from you:
1. Leave a comment here and share your thoughts about the new release.
2. Also, I've got a question for you. Are you upgrading? Why or why not? What's the big selling point(s) or what's holding you back?
Well folks, that's about it from here on launch day. I'll have lots more good stuff to come though so stay tuned to the website. Have fun!
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July 31st, 2008 at 12:20 pm
The new features look good but before I can upgrade I am going to have to work out how to use it without the Keyword Tags browser in the library, that is my primary way of finding images, as everything is tagged and with nested sets of tags to make things easy. The new find just seems so much slower
Also the price difference in the UK is hardly an incentive!
July 31st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Lightroom 2 looks great but while Adobe insist on ripping off their UK customers there’s no way I’ll upgrade and I’ll do everything I can to persuade others to do likewise.
Ted
July 31st, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I’ve actually completed the upgrade and am happily enjoying the new features. To answer your question, the big selling points for me was improved filtering, improved handling of unmounted volumes and improved editing tools.
For most of my work, Photoshop isn’t necessary any more! Overall, I think the upgrade is worth it!
Mark
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Hi Matt,
I have spent most of the weekend going through all of the video tutorials that you, Scott and others have done on LR2. I was really pleased to see that there are even more features than the Beta version, which I have tried since its launch. Printing to jpeg for lab processing is a great help to me. The adjustment brush, with extra features, is even more promising now. It seems that there may still be speed restrictions, but I could live with that. The camera profiles and editor look as though they are going to get over the Canon users problem with orange mush (me included).
So all that I have got to do now is come to terms with the international price. It’s not the price itself, it’s just the total inequality of it. I will hold off for now.
Shame on Adobe.
Thanks for the great work on PhotoshopUser TV, etc.
Steve
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Anyone know if Lightroom v2 allows you to see the focus points on the photo? I was hoping that would make it into v2.
August 4th, 2008 at 7:08 am
I’m living in Australia and the international pricing sucks so I won’t be buying it. I had my card out for the download and when I was redirected to the Australian shop and saw the price I put it away.
Shame on you adobe.
August 4th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I see many people are not happy with the overseas pricing. What is everyone seeing?
August 6th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
My upgrades are done. I don’t want to be left in the dust on this one. Some of the new features are life savers for me, such as the slide show.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
John,
When we click on the “buy now” button next to “from $99″ for the upgrade, we are redirected to our local Adobe shop site displaying the price we have to pay. This seems to vary from about x1.5 to x2 for the US price, even allowing for local taxes.
August 8th, 2008 at 12:54 am
I am sorry, but from where I am standing Adobe screwed up big.
In the first place, LR 2 is very slow on my MACPRO with 4 gigs, as slow as Aperture 1.5 was and was what made me switch from Aperture to Lightroom.
In the second place, PS roundtrip is not working right. LR2 sends the image to PS when I select edit in, but after I finish with the file in PS and close and save, the new file does not show up in LR 2. It is in the folder but not in the catalog. I either have to re-import the image or sync the folder. On either case, it is not stacked with the original.
What’s up??
Is there a setting or something? or just a big screw up from Adobe? Why isn’t Adobe addressing this issues in public?
August 8th, 2008 at 6:11 am
Steve,
The markup for the overseas market is substantial. I can’t help but wonder why. I’m sure Adobe has its reasons.
David,
Sorry to hear you are dragging on speed. I run on PC’s. I wish I felt I was in a position to be of senior advice.
Till later,
John
August 8th, 2008 at 9:31 am
There is an issue with the edit in photoshop option. You do have to sync the folder afterwards. It seems as if LR2 is built for Vista x64 on a quad core system because I have had a improvement in performance compared to LR1.4. Despite what others have said.
On a 64bit quad system with only 2GB of DDR3 I’m running much faster. I have my catalog with over 20,000 DNG photos in it. From time to time I’ve noticed when browsing through all the photos in grid view it can lag from time to time but thats just do to the large files. Launching LR2 is much faster, LR1.4 always took a few min for me and LR2 is pretty instant.
Between the 64bit support and Dual Monitor support the upgrade was worth it. The masking brush and gradient tools are nice touches but not the key features. I’m still waiting for internal HDR and Pano Stitching support.
I have yet to test if I can now load gigapixel photos into lightroom. Previously in LR1.4 there was a resolution limit. Will see if thats the case in LR2
August 9th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
LR2 is completely worth it. While retouching is fantastic, seems to slow things down a little. My only other gripe at this point is that with picture package you cannot place more than one image (ie. 2 or more different files) on a page; a major bummer for me. Hats off to Adobe
August 11th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I love Lightroom but will definitely be not donating to Adobe’s scheme to get even richer even quicker by ripping-off its non-US customers. Nor will I be purchasing any other Adobe product as long as their current policy continues. At best, however excellent, their products have always been overpriced but this latest cynical exploitation of their dominant position in the market is just too much to stomach.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I just upgraded and have found my first bug. It is a really strange one. First let me say I am on a Mac with 3 printers always connected. This has never been a problem in the past, but since I have apgraded to LR 2, in the Print module, even though all my settings are set to print to my Epson 4800, the first time I try to print anything, it starts to print to my HP Laserjet. If I cancel the print job and do it over, then it correctly prints to my 4800. This is starting to get a little annoying since I do all my own printing. Anyone else had this problem?
August 20th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
When I use LR2 new brush say adjusting the exposure it will lock up on me or will work very slowly. Is this common or am I having a memory problem. I have 3 g of ram? Help love the program but just can’t seem to use the edit tools which is the most important to me.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Thanks for all the help guys - well done,great support to have around especially all the new little tricks . Keep up the good work !!
Cheers
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Hi Matt,
I have a question about Lightroom v2. One of the things I had missed in v1.x was to adjust the perspective of a foto (especially important, e.g. when the fotos contains buildings that should have horizontal / vertical lines instead of a wrong “visual perspective”).
I was surprise to see that this feature hasn’t been added into v2.
Do you think I’m the only one missing this feature? It seems to be straightforward to implement…(?)
Thank you for your opinion about this,
Christian