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Lightroom 2.0 Beta Q&A

Since the release of the Lightroom 2 public beta last week I’ve gotten a lot of questions via email and comments. I’ve been gathering them for a giant Q&A and that’s what you’ve stumbled on to here. Let’s get started:

Is Lightroom 2 beta going to be the only thing you’ll cover on this site from now on?
No way. Here’s the way I see it. Is LR 2 beta cool? Definitely! Am I going to move all of my production work over to it right now. Definitely not. It’s just too early. I’ll use it because it does make a large portion of my work faster but I’m going to stick with tips, news and tutorials that the bulk of people visiting here can use. I’m sure I’ll have in influx of LR 2 related stuff for the first couple weeks because that’s what people are asking for but it’s not going to take up everything. Sound good? (that’s not really a question by the way)

Why is Adobe doing a beta again with Lightroom 2?
They’re releasing a public beta again to get your feedback on the features. How they work, whether or not they work and do they work as intended. However, they are not releasing a public beta so you get to use LR 2 for free for a few of months. Adobe is recommending that you do not use LR 2 for production purposes. In fact, they’ve gone as far to make it so your LR 1 catalogs won’t even import into LR 2. In a nutshell, it really is just for testing purposes.

Will Lightroom 2.0 beta try to upgrade my Lightroom 1.0 Catalog/Library?
Nope. LR 2 beta doesn’t touch your LR 1 catalogs so rest assured that you can install them (and run them) side by side without affecting each other.

Can I export my catalog in Lightroom 1 and then import it into Lightroom 2?
Nope. If you want to use LR 2 then you’ll have to start a whole new catalog.

Well what the heck can I do to get my LR 1 photos into LR 2?
Start from scratch. There’s no tip, trick, or workaround that I can give you for this. Just import the photos like normal. If you only have a few folders it’s not a huge deal. If you have 50 or 100 then prepare to spend some time with it.

Will any work I do in LR 2 beta be preserved when the final product is released?
Right now we just don’t know. Adobe isn’t making any promises that the catalogs and everything you do to your photos will be preserved when you install the final LR 2 non-beta software. They’re usually pretty good about that stuff though, but don’t count on it. Remember, this is just for testing purposes.

Will my Lightroom 1 catalogs be preserved when Lightroom 2 officially ships and I buy/install it?
Definitely. If you upgrade when the final software is released, rest assured your catalogs from LR 1 will move over to LR 2 very easily.

Will presets from LR1 work in LR2?
So far I haven’t had any problems. They’ve worked just fine.

Will the final shipping version of LR2 be a free upgrade?
Abso-freakin-lutely not. I’m 100% sure that Adobe will charge you for LR 2 when it officially ships. My guess is that there will be an upgrade price and a full price much like there is with Photoshop today.

How much will it cost?I have no idea. I’d guess the full version will cost somewhere near what LR 1 cost (again, just a guess). Then take 50-75% of that and you probably have a good guess at the upgrade price.

When will LR 2 be officially released?Adobe isn’t saying yet. I don’t think the beta cycle will be as long as it was for Lightroom 1 (over a year) though.

Well, I’m actually very frustrated because the feature that I wanted most doesn’t seem to be included in LR 2 beta. That sucks!Well Mr. McNasty, it doesn’t mean that it definitely won’t be there. Adobe usually comes through with some new features that weren’t in the public beta. If you’re worried though the best thing you can do is give your input on the Lightroom forums that Adobe has set up. Here’s the link so take your nastiness and go there 🙂 Seriously though, the folks on the Lightroom team are very good at listening. It doesn’t always mean that a feature will make it in but you can bet that they’re trying their hardest to get as much as they can in and still make a quality product.

Well that wraps up the Lightroom 2 Q&A. I’m sure I’ve missed something so make sure you leave a comment to let me know if there’s still something you want to know.

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