Lightroom 4 Beta Release - Free Trial Download

[bbolding]

Lightroom 4 Beta release is available for download at last link...and Michael Reichmann's Luminous Landscape blurb at first link. "Believe me – there are very few people, who once they have spent any time discovering the depth of Lightroom, turn their backs on it." M.R.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/revie ... view.shtml
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4/

[deaner1971]

I just got LR3 and I am already falling behind!

I need to read the release notes and see what changed to decide on if I am buying the upgrade.

[bbolding]

Dean - the Lum. Landscape link in my post goes to a page that has a 22 min streaming vid. with some of the highlights...that might be helpful too

[deaner1971]

Thank you. I had not clicked on that yet.

That will be very beneficial since the press release really didn't say much. I am intrigued by how much improved the salvage is from areas where detail is lost. Starting to wonder if I should hang on to some of my images where I thought I'd never be able to savalge some shadows or highlights.

[bbolding]

Also Julieanne Kost has 8 epidsodes on LR4 Beta at this link
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/whats-new-in- ... om-4-beta/

[Andy]

I'm in the same boat Dean is. I just recently upgraded (from ver 1 !!) to LR3 and am in the process of reading a fat book on using LR3. I would like to tell Adobe to slow down, but I am afraid they might listen to me .

Dean, I am definitely keeping more of my images these days (really, since the advent of raw and newer versions of PS) -- am amazed at each new iteration's ability to do more with digital images than the last. Storage is cheap. The biggest problem for me is image management. My catalog gets bigger and bigger.

[bbolding]

On first glance some of the changes in the Develop module are absolutely fantastic. The changes to the the tone panel...removing "fill light" and now having discreet zones is excellent. The most important aspect I think are now the adjustment brush and grad filter have ALL the capabilities as the basic tone control panel. I would suggest watching J.K's tut on Develop Module Advancements...

[Andy]

Well! Updated to LR4. Forgot to do my homework . I have been running both CS5 and LR3 on WinXP Professional framework. That's 32 bit. I have a computer capable of 64bit, but we have traditionally run XP Pro here at work and IT was chary of switching at the time I bought the current laptop (we are there now on newer machines). Went to install LR4 after purchasing it and it told me no go -- Need Win7 or higher. Checked into "upgrading" current system to Win7 -- too much cost and hassle. I like the laptop for portability, especially when I travel and at home I hook it up to a large, HQ LCD monitor anyway. So, off to Best Buy to but buy a new laptop (the new SSHD models are really nice -- feather lite and thin -- but too much $, too little drive space and too much inconsistency in drive quality, so stuck with known quantity). Now have a new "dedicated" laptop (no work stuff -- just PS, LR and other stuff necessary for my "recreational" use) for PS, with Win7 Home Premium.

Installed LR4 - worked like a charm. Went to try to migrate my catalog -- FAIL! A couple hours over a couple days with Adobe online support -- Partial success, but in the end FAIL! I spent most of last weekend re-building all my cataloged image files by hand. Good news, I think the new structure is more logical and useful. I think there were just too many links to jump to make this work. I started with a catalog originally build in LR1.0, which I upgraded to 2.0 and then 3. something or other -- all on 32 bit platform. Then, trying to export/import -- just too much for it. That's behind me now, and I hope I never have to do it again - phew!

Now I will delve into the "bells and whistles." Am reading a book on it and tweaking as I go. Looks pretty powerful! Maybe enough to -- as Brandt has suggested -- significantly change my workflow. Will see

Now they are "teasing" CS6 . . . . . The content aware looks absolutely AMAZING! Pretty soon I won't have to compose at all. Just get all the elements I want in the frame and move them around and clone them

[deaner1971]

You guys are killing me! I was so happy with LR3 and now I am eyeing its younger and prettier sister!

My wife (aka the finance committee) will not be approving any additional large expensitures until I start delivering some goods so I need to spend the next few weekends producing some photo books and some prints for the house. Of course, what I really need is more time behind the camera so I can keep building on what I am learning but her standards are lower than mine and she doesn't quite see the incremental improvements I see and doesn't see why she has to wait.

Anyway, I am thinking about signing up for a photography or photo editing class at my local art college and using that class to get a educational copy of PS6 at the ridiculously cheaper ed price (class plus ed copy still way cheaper than full price) as a way to get my hands on the holy grail of software and some aducation as a bonus. Anyone done anything similar?

I also signed up for a two weekend photography class at the Columbus Zoo with the zoo's photographer. It is a really small group seminar where we get special access to the zoo so I am hoping that will be enlightening. Whole class is pretty much behind the camera so I am hoping for good insights. As a member we get the monthly zoo magazine and his work is very good so I am excited about this.

Sounds we all are having a summer of learning and development!

[deaner1971]

Have you all seen the price points on this? $150 for a full release and $79 for the upgrade from LR3/2/1? That is straight from the Adobe site (not a sale price) and can be either a download or a physical copy.

Wow, that is a serious drop from the prices on LR3.

[deaner1971]

Also, for anyone out there who didn't want to pay the full cost of CS5, you can now subscribe... $35 per month on a one-year contract or $49 per month on a month-to-month. Seems like auto leasing: cheaper yet you own nothing so are on continuous payments for perpituity.

At $420 for a yearly subscription, upgrading is still cheaper ($199 for the upgrade) but a subscription would cheaper than the full version ($699) or the upgrade from Elements ($599) in the short-term.