June 25, 2009

Adobe Walks

As part of Scott Kelby's second-annual worldwide photowalk Adobe is leading the charge with four walks of our own, hosted and joined by members of the Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge or Camera Raw teams.  Space is limited so sign up quickly to walk and shoot with Adobe's digital imaging team:

Enjoy!

June 23, 2009

Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4 Now Available

Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4 are now available as final releases on Adobe.com and through the update mechanisms available in Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.  These updates include camera support for the following models:
  • Canon           EOS 500D (Digital Rebel T1i/EOS Kiss X3 Digital)
  • Canon          PowerShot SX1 IS
  • Epson           R-D1x
  • Hasselblad    CF-22
  • Hasselblad    CF-22MS
  • Hasselblad    CF-39
  • Hasselblad    CF-39MS
  • Hasselblad    CFH-22
  • Hasselblad    CFH-39
  • Hasselblad    CFV
  • Hasselblad    503CWD
  • Hasselblad    H2D-22
  • Hasselblad    H2D-39
  • Hasselblad    H3D-22
  • Hasselblad    H3D-31
  • Hasselblad    H3D-39
  • Hasselblad    H3DII-22
  • Hasselblad    H3DII-31
  • Hasselblad    H3DII-39
  • Hasselblad    H3DII-39MS
  • Hasselblad    H3DII-50
  • Kodak          EasyShare Z980
  • Nikon            D5000
  • Olympus       E-450
  • Olympus       E-620
  • Panasonic     Lumix DMC-GH1
  • Pentax          K-7
  • Sigma           DP2
  • Sony            A230
  • Sony            A330
  • Sony            A380

Note: Hasselblad support is for the 3FR file format only.  The Hasselblad FFF file format is not currently supported.

Lightroom 2.4 Bug Fixes

The Lightroom 2.4 update includes several bug fixes.  The following is a list of items FIXED in this release.

  • Web galleries with a Collection Title of six characters would not export or upload
  • The crop aspect ratio could revert to the last selected ratio even when reset to original
  • The crop aspect ratio in Quick Develop could be lost after a crop adjustment
  • The crop aspect ratio lock could be lost after an orientation switch
  •  Images could preview incorrectly when imported using the MTP/PTP USB protocol
  • Sony .ARW files may not have been recognized by Lightroom’s import dialog
  • The Japanese language configuration of Lightroom on Mac OS X 10.5 could fail to switch to the print module if the HP B9180 was set as the default printer
  • Metadata options that are intended for use were dimmed incorrectly when exporting DNG files
  • The Japanese language configuration of Lightroom on Mac OS X was missing a shortcut for “Zoom Out”
  • Several translation and shortcut corrections were made for the eight additional languages introduced with Lightroom 2.3

New Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4 DNG Options

This release includes new DNG Compatibility conversion options. These choices help address the additional options available with the new DNG 1.3 Specification (http://www.adobe.com/dng):

  • Camera Raw 2.4 and later: The DNG file will be readable by Camera Raw 2.4 (Photoshop CS) and later, and Lightroom 1.0 and later
  • Camera Raw 4.1 and later: The DNG file will be readable by Camera Raw 4.1 (Photoshop CS3) and later, and Lightroom 1.1 and later. The DNG file will often be readable by earlier versions, depending on the camera model
  • Camera Raw 4.6 and later: The DNG file will be readable by Camera Raw 4.6 (Photoshop CS3) and later, and Lightroom 2.1 and later. The DNG file will often be readable by earlier versions, depending on the camera model
  • Camera Raw 5.4 and later: The DNG file will be readable by Camera Raw 5.4 (Photoshop CS4) and later, and Lightroom 2.4 and later. The DNG file will often be readable by earlier versions, depending on the camera model
  • Custom: (Not available in Lightroom 2.4)
    • Backward Version Option: DNG 1.1, DNG 1.3 (default 1.3)
    • Checkbox: Linear (demosaiced) (default unchecked)
    • Checkbox: Uncompressed (default unchecked)

DNG 1.3 Specification Update

The DNG specification has been updated to version 1.3.[LINK] The update includes the following changes:

  • In Chapter 2, “DNG Format Overview”, the section on Defective Pixels has been updated
  • The section on Opcode Lists has been added to Chapter 2, “DNG Format Overview”
  • The CFALayout tag has been updated in Chapter 4, “DNG Tags”.
  • Additional Tags for Version 1.3.0.0 were added to Chapter 4, “DNG Tags”
  • Chapter 7, “Opcode List Processing” was added.
  • “Appendix A: Compatibility with Previous Versions” was updated.

The additional "Opcode Lists" allow complex processing to be moved off the camera hardware, which can have limited processing power, and into the DNG reader, which is often running on more powerful hardware. This also allows processing steps to be specified, such as lens corrections, which ideally should be performed on the image data after it has been demosaiced, while still retaining the advantages of a raw mosaic data format.

May 21, 2009

Camera Raw 5.4 Available on Adobe Labs

The Camera Raw 5.4 Release Candidate is now available on Adobe Labs. The release includes new camera support for the following models:

* Canon EOS 500D (EOS Rebel T1i)
* Epson R-D1x
* Hasselblad CF-22
* Hasselblad CF-22MS
* Hasselblad CF-39
* Hasselblad CF-39MS
* Hasselblad CFH-22
* Hasselblad CFH-39
* Hasselblad CFV503
* Hasselblad CWD
* Hasselblad H2D-22
* Hasselblad H2D-39
* Hasselblad H3D-22
* Hasselblad H3D-31
* Hasselblad H3D-39
* Hasselblad H3DII-22
* Hasselblad H3DII-31
* Hasselblad H3DII-39
* Hasselblad H3DII-39MS
* Hasselblad H3DII-50
* Kodak EasyShare Z980
* Nikon D5000
* Olympus E-450
* Olympus E-620
* Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1
* Sigma DP2

This release also includes new DNG Compatibility conversion options. These choices are explained on the Adobe Labs web site and help address the additional options available with an upcoming revision of the DNG Specification.

If you have feedback on this release please post a descriptive topic on the Adobe User to User forums.

A Lightroom 2.4 Release Candidate is not currently available.

May 11, 2009

May/June User Group Events

The Twin Cities Lightroom User Group will meet Wednesday, May 13, 2009, from 7-9PM.

Topics and speakers include:

Rick Spaulding will talk about the latest in digital SLR equipment - everything from camera bodies, to lenses and flashes.

Rikk Flohr, professional photographer and trainer, will discuss his Lightroom HDR worklow and using external editors in Lightroom - including Enfuse and the Photomatix LR Plugin.

Craig Marble, Senior Lightroom QE Lead, will give out some insider tips about presets in Lightroom.

More information on the group's website and Facebook page.


The Indianapolis Lightroom User Group will meet June 3, 2009 from 12:00pm - 2:00pm. More information on the group's website and Adobe Group page.

April 29, 2009

Terry White's "My Photoshop Lightroom Workflow" Recording Now Available

Adobe evangelist Terry White has posted a recording of his session “An Evening with Terry White - My Photoshop Lightroom Workflow” along with some follow up Q&A for folks who couldn't make it to the session last night:

http://terrywhite.com/techblog/?p=2021

Web Gallery A-Go-Go

Rikk Flohr, photographer, trainer and Twin Cities Lightroom User Group member, recently presented "Building a PayPal Functional Web Gallery in Lightroom" using LightroomGalleries.com's HTML and Flash PayPal galleries at the March UG event. He's created a follow up article here for folks who couldn't be at the event.

For photographers looking for a web gallery designed specifically for the the iPhone, Matthew Campagna from The Turning Gate released his TTG iPhone Portfolio Gallery.

Additionally, Matthew has set out to produce a series of tutorials walking users through their first Lightroom-produced website. His first article "An Introduction to FTP: Putting your stuff online" tries to demystify FTP for folks who find putting their work online a daunting task.

Christian Løverås, of Oslo, Norway, blogs about adding Google Analytics JavaScript to Lightroom HTML web template.

Finally, a round up of resources for creating your own gallery templates for use in Lightroom's Web module:

Sean McCormack's 5-part series on creating a Lightroom Gallery:

Anatomy of a HTML Gallery
The galleryInfo.lrweb file
The manifest.lrweb and html files
Adding styles
Live Update

While folks have been reverse engineering Lightroom's web templates since the initial beta with some help from the LR team, the web engine functionality is now officially documented in Lightroom's SDK.

April 28, 2009

Saving Time with Local Adjustment Presets

Kelly Castro is an amazing photographer who also happens to be a quality engineer on the Lightroom development team. He has put together a short blog post on creating and using local adjustment presets in Lightroom.

Check out Kelly's black and white tutorial here and his flickr photostream here



On first glance, the Local Adjustment Panel in Lightroom 2 can be a little intimidating.

One way to make this powerful feature easier to use is to take advantage of its ability to save regularly used groups of effects as presets. Like other types of presets available throughout Lightroom, the Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter presets allow you to spend more time enhancing your images and less time dialing in settings.

Saving a Local Adjustment Preset is simple. To see how simple, let's take a step-by-step look at the creation of two presets that are useful for portrait retouching.

Continue reading "Saving Time with Local Adjustment Presets" »

April 20, 2009

Lightroom Tweets

Melissa Gaul, Lightroom Technical Evangelist and the Melissa in MelissaRGB, has begun posting nuggets of Lightroom goodness to Twitter.

Other Lightroom team members on Twitter (in a personal and/or professional capacity):

Eric Scouten - Computer Scientist
Tom Hogarty - Product Manager
Troy Gaul - Project Lead
Philip Clevenger - Experience Design Manager
Kevin Tieskoetter - Computer Scientist
Jeffrey Tranberry - Photoshop QE Product Lead & Lightroom Evangelist

Adobe TV tweets updates to free video content featuring expert insight, tips and tricks for Adobe products including Lighroom.

For those interested, Serge Jespers has compiled a list of Adobeans on Twitter here.

April 7, 2009

Under the Hood with Winston Hendrickson

Our own Winston Hendrickson, Sr. Director - DI Engineering, recently sat down with Derrick Story to discuss Lightroom, Photoshop, Bridge, and Adobe Camera Raw.

Derrick writes, "During this chat in a conference room at Adobe headquarters, Winston and I talk about what's happening under the hood for Bridge, ACR, and Photoshop. He explains lots of goodies such as, the difference between the Lightroom and Bridge "databases," the similarities between the Develop module in Lightroom and the sliders in ACR, improvements in Photoshop, and some great lesser-known features such as Camera Profiles. Terrific, informative interview."

Listen to the interview here: "Adobe Engineer Pops the Hood on CS4" - Digital Photography Podcast 171

April 2, 2009

An Evening with Terry White

Join Adobe evangelist Terry White via Adobe Connect for "An Evening with Terry White" where he will cover his Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 workflow from start to finish.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm Eastern Time Zone
Location: http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/eveningwithterry

Details on the event are on his
Facebook event page

Additional details from Terry in this post's extended entry.

Continue reading "An Evening with Terry White" »