The screenshot shown below shows the new History feature nested within the Presets panel. I find this arrangement a bit confusing, but consideration is being given to breaking it out into its own panel. The History panel automatically records each adjustment as you make it and is a much more useful (read powerful) feature than I had expected.

Example of Image Adjustments History

18 July 2006

As noted above, the History panel automatically and independently keeps track of the changes applied to each image, so selecting any line in the History panel will return the image to the edited state at that point in time. By hitting the "Add (+)" button at the top of the history panel a History Checkpoint is created. This checkpoint actually collapses the current history states into a single user history state (similar to Photoshop snapshot). The checkpoints can then be used as "pseudo-Versions or Renditions", meaning that a single RAW image can have multiple "renditions" (i.e. one image with multiple sets of settings denoted by the history date/time stamp in above screenshot). Double clicking the date/time stamp checkpoint will allow you to edit the checkpoint so that it has a more readily recognisable name.  You can then hover the mouse backwards and forwards over the checkpoints, whilst at the same time watching the effect in the Navigator preview. Once you see the version you're looking for simply click the relevant date/time stamp or checkpoint name and the main preview will reflect the settings that had been saved into the history checkpoint. The following screenshot is an example of this technique being put to use. The screenshot shows the original image along with 3 other "renditions", each of which is based upon a sequence of edits involving amongst others:  Exposure, Brightness, Contrast, Split Tone effects, and  Cropping.

Using History Checkpoints as Pseudo-versions or Renditions

Lightroom interoperability with Photoshop CS2 has also been improved, and a few bugs have also being fixed. Lightroom creates a 16-bit Tiff copy of images before launching Photoshop, and when the edits are being saved via Photoshop the user can save the image back into the Lightroom library. The main advantage of using this method of exporting images is that it keeps the edited TIFF file within the library, which should mean that you don't have to re-import it back into Lightroom when you've finished editing it in Photoshop.
 

Editing Image in Photoshop

Another very welcome feature is that Lightroom now provides the user to define the Size and Resolution of images within the Export dialog. Although the screenshot shows the output specified in pixels it's also possible to define it in centimetres or inches. Obviously Lightroom will up/down sample the image to match the size and resolution specified.

Enhanced Export dialog with new Size and Resolution options

Print Module

The Print module also includes some very useful enhancements. For example,  followers of George Jardine's Lightroom Podcasts will probably recall members of the Team discussing the possibility of a One-button Print feature. Well, it's included with Beta 3 and works extremely well. I have included a screenshot showing the list of Print Templates that I've configured for my Epson R2400 printer. The screenshot also shows the new Photo Information options that can be printed with the image. More information on One-button Print configuration is available from Jeff Schewe at PhotoshopNews.Com.

Enhanced Print module showing new One-button Print feature and Photo Information

One other thing of note regarding the Print module - it now uses the Adobe Colour Engine (ACE) with the Black Point Compensation for improved print quality. Again, I can't go into details as to why this change was made, but the improvements I see in some images are not insignificant. The earlier issue of broken rendering intents has been fixed, so I expect that many of those who had printing problems with Beta 1 and 2 will be a lot happier with Beta 3.

Web Module

The new kid on the block for Beta 3 is the Web module. This module provides support for Flash and HTML content, and provides a fair degree of flexibility in how the site should appear. The screenshot shown below is an example based upon the default Flash gallery. Using the Token system in Image Settings panel it's possible to add Titles, Captions plus information such as EXIF and IPTC data to each image

Sample Flash Gallery

The Web module also includes a native FTP client as shown in the screenshot below. Whilst I haven't spent a great deal of time testing this particular aspect of Lightroom I did find that it worked reliably and was fairly easy to use.

Native FTP Support

Conclusion

If you've got this far and still feel disappointed because a "must have" feature hasn't been included, then I suggest you go back to the beginning and reread the initial few paragraphs - Lightroom is still work-in-progress. Sure, we would like the ability to rename images within the Library, have the ability to move images from folder to folder like we can in Adobe Bridge, synchronise libraries between laptop and desktop computers, provide dual-screen support, clone and dust removal tools, etc, etc. However, there are very good reasons why these features are still not available - remember the phrase: "Rome wasn't built in a day"

Lightroom  for Windows is due to be available in the summer of 2006

 

Rule 5: ENJOY!

 

For another perspective on Beta 3 see Jeff Schewe's review at PhotoshopNews.Com