George Jardine formally the Adobe Lightroom evangelist and well known for his series of Lightroom Podcasts has just released a new series of video tutorials for Lightroom 3. The series comprises 15 high quality video tutorials amounting to 5 hours of in depth discussion focused on the Lightroom 3 Develop module. As with the Library module tutorials this new series are Flash based although iPad versions are available. However, they are intended to be viewed on-line, so make sure your internet service provides an adequate bandwidth allowance.
Monthly Archives: October 2010
Adobe Lens Profile Creator and Downloader
Adobe have just released an updated version of the Adobe Lens Profile Creation tool (discussed elsewhere on this website) and a new Lens Profile Downloader application.
The lens profile downloader is a standalone Adobe AIR application. It’s a free companion application to Photoshop CS5, Photoshop Lightroom 3, and the Camera Raw 6 plug-in, and is intended to allow customers to search, download, rate and comment on the online lens correction profiles that are created and shared by the user community. Lightroom 3 users in particular will find this application very useful, especially if they don’t have a copy Photoshop CS5.
As can be seen from the screen shot shown below the UI is relatively straightforward. To find a lens profile it’s a simple matter of first selecting the camera vendor name (e.g. Canon). A list of all available* lens profiles will appear. This list of available lens profiles can be further refined by choosing the lens model from the relevant drop-down menu. Further refinement can be achieved from within the Camera Model and Crop Factor drop-down menus.
Adobe Lens Profile Downloader Application
The downloader application also provides users with the facility to rate and comment on any lens profiles that they have downloaded. However, to comment or rate a lens profile you must be logged on to Photoshop.com. Typically, this will be by inserting your Adobe Account user name and password into the Sign In dialog.
* Only community created lens profiles are available via the downloader application. Profiles created by Adobe or their partners (e.g. Sigma, Tamron, etc) are incorporated into the download package for Lightroom and Camera Raw.
Adobe Lightroom 3.3 and Camera Raw Release Candidates
Adobe have announced Lightroom 3.3 and Camera Raw 6.3 Release Candidates on Adobe Labs. An updated version of DNG Converter is also available for download. The “release candidate” label is used to indicate that these updates have undergone internal testing but would benefit from additional user testing.
It’s worth noting that neither includes any new features, just bugs fixes and support for new cameras and lenses. The full list of bug fixes is documented in the release notes, but the following are probably the most important in terms of Lightroom performance, stability and usability:
- Edit in PS CS4 from LR 3.2 did not give option to render to TIFF/PSD
- Process Version defaults to PV 2003 when Lightroom’s installed Develop Presets are applied on Import
- Lightroom 3 could fail to launch Photoshop CS5 if Photoshop CS4 was uninstalled after the Photoshop CS5 installation
- Lightroom could crash when the metadata filter is selected and the grid is displaying all images in the catalog
- Numerous cloning or healing spots could cause Lightroom to become unresponsive
Tip: while performance of clone/heal tool has been much improved it can further improved by temporarily disabling any lens profiles that you may have applied. Disable the profile correction via the checkbox not the panel switch!
Both Lightroom 3.3 and Camera Raw 6.3 include support for the following recently introduced cameras:
- Nikon D7000
- Nikon Coolpix P7000
- Nikon D3100
- Canon PowerShot S95
- Canon PowerShot G12
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2
- Samsung NX100
- Samsung TL350 (WB2000)
In addition to the newly supported cameras these updates also include new or updated lens profiles. The full list of newly supported lenses is included with the release notes.