Lightroom 4 beta now available
by thogarty

Created
January 10, 2012

The Lightroom team is proud to introduce the fourth major version of the product designed for and by photographers. It was 6 years ago today when we introduced the very first public beta of Lightroom at MacWorld on January 9, 2006. (Yes, it was Mac only, smaller in footprint than most raw files and didn’t have a crop tool!) Since 2006 we’ve been hard at work improving an application that’s intended to be as easy to use as it is powerful. This release builds on the fundamental performance architecture and image quality improvements in Lightroom 3 to provide a truly complete workflow solution. I kept hearing from customers that they love Lightroom but needed to leave the Lightroom to complete X, Y or Z. Lightroom 4 tackles those issues with improvements to image organization, adjustment tools and comprehensive publishing options.

Download the beta http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4/

Talk about the beta http://forums.adobe.com/community/labs/lightroom4/

Learn about the beta http://www.youtube.com/lightroom
IMPORTANT NOTES, PLEASE READ
Primary Known Issues

Lightroom 4 beta is not complete but please provide feedback on the available enhancements.
Lightroom 4 beta will not upgrade Lightroom 1.x, Lightroom 2.x or Lightroom 3.x catalogs. The beta is intended to be used for testing and feedback purposes. Lightroom 1.x, 2.x, 3.x and 4 beta libraries will be able to be migrated to the finished version of Lightroom 4.
While data loss is not expected, this is an early ‘beta’ quality build and you should always work on duplicates of files that are securely backed up.
Lightroom 4 beta will not overwrite or interfere with a machine that currently has Lightroom 1, Lightroom 2 or Lightroom 3 installed.
Develop settings applied in Lightroom 4 beta are not guaranteed to transfer correctly to the final version of Lightroom 4
The Lightroom 4 beta will expire after Lightroom 4.0 is available

Additional known issues are listed below.

Anyone can download and work with the Lightroom 4 beta for the duration of the beta program. There is no serial number requirement.
Supported File Formats

• JPEG
• TIFF (8 bit, 16 bit)
• PSD (8 bit, 16 bit)
• DNG
• Raw (Please visit http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html for a full list of raw file support. File support for Lightroom 4 beta, aligns with Lightroom 3.6 and Camera Raw 6.6)
Important File Format Support Exceptions (Formats not supported)

• PSD files saved without a composite image. (Saved without “Maximize Compatibility” setting)
• Files with dimensions greater than 65,000 pixels per side
High Level Summary of What’s New

Robust Video Support
Manage images by location with the Map Module
Simplified Basic Adjustments
Powerful new Shadow & Highlight controls
Additional local adjustments including Noise Reduction and White Balance
Soft Proofing Reinvented
Elegant Photo Book creation
Email from directly within Lightroom
Publish videos directly to Facebook or Flickr
Enhanced DNG workflows
Adobe Revel export workflow

Lightroom 4 beta Enhancements

Video Support
Lightroom 3 added the ability to import, manage and tag video files but as the popularity of video capture increases it’s important to provide a single, robust workflow solution that can support all of your imaging needs regardless if they’re still images or video captures. Lightroom 4 adds native playback for a wide variety of formats from mobile phones to high end DSLRs. Photographers can also apply common image adjustments to their video clips in real time. Additional video details:

Video playback directly within Lightroom
Video trimming (In and Out points)
Set Video poster frame. (This is the thumbnail that appears in the grid view)
Extract a single frame from a video as a JPEG file
Most popular DSLR, compact camera and smart phone video formats supported including AVCHD (AVCHD is the native format for Sony DSLRs and many new Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens, MIL, cameras)
Videos can be adjusted with a subset of the same controls we use for images.
White Balance (JPEG Equivalent)
Basic Tone
Exposure
Contrast
White Clipping
Black Clipping
Saturation
Vibrance
Tone Curve
Color Treatment (HSL)
Black and White
Split Toning
Process Version and Calibration

Map Module

It’s great that digital cameras automatically record a date/time stamp so that when it comes time find that image from New Years 2003, it’s easy to filter your image collection based on the information recorded by the camera. However, the “when” of an image is only half of the equation. What about the “where?” As an increasing number of cameras, smart phones leading the pack with compact cameras following closely behind, the “where” is also being recorded at the time of capture. Even Sony’s high-end a77 and a65 DSLR cameras have an option to automatically record the GPS coordinates of where you captured an image. But for those of us who don’t speak fluid latitude and longitude coordinates, we need a visual map interface to find the images by location. Lightroom 4 adds a dedicated map module that loads Google Maps to present your images in a clear and concise view. If your camera doesn’t automatically record the coordinates of your images you can easily drag and drop images to a location, use GPX tracklog files to link images based on date/time stamps or define saved locations that can be quickly associated with a set of images. (Not surprisingly, this link to Google Maps will only work when you are connected to the World Wide Web.) Additional Map details:

Tag images with a location using drag and drop or saved location assignment
Search for locations
Create Saved Locations
Managed privacy settings for saved locations
Load GPX tracklogs and auto tag images based on date/time stamps

Develop Module (Updated 2012 Process Version)

Ever wonder why there was both an Exposure control and a Brightness control in Lightroom’s Develop module? Why the Black setting defaulted to 5 and Brightness/Contrast to 50 and 25 respectively? When the Camera Raw plug-in was introduced in 2003 these concepts weren’t overwhelming for those intrepid photographers willing to switch their camera’s capture format to “RAW.” (It’s not an acronym so I have no idea why folks continue to capitalize that word…) When Lightroom and the Camera Raw plug-in started supporting JPEG and TIFF files, the visual appearance of the settings and preset behavior was never truly optimized for the additional formats. Lightroom 4 rationalizes the controls and addresses a fundamental photographic problem of balancing highlight and shadow detail. Please give the new tone controls a try on your most challenging images as well as the additional controls listed below:

Simplified controls in the Basic panel
Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks
Powerful, content aware, shadow and highlight controls to extract all of the dynamic range in a single capture
Updated Clarity adjustment for superior results without the artifacts
Updated Chromatic Aberration correction solution
New local adjustment parameters
Noise Reduction
Temperature and Tint
Shadows
Highlights
Moire
Per channel curves adjustments
Soft proofing
Paper and ink simulation
Choose between perceptual and relative intent
Intuitive virtual copy creation for profile-specific adjustments
Profile and Monitor gamut warnings
Print module brightness/contrast option to address differences between monitor and paper characteristics

Direct Email from within Lightroom

I realize that this feature has 1998 written all over it but it’s still a very common request to be able to email from directly within Lightroom.

Configure your desktop mail client or AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail webmail accounts to send email from Lightroom
Convenient size presets appropriate for email
Address book to store commonly used email addresses

Elegant Photo Book Creation

Photo books have grown in popularity and quality over the past few years and we’re proud to introduce a module dedicated to this workflow.

Flexible auto-layout tool with preset-based customization
Over 180 professionally designed page layouts
Intuitive drag and drop behaviors for reordering pages or swapping image locations
Helpful layout guides and page bleed information
Incredible flexibility through cell padding for text and photo cells
Dynamically located photo captions based on existing metadata or manual entry
Powerful type tools based on industry leading type technology found in Photoshop and Illustrator
Customizable background color
Elegant background graphics to enhance the style of travel or wedding books
Tight integration with Blurb book printing service
Set size, cover, paper quality directly within Lightroom
Price estimate dynamically provided during book creation
PDF Export options include size, resolution, color profile and output sharpening

Enhanced DNG options

These enhancements will be represented in the next DNG Specification update.(Version 1.4)

Embed Fast Load Data options dramatically improves image loading performance in the Develop module
Lossy compression option provides significant file savings with minimal quality impact. (Ideal for archiving outtakes or reducing the size of time lapse projects without losing the flexibility of raw)
Resolution reduction via export provides the ability to share lower resolution versions of the original raw file without losing the capabilities offered by raw.
Metadata and filter options available for DNG file types

Lightroom 4 Additional Features and JDIs

Publish Collections can now include rendered video publishing
Export to Adobe Revel functionality
Enhanced output model for saving/storing settings applied in Web, Slideshow, Print and Book. Efforts are now clearly visible in Collections panel.
New Zoom ratios (1:8 and 1:16)
Mac version now includes a language selection option via preferences
Move multiple folders from volume to volume (Previously only single folder workflow was enabled)
White balance sample area is now zoom-level dependent
Noise reduction adjustment is always displayed regardless of zoom level
Collapse the tether toolbar down to the shutter button by Option or Alt clicking the close button
Module picker can be customized via right-click option
Filter and search images by a saved or unsaved metadata property
Hierarchical Develop Preset display in Quick Develop
Layout overlay for tethered shooting workflow when attempting to match a specific layout template
Photos in publish collections that have been modified can be set to not re-publish
Additional Metadata controls on export
Disk burning now available on Windows 64-bit systems
Flag status is now ‘global’ (One setting per image regardless of location in folder or collection)
Stacking is now possible in collections
Flash galleries are now color managed
Per module walkthrough tips

Additional Notes:

An important correction was made to the Lightroom credits. There’s a great tradition in the Photoshop family of listing babies born to team members during each cycle. We’ve previously omitted references to the fertility of the Lightroom team but have corrected that omission with Lightroom 4.
“Adobe plans to change the name of Adobe Carousel to Adobe Revel. We originally chose the name Adobe Carousel because it was descriptive of core functionality in the product, in that photographs were viewed in a circular manner, like a carousel. However, we now plan to offer additional photography solutions on this platform, including but not limited to the ‘carousel’ feature. Our rapidly expanding charter for this new platform requires a name that is less narrowly descriptive of the current product features.” – Chris Quek, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Revel

Additional Known Issues

General

Multiple exports of the same photo to Adobe Revel will create duplicate
assets within Revel
Import from iPhone can sometimes take a longer than expected
Wrong photo is displayed after round tripping between library and print.
If Tethered Capture Settings dialog is left open for very long periods of time, Lightroom
will hang when attempting to dismiss the dialog
Tethered capture can fail after computer wakes from sleep.

Books Module

Blurb books created through Lightroom are limited to 160 pages
Blurb only supports a subset of the languages that Adobe supports
Undoing one-click photo captions works sporadically and can cause
Lightroom to lag
Photos may be removed from layout pages when using the color and rating
filter in the Book Module on Windows only.
Updating metadata in Library does not automatically propagate the change
in metadata-based text in Book.
Adding captions to multiple photos at once causes Lightroom to lag.
Text on spine in Hard Cover books is not centered

Video

Black line can appear on right and bottom of videos when viewed in Loupe on Windows
Video frames are occasionally played out of order on certain AVCHD video files
There could be a memory leak when exporting over 500 videos at once

Map Module

Lightroom can crash if you try to assign too many 15,000+ photos to a Saved Location at the same time in Map (Mac only)
Having over 1,000 tagged photos in the Map Module causes a performance lag.

Develop Module

The Auto Tone algorithm is still a work in progress. In some instances, Auto Tone in PV2010 will produce better results than Auto Tone in PV2012

Q. When will the final version of Lightroom 4 be released?
A. Adobe hasn’t officially announced this yet. In the past it’s been anywhere from 2 months to 14 months.

Q. Really? So you’re gonna leave us hangin’?
A. Sorry… I’ll lose my cushy Lightroom gig if I reveal any more I can say this… The expiration date listed for Lightroom 4 Beta is March 31, 2012. Typically, it’s not good practice for a company to let the beta expire without releasing the final version before the expiration date. It tends to leave people hanging and forget all about your brand new version of the product. That’s all I’m sayin’

Your Burning Lightroom 4 Beta Questions Answered!
January 24, 2012 10:13 AM By: Cari Gushiken | 41 Comments

Connecting with our fans and followers is a lot of fun for us. It’s not often that we find a reason to join calls with 300+ people from near and far – the UK, Germany and even Tahiti! – to live chat and share what we love about Lightroom 4 Beta. Or meet at the Adobe headquarters with a standing-room only Lightroom demo for a nearly 200 person user group. Our launch week live sessions were a great way for us to hear what you all think of the new updates and changes.

As promised, we’ve given you some time to check out the beta and have gathered questions from our Facebook and Twitter accounts to answer here. There were many, but Lightroom product manager Sharad Mangalick reviewed them all and provides some answers to the most frequently asked questions.
Thank you to everyone who submitted thoughtful questions and feature requests. We’ll be hosting another call with hundreds more fans in the near future and want to make sure you’re on the look out for that and more updates. If you haven’t already, like our Facebook page, follow us @Lightroom and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get all the latest and greatest info on the Lightroom 4 Beta. We’ve got several playlists of tutorial videos for you to reference as you check it out.

Keep hammering away on the beta and let us know what you think!