Adobe releases Photoshop Lightroom 3
Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3 for Mac and Windows.
Lightroom is a digital photography workflow solution that allows photographers to quickly organize, enhance and showcase their images from one application. First released as a public beta in October 2009, the final version of Lightroom 3 introduces a completely redesigned performance architecture that better handles growing image libraries and provides an enhanced raw processing engine with noise reduction and sharpening tools to achieve higher image quality.
The 64-bit capable Lightroom 3 includes new features that optimise workflows and allow images to be shared in creative ways, including support for DSLR video files and tethered shooting on select cameras.
Re-built from its core to be faster and more responsive, Lightroom 3’s image loading has improved, while the import experience has been redesigned to be more intuitive, with added previews and default selections that give users quick access to sort through and find images. Helping streamline and adapt to photographers’ changing workflows, Lightroom 3 now allows users to import and manage DSLR video files, as well as take advantage of tethered shooting for select Nikon and Canon cameras.
Improved Luminance and Color Noise Reduction tools help produce a clearer picture from high ISO or underexposed images while still preserving details. The highly-requested Automatic Lens Correction feature can help improve the results with any lens by allowing users to apply profiles that correct for undesirable geometric distortions, chromatic aberrations, and lens vignette effects that most lenses introduce to the image. Users now also have a straighten tool to perfect vertical and horizontal perspective, additional presets for applying more photographic adjustment styles, and three new contemporary vignette styles and a Grain effect to add a more natural look with images.
Output options have also been enhanced in this release, with new capabilities to publish collections on online sharing sites. Flickr users have the ability to synch their accounts to Lightroom with one click, and integration with additional online photo sharing sites can be added via third-party plug-ins. Customisable print layouts provide more refined control over how photographers present final images, and new watermarking features with options to modify text, size, location and style, help give professionals and amateurs flexibility for branding images. Lightroom 3 now also includes the ability to export polished slideshows as video files with the option to add audio and title screens.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for Windows and Macintosh is available now. The estimated street price is £198 for new users with an upgrade price of £63 for qualified registered Lightroom users.
“There have been over 600,000 downloads of the Lightroom 3 public beta, which has supplied us with a huge amount of valuable feedback from a passionate community of professional and advanced amateur photographers,” said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Digital Imaging at Adobe. “The open dialogue we have with our customers allows us to further improve Lightroom and provide the best tools they need to produce high-quality images. We’re happy to see that so many people are anxiously anticipating the final release, so they can start taking advantage of all the new features they had a hand in developing.”
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