I (Katie) have had my eye on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for about a year, but I wasn’t sure if I “needed” another program or if I wanted to spend that kind of money. The program retails for $299 US dollars on the official Adobe website, so I’m sure you will understand my hesitation. I was planning to download a trial version (I love that Adobe lets you try before you buy), but then I found out about something even more exciting!
A contact of mine at the Adobe company emailed me this press release:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 beta software for Macintosh and Windows, a public preview of new and improved functionality to be delivered in the next major release. Available as a free download on Adobe Labs, Lightroom 3 beta delivers a preview of new tools that will be in Lightroom 3, including more intuitive importing, unparalleled noise reduction and sharpening tools, enhanced slideshow capabilities and direct publishing to online photo sharing sites like Flickr. Adobe encourages photographers to test this early selection of new features and provide the product team with their feedback.
The beta is available as a free download to anyone on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Visit http://labs.adobe.com/downloads to learn more and download the beta. Feedback can be submitted on the Lightroom forums: http://forums.adobe.com/community/lightroom. Users also can connect with Adobe at www.facebook.com/lightroom or http://twitter.com/Lightroom, and can add the tag #AdobeLR3beta to tweets about the beta.
You can read the full press release here if you would like to know more about the beta version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.
What’s the catch?
This is a “beta” program which means it is still in development. Adobe is looking for meaningful customer feedback to help them make this version of Lightroom the best one yet. It’s not required for you to send your input, they just appreciate it. I was thrilled with the opportunity to try out this program that I’ve heard so much about – and to be able to do it for free!
A few things to know:
- You will need an Adobe account to be able to download the beta version. It is free to create an account, and it’s a good idea to have one anyway if you own any of the Adobe products. You will be prompted to create an account if you don’t have one when you select which product you want to download at this link.
- Setup is very easy, and as someone who has never used a Lightroom product, I was pleased with how easy it was to get started. You will need to import your photos into Lightroom and it did take quite awhile to import my photos the first time, but I have a lot of photos!
- You can use Lightroom in several different ways: to organize photos in collections, add keywords, and to edit photos.
- When you are done playing with your photos in Lightroom, you will need to export them to be able to use them in other programs. This is a simple as saving a file.
I decided to spend a few minutes playing around with the program presets (see drop down menu in image) and I used this silly photo of a Play-Doh creation hamburger and fries.
With just a few quick clicks I was able to change the photo in several ways:
It went from this:
to this…
And you can change the look of each preset by customizing color, white balance, exposure, and other settings.
For TONS of great resources and tutorials for using Lightroom, be sure to bookmark the Adobe Lightroom learning centers page. Of course many digital scrapbooking shops and designers have some neat Lightroom presets for sale, so you might enjoy trying some of them out once you have tried out the Lightroom features.
Matt Kloskowski has a lot of great presets available for free on the Lightroom Killer Tips blog. He also includes instructions on how to install them (very easy!) Here are a few of my favorites:
- Warm and Fuzzy
- Fairy Tale Glow
- The Cutting Edge
- Wedding Fantasy
- Vintage New York
- Graduated Filters
- Polo Ralph Lauren Style
- Better Black and Whites
Have fun playing in Lightroom – I know I will!
Share This Using…
I’ve just starting using Lightroom 2, too. I was getting frustrated with the amount of time I was spending in the digital darkroom with Photoshop CS4, closely editing each and every photo that was a `keeper’. Lightroom seems to have a faster workflow, once you figure out how to use it. I especially like the close integration between the Library and Develop modes — you can toggle back and forth with just a quick click. Much better than the integration between Adobe Bridge & Photoshop CS4, in my humble opinion. I will always use Photoshop for more intricate edits, but I know I will quickly grow to love Lightroom for my everyday photo edits.
I like the free presets on Lightroom Killer Tips as well, and the free set from OnOne. Here are three other URLS to check out:
Life in Digital Film – http://www.lifeindigitalfilm.com/
He has Lightroom templates and Adoble Camera Raw presets that mimic the look of different films. Most are freebies. One of my personal favourites, as I also shoot with film, mostly using my toy cameras (Holga, Diana).
These two URLs have lists of sites to check for free presets:
http://cameradojo.com/2009/01/24/list-of-free-adobe-lightroom-presets/
http://www.neutralday.com/101-free-lightroom-presets-expand-your-creativity/
Enjoy, everyone!
Thank you so much for sharing this awesome awesome find!
I’ve been curious about Lightroom for some time now, but I still have doubts. Like, it’s really worth with normal jpegs (I don’t have a “big” photocamera) or works really only with RAW? Right now I use some good sets of actions in PS (Totally Rad i.e.)
Lightroom works just fine with jpegs. I edited several photos from my point and shoot camera as well
Thank you so much for this awesome tip and also the pointer to the Killer presets site. I am having a ton of fun playing with this.
Just a reminder Katie, you can purchase Adobe products direct from Adobe, with a homeschoolers discount. That is how I purchased both PSCS4 and Lightroom 2.0. And without question, Lightroom has proven to be well worth the money. I have saved several photos that I could not manage to save with just Photoshop, and all of my photos have been improved. Not to mention that nondestructive and batch processing are both fantastic. Just my 2 cents.
Warmly,
Jammie
Thanks so much! I’m a homeschooler so I will definitely look into the discount
You are my utter hero. Thank you!!!
Will definitely give it a go…thanks for getting back on the Katie xxox
I would go with what the adobe website says. I’m not sure how the software will go inactive on each of our computers on a certain date though. It’s still a wonderful way to try out lightroom!
From what I am reading you will only be able to use this free version till April as it is really only a trial…is this correct?? Would really appreciate answer to this before installing.
from the adobe site……
Beta Timeframe
When you install the public beta of Lightroom 3, the software will remain active through April 2010. Once the commercial version of Lightroom 3 has shipped, you will need to uninstall the beta and install the final version.
I got hooked on Lightroom when LR2 was in Beta – love it! Unfortunately, I can’t download LR3 beta because you need at least 2gb RAM (only have 1gb).
I started a thread over at Ripple’s Scrappersonline with links to tuts and presets here:
http://www.scrappersonline.com/forums/showthread.php?437-Lightroom
Also, if you have kids in school you can get Lightroom at a very reasonable $99 at the educational sites. Here is where I purchased mine:
http://www.academicsuperstore.com/products/Adobe/Photoshop+Lightroom/923151
Definitely wait till the Beta is done and then purchase it there.
Lightroom is wonderful for organizing all your photos also.
Great article, Katie!
OMGoodness, I am so excited about this, but was hesitant to spend $300.00. What an incredible resource you have posted for us. I love the dailydigi…you guys rock!
Free presets.. Yippee.. I recently discovered a few DSD who are creating their own presets and purchased a few I have fallen in love with. Can’t wait to try out Matt’s freebies and am definitely going to go have a peek at OnOne’s (Thanks Alice). I use LR2 and am also looking forward to the release of 3. The noise reduction promise just gets me so excited… Seems to be the only thing I pull my photos into PSE for is noise reduction on my high ISO shots and scrapping pages of course (+: Once you get your work flow worked out in LR you will wonder how you ever managed to get by without it..I LOVE everything about my photo time in LR and now these new fun presets are making it double fun… TFS Katie.. You are the bomb!
I tried Lightroom before and it confused me… But now that I have some time on my hands (in the Photography off season!) I may give it a go again.
Thank you! I downloaded it right away
I’ve had the beta version since it came out and it is better than Version 2, but be careful and make back-ups, and definitely do the catalog back-ups each time you open/close because it isn’t as stable as the true released version. This is good practice anyway.
There are also a few things that are disabled. For example, the luminance in the noise reduction section. However, if you import a photo that was edited for noise luminance in a previous version or in PS, it will be active in the Beta 3 version.
I think Matt Kloskowski’s blog is the best for help, hints, and those presets are so nice.
Another AWESOME set of FREE presets is from OnOne software. I especially like the adjustment presets (used with the adjustment brush.)
Personally, I don’t think I could function without Lightroom. I have loved LR2, and look forward to the full version of LR3. I do still take photos into PS from Lightroom for some finishing touches. They work beautifully together.
I’m so glad you’ve shared with everyone.
This is also basically a trial, isn’t it? From the Press Release: “When you install the public beta of Lightroom 3, the software will remain active through April 2010. Once the commercial version of Lightroom 3 has shipped, you will need to uninstall the beta and install the final version.”
Thank you ever so much for sharing this! It´s just awesome to get this! I´ve had a trial version of LR2 before but couldn´t afford it so this really made me so happy! Don´t mind the Beta version at all…
This is so absolutely fantastic. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t wait until this afternoon when I have some free time to play with this! Oh happy day!
Wow! How exciting. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this info, Katie! I off to check it out right now.
Omg! I am so going to have to add this to my Sunday to-do list. If only I had a laptop and wasn’t checking in on my phone! Lol! Thanks Katie!
Thank you Katie! I love it, I’ve just downloaded it and loaded >6000 photos. There’s photos I haven’t seen for such a long time, I love them all out of folders. So much to learn.
Oh, Katie…I have been struggling with the same thing!! Thanks for letting us know about this awesome opportunity!