Lightroom 3 came in the mail yesterday (along with CS5) so today I\u2019m trying it out.\u00a0 There\u2019s not a lot of new functionality like there was when LR2 introduced local adjustments.\u00a0 But there are some new things I\u2019m really excited about.<\/p>\n
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LR3 can publish directly to Flickr.\u00a0 Boy, that saves a step.\u00a0 With LR 2.7 I had an Export preset that exported the files to a special directory.\u00a0 It set the file type (JPEG), size (600 pixels on the longest dimension), color space (sRGB) and added the copyright text.\u00a0 Then I\u2019d export the files, log on to Flickr and upload the files from the folder.\u00a0 Now I can post directly to Flickr \u2013 and all the same controls are available.\u00a0 LR does the file conversion and uploading.\u00a0 I do need to log into Flickr to change file names but that\u2019s easy compared to the old way of doing it.\u00a0 This is something I really like.<\/p>\n
The import dialog has been completely reworked.\u00a0 It\u2019s very visual and works quite\u00a0 well.\u00a0 I found it intuitive and easy to figure out.\u00a0 On the left side is the Source and on the right are the controls for Develop Setting, Metadata and Keywords.\u00a0 It was easy\u00a0 to segregate the files on import if you needed to assign different keywords to them.\u00a0 There is one thing I wish it did, however.\u00a0 I import the files to my laptop using a Canon utility.\u00a0 I use the utility because it\u2019s fast.\u00a0 Then I Add them to the LR catalog.\u00a0 But when you do that\u00a0 LR won\u2019t let you create a backup.\u00a0 You can only create a backup when you Copy or Move the files.\u00a0 I wish you could also create a backup when you Add them.<\/p>\n
Speaking of backing up, the Catalog Backup dialog now comes at the end of the session instead of the start.\u00a0 Many times when I was prompted to back up the catalog at the start of the session I would think there was no point because I hadn\u2019t done the work yet.\u00a0 So I\u2019d skip it.\u00a0 Now the backup prompt comes at the end, after all the work is done.\u00a0 And here\u2019s another little nicety.\u00a0 You also have the option of optimizing the catalog at the same time.\u00a0 In the past you had to go to Catalog Settings to find the optimize button.\u00a0 It all makes a whole lot of sense.<\/p>\n
So these are things that make LR easier to use which is always a good thing.\u00a0 But\u00a0 is there anything that will affect the quality of my images?\u00a0 I think so.\u00a0 Now, I must admit that all of these may not be new although some definitely are.\u00a0 But they\u2019re new to me so I\u2019m mentioning them.<\/p>\n
Adobe has added Lens Correction to LR.\u00a0 It corrects such things as barrel and pin cushion distortion, aberration and vignetting.\u00a0 This is definitely new and is what some other tools do very well.\u00a0 LR automatically recognizes the body and lenses from my Canon 1Ds Mark III.\u00a0 The G11 isn\u2019t quite so lucky.\u00a0 But there\u2019s the option of specifying the camera Make and when I do that it picks up the lens and model.\u00a0 I\u2019ve only tried it on images from the G11 at this point but so far I\u2019m pleased with the results\u00a0 I plan to use it regularly.<\/p>\n
Another adjustment that seems to have been improved is Camera Calibration.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never paid much attention to this before because the one or two times I checked it out it seemed pretty technical.\u00a0 But now there\u2019s a profile for Camera Landscape that I like very much.\u00a0 So I\u2019ll be using this too.<\/p>\n
Under Effects there are two adjustments \u2013 Post-cropping Vignetting and Grain.\u00a0 I vignette most of my photographs.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very strong but subtle compositional touch.\u00a0 I\u2019ve done it in Photoshop but with the new post-cropping vignetting tool will certainly play around with doing it in LR.\u00a0 There are three types of vignetting \u2013 Highlight Priority, Color Priority and Paint Overlay.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t tried Paint Overlay and have a hard time imagining that working with the kind of art I create.\u00a0 But Highlight Priority and Color Priority make sense and produce pleasing results.\u00a0 The other thing that\u2019s good about this vignetting is that it works on images that have already been cropped; that is, it works on the cropped part of the image.\u00a0 Very cool.<\/p>\n
One last thing that stands out is in the Output dialog.\u00a0 Instead of having a checkbox to add a copyright notice there\u2019s now a Watermarking area.\u00a0 This gives you full control over the copyright text.\u00a0 You can also choose graphic watermarks.\u00a0 This has a lot of possibilities.<\/p>\n
There are a few new or improved things that are interesting but I probably won\u2019t use.\u00a0 There are a ton of new presets \u2013 all kinds of them.\u00a0 The variety is staggering.\u00a0 But since I usually don\u2019t go for any special effects I\u2019ll leave them to someone else.<\/p>\n
Sharpening has apparently been improved.\u00a0 But sharpening has always been a part of my PS workflow and I\u2019m completely satisfied with that.\u00a0 So I don\u2019t plan to take advantage of LR sharpening.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s it, a summary of the new cool things I discovered so far in LR3.\u00a0 I\u2019ll keep you posted if I find more.\u00a0 And I\u2019m taking a look at CS5 so might have something worth saying about that.<\/p>\n