Lightroom 2.0 Beta released

[Jim Poor]

http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1207110373.html

[Art Peslak]

I will wait until its officially released but the smart collections that automatically update based upon keywords looks like a really useful feature that is lacking in the current version of LR.

[Ken Kijewski]

This looks interesting.I like the Dual monitor support for thumbnails etc.

[Pete Woods]

Downloaded and testing. As it is Beta it works alongside Lightroom 1.3 and does not replace it

[Jim Poor]

I've been playing with it on my laptop this AM. I think I'll load it on my secondary desktop and run it just as I would if it were the "real deal" release. With appropriate uploading of everything to the main machine first of course just in case.

[Gayle Clement]

Hi Jim, glad you posted this. They're demoing it today at Photoshop World and it has some nice new features.

[Alfred Forns]

Will be downloading and checking out now !!! Thanks Jim !!!

[Jim Poor]

Here is a tutorial on the beta release:

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lig.../lr-2-beta.htm

[Robert Amoruso]

Thanks for posting this.

[Jim Poor]

And now a video overview:

http://creativesuitepodcast.com/inde...post_id=323482

[David Kennedy]

Overall, there are a lot of things that I like, but none of them go quite as far as I had hoped. Well, except for the multi-monitor support. I can finally have the Library on the secondary monitor. Yay!

The selective (masked) adjustments is a welcome addition, but it's not terribly easy to edit the mask once you've created it. Also, it's disappointing that, at least as of yet, the only options for the selective adjustment are Exposure, Saturation, Brightness, Clarity, and the somewhat useless Tint. Fill Light, Vibrance, and Curves? Pretty please? And still no way to see the burned out highlights in the Library view (one still has to go into Develop to see the shadow and highlight warnings). Cropping still can only be done in the "Fit Image" view--one cannot zoom at 100% to more carefully rotate the image for a level horizon.

On the plus side, the new method of filtration of meta data in Library is way better.

Jim, I'm not sure how much you should really use it for your current work. I have the distinct impression that this beta is more for "show and tell" than as a working solution. Adobe does not guarantee that your adjustments will carry over to the final release, and it is really buggy. Selective Adjustments just stopped working for me and I need to restart!!!

[Jim Zipp]

One thing that jumps out at me is minor but still bugs me. In ACR when you are making adjustments using the sliders you can just put your mouse over the description of the slider and drag left or right. In Lightroom that doesn't work and you have to grab the diamond to make adjustments which isn't really hard but I wonder why they wouldn't add it there as well. Of course there might be a setting that I'm not aware of to switch it on.

[Ric Grupe]

LR Beta 2 tutorial videos.

The Library Module

The Develop Module and Export Options

The Photoshop Integration and Output Modules

[David Kennedy]

One thing that jumps out at me is minor but still bugs me. In ACR when you are making adjustments using the sliders you can just put your mouse over the description of the slider and drag left or right. In Lightroom that doesn't work and you have to grab the diamond to make adjustments which isn't really hard but I wonder why they wouldn't add it there as well. Of course there might be a setting that I'm not aware of to switch it on.

Unfortunately, you're not missing a setting. There are definitely some interface issues, like that one, that can be frustrating. Overall, I love LR and I use it every day, but there are some things about the ACR window in Photoshop/Bridge that are better implemented.