The Photography Show blog is tracking the currentLightroom presets and pulled together a “huge list of free presets” for Lightroom.

Jeffrey Friedl (lives in Kyoto, Japan) has created a beta version of a geotagging plug-in for Lightroom that adds support for Geotagging  photos from within Lightroom.The plugin reads a GPS unit/device track log and link the data to the Photos based on the time when the GPS data was recorded and the time the Photo was taken.

Apple’s Apps store does have lately some great suprises for application developer. After apple did share the first statistics some Apps developer got caugh by surprise. For example Eliza Block, who developed 2 Across [Buy it at the App Store] found out that she did make almost 1500-2000 USD on some days lately.

2 Across is currently listed amongst Apple’s Staff Favorites in the iTunes Store which may further increase the sale.

Lightroom 2 is now available

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 software, the photographer’s essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs.  According to Adobe Lightroom 2 should come with new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localized image correction, and streamlined search capabilities. As Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel® processors and Microsoft® Windows® Vista® 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate

The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographers’ workflows. With the ability to visually organize images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organize images in a way that maximizes an additional display.

In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust color, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customizable templates to maximize paper and ink. Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster. Developers can further extend the Lightroom workflow with Web, Export and Metadata Software Development Kits available at the Adobe Developer Connection, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/ .

Ground-Breaking Innovation in Raw Technology

New raw technology gives photographers access to flexible camera profiles. Camera profiles are the visual starting point for the raw processing workflow, but image preferences vary for every photographer. To minimize surprises, Adobe is supplying default camera profiles that closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing from their favorite camera, while also providing the ability to create highly customized profiles to suit different tastes. Camera profiles are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com ) for use with Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5, along with the DNG Profile Editor for the community to test and create their own profiles.

The Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and DNG Converter 4.5 are also now available on Adobe.com and support over 190 camera models including the Olympus E 420 and E 520 models.

The NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) has launched their Lightroom 2 Learning Center.

New in Lightroom 2.0

(Source: Lightroom Journal)

Library

Streamlined Organization and Worfklow

Layout: The entire Library layout has been revisited to provide a more intuitive image organization experience.  The left hand panel of the Library has been streamlined to include only the most relevant image sources: the folders the images are physically stored in and collections of images that the photographer creates.

Folders: Photographers working across multiple hard drives will find that the enhanced volume and folder layout will make it a much more intuitive experience to manage images on one or many hard drives.  The volume indicators clearly indicate the hard drive that you’re working with and provide the option to show the online/offline status, the amount of space available, the number of photos you’re working with and there’s an indicator light that migrates from green to red as your hard drive fills up.  Now it’s visually much easier to move your images from hard drive to hard drive and understand where your images are stored when a external hard drive is no longer connected.

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Adobe did release the LightRoom 1.4.1 update. It is a fix to the borken 1.4 release which has been pulled off in March

According to Adobe and the Lightroom 1.4.1 Readme the following has been added or addressed:

UPDATE FOR LIGHTROOM 1.4:
Lightroom 1.4.1 includes corrections for the following issues:
(These issues are specific to the 1.4.1 update. Lightroom 1.4.1 also includes all of the previous updates listed for Lightroom
1.4 below)

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Version 2 of Lightroom is now available as a public beta.  Lightroom 1.0 customers can download and install Lightroom 2.0 beta for use throughout the beta program. The beta software expires on August 31, 2008. Read the release notes of Lightroom 2.0 beta

New Features
Library

• Streamlined Library Layout
• Smart Collections
• Powerful Filter Bar to search and refine images
• Suggested Keywords for simplified keywording
• 10k pixel size limit raised to 30k pixels
• Output-based Collections

Multiple Monitors:

• -Four flexible modes for an alternate window:  Grid, Loupe, Compare, Survey
  

Photoshop CS3 Integration:

• Open files in Photoshop as a Smart Object
• Select multiple images to merge as a Panorama
• Merge multiple exposures into a single Photoshop HDR image
• Load multiple files or virtual copies into Photoshop as separate layers in a single document.

Export Functionality:

• Auto-add exported images to the Lightroom catalog
• Auto Output Sharpening for images on export

Develop Module

• Non-Destructive Localized Correction for dodging and burning specific areas of an image
• Post Crop Vignette
• Basic Panel Keyboard Shortcuts
• Improved Auto Adjustment
• Improved memory handling through 64-bit support on OS X 10.5 and Vista 64-bit.(Not limited to develop module)

Print Module

• Picture Package for multi-page layouts
• Print Module output directly to JPEG
• Enhanced Print Sharpening based on PhotoKit Sharpener algorithms
• 16-bit Printing for Mac OS X 10.5

(Source: Lightroom Journal)

Lightroom 2 Video Tutorials:

Lightroom video tutorials by Julieanne Kost:  Lightroom 2 beta Tutorial Part I and Lightroom 2 beta Tutorial Part III.