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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 Beta - First Look

Author Jamie Harrison
Published 30th Apr 2008
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 Beta - First Look
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Library
The Library module has seen a few changes. The collections panel, which allowed you to organise your images into virtual folders now has the option to make Smart Collections. This is similar to Smart Playlists in iTunes, where you select the criteria based on the metadata and keywords in the image to organise the images into the collections. Key wording has also been enhanced; with Lightroom making suggestions for the Keywords to be added based existing labels on similar images taken at around the same time.


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Filtering is also enhanced, with a new filter bar allowing you to search images based on metadata, for example, all images taken at f/8, as well as on keywords and the previous colour and star rated images.

Develop
Adobe has really gone to town with the Develop module. Previously only global corrections could be made to images, using a combination of colour tools (HSL), contrast curves and sliders, exposure and white balance, and sharpness. There was also split toning, lens and camera calibration and so on. It was always good, but now it's better.


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Now we have localised corrections. This means we can select areas of the image that need correction, be it saturation, exposure, sharpness (via clarity) and tint. Using a set of brushes in the develop toolkit it is possible to paint in the corrections where you want them. An auto mask feature can be turned on to ensure only regions of similar colour can be adjusted so avoiding poor ‘dodging and burning' areas.



There's been a few tweaks to the develop tool panel, with some sliders having had a makeover and a few tools moving position, for the example the defringing and Chromatic Aberration tools have moved from the Lens Correction pane to the Detail pane.



Adobe has now also added after crop effects, so lens vignetting, a popular but underplayed tool has now been given its own section out of the lens correction panel and can be used on images after they've been cropped.

 

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