Adobe Lightroom 3.0 and Camera Raw 6.1 Final Versions

Adobe has updated it's Lightroom software to Version 3.0 and also took the time to update the Camera Raw for the Adobe Photoshop CS5 to final version 6.1.

Read all the new stuff that was implemented on each version and where you can download them.

Here's a quick list of what we've changed since the last public Adobe Lightroom 3 beta 2:

* Profile-based lens correction that addresses:
o Geometric lens distortion(i.e., barrel or pincushion)
o Chromatic aberration
o Vignette effects
* Manual geometric lens correction
* Horizontal and vertical perspective correction
* Improved Web templates for updated color and design options
* Additional Print templates to utilize the new creative layout options
* New develop presets for creative B&W and Color adjustments
* Focal length filtering available in the metadata filter
* Updated SDK with publish collection functionality and access to collection and keyword metadata
* Improved interactive responsiveness
* Ability to upgrade Lightroom 1, Lightroom 2 catalogs as well as Lightroom 3 beta or Lightroom 3 beta 2 catalogs
o Images edited in Lightroom 3 beta or Lightroom 3 beta 2 will migrate to Lightroom 3.0 with little to no visual adjustments. Minor sharpening adjustments may appear.
* Ability to migrate Photoshop Elements 6, 7 or 8 catalogs to Lightroom 3
* Updated print resolution limits of 720ppi for local printing and 1200ppi for printing to a JPEG file.

There have already been detailed blog entries about what has been added to Lightroom 3 through the two beta release.(Lightroom 3 beta, Lightroom 3 beta 2) Below, I've provided a high level summary of the top enhancements across all three releases. You can also watch a Lightroom 3 Overview video by Julieanne Kost.

* Completely revamped import experience including import presets

* Direct tethered capture support for popular Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras. (Full compatibility list here)

* Updated architecture for improved interactive performance and the ability to manage larger image collections

* Support for importing, managing, tagging and organizing common video formats, including DSLR video formats. (.MOV, .AVI, .MP4)

* Dozens of smaller workflow enhancements throughout the application.

* Tight integration with online photo sharing sites including Flickr. A new Lightroom 3 SDK allows developers to connect to additional sites with the same high level of integration.

* High quality image editing enhancements including
o Dramatically improved Sharpening and Noise Reduction results
o Additional post crop vignette styles with more photographic qualities
o The ability to apply lens correction manually or using profiles for automated correction
o Vertical and Horizontal transform controls
o Creative grain controls
o "Point curve" tone curve controls
o Process Version switch to preserve historical processing style

* Export slideshows as high quality H.264 video files that include selected music

* Fully customizable multi-page print layouts

* Flexible text or graphic watermark settings that can be applied to all output destinations

You can view some resources for helping you out with Lightroom 3.0 here.

Camera Raw 6.1 this update includes camera support for the following models:

* Canon EOS 550D (Digital Rebel T2i/ EOS Kiss X4 Digital)
* Kodak Z981
* Leaf Aptus-II 8
* Leaf Aptus-II 10R
* Mamiya DM40
* Olympus E-PL1
* Olympus E-600
* Panasonic G2
* Panasonic G10
* Sony A450


Release Notes

* Camera Raw 6.1 includes new lens correction functionality that can apply profile-based corrections to accommodate geometric distortions, chromatic aberration and lens vignette effects. Manual corrections for geometric distortion as well as vertical and horizontal perspective transforms are also available. A handful of lens profiles are included for automatic correction and more can be created by the community with the Adobe Lens Profile Creator.

* This release addresses a bug on the Mac platform that could cause Photoshop CS5 to quit unexpectedly when opening a file in the Camera Raw 6.0 plug-in.

* This release contains performance enhancements designed to improve the responsiveness of the controls and the scrolling mechanism relative to Camera Raw 6.0.

* The camera support provided in this release was previously provided in the Camera Raw 5.7 plug-in update with the exception of the Olympus E-600 which is new to this update. Please read the following blog post for an explanation of why redundant support has been released.

Downloads:

Adobe Lightroom 3.0 (Win & Mac)
Camera Raw 6.1 updater(Win) - (Mac)

Tip: Share Your Lighting Diagrams

I came across another great online Lighting Diagram creation. It's made by Sylights and I'm pretty sure it will make it easy for you to create and share lighting diagrams.

Created by Paris-based photographers Pierre-Jean Quilleré and Olivier Lance, the service is quite simple and easy to use, with the main pages being a diagram editor and a browse section to check out other photographers’ diagrams.

Yes, this web page gives you the opportunity to share your own lighting diagrams and to use some of the already shared ones by some of the users.

The site is designed quite well, and the editor is actually easy and fun to use. You simply right-click to add elements to the canvas, and then drag, resize, and rotate them as needed.

The editor uses HTML5 and CSS3, so it should work fine almost all the devices on the market. On iPhone the only real issue is the lack of right click but maybe on an update version of the page the creators will gives us double click instead of the right click. This way would be much easier to use the page on the iPhone.

But as you may know for the iPhone you still have the great application called Strobox and it's also free.

On another article posted here at Lighting Mods called "Lighting Setup Diagrams with and without Photoshop are possible!" you can check other ways to create your Lighting Diagrams.

5D MarkII firm 2.0.4 More Errors Detected

It really seems that Canon has had his glory days.

Just when we thought everything has been fixed with the recent update 2.0.4 more users are starting to complaint about the new firmware producing errors in manual mode.

Ever since Canon has changed to the new sensors technology that more and more problems have arise from these sensors. And the fact is that Canon is aware of them but will still refuse to make it public nor fix the errors they are prone.

One of the biggest problems was the MarkIII focus issues that were never really fixed, but instead they made some minor adjustments and replacements to try to improve it without much great success.

Then came the actual problem of soft images on most of the recent cameras and this is due o the fact that for Canon to improve the ISO sensibility they needed something that could "catch" a more sensitive light and for that came a big change on their sensor technology. In fact such change has brought us the problem of ghosting or softness in the images. This is not something that you can really do in Photoshop, except maybe try and over sharp your images in order for them to look good, but the real problem is that now, and pay attention to this, you have to (at least) double your Shutter Speed in order to get things frozen or at least in real sharp focus.

YES, YOU HAVE TO, AT LEAST, DOUBLE THE REAL EXPOSURE TO GET A GOOD SHARP PICTURE.

This is something that Canon should mention on their new manuals has this never happened on cameras with older sensors. And when I'm talking old is sensor produced during the line of 1D MarkIIn series. So make this your mark point, every camera Canon has produce prior to the 1D MarkIIn were really good sensors after that all suffer from the ghosting (softness) effect and you will have to raise your Shutter Speed 2 or 3 times more than you were used to.

With this in mind you will then have to lower your Aperture or raise your ISO and here my friends is where your adventure starts.

If you are working on f2.8 and you can no longer lower the Aperture because your 2.8 lens then you have to raise the ISO and you know if your shooting a standing person and your meter will tell you that a good exposure will be 1/200 well that would not not freeze your subject very well, you need at least 1/400 or even 1/800 so it will make a good sharp picture.

Taking in account that you are working at f2.8, ISO 1600, 1/200 (meter readings) and you need the 1/800 to freeze your subject then the only option it will be to raise your ISO in such way your images will became useless for big prints. I know that you can use Noise Reduction on them but the point here is why Canon did not switch the sensors on their new cameras to match a good quality and freeze the action like previous models? Why not put this on the manuals so people could be aware of this matter.

A lot of you, and me, been complaining about soft images in part due to the lenses used but if you are an L user and spend a lot of money in gear you at least expect to have a company that focus on improving the way images are captured. Canon always have been a marketing company and never really care about their consumers, as long as sales go up everything is good.

I had so many complaints about Canon products since my upgrades of my 1D MarkIIn bodies and all due to new sensor and focus issues. Service Center here in Portugal sucks and thank god I have a CPS card that helps me nothing.

I also upgraded the 1D MarkIV to the new firm 1.0.6 only to find out that the camera lost it's ability to focus on low light and the servo mode is much more sensible in a way that it's completely useless. I talked to Canon about it, but they told me no complaints were sent about this, and with much pressure I have managed to returned to 1.0.4. I also found out about a thread at Fred Miranda forum concerning this matter and you can check it out here.

So it seems Canon his loosing ground but always making faulty cameras, let's hope future will come brighter on this matter.

What people at 5D MarkII Team are talking about the firmware 2.0.4 Iris problem:

MALFUNCTION IN 2.0.4 – IRIS issue

Firmware 2.0.4 is really a GREAT update, an extraordinary effort made by Canon engineers. But after some deep tests we have found and confirmed a malfunction in this firmware.

▪ Description of the problem:

When a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens is mounted on the camera and the user manually changes focus (rotates focus ring), the lens changes the iris/aperture “by itself”, even when the camera is in full manual mode.

It is not normal, and should not happen. The tests were made by several users with many copies on many camera bodies, so it’s not an isolated lens problem.

▪ This malfunction always occurs in this situation:

When the camera is set to M (Manual) mode and in Live View mode (Still+Movie – Movie Display), which is the correct mode for “full manual control” in movie mode.

▪ Additional details:

. It does NOT happen with Firmware version 1.1.0
. It happens WHEN recording video and also when NOT recording video
. It happens with ISO and every possible automatic setting fixed to a value, or turned off
. It happens in C1/C2/C3 too (if they are registered as “M” modes for movie recording)
. It happens in PAL and NTSC modes
. It happens in both lens modes: MF and AF mode
. The camera does NOT tell any change in aperture setting (it keeps showing the same value) nor give any kind of advice either
. The iris shifting can be heard (and seen)
. The brightness shifting of the image is visible on the camera’s LCD monitor when the iris/aperture shift occurs
. The iris/aperture usually changes in small values, but enough to make a footage unusable, so using this great lens for movie/video purpose may result impossible
ADDITIONAL REPORTS

We received some additional reports from many users.

Some of them:

. Regarding the malfunction of the Canon EF 100mm 2.8 Macro USM:

“By observing the IRIS as I adjusted the aperture I noticed that sometimes it doesn’t go correctly to the right size. I even noticed that sometimes as I stopped down the aperture for a step the IRIS would actually open a bit instead.”

. Other reports: We also received reports regarding 3rd party lenses experiencing “weird noises” coming from the iris, or iris/aperture inconsistencies when mounted on 5D Mark II with firmware 2.0.4 that weren’t present on firmware 1.1.0.

It seems very possible that these issues also occur with some 3rd party lenses and maybe other Canon lenses as well.
VIDEO TESTS

These 2 videos show the problem when the Canon EF 100mm F/2.8 Macro USM is mounted on the 5D Mark II in the full manual mode for movie mode, and the focus ring is rotated. Remember that this does not happen with firmware 1.1.0.





Please read full descriptions on each video for further details.
(Thank you 5D2Team for the great tip and videos and keep up the pressure)

Let's hope this will have an end soon. Thank god I bought a 5D MarkII digital photo camera to take pictures and not videos or else I would be pi....

I know Canon will fix all this on the next 5D MarkIII "Video" Camera as long with a new AutoFocus and who knows some 40 Mpixel files so we can all have our hard drives full in a snap.

DVD Release: Motivational Light by Bert Stephani

NO IT'S NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S DAY JOKE!!! ;)

Fellow Belgium professional photographer Bert Stephani known by his Confessions of a Photographer blog and Squeeze The Lime inspirational and motivational experiences for photographers has recently released his brand new DVD "Motivational Light".

I confess that I had no time, yet, to review the DVD has I have received it today but from what I've seen in the Trailer and Sneak previews it's very tempting and I'm sure it will provide a lot of good tips and information.

I bet with you that you will not miss his pronounced low English accent and his funny jokes has part of this as almost like a trademark of his videos folios at his YouTube and that he already has accustomed us.

I will bring you a review of it with more in depth detail and sample shots ASAP.

Meanwhile here is the Press Release, Trailer and Sneak previews made by Pietr Van Impe and available to order from today.

MOTIVATIONAL LIGHT
PRESS RELEASE
Brussels, BELGIUM, 31st March - Professional Photographer Bert Stephani announces
his Motivational Light Video. In this instructional video Bert explains his vision on
photographical lighting and shows his techniques. This video is about how to find, shape and create light so it becomes the most powerful story telling tool a photographer has in his toolbox.

During the last four years Bert has been blogging, teaching and lecturing about his quest to master the light in order to create compelling and stylish images. During workshops it became clear that most photographers get to grips with the technical part of lighting pretty fast but still struggle to use light as a means to create atmosphere and tell stories.

Together with fellow photographer Pieter Van Impe, Bert developed an instructional
concept to teach fellow photographers how to choose the right light in function of the
picture. Armed with this vision, it becomes surprisingly easy to make technical choices.

The video starts with a short overview of the basics of light by professor Photonopolos
from the Institute of Motivational Light. Bert then puts the theory in practice with a number of photo shoots in which he shows examples of great light and analyzes why these
lighting setups work so well. The next step is to learn how to become a master of light by complementing, shaping and making the light.

The knowledge and skills explained in the first part of the video, then get used during a shoot in which Bert creates different moods by just changing the light. Bert shows that itʼs all about applying the right techniques to create a picture that tells a story.

In the final part of the main video Bert reveals his vision on how to become a better
photographer through a technical training session, an improvisation shoot and a fast
paced real life wedding shoot.
As a bonus Bert shows how he post processed some of the pictures that were shot for
the Motivational Light video in Adobe Lightroom. He also walks you through what camera
and lighting gear he uses and why.

Motivational Light is targeted to everyone who wants to improve his lighting skills and
understanding of light. The vision and techniques explained will help a wide range of
photographers from the beginner with limited gear to the well equipped seasoned
professional. Lighting is the main focus of this video but itʼs also packed with lots of other small tips and tricks.

The main part of Motivational Light runs over two and a half hours and is complimented
with an hour of bonus material about post processing.

Itʼs available online and retails for 125 EUR / 170 USD (download only) or 175
EUR / 220 USD (download + disks).

For more information, trailers and sample clips, visit www.motivationallight.com

Motivational Light DVD Trailer




Sneek Peek 1 - Motivational Light DVD


Sneek Peek 2 - Motivational Light DVD

Adobe Lightroom 3.0 Beta 2 is Out

The Second Beta version of Adobe Lightoom 3.0 is out now and with a lot of enhancements and improvements.

This is a much better version and a more refined one.

New in Lightroom 3 Beta 2

* Improved performance throughout the application for faster importing and loading of images
* Native tethered shooting support for select Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras
* Luminance noise reduction has been added to the previous color noise reduction improvements available in the first public beta for outstanding overall high ISO quality
* Support for importing and managing video files from DSLR cameras for better overall photographic workflow control
* Improvements to the import experience in the first beta to reflect public feedback
* Improved watermarking functionality from the first beta to reflect public feedback

Lightroom 3 beta 2 builds on the enhancements introduced in the first Lightroom 3 beta release:

* Brand new performance architecture, building for the future of growing image libraries
* State-of-the-art noise reduction to help you perfect your high ISO shots
* Watermarking tool that helps you customize and protect your images with ease
* Portable sharable slideshows with audio—designed to give you more flexibility and impact on how you choose to share your images, you can now save and export your slideshows as videos and include audio
* Flexible customizable print package creation so your print package layouts are all your own
* Film grain simulation tool for enhancing your images to look as gritty as you want
* New import handling designed to make importing streamlined and easy
* More flexible online publishing options so you can post your images online to certain online photo sharing sites directly from inside Lightroom 3 beta (may require third-party plug-ins)*

If you want to download the beta just click here. Photographer, Terry White, also did a video, go take a look here.

Read the release notes (PDF) for detailed information.

You can also watch a video of the new features, hosted by Julieanne Kost, here.

A more in depth blog post by Ian Lyons here.

Enjoy