Lightroom 4, now available !!!

Adobe download link

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Create amazing images that inspire, inform, and delight. From first look to final image, Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 4 software provides powerfully simple one-click tools and cutting-edge advanced controls for every step. Easily organize, perfect, and share all your photographs.

It’s significantly cheaper than prior versions: the full program costs just $149, while the upgrade costs $79.

Glorious Red Moon tonight, 8th Feb 2012

Glorious Red Moon tonight, 8th Feb 2012

Lightroom 4 BETA in action

I've just stumbled across a great Youtube video showing some of the great new toys that are part of the new Lightroom 4 BETA release !



drool, drool, drool.

Lightroom 4 BETA - Catalog Upgrade Message

I've just done some background reading, and the LR4 catalog upgrade message is only a concern with the BETA version.

Important notes from Adobe are (Primary Known Issues):

Lightroom 4 beta is not complete but please provide feedback on the available enhancements.

Lightroom 4 beta will not upgrade Lightroom 1.x, Lightroom 2.x or Lightroom 3.x catalogs.
The beta is intended to be used for testing and feedback purposes. Lightroom 1.x, 2.x, 3.x and 4 beta libraries will be able to be migrated to the finished version of Lightroom 4.

While data loss is not expected, this is an early ‘beta’ quality build and you should always work on duplicates of files that are securely backed up.

Lightroom 4 beta will not overwrite or interfere with a machine that currently has Lightroom 1, Lightroom 2 or Lightroom 3 installed.

Develop settings applied in Lightroom 4 beta are not guaranteed to transfer correctly to the final version of Lightroom 4.

The Lightroom 4 beta will expire after Lightroom 4.0 is available

In the link from Adobe : http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2012/01/lr4betanowavailable.html

On that page, there's a rather extensive list of improvements, ranging from better brushes, robust video support, photobook creation to name just a few.

I love it already just for the brush enhancements !

Play.com 32gb Class 10 SDHC test results via ATTO benchmarking

I recently purchased a new 32GB Class 10 SDHC card, that was listed as a HOT DEAL via HotUKDeals.

I'd purchased the card from Play.com before fully reading that some of their cards may not meet the specified classification and transfer speeds.

I contacted them about the card, and my concerns, and they said that if the card that's delivered doesn't meet the specification of class 10, then they'll happily refund the item plus postage.

The card was promply delivered (a week or so), and I tested the card using:

ATTO Benchmarking v2.46

H2testw

Results

Atto shows a maximum read/write speed of 18525/16529 (kb/s)
Atto results:


H2testw confirmed that the card capacity was 32GB, with an average write speed of 13MB/s, and read (verify) speed of 15.8MB/s.

Not as fast as named SDHC cards, such as PNY but nothing that warrents me returning the card so I'm pleased with the results.

Adobe Lightroom 4 - features, and video

I know it's "old hat" to some of you out there, but I'm finally getting round to reviewing and using Adobe Lightroom 4.
It's currently in the beta testing phase, but I've been hearing alot about it from the likes of Scott Bourne - Photofocus.com, and Scott Kelby - Kelby Training.

I'm most looking forward to the new features:-

Highlight and shadow recovery brings out all the detail that your camera captures in dark shadows and bright highlights.

Photo book creation with easy-to-use elegant templates.

Location-based organization lets you find and group images by location, assign locations to images, and display data from GPS-enabled cameras.

White balance brush to refine and adjust white balance in specific areas of your images.

Additional local editing controls let you adjust noise reduction and remove moiré in targeted areas of your images.

Extended video support for organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to video clips.

Easy video publishing lets you edit and share video clips on Facebook and Flickr®.

Soft proofing to preview how an image will look when printed with color-managed printers.

Email directly from Lightroom using the email account of your choice.

Scott Kelby has uploaded a youtube video of his recent trip to India, and the KelbyMediaGroup video shows you some of the new features of Lightroom 4, and a brief glimpse into Scott's thoughts during his workflow - a must watch !

Scott's Visit to India - The Grid 18th January 2012

Family Portrait over Christmas 2011

I had the pleasure of shooting a quick family portrait for some friends over Christmas 2011.

It was great fun, and hopefully I captured the little twinkle in the 6 month olds baby brown eyes.

Both parents loved my shots, hopefully the little chap will come to enjoy them too !




Shots taken on with 50mm f1.4