Adobe Lightroom 2 Beta Available
Adobe have announced the public availability of Lightroom 2 beta. Hot on the heels of the Aperture 2 release, Adobe has included some very interesting features, such as localized editing (as per Aperture Edit API and the Dodge & Burn plugin), multiple monitor support and 64-bit support.
One feature that is causing a lot of discussion on the Internet is Lightroom’s implementation of localized editing. With Aperture 2 (using the Dodge & Burn plugin as an example), Aperture generates a TIFF image that is passed to the plug-in. Updates are destructively saved to the TIFF image at the pixel level when the plug-in is saved, rather than storing them as separate metadata to the RAW image (as per the other adjustments available through the main Aperture interface.) However, Lightroom extends its non-destructive architecture to support localized editing that does not require an additional TIFF image, with the changes stored as metadata alongside the original RAW image.
I am not convinced that the approach taken by Apple is the best way to implement plug-ins, as I would have preferred for the plug-ins to be fully embedded into the Aperture workflow. Also, there is no way to make changes to the plug-in’s effects or to undo the changes of a plug-in (other than delete the generated TIFF), so you will need to be careful when applying edits early in the workflow, as reverting back to an earlier image will remove all changes made subsequent to the plug-in.
It is not clear how long the beta period will last before the full version 2 release. Adobe takes a different approach to software releases (especially with Lightroom), where they will release a number of beta versions before launching the final version. Apple only typically releases full software versions, with beta testing performed internally and by a select few chosen users.
The Adobe Lightroom beta is available here. Note that the version 2 beta will not update an existing version 1 library and is only valid for 30 days if you are not already a Lightroom user.
For further details of the changes in Adobe Lightroom 2, please refer to the Release Notes.
Tags: Lightroom
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