Lightroom 4 is Here

March 6, 2012 by Rob Sylvan | Leave a comment

If you’ve played with the public beta version then you should be all set to hit the ground running with the final release.

Here’s the best news of all: The full version of Lightroom 4 is $149 USD and upgrade pricing from earlier versions is only $79!

The final release also includes support for raw files from the following cameras:

Canon EOS 1D X
Canon PowerShot G1 X
Canon PowerShot S100V
Fuji FinePix F505EXR
Fuji FinePix F605EXR
Fuji FinePix HS30EXR
Fuji FinePix HS33EXR
Fuji FinePix X-S1
Nikon D4
Nikon D800
Nikon D800E

Get all of the details here: http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/2012/03/lightroom-4-now-available.html or http://www.photoshop.com/products/photoshoplightroom

From here on out, all of my 2 Day Lightroom Workshops will be on the new Lightroom 4. Use Code ROBVIP when you sign up to save $50! I hope to see you there!

 

Update

Here are some resources to help you get up to speed on the final release:

 

Posted in LR4

Partnering with the Digital Photo Workshops (and a ThinkTank Photo Giveaway)

February 1, 2012 by Rob Sylvan | 23 Comments

I’m very excited about an opportunity to team up with my friends Jeff Leimbach and Randy Van Duinen at The Digital Photo Workshops! The first workshop is a trip to Death Valley. This is a brand new location for me and I really can’t wait to get there. This workshop is being led by Rick Sammon, who is a phenomenal photographer and teacher. I’ve attended a number of Rick’s workshops at Photoshop World and he has such great energy for teaching photography that it will be a real pleasure to spend a few days with him in such a cool (hot!) place. I won’t be formally teaching Lightroom, but I’ll certainly be at everyone’s disposal for answering any and all Lightroom related questions. I also heard that onOne is giving all attendees to this workshop a free copy of Perfect Effects 3. Thanks onOne!

This is the inaugural trip of the 2012 season for The Digital Photo Workshops and I’m super psyched to be a part of it! They’ve lined up a fantastic series of trips for 2012 so far, and I’ll also be attending the next workshop in Moab in March, as well as the following one in Page, AZ in May. With any luck I hope to be able to join more of the programs later this year. Here’s the full list so far, and if you are interested in attending I worked out a special deal for readers of my blog, just enter “I heard it from Lightroomers” in the Special Needs field (along with any special needs you might have) of the registration form to save $100 off the regular $1299 price (can not be combined with any other discount) and The Digital Photo Workshop folks will take good care of you.

  • Death Valley Feb 23-26 (we had a blast!)
  • Moab/Arches/Canyonlands April 19-22
  • Page, AZ May 10-13
  • Maine June 14-17 (Lupine season!)
  • Jackson Hole, WY Sept 27-30
  • Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Oct 4-7
  • Zion National Park Oct 18-21
I have to say a word about my friends Jeff and Randy, I’ve worked with them behind the scenes at Photoshop World for years and years, and these guys know how to put on and run an event. They are photographers, techno-geeks (in the best sense), professional, and all around great guys to go out shooting with. They know all the pros in the industry and all the best locations to shoot. These workshops are going to kick some serious butt. I hope to see you at one!

I’m in the process of packing up my gear for Death Valley and wanted to share some of the resources I’ve found really helpful preparing for this type of outdoor photography (my Outdoor Education major is finally paying off!). Rick Sammon, the lead instructor on the Death Valley trip shared his essential gear list for Death Valley. A few weeks back I caught a series of blog posts by John Paul Caponigro on the Art of Packing that was just jammed packed with awesome tips and lists for making sure all your bases are covered. Derrick Story has an excellent podcast and there is one episode called The 10 Essentials that I thought was perfect for this kind of trip. If you are a Kelby Training subscriber I’ll point out that Moose Peterson has a number of classes on outdoor photography, as does Bill Fortney, and Tom Bol. If you’re not a Kelby Training Subscriber, but would like to try it free for 24 hours just  drop me a line and I’ll hook you up.

ThinkTank Photo Giveaway

Speaking of packing, my friends at ThinkTank Photo loaned me an Urban Disguise 60 v2 awhile back to test drive and they’ve agreed to let me give it away to one lucky blog reader. I’m a bit of a pack horse and this bag suited me very well. I took it on a trip to NYC and was able to fit a staggering amount of photo gear, my laptop and iPad, and more than a few other things (as you can see from the photos below). I used the shoulder harness (which I’m also giving away) when I needed to walk with it for any distance, which made carrying so much weight (I think I had it up to 35 lbs on that trip) much easier than over one shoulder. This is an excellent bag for anyone needing to carry a camera body a few lenses/accessories and a laptop. Highly recommended.

So, all you need to do to be eligible for the giveaway is to leave a comment on this blog post telling me one feature missing from Lightroom 4 Beta that you really hope gets added to the final release, or the one new feature you think will have the biggest impact on your workflow. One winner will be picked at random on February 29th (in honor of leap year). I am mailing this at my own expense, so the giveaway is only open to people with a mailing address in the USA (sorry international friends!).

 

If you are interested in joining me in a full-on 2 Day Lightroom-only workshop then check out my Lightroom Workshops calendar for 2012. Plus there’s always room in my online classes as well. Best of luck and hope to see you at a future event!

UPDATE 02/29/12

I gave this bag one last test run on a trip to Death Valley with The Digital Photo Workshops this past weekend and boy did it come in handy. I’m really going to miss that bag. I’d better come up with something to replace it with for the April trip to Moab.

The Racetrack Death Valley

 

Update: We have a winner!

Thanks to everyone who left a comment. This week hit me like a hurricane, so my apologies for not picking the winner sooner. No entries came in after the deadline. There are 23 comments from 22 people, so I assigned everyone a number based on the order the comments appeared, then used random.org to generate a random number between 1 and 22. The winning number it picked was 12:

So congrats to Keith Tharp! I plan to have more giveaways over the course of this year so stay tuned for the next! I’ll also try and provide some options for folks outside of North America. Thanks again!

Posted in Photography, Resources, Tutorials Tagged , , |

Additional Lightroom 4 Beta Resources

February 1, 2012 by Rob Sylvan | 3 Comments

I have a couple of new Lightroom 4 Beta resources that were recently published. The first is My Top 10 Reasons to Check Out Lightroom 4 Beta over at Peachpit.com, and the second is a feature article in the February issue of Photoshop User Magazine that just hit my mailbox yesterday. That same issue of Photoshop User also has my 2 page article on setting your camera raw defaults inside of Lightroom, which is a real time saver.

If you are thinking about giving the Lightroom 4 Beta a test drive, I’ve got some tips for you!

 

Posted in LR4 Beta, Resources Tagged |

Test Driving the Lightroom 4 Public Beta

January 10, 2012 by Rob Sylvan | 5 Comments

OK, I’m sure you are curious about jumping into the driver’s seat and giving this new version of Lightroom a few laps around the block. There’s a lot of cool stuff in here, and if you have been using Lightroom for awhile you should feel very much at home, but there are a few things I want to mention before you go too far. I want to help you get started with testing this on the right foot. Yes, this is beta software, which means there are bugs and it is limited in some ways to help protect your existing data, so please proceed with caution and keep this in mind:

The public beta versions of Lightroom will not upgrade your existing catalog from an earlier version of Lightroom, so don’t even try to open your working Lightroom catalog into the beta. You will get rejected.

No Catalog Upgrade

Similarly the public beta version can not import from a catalog from an earlier version of Lightroom.

No Catalog Import

Also, Adobe makes no promises that all the work you do in the beta will transfer over in exactly the same way to the final release version (whenever that should come). In fact, head over to Lightroom Journal and read everything they tell you.

So, this means it is time to start fresh! I found it best to:

1. Select photos in my Lightroom 3 catalog that I wanted to play with in the beta (put them in a collection if it is easier to wrangle).

2. Export these photos as Originals to a folder I named Beta Test (call yours whatever you want).

3. Then quit Lightroom 3 and launch Lightroom 4 Beta.

4. Click the Import button and import that folder of test subjects into Lightroom 4 Beta.

Now you have a safe batch of copies that you can play with and not worry about doing any damage to your real photos and videos (yes, be sure to bring some video over!). If you’ve never used a previous version of Lightroom before then that’s fine too! The public beta is open to all. Just make a copy of some photos and import them into the beta to play with.

 

Welcome Change
One small change that I am very excited about is the fact that Lightroom 4 is much more helpful when you first launch the program in telling you that you need to “create a catalog to store information about your photos” then goes on to show you exactly where this catalog file will be stored, and even gives you the option to change the destination. Oh so simple, but I think this will help decrease confusion for a lot of people.

Choose Catalog Location

From there the program launches and it is Go time!

Go to Adobe Labs to download the Lightroom 4 Public Beta. Join the fun in the Beta forum to give your feedback.

I’ll have an article on Peachpit.com with my top 10 new features appearing soon, a few deeper dive Beta tutorials here on my blog, and a big feature article in the Feburary issue of Photoshop User magazine. Also, stop by Kelby Training at 10am (Eastern Time) 1/10/12 for a live webcast that’s sure to be a lot of fun. In the meantime, here are a bunch of resources to get you started. Enjoy!

 

Posted in Before You Start, LR4 Beta, Tutorials Tagged |