First, and most important in my view, is improved image quality. I was impressed with the changes made to the rendering of raw files in the first beta release, but the subsequent tweaks and the addition of an improved luminance noise reduction has made me want to go back and reprocess many of my older photos. Yeah, I think it really is that good.

Second, and almost as important, is performance. The first beta was not optimized for speed, but they’ve definitely taken the feedback to heart and put more pep under the hood. From the import dialog to rendering previews to working in Develop, I am seeing definite improvements.

Now, before you run off and grab your free copy I implore you to do the following:

• Read the release notes. Go no further until you do. It isn’t that long and it may save you a lot of frustration down the road.
• Make sure your Lightroom catalogs and your system are backed up. Any excuse to confirm a solid backup is a good one. Don’t pass on the opportunity to save your own assets.
• Know how to replace the Lightroom preference file should things go wonky.

After reading the release notes you will learn that if you are on Windows then this version of the Lightroom Beta will overwrite the previous beta version, but if you are on a Mac the two versions can live side-by-side. I personally would choose to uninstall the old version and then install the new version since I only used it for testing purposes anyway (right?). Both beta versions can be installed alongside Lightroom 1 or 2 without problem.

To uninstall on a Mac, open the Applications folder and drag the Lightroom 3 Beta icon to the trash.

To uninstall on Windows, use the Add/Remove programs utility in the control panel.

Just like the first version of the Lightroom 3 Beta, this version will not upgrade your Lightroom 2 (or Lightroom 1) catalogs, but it will upgrade the previous beta catalog if you have one. You might find this guest post I did on importing photos from Lightroom 2 into Lightroom 3 beta and its follow up on migrating Lightroom 2 catalogs to Lightroom 3 revisited helpful.

Aside from the improvements I’ve mentioned here’s a few more things I’m glad to see:

• Support for copying video files off memory cards. No, Lightroom can’t edit video files, but at least it won’t just ignore them, and you can use Lightroom to manage them.
• An easy way to change the orientation of the crop rectangle, just press the X key to flip it! This may be reason alone to buy the upgrade. I look forward to not having to send people to this changing crop orientation tutorial anymore.

• A new function to pre-render previews for slideshows to avoid the problem of slides being skipped or shows getting hung up  in a loop due to the lack of completed preview rendering. Yes, sometimes it is the little things that make our lives better.

I’m just picking my favorites though. To get the complete rundown of improvements and new features head over to Lightroom Journal. Did I mention the release notes? Then join the party over in the Adobe Labs forum. They’ve even produced a beta version of the Lightroom 3 help file for you.

Additionally, there are some excellent LIghtroom 3 Beta 2 roundups from my favorite Lightroom gurus worth checking out:

• Victoria Bampton
• Mark Wilson
• Ian Lyons
• Richard Earney
• Jeffrey Friedl
• Sean McCormack
• Gene McCullagh

Even though it is more tempting than ever to abandon Lightroom 2 in favor of this beta release it is still a Beta release. It is not finished. Adobe is even teasing us by saying there may be more up their collective sleeve, so treat it accordingly and have fun kicking the tires!

So, install the 10.6.2 update from Apple, then right-click on the Lightroom icon in your Applications folder and uncheck the Open in 32 bit mode box, then launch Lightroom and give it a test drive. You should be back in business!

Adobe has just released Lightroom 3 Beta! Now before you rush out and start downloading I’d like to give you my take on this beta release to help you get off on the right foot.

This is a Beta version, which means it is not the finished product. Beta software is usually stable, but not necessarily bug free. Before you import, please start out by creating a copy of a few folders of photos (already safely backed up) and treat these copies as expendable test files. I don’t expect anything bad to happen to them, but with Beta software there is no reason to take any chances. Think of the Beta release as a way to get a taste for what Adobe has in mind for Lightroom 3, give it a test drive and see what you think. They really want your feedback to incorporate into the final release.

What I’m Most Excited About So Far

1. Improved rendering. The engineer-elves have added some new magic into LR3 to improve the rendering of our raw photos in regards to noise reduction and capture sharpening. Not finished yet (no Luminance noise reduction right now), but any effort to develop better looking photos gets my vote.
2. Improved watermarking. OK this may seem like a small thing, but it has been on my list for a very long time. I’m working on a LR3 Beta Watermarking tutorial that should be posted this week. Stay tuned! I’m not quite ready to give up LRMogrify yet though!
3. Custom Print Packages! Gone will be the days when I have to explain to people why they can’t print 3 different 4×6 photos on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper. Woot!

There is a lot more to love and a lot more to learn! I’ve got several LR3 Beta tutorials in the pipeline so stay tuned, but let me leave you with some valuable resources:

1. Go to Lightroom Journal and read all about the Lightroom 3 Beta.
2. Head over to Scott Kelby’s Blog and see what his top 10 list is all about.
3. Visit the NAPP Lightroom 3 Beta Learning Center to dive into some tutorials.
4. Check in with Lightroom plugin developer Jeffrey Friedl about using plugins with LR3 Beta.

OK, you are probably really itching to download the Beta … but please please please take a few minutes to read the Release Notes before you do. No, seriously, just give them a go over for known issues. I’m only trying to help!

OK, this Beta is free to everyone for the length of the Beta program so head over to Adobe Labs and take it for a spin. Check back here for more tutorials and resources in the coming days!

New! Updated tutorials for Lightroom 3 Beta:

• Boosting Lightroom Performance
• Replacing the Lightroom Preference File
• Back Up Your Lightroom Catalog

    * A memory leak could cause Lightroom to crash while attempting to process files with local adjustments.

    * Attempting to undo(CTRL-Z) a single step in Lightroom 2.2 on Windows could cause a series of previous actions to be undone. 

You can read all the details over at Lightroom Journal. This update is highly recommended.