Lightroom-News.com

One unannounced feature of Lightroom 2 beta has to do with a beta SDK. I don’t know much about it, but Timothy Armes does and he’s used it to create a new Export ‘Post Process’ plugin. This means that it can work in any Export Plugin. You could for example use Mogrify with your Flickr Export plugin. The upgrade for this plugin is free. As with older plugins, this is donation ware for users, although the trial allows you to export up to 10 images at a time. Lightroom 2 users can check out the plugin over at Tim’s site.

One of the key new features in Lightroom 2.0 is the Filter bar, which is accessible in the Content area whenever you are in the Library Grid view mode. The Filter bar combines Find panel and Metadata Browser features into one, along with the search functionality of the Keyword Tags panel. Basically we have a new, more streamlined approach to the Library module panels layout where one can broadly say that the left panels contain the catalog source locations such as Folders and Collections and the right hand panel contains the catalog edit controls, such as the Quick Develop and Keywording panel. The Filter bar is now the main place to go for making refined filter selections of photos in the catalog (although you can still use the Filmstrip controls for filtering by rating and labels).

Source: Computer-Darkroom
Author: Ian Lyons

As well as being a dedicated Lightroom alpha tester, Ian Lyons is also an accomplished photographer and Lightroom guru. Ian has posted an overview of all the new features in the Lightroom 2.0 beta on his Computer Darkroom site.

Source: Lightroom Journal

Lightroom Journal has posted an announcement of the Lightroom Beta , a quick overview of what is new in Lightrom 2 and how you can sign up now to take part in the new beta program.

“Version 2 of Lightroom is now available as a public beta, allowing the the photographic community to provide feedback on new features and workflow enhancements. It’s hard to believe that Lightroom 1.0 was released just over a year ago and Lightroom 1.1 shortly thereafter. It really feels like the beta process never stopped and we’ve received a ton of great feedback through the feature request submissions, customer conversations, forum discussions, tradeshows and targeted customer visits. We’re glad to continue the process by releasing this version before it’s final to get your opinions on our progress. This is different from the previous Lightroom beta in that we’ll be targeting feedback on new enhancements and aiming to release the final version sooner than we did in the previous year-long beta. I’ve provided a few key notes below but I strongly recommend reading the entire Release Notes document available on Labs.adobe.com.”

Press Relsease: SAN JOSE, Calif. – April 2, 2008 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 beta, a public preview of new and improved functionality to be delivered in the next major release. Lightroom is the professional photographer’s essential toolbox, providing one application for managing, adjusting, presenting large volumes of digital photographs. Lightroom 2.0 beta will feature enhancements such as dual-monitor support, localized dodge and burn correction and will be the first Adobe application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Intel Macs and Microsoft Vista 64-bit operating systems.