Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta 2 available

Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta will expire at the end of April 2010. Beta 2, which will run until the end June 2010 can be downloaded from here.

The NR in LR3 b2 is simply superb. It beats all the other NR programs I've used, of which I think Noiseware Pro is probably the best, but LR3 b2 is, without any doubt, significantly better. They've really knocked one out of the park with this!

However, I just don't understand why they have never included lens distortion and perspective correction, to me it's fairly fundamental in what is supposed to be a "complete" photographic workflow solution.

I know I'm not alone in thinking this as there are a considerable number saying the same on the Adobe LR forum.

I agree Richard, but Adobe do state that the beta version is not yet complete and even some of the functionality in it is not finished.

The addition of perspective correction would almost make Photoshop redundant for me.

We can but wait and see. There is certainly enough pressure in the forums for its inclusion. It might however impact on sales of Photoshop so they may not do it.

Is that in LR 3???

That would be perfect right?
Still I would need PS for creativity so I can't get away from it.

Btw is the sharpening also improved?
I would love to see "smart sharpening" from CS4 in it, you can say what kind of blur it is and it works really well.

No it's never been in any version of LR.

Download it and try it out, it doesn't affect your current installation of LR2 or use the same catalog/libraries.

I could do that Richard... I might but I've some photos I need to work at first, they might go into a folder so I don't want to experiment with those

Editing in Lightroom is non-destructive. Originals remain unaltered.

Yes I know I've LR2 but I ain't go to experiment on photos that might be published

I don't understand your reticence, what difference can it possibly make??

You don't have to do anything to shots that you don't want to.

Yes but I shot them in RAW so I need to process them, I know LR2 works stable and can deliver the goods I'm not sure how LR3 will interact with LR2 and how stable the beta is.
So first I'm going to get the things done with the program I know that does work then I've al the time to install and play with LR3 but first I want to be sure I've the shots done.

Or Richard are you going to guarantee me that LR3 will not interact with LR2 and/or cause instabilities with my PC? It's not called a Beta for nothing

I think you are being over cautious! I haven't had any issues with either beta 1 or beta 2 on my PC, plus everything is in another separate directory and the Raw files aren't touched.

I found this interesting series of video tutorials on the differences between LR2 and LR3. You may like to take a look.

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/lightroom/lightroom-3-video-tutorials/lightroom-...

Yet another video about what's new in Lightroom 3 beta 2

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/what-s-new-in-lightroom-3-beta/whats-new-in-lightroom-...

Have fun!

Well better that then be wrong or not?

It's your call!