Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 2, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Lightroom is a comprehensive tool for professional photographers with powerful functions for managing, post-processing and presenting large volumes of digital images. The Lightroom 2.0 beta includes a range of improvements, including support for working with two monitors and correction tools such as dodge and burn. Lightroom 2.0 will also be the first Adobe application to offer 64-bit support for Mac OS X 10.5 Intel Macs and Microsoft Vista 64-bit operating systems.
“The beta version of Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 provides early access to requested improvements over version 1.3. It also continues our ongoing dialogue and open communication with the photography community,” says Marcus Riess, Business Development Manager Digital Imaging at Adobe Systems. “Alongside our existing customers, anyone interested can test the Lightroom beta for 30 days.”
New Features in the Lightroom 2.0 Beta
An improved layout in the Library module provides a more intuitive approach to image management. Among other changes, the positioning of functions needed to find and filter images has been simplified. A new feature, called Smart Collections, automatically updates collections that match particular criteria such as ratings, keywords or other metadata. Assigning keywords is made easier by a function that suggests keywords based on those already assigned and with reference to neighbouring images.
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The Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 beta also includes improved memory usage through 64-bit support for OS X 10.5 Intel Macs and Vista 64-bit operating systems. Another improvement in the Lightroom 2.0 beta is support for working with two monitors, expanding a photographer’s workspace and allowing it to be adapted easily to the needs of specific workflows. The Develop module has also been updated. It now allows particular areas of an image to be corrected without affecting other areas. Basic photographic techniques such as dodging and burning can now be applied non-destructively, enabling a level of control not previously available within Lightroom.
Beta Availability
A 30-day trial of the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 beta is available as a free download for Macintosh and Windows at http://labs.adobe.com/downloads online. Existing Lightroom 1.0 customers can test the beta for an extended period until August 31, 2008. They also have the opportunity to invite friends to participate in this test period. Recommended system requirements are Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5 with a 1 GHz PowerPC G4 or G5 or an Intel processor, or Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate or Enterprise Edition, an Intel Pentium 4-class processor, 1 GB of RAM and a screen resolution of 1024×768.