Adobe Ships Photoshop Lightroom 1.0

With more than 500,000 photographers participating in the public beta program over the last 12 months, Photoshop Lightroom now includes a wealth of innovative features that streamline digital photography workflows.

“It’s an unlikely scenario that professional photographers would moonlight as software developers,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president, Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. “Fortunately for us, they were willing to give it a shot. Everything, from image viewing and evaluation tools to timesaving editing features, was developed with the help of photographers. This was truly a collaborative effort and we extend our thanks to everyone who provided invaluable feedback to help us deliver a powerhouse professional photography tool.”

Photoshop Lightroom includes new functionality added since beta 4.1, with significant changes to the Library and Develop modules complementing improvements to the Slideshow, Print and Web components. While in the Library module, new advanced keywording tools help photographers filter through large collections, and an improved import dialogue with more flexible file handling allows more choice when determining file location.

The new Key Metadata Browser provides quick access to key information tags with an improved ranking and rating system that now incorporates color labels and a pick/reject system that sorts and locates photographs faster than ever. New to the Develop module, Virtual Copies and Snapshot tools help present multiple versions of the same image, providing the most choice to clients without the confusion of saving separate physical versions.

Additional tools added include a Hue, Saturation and Luminance targeted adjustment tool for precise and intuitive image edits. Clone and Healing features provide non-destructive edits to eliminate sensor dust across one or many images.

Photoshop Lightroom leverages Adobe Camera Raw technology and supports over 150 native raw file formats, in addition to JPEG and TIFF, bringing raw conversion into a single workflow experience. The latest camera models supported include the Nikon D40 and D80 and the Pentax K10D. This support means that photographers can use Lightroom with even the newest cameras on the market, knowing that the image files will be recognized today and in the future. Upon import, files can be converted to the Digital Negative specification (DNG) or renamed and segmented by folder or date. DNG is an industry-wide initiative to create a universal file format for solving workflow and archiving issues. It aims to eliminate barriers to new camera adoption while giving professional photographers the confidence that their digital body of work is securely archived and will remain accessible as digital imaging technology evolves.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom ships now for a special introductory price of US $199. The $100 discount is offered to all customers through April 30, 2007. Photoshop Lightroom will later sell for an estimated street price of US $299.

Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OSX 10.4.3, 1 GHz PowerPC G4 processor or Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Intel Pentium 4 Processor, and 768 MB RAM and a 1024x768 resolution screen. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a Universal Binary application that will run natively on PowerPC and new Intel-based Macintosh systems.

Source: Adobe Systems