What a great update to one of my most favorite applications that Adobe (and for that matter, any software maker) makes. Adobe Lightroom has been upgraded to version 1.1 and for a .1 upgrade, there is plenty of “new toys” to play around with, along with some great improvements overall.

First of all, if you are upgrading to 1.1 from 1.0, the upgrade path is very easy. Just download the file from Adobe.com (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/) and double click the install file. On the Mac and PC, the old files are replaced with the new one (on the PC, it installs a new “Adobe Lightroom 1.1″ directory and then deletes the old “Adobe Lightroom” directory.

After installing it, just run Lightroom as usual. Your library (.lrdb file) from your previous version will be converted to the new “catalog” (.lrcat) format. You will be prompted (see image below) to make a backup of your .lrdb file.

After the conversion and backup process completes (depends on the speed of your machine, the size of your library, etc.), then Lightroom opens up.

At first glance, you won’t see many differences (from a UI perspective), but there are many new cool changes, I assure you!

I won’t cover every single change and/or addition to Adobe Lightroom 1.1 in this article because I’m working on a “What’s new in Adobe Lightroom 1.1″ training on demand video out soon, but here are the major changes:

General

1. Template Browsers in Slideshow, Print and Web module are now hierarchical (you can organize your templates….that’s a nice addition!)
2. There are 2 separate preferences now.
   • Global (Edit–>Preferences)
   • Catalog Specific (File–>Catalog Settings)

Library Module

1. Right click (CONTROL CLICK on MAC) on any photograph then click on “Go to folder in library” - Will show you where in your library folder the particular image is located.
2. “Copy Name” in Metafield - Yes! You can now name your virtual copies differently from your master copy! You can even search by this field! Yeah!!!
3. You can make a virtual copy “the master copy” easily now.
4. The keyword stamper tool has been changed to a “paint spray” icon and you can now “spray” your images with a variety of things, including keywords, labels, rotation, developer settings, etc. Very neat tool!
5. Right clicking on a folder in the library and selectig “Synchronize Folder” will now pull in any new images in that folder in your hard drive. Ah! No more asking yourself “Are all my images in that folder in the hard drive in my library?”
6. You can export a “subset” of your catalog into a new catalog.
7. You can import a catalog into another catalog for merging.
8. The metadata browser now shows ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed and Label. Very neat way of navigating through your images.

Develop Module

1. New “Clarity” control” under the Basic tab. Adds depth to an image by increasing local contrast. It’s suttle, but makes a nice difference when used correctly.
2. Sharpening now has 6 controls: Luminance, Color, Amount, Radius, Detail and Masking. Especially useful is the “Masking”, where you can control where the sharpening will take place in the photograph.
3. An “exclamation mark” now appears in both the Detail and Lens Correction Tabs if you are not zoomed in to a minimum of a 1:1 ratio when using these tools.
4. You can load a snapshot and/or history state to the “before” picture.

There are other improvements to the Slide Show, Print and Web Modules. Those, plus much more, I will cover in my training on demand video on Lightroom 1.1 out soon.

I highly recommend that you download and update your current version of Adobe Lightroom to the new 1.1 version. It’s a very nice (and free if you are in 1.0) version with lots of cool enhancements.

Until the next blog!

Cheers!

Marcelo Lewin

The Digital Media Dude

http://www.thedigitalmediadude.com/