Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v.1 Starts Shipping Today, Plus Related Resources

After being officially announced on January 29, 2007, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v.1 is now shipping. My article describing some of its new features can be found here. Since I wrote that article, a new website, Lightroom-News.com has been built that has many resources for learning more about Lightroom and for getting up to speed with the program. On the site, there is a free chapter available of Martin Evening’s new Lightroom book. You can also find an overview and a link to the PDF on this page of PhotoshopNews.com. I’m a fan of Martin Evening’s Photoshop books, and I found it the sample chapter to be an excellent resource.

Michael Reichman and Jeff Schewe have created the first installment of a 4.5 hour video tutorial covering Lightroom v.1 that looks to be an excellent resource. There will be eight to ten downloadable files, and the cost is currently $11.96 for the whole series. Based on other materials that Reichman and Schewe have produced, I think that these videos will help make getting up to speed in the program much easier.

Another resource is a series of very well-produced free online videos by Michael Tapes of RAWWorkflow (screenshot shown above) that can be found here. The videos are also available for purchase on DVD. I like how Tapes includes describes many specific shortcuts and key commands as he moves through the tutorial.

Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 3.7 plug-in and the new Adobe DNG Converter are also now available for download. ACR must be updated to provide compatibility with Photoshop Lightroom. When you download the files, there are instructions for where to place the ACR plug-in. According to Adobe, “it is now possible to apply default image settings specific to a camera serial number and apply default image settings specific to a camera ISO setting. The additional criteria are located in the Camera Raw preferences. Also, the default settings, including the global auto preference, are now shared with the DNG Converter.”

Related Links: Lightroom can be purchased for $197.99 at Amazon.com (there are a number of Photoshop Lightroom book links on the same Amazon.com page). It can also be purchased from the Adobe Worldwide Store for $199.99. According to Adobe, this is a special introductory price through April 30, 2007 and Photoshop Lightroom will later sell for an estimated street price of US $299.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v.1 30 Day Tryout.

The Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta download page.

Adobe Camera Raw 3.7 download page.

Martin Evening’s Photoshop books, and other related books on Amazon.com.

Review: PhotoPlus Expo NYC Overview

I’ve just about recovered from three great days at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York City, Nov 2-4, 2006. I’ve been coming to the fall photo show for about the last 10 years (it has had a few different names over the years). The primary changes that I observed over about the last five to ten years has been the adoption of digital capture and digital output by the vast majority of professional photographers and photo labs/service bureaus.

The main entrance to the PhotoPlus Expo at the Jacob Javits Center

The educational seminars I attended were outstanding, and the sheer number and variety of seminars was truly impressive. Some of the topics covered were digital workflow, retouching with Adobe Photoshop, inkjet printing, how to be successful in the fine-art world and how to market yourself better as a working photographer.

I also had some time to see many products on the show floor (or as I like to call it: The Photographer’s Candy Store).

Over the next few days I’ll be posting news and interviews in a series of podcasts, with links to some of the products I came across at the show. Stay tuned! If you weren’t able to make it, here’s an article from one photographer’s perspective (Steve Simon) which can be found on CreativePro.com’s site. I contributed a few paragraphs in which I covered some of the inkjet-related offerings at this year’s show.

News: Kingston’s “Icons of Photography” website (currently featuring Harry Benson)

Kingston Technology’s “Icons of Photography” website profiles some of the world’s most respected photographers and each month, the company spotlights a different Icon. There are many fantastic stories about what it’s like to be a professional photographer, and each photographer offers a lot of suggestions for how to make captivating images.

I highly recommend taking a look–I was truly inspired by the personal stories and images, and I learned a lot from the techniques.

The current Kingston Icon photographers with images and techniques on the site are as follows:

Barbara Bordnick
Claudio Edinger
Colin Finlay
Douglas Kirkland
Gerd Ludwig
Peter Read Miller
Chris Rainier

One of the prevailing bits of advice from a number of the photographers was to do research before a shoot, and learn about your subjects, whether they’re flowers or celebrities.

Here are a few suggestions for getting the most from the information on the website:

First, to go directly to the Kingston Icon Techniques and Galleries, visit this page. The current Featured Photographer is legendary image maker Harry Benson. Along the left side and top of the screen are links for Techniques, Bio and Calendar (see below). From the calendar link, I learned that Harry Benson will be at the Photo Plus Expo 2006, signing prints in the Epson trade show booth and speaking in the Canon trade show booth. The calendar has exact dates and times.

If you choose Techniques, you will find advice from each photographer in the main window, or you can see the technique in an easy-to-print format by clicking on the printer icon on the top right of the main window. A gallery of images for each photographer runs along the bottom of the page. The thumbnails will appear if you hover over the bottom of the main window. You can hover and navigate one by one, or you can select the slide show button on the left side (circled in the screen shot below) and a new image will appear about every 6 seconds. You can also use the forward and back buttons. One way to easily exit from the slide show mode is to click on the word Techniques, Bio or Calendar.

I recommend also looking at Harry Benson’s additional photo gallery which has more techniques and advice. It’s located in the Archives section. The gallery is filled with iconic political images by Benson from the last 40+ years. Barbara Bordnick also has two galleries in the Archives section that feature her excellent work.

I thought that this particular quote from photographer and Kingston Icon Claudio Edinger (located in the Techniques area of his page) was fabulous: “For those who want to enhance their own photography techniques, my suggestion is: Focus on photography. Shoot 12 hours a day…learn the works of accomplished photographers, painters, writers, musicians and artists in the world, and watch many, many movies.”

Gerd Ludwig’s Gallery section of the Kingston Icon site

Kingston will introduce a new Icons photographer on the 15th of each month. For more information about Kingston Technology, visit www.kingston.com.