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Lightroom 3 is Here! (and so is our Lightroom 3 Learning Center)

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Big news: Lightroom 3 is now shipping!!!! (Wild cheers ensue!!!).

For people like me, who do 80% of their work in Lightroom, news doesn’t get a whole lot bigger than this! Of course, true to form, Adobe snuck an extra feature or two into the final shipping version that wasn’t in the free Public Beta, (most notably the new automated Lens Correction feature—a big one on the wish list of many Lightroom users).

We’ve updated our Lightroom 3 Learning Center with more details about the update, loads of videos and interviews, plus Matt Kloskowski and I created a clip where we each share our 5 favorite Lightroom 3 features, and why they’re our favorites.

You can visit NAPP’s Free Lightroom 3 Learning Center right here.

A big high-five to Product Manager Tom Hogarty, to Adobe brilliant engineers, and to the entire Lightroom Team for kickin’ some major butt on his upgrade!

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Scott Kelby Author
Scott is a Photographer, bestselling Author, Host of "The Grid" weekly photography show; Editor of Photoshop User magazine; Lightroom Guy; KelbyOne.com CEO; struggling guitarist. Loves Classic Rock and his arch-enemy is Cilantro. Devoted husband, dad to two super awesome kids, and pro-level babysitter to two crazy doggos.
64 comments

  2. I usually skeptical about upgrades (I’m still on photoshop CS3)… But Adobe seem to have done an excellent job with this lightroom3 , especially with the improved raw image processing. Its seems like a worthy upgrade. I too spend a lot of time in lightroom especially after a wedding, its ability to sort and adjust quickly is superb.

    I’ll check out the learning center shortly.

    I hope you can turn the lens correction off. I sometimes like the distortion of lenses, as I feel it can add character (especially for very wide lenses).

  3. The moment I saw the announement I rushed (figurally speaking ;-)) to the online Adobe store and purchased a student version :-D

    The new noise reduction does wonders for my Long Exposure (usually around 4min) photos, noise can now finally be removed from within LR without having to use a plug-in. And no more going to Photoshop just to add a simple watermark for my Flickr uploads.

  4. I’m going to cheat and ask a question before I spend a ton of time on the site…

    Can I import my Lightroom 2 catalog into Lightroom 3?

      1. Hope there’s a LR3 Product Manager around to send you commission — This alone will be the single nicest feature enabling me to update….

      2. Thanks Omar, I never actually tried to import my LR2 into Beta 3. I just knew you couldn’t do it in Beta 1.

      3. You’re right Ryan. Lightroom 3 Beta 1 did not allow to import LR2 catalogs into it. Neither did Lightroom 3 Beta 2.
        I never hear of Beta 3 -as Omar Rivero pointed out- maybe that Beta did allow to import, but I guess it was not available to the public.

        So the answer is YES: Lightroom 3 will let you import your old (1 & 2 Catalogs). Enjoy!

    1. Yes. If you go to the NAPP members discount You can get 15% off of the CS5 and then use the 30% Lightroom discount (Sorry no double dipping. You can’t take both the 30% LR discount and the 15% NAPP discount at the same time on your LR purchase). This all adds up to a nice savings as I was able to upgrade PS CS5 and LR3 for a total of $238.45.

      If you bought PS CS5 last month then you are not eligible for the 30% discount (LR and PS must be purchased at the same time.) however you can still use the 15% NAPP discount.

      Oh and let me be the first to call for soft-proofing in LR4 :). For now just think of PS CS5 as a $200 plug-in for Lightroom that gives you soft-proofing. ;)

      1. I called Adobe sales and asked for the 30% discount for LR3 even though I upgraded to CS5 last month and they gave it to me.

      2. >Oh and let me be the first to call for soft-proofing in LR4 . For now just think of PS CS5 as a $200 plug-in for Lightroom that gives you soft-proofing.

        I’d be very shocked if you didn’t see soft proofing in LR4. Like you, its one of the reasons I have to make a trip into Photoshop for every image I end up printing. The team wants to do it right and really go far past the soft proofing functionality we currently have in Photoshop. I’d be really surprised if 4.0 doesn’t take Soft Proofing to another level.

  6. I’m a little surprised the 30% discount does not apply to those of us who upgrade early when a new Creative Suite becomes available. Does not make much sense for customers who support Adobe.

    1. You only get burned once. I bought the LR2 upgrade in the summer of 2008 and then when CS4 was released in October they had a similar 30% discount on LR2. This year I knew to wait until LR3 was released before even considering an order for CS5.

    2. As in past history, that’s the way Adobe works (eg LR2, CS4). That’s why a lot of us waited until the LR3 release b4 upgrading to both.

  7. How would you compare it to Aperture 3? I’ve played with both and it seems Aperture is a bit more user-friendly. I know a lot of people who love Lightroom but some friends of mine are seriously considering moving to Aperture.

    1. Lightroom uses a different way of thinking. If you grew up in a darkroom it makes perfect sense. My learning curve was shorter with LR than PS. But the best answer is there is a lot more support for LR and PS thanks to the Kelbys, Whites, et al. I still think we barely touch all the features in both. In all honesty I spent a day researching Aperature and found it lacking in advanced features and support.

      Yes the LR Development set is the same as PS camera raw, but with a better user interface in my opinion. Now that LR has lens support I’m even happier.

      1. FYI, I just got off the phone with Adobe and updated both my Creative Suite and Lightroom to the latest version. If you upgrade a CS product, you’ll get the 15% NAPP discount. But since you can buy LR3 for the 30% discount, the NAPP discount doesn’t apply. Not a bad deal really. I updated from CS4 Web Premium + LR2 to CS5 Design Premium + Lightroom 3 for under $640.

  10. I think I made a bad!

    Last year I bought CS4 Suite, but now I am just interested in upgrading to PS CS5…but am I understanding it right that this is not a valid upgrade path ?????

    Is it true that I can only upgrade from a suite to a suite???? Not from Suite to single CS5 product???

    Bad news, but LR3 release is good news!!!!

    1. You need to talk to Adobe. Even though the Adobe website says otherwise I’m pretty sure that I’ve heard the NAPP guys, while interviewing some of the folks at Adobe, say that you can just upgrade selected parts of the suite. If Adobe still says no then you might want to go back and watch some of the old CS5 webinars that NAPP did and see if you can hear what I did.

      1. When I talked to Adobe today, they were willing to allow me to upgrade a single to a suite product. Though the cost would of course be higher. In my case I had CS4 Web Premium and also had InDesign CS4 which I bought seperately. It turned out I would save more money by upgrading my web suite to design suite CS5. Since I don’t need to use Adobe Contribute, I don’t care about upgrading the web suite as much.

      2. Thanks guys for the reply…..I am overseas right now, so I will try to contact Adobe…I have cs4 design premium, would like to upgrade to just photoshop cs5…

  11. One thing no one mentions. did they fix the rendering problem from beta 2? sometimes library wouldn’t render previews at all, and everything took forever to load. that was enough to make me use lightroom 2, since this “little” glitch doubled my processing time just waiting for the pixelated image to become clear.

    cheers,

    Borna

    1. I suspect there was a lot of debug code in the beta that was removed in the final. The first thing I noticed about the final was how much faster everyting is compared to the last beta. My beta catalog had 15,000 images and it was an instant improvement on LR3.

  12. Just a quick question: Is it possible to get multiple pages in custom print packages? It’s already a great improvment to have this on one page, but to make this perfect I would need it on more than one page at a time.

  13. A question that perhaps someone here can answer. I’m currently using LR 2.7 on a PC, with Windows XP. I’m a month away from switching to a Mac system. If I upgrade to LR 3.0 now, can that be transferred to the Mac, or will I have to buy the software and start from scratch when I switch platforms? (If so, I’ll hold off on getting the upgrade, as I would only get a month’s use out of it.)

      2. Actually – is that true for the upgrade, or just when you purchase the initial software…?

  15. Scott,

    I don’t know how you do it:

    1. Keep stuff like this under wraps
    2. Find the time to put all the teaching together.

    Whatever the secret, my advice would be to bottle it and sell it for a healthy profit…lol :)

    Seriously though, great work on the learning centre. Lightroom 3.0 is a superb piece of kit now that some of the ‘essential’ enhancements have been added. This past weekend I was shooting in the studio and it worked flawlessly. More than anything though I was blown away with the speed it brings the files in from the camera; unreal!!!

    What a time we’re having; first CS5 Suite, iPhone 4.0 and now Lightroom 3.0 … geez any more and I’ll be bursting at the seams :)

    Cheers,
    Glyn

  16. Does anyone know the NAPP discount code for Adobe. I want to upgrade to LR3 and following the links from the NAPP software discount page but I get to the Adobe store and there is a box asking for a promo code which I do not know?

    DJJC

    2. I just followed the links on the NAPP site and when it redirected me to the Adobe site the discounts were already in place. No need to type in a code.

      If we posted the code here I’m pretty sure NAPP would get upset because the code would then be “in the wild”.

  17. Excellent stuff as always. Thanks Scott and Matt.

    Do I want to upgrade to LR3? Absolutely.
    Can I upgrade to LR3? Not yet. Unfortunately it’s going to be a mindbogglingly expensive upgrade as I’ll have to buy a new Intel Mac to run it on :-(
    Obviously it’s just the excuse I need to splash some cash, but my 5 and 6 year old PPC Macs still work brilliantly.
    Progress – love it or hate it, you just can’t stop it. :-)

    Cheers,
    Tony

  19. Scott, in tethered mode, can you change your shutter speed, f-stop, and ISO from Lightroom 3 like you can in Nikon Camera Control or the Canon software?

    1. Hi Jason:
      You can fire the shutter from Lightroom, but you can’t adjust the shutter speed, iso or f/stop. That being said, it’s big advantage is sheer speed, plus simplicity and reliability. Plus, it’s built right into Lightroom itself, so you don’t have to use another piece of software between lr and your camera.

      Hope that helps. :)

      -scott

      2. Well that is disappointing. When I have a camera mounted 12 ft in the air, I will still have to use Nixon Camera Control to avoid climbing into a set to make an adjustment. I don’t see the benefit of capture with no adjustments… Unless of course I’m shooting with a Holga.

        Thanks for the info though.

  20. Done, done, and done!

    – Purchased the upgrade, downloaded, installed.
    – Converted 3 catalogs, archived the LR2 catalogs (for now), and tossed empty catalogs (from previous installs/trials).
    – Imported a few photos from LR3 b2

      1. Unfortunately, you can’t do that. I suppose it was not meant to be the software that controls the camera, rather the software that would import photos to the computer from the camera that was used as you normally would.

  22. Question? Why doesn’t LR3 offer a video editing into the slideshow like Aperture 3?? That’s a very cool feature!! It’s worth buying and just have lightroom 3 around to play with images and then open your work into Aperture 3 to make a cooler slideshow! Just a thought!

    1. Per the Kelby blog: “Of course, true to form, Adobe snuck an extra feature or two into the final shipping version that wasn’t in the free Public Beta, (most notably the new automated Lens Correction feature—a big one on the wish list of many Lightroom users).”

  25. Hi! Just wanted to tell you that your pictures were Awesome!! My husband Jim loved to take pictures. We have literally 1,000’s. Some of them are Pretty Good! Sadly, He committed Suicide in April. He Left me with alot of memories of times gone by “In Pictures”! He also got me taking pictures to. I love Photography! Never been to a Class. But I have read a book or two. Anyway, Again, I’m glad your dream came true! You are Great at what you do! I hope 1 day mine will too! God Bless you! I am Sincerely, In Christ, Charlotte

  26. Anyone out there have an idea as to how long it will be before Scott publishes his Lightroom 3 book? I can handle the software without it – just enjoy his approach. Thanks, Fred

  28. My trial version of LR3 CRASHES when I attempt to open the develop module. It is not accessible AT ALL. Is there a patch available to fix this? I have even removed and reinstalled the program. The trial stop watch is running even thought it has not been fully functional. Adobe has been no help at all. The overseas rep instead referred me to user blogs for a solution. Please help if you can.

    many thanks.

  29. I have always loved Lightroom, and even more so now. However, I was really let down to find that the “tethered” connection is only good for Nikon and Canon cameras. Unfortunately, it does not recognize Sony cameras, which is a surprise to me. I use a Sony in my studio because of the megapixels but it is quirky and Sony’s software is unstable. It would have been a big plus to be able to connect direct to Lightroom. Not a deal breaker but a letdown. Adobe is mum on the subject and no information of a future upgrade to include Sony. If anyone has figured a workaround it would be much appreciated. Just a thought.

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