Lightroom 3... YES!

Anyone who has been using Lightroom 3 for any amount of time knows what this icon is. It is the mark! Not unlike the fictional 17th century scarlet letter placed on the adulterer. In society but not really accepted by it.

Here you can see it in the Develop Module of Lightroom 3. It is telling you that the image is being displayed in it’s native Lightroom version 1 or 2 format and not the super enhanced, juiced Lightroom 3 format.

I say format while Adobe uses the term process which is actually more correct when you understand what it is doing. Take right from the Adobe website;

Lightroom 3 uses improved processes to calculate 

Detail and Fill Light adjustments.

I guess they didn’t think we would understand improved algorithm but then again that would be a really difficult title to show in the menu. Bottom line and regardless of what it is called, it rocks big time. The detail functionality is both in sharpness and noise reduction but most noticed in noise reduction. The fill functionality of the new process controls noise while increasing the levels in the shadows. It does this really nice. When you see the icon and go to Camera Calibration you will see the following:

This is telling you that the image is being displayed using the original process from the version 1.0 in developed in 2003 even though the it was not released until Feb 19, 2007.

So what is the significance of the icon? First it only appears on images that have had any adjustment done to them and only on converted libraries. Any new imports into Lightroom 3 will automatically be using the 2010 process.

Here is the hick-up and the mistake I have made. On an airline flight yesterday I listed to an interview of Tom Hogarty on Kerry Garrison’s podcast Camera Dojo. You can check it out right here. Here is Tom’s blog at Adobe right here. Anyhow the mistake I had made in my haste to convert all my libraries to version 3 I did the following. When you click on the icon showing the 2003 process you are given the following window. The Review Changes via Before/After seemed very cumbersome but in actuality the option I should have taken. But noooo, not me, I clicked on Update All Filmstrip Photos which updated the entire library as long as I was on All Photographs in the Library module.

It worked really really fast and I did not know the difference until I went to a library I was working on that I had recently imported inversion 2. In retouching facial skin, I use a number of presents in the local adjustment brush. Well, the 2010 process effects the sharpness and clarity in this tool. It almost doubles the effect with the end result being a cartoonish doll face. Going on from here I will have to evaluate any exports I make to see if this has had an effect on the adjustments. Not a big thing but something I will have to deal with in the future.

Why in the conversion process Adobe did not dial these adjustments back automatically I do not know. I guess it is evidence that Adobe is not that all powerful software company after all.

Tomorrow I plan to have an example of this phenomenal noise control in Lightroom 3.

Take care... Doug