Weekly Worth-a-click
Here’s a few things that I found worth a quick visit this week.
Lightroom 2.3 is officially released(look on the right side for the download link). You may recall it had been in beta-mode for a while but now 2. 3 is up on the Adobe website. I’ve installed it and had no issues that I can see.
Speaking of updates, I know all of you LR users out there use Photoshop. Adobe has also released a CS4 update. Here’s the link for the Mac version and here’s the one for PC.
Nik Software (makers of my favorite Noise Removal and Black and White plug-in) have announced a plug-in for Viveza in Lightroom. So if you ever found yourself going into Photoshop just to use Viveza (which I did from time to time), now you can leave that step out and go straight to Viveza.
That’s it for today. I’ll talk to you more later this week.
Before I offer my little rant, let me say that I think some of these NIK products look pretty darn cool, and I’m sure they’re quite useful. In fact, I’d love to check some of these out, but…
One of the reasons I enjoy working in LR is because it’s a non-destructive editing environment. This is big for me, as I’m sure it is for many folks. LR has a pretty nice set of editing/image refinement tools but there are certainly times where I can envision utilizing a 3rd party app to make the process even better. For me though, leaving the non-destructive world of LR is a non-starter. I mean, why the heck would I want to be forced to render the file before I could use additional editing tools and then not have the ability to change things later if needed. No thanks.
Calling these 3rd party apps “plug-ins” is misleading, IMO. They’re external editors just like PS is an external editor, which is fine, but they’re really not PI’s. When these apps are capable of being plugged into the RAW processing pipeline of LR and can be used non-destructively, then I’ll be on board in a big way.
I have no idea if this lack of non-destructive PI’s is a result of Adobe’s unwillingness to supply 3rd party developers with an LR SDK to support this, if it’s the developer’s unwillingness to do the work required or if it’s for other reasons entirely, but until this gets worked out, I’m not signing up.
Sorry, just had to get that out.
Best to all,
-Doug
Hi Josh,
Hope you check out this thread again. This is really exciting news. I would love to get it soon. I already own Silver Efex Pro version for Photoshop which I really like, is there any discount available to the previous owners or not really?
Thanks and regards,
Hey folks, I’m the product manager for the plug-ins, including Viveza and just wanted to comment on the point Prashant made.
You’re right, Viveza is $250 as is the street price of LR2, so considering that, we announced also that the Complete Collection of all plug-ins is available for Lightroom for $299. That way, if you’re only using LR2, you can buy the Complete Collection and get all five plug-ins, Dfine 2.0, Viveza, Color Efex Pro 3.0, Silver Efex Pro, and Sharpener Pro 3.0 all for $299. Keep in mind that this collection isn’t compatible with Photoshop (to get Photoshop and Lightroom support, you can get the other Complete Collection which retails for $599).
Right now, only Viveza is compatible with Lightroom, but all products will become available between now and June, so purchasing the Complete Collection for Lightroom will mean that you can get Viveza now, and the rest of the products as soon as they are available (about one every 3 weeks or so).
More info of course can be found on our web page, as can the trial version of Viveza for Lightroom.
Cheers!
-Josh
Matty,
How do we get the post-crop vingnetting addressed in a new update? It’s just plain awful. I’m glad you addressed this issue, but seriously something needs to be done.
What steps do you suggest to get it taken care of? Have you had any luck in the past with this type of improvement.
Thanks,
Lucas
And now with Dutch language! And the good thing: install all languages en select when & which you prefer. Great!
Hi Scotty,
It is noticed by many. And I think it is a bug. It happened with me a couple of times. Unfortunately I do not remember how I got around it.
I recently upgraded to a larger external HD. I copied all the old files and added new ones to the new drive. When I plug it into the computer, the Lightroom library shows two hard drives, one with the old folders and the other with the folders added on the new drive. (All active/no ????’s) All folders/images are on the same drive. Please advise.
I’m constantly using Lightroom for various events and weddings that I shoot and it really speeds up my workflow. One small gripe I have is that when cropping images, there seems to be no way to convert the 5X7 crop option to a default setting (I frequently prefer it to the standard 4X6 crop). Do you know of any workaround for this or am I just missing something?
If you are a NAPP member I believe Nik has a promo running now that will knock $100 off of the list price of Viveza.
LOL Prashant although I can’t help but agree with you. I can only think that the high prices are to make up for the low volume of sales 10 x 20 = 200 , 5 x 40 = 200.
Thanks for the links,
I really like the plug-in. Most of the Nik stuff is really good.
The problem –
LR2.0 costs around 250…and this plug-in, umm what, 250?
I know the control it provides is great, but unless the price goes down by 60-70%, I do not see it appealing to the mass. Or Nik does not need it.
Allen – press the letter H (for Hide). They may just be hidden but they’re still there.
Matt K
I installed 2.3 and found on the gradient tool that the horizontal lines didn’t appear as in 2.2. Is that a change or my system?
LR2 user here who does not have Photoshop. 😉 It’s always been on my “nice to have” list, but after LR2 added the adjustment brush my desire for Ps dropped a bit.
Vizeza works just like the version for Photoshop with the exception that you can now launch Viveza from Lightroom, select either the original, a copy of the original or a copy with “Lightroom Adjustments” before you begin editing. You can also decide whether to “Stack” the resulting image back into the Lightroom catalog along with the original or all by itself. So you can edit in LR then transfer to Viveza and back to LR with a new image – the edits you made are destructive – but you still have the original in LR. If you have the licensed version of Viveza for Photoshop, the upgrade is free. They sent me the download location and another key to activate.
I like it and the results are great so far.
Wow! Viveza for Lightroom? Does anyone know how this actually works? Does this require an export/import are are they saying you can now use Viveza to create what you normally would have to do with the targeted adjustment brush? I’m not very clear on that.
Thanks…
Todd in Chicago
I started using Viveza with LR2 support yesterday and I love it. I recently went to Yosemite for some winter photography and processed some of the images with Viveza. It does a great job and now eliminates the extra step of having to launch Photoshop, and/or use layers, which streamlines my workflow! Here is one of the photos I edited in Viveza:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/howardignatius/3326455935/