Adobe releases full version of Photoshop Lightroom

Adobe on Monday released the first commercial version of Photoshop Lightroom photographic software that according to the company enables professional photographers to import, manage and present considerable volumes of digital photographs, helping photographers spend more time behind the lens and less time at the computer.

Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, the image processing application for professional photographers, is an improvement over the current Photoshop Lightroom 4.1 beta version.

The photographic software was available as a freely-downloadable beta since its announcement over a year ago. The current beta 4.1 will expire on February 28, after which users will have to purchase the full version if they want to continue using it.

Adobe is offering Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 at a special introductory price of US $199 (Rs 8,955) through April 30, 2007 at the Adobe Store. The software will later sell for an estimated increased price of US $299 (Rs 13,455).

According to the San Jose, CA-based leading graphics and desktop publishing software company, Lightroom will not be included in the current or next versions of Creative Suite.

After completing the beta test of more than 12 months, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 now includes innovative features that improve and well organize the digital photography workflows. More than 500,000 photographers have participated in the public beta program.

While launching the new digital photography software, John Loiacono, senior vice president, Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe, has said, “It’s an unlikely scenario that professional photographers would moonlight as software developers,” adding further that “Fortunately for us, they were willing to give it a shot. Everything, from image viewing and evaluation tools to timesaving editing features, was developed with the help of photographers. This was truly a collaborative effort and we extend our thanks to everyone who provided invaluable feedback to help us deliver a powerhouse professional photography tool.”

The 1.0 version includes new functionality to those in the version 4.1 beta. For instance, the Library module gains advanced keywording tools to help photographers filter through large collections, and more flexible file handling in the import dialogue allows greater choice while determining file location.

In addition, a new and improved Key Metadata Browser offers quick access to key information tags, with an improved ranking and rating system based on color labels plus a pick/reject system that sorts and locates photographs faster than ever.

Additional tools added include an adjustment tool that targets Hue, Saturation and Luminance for precise and intuitive image edits. Clone and Healing brushes are provided for non-destructive edits to eliminate sensor dust across one or many images.

Besides all, in Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, Adobe Camera Raw technology and support for over 150 native raw file formats has been added, including JPEG and TIFF. It supports the latest camera models, including Nikon D80 and D40 and Pentax K10D.

The new version runs under Macintosh OSX 10.4.3, or Windows XP. It also requires 1 GHz PowerPC G4 processor or Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Intel Pentium 4 Processor, and 768 MB RAM and a 1024x768 resolution screen.

Being a Universal Binary application, Photoshop Lightroom will run natively on PowerPC and new Intel-based Macintosh systems.