Adobe Lightroom 4 is officially out of the gate after a brief leak last week. The price for the full version at launch is $149 (half off the $299 list). Upgrades drop $20 less, down to $79.
If you’ve been following along with the beta release, then you have a pretty good idea what Lightroom 4 is like; however, we’ll hit the highlights below for those wondering what all the fuss is about.
Adobe has improved on the shadow and highlight processing in Lightroom 4 – and beta users have noted that this new tech in LR4 is simply amazing. You can also create photo books from inside the new “Book” module. Another new module is the “Map” module, which allows you to more efficiently manage the geotagging metadata, as well as additional sorting options when viewing your images.
Video support received a big boost in Lightroom 4. You can now apply image adjustments to your videos, trim the files and then upload them to Facebook or Flickr directly from Lightroom 4. Unfortunately, Adobe hasn’t tied in support for applying your image adjustments via an xmp file that’s readable by Premiere Pro or other NLEs. (That would have been epic, btw.) As it stands, once you export your video, the file is fully rendered based on your adjustments in Lightroom. Of course, the original remains intact – but interoperation with other Adobe tools for Lightroom’s video features are limited at best. Also note that the image adjustments are limited to essentially those available in the Quick Develop panel.
Lots of other goodies are present in Lightroom 4. Check it out at Adobe.com and B&H Photo for more details.
sjms says
what an absolutely horrid image one could think of to put on its cover
Sathish says
Agreed – what a horrid image for the Cover. Makes me cringe and refuse to buy or upgrade only by looking at the cover. Uninspirational & Crude ! Shame on you Adobe.
fred says
cant wait to upgrade!! love the cover!!
anangeli says
Oh, I love the cover. Its different.
Jocelynne Littlebear says
I POSED for the LR4 cover! Why do you hate me so much?
sathish says
Pose your original pic Jocelynne…then will reconsider :-)