With Darktable, like with Lightroom, you can organize, store, visualize. But you also can modify/edit your photo pictures (in RAW as in JPEG), including in a non-destructive way.

It’s worth trying by yourself (with this kind of price, there is no downside).

• Download Darktable (in English).
• Download Darktable (en français).

It’s been years that I was tracking this product with great care. Here is the best photo news of 2017 (it will compensate the worst one from Adobe Lightroom).

When Adobe launched this kind of solution and when they made it compulsory in order to obtain the most recent version of their tools, some people warned that this was a major blow into the capacity to maintain a reliable capacity to work on our photos. Most either ignored the warning, downplayed its importance or or did not understand the full breadth of the risk. Today, the reality check is here; And it’s hurting real bad with thousands of professionnals waiting for the service to come back while trying to explain to their customers that nothing can be done until Adobe finds a solution (
I sympathize sincerely).

Of course, this suspended animation state is bad in itself (nobody missed that). But this is highlighting the issues at hand that were less obvious or more difficult to understand.

1. Unique/single failure point: If/when Adobe fails, we have no other option than wait. We are used to having a computer fail or a software stopping to work and -usually- it’s only (!) a matter of moving the DVD to a new PC, switching over to another workstation or another professional. Now, all Adobe customers fail in the same minute. This is a systemic risk like we are afraid of in the global bank system. No fall back option.
2. Opacity: The fact that Adobe Creative Cloud is far outside the scope of its users (except maybe some global-level customers who may have a direct line with Adobe management) makes it nearly impossible to have visibility. And in this kind of situation, we, the users, want/need to know immediately a/ what is happening, b/ what we can do to mitigate the situation (even if nothing is possible), c/ how/when the solution will be available. [And today, Adobe communication is an exemple… of what should not be done]

Is ease of subscription worht it? Is the flexibility of having always the latest release version at your hand worth it? This is anybody’s choice and the choice cannot be done for you. But, since we have some time on our hands (if your customers are not shooting on the phone right now), it’s time to think about our choices.

First, it is possible to download the version 4 beta. So, why not? (apart from the risk associated with working in a software version which is not fully debugged and may not even work when the final version reaches the online shelves – you’ve been warned)

The public beta version of Lightroom 4 can be downloaded on the Adobe Labs website.

The most prominent progress certainly comes from the following:

• the RAW dematricing engine has been improved again
• some new modules were included to support book and maps creation using your own photos
• a new interface to touch-up colors and tones
• it becomes possible to locally correct the white balance
• digital noise and moire local correction
• new features targeting video correction

If you don’t have the time (or the courage) to try it by yourselves, I recommend a few good posts I found on the Internet:

• The interview of Tom Hogarty on DPReview.com, who talks about Lightroom 4 from the point of view of somebody working at Adobe
• the hands-on preview of Lightroom4 at DPReview.com
• French tutorial from Gilles Théophile
• French test and advice from Volker Gilbert

But even if you do not start playing with the new Lightroom, if you still keep the old version of Lightroom, it is still possible to spend some time using Lightroom. I collected some very good articles for you (in various languages, as usual here):

• How to Personalize Lightroom with an Identity Plate
• 5 Top Tips for Lightroom Develop Presets
• How to Add Watermarks to Your Photos in Lightroom 3 va vous apprendre à ajouter ces marques ou ces signatures au coin de vos photos ; cela fait très pro et très élégant (si vous ne vous contentez pas d’ajouter votre nom…)
• Camera RAW vs. Lightroom einmal, in deutscher Sprache verfasst
• Lightroom: Alte Dateinamen rekonstruieren
• 3 Ways to Change White Balance in Lightroom
• How to Add a Photo Border in Lightroom
• Wer braucht Fotobücher aus Lightroom? (in Deutsch)
• Black and White RAW Processing for a Landscape Image – Weekly Lightroom Edit Episode 2

• Intro to Lightroom 3 Lens Corrections
• Lightroom Quick Develop Panel
• Re-visit your older photos
• 8 Important Things to know about Lightroom Collections by Helen Bradley
• Perfect Layers: Ebenen-Tool für Lightroom, jetzt als öffentliche Beta
• Lightroom : préréglages automatiques par boîtier et sensibilité
• A Killer Collection of Adobe LightRoom Tutorials
• Where are my Lightroom Files?
• Im Test: Photosmith synchronisiert Lightroom mit iPad
• Lightroom : comment faire migrer ses images sur un disque dur externe ?
• Lightroom : préréglages automatiques par boîtier et sensibilité

Lightroom 3 sees its price lowered slightly at Amazon.

In order to support our activity and to bring us new ideas or better ways of using Lightroom, here is a collection of links selected just for you (you will notice that I have been able to mix English, German and French).

• How to Edit Multiple Files at Once in Lightroom, by Christopher O’Donnell
• Lightroom or Aperture? 3 Factors to Consider
• How to Convert From Lightroom to Aperture
• Lightroom: Der iPad-Exporter
• Camera Raw et Lightroom : repérer des taches de poussière sur un ciel bleu
• Why I Use Aperture Instead of Lightroom
• Targeted adjustments in Lightroom
• Lightroom: Der Stichwort-Automat
• Lightroom 3 : les dossiers
• Lightroom: Kameraprofile in DNGs
• Black and white in Lightroom
• How to Install a Lightroom Plugin
• 5 HOT Lightroom Features

If you have interesting resources to share with us, please, leave a comment at the bottom of this post. I will make sure to include it in a future Lightroom collection.

Just go to the Adobe Labs web site to get your own downloaded Lightroom.

You’ll get bug fixes for Lightroom v3.3, a long list of supported lenses and an extended list of supported cameras for RAW files including the following.

• Canon EOS 600D (Rebel T3i / Kiss X5)
• Canon EOS 1100D (Rebel T3 / Kiss X50)
• Hasselblad H4D-40
• Olympus E-PL1s
• Olympus E-PL2
• Olympus XZ-1
• Samsung NX11

Free download for Windows

Free download for MacOS

The main news seem to be the added support for the following SLR cameras:

• Nikon D7000
• Nikon D3100
• Pentax K-5
• Pentax K-r
• Samsung NX100
• Sony Alpha 560
• Sony Alpha 580

Download freely all these upgrades from the Adobe web site: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/ (in English).

Detailed changes

New Camera Support

• Canon         PowerShot G12
• Canon         PowerShot S95
• Nikon          D7000
• Nikon          Coolpix P7000
• Nikon          D3100
• Olympus     E-5
• Panasonic  DMC-GF2
• Panasonic  DMC-GH2
• Pentax        K-5
• Pentax        K-r
• Ricoh          GXR, GR LENS A12 28mm F2.5
• Samsung    NX100
• Samsung    TL350 (WB2000)
• Sony           A560
• Sony           A580

New Lens Profile Support

**These lens profiles were in the previous release but have been updated to address quality concerns.
NOTE: The Pentax, Tamron and Sigma profiles are the result of collaboration between Adobe and the respective lens manufacturer.

Lightroom 3.3 Bugs – Fixed

• Edit in PS CS4 from LR 3.2 did not give option to render to TIFF/PSD
• Process Version defaulted to PV 2003 when Lightroom’s installed Develop Presets are applied on Import
• All Auto-ISO values were not properly handled for the Nikon D3s
• An error could be generated when sorting by “User Order” in Collections
• There was an incorrect Profile Name tag for Canon 18-55 and 17-40 lens profiles
• Facebook album selection only displayed up to 25 albums
• Lightroom 3 could fail to launch Photoshop CS5 if Photoshop CS4 was uninstalled after the Photoshop CS5 installation
• Numerous cloning or healing spots could have caused Lightroom to become unresponsive
• Lightroom could have crashed when the metadata filter is selected and the grid is displaying all images in the catalog
• Lightroom 3.2 could have failed to import all of the images from an iPhone 4
• Some Sigma X3F raw files were rendering incorrectly
• Choosing the “Make a second copy to” option on import would result in incorrect folder structure for the second copy
• Resetting the crop angle by double-clicking the Angle slider removed a custom aspect ratio
• A tooltip for the Japanese language version of Lightroom 3 displayed the wrong keyboard shortcut for “Flag as Pick”
• Paste Settings did not apply to all images in the Develop module Filmstrip
• Smart collections in Lightroom 3 did not use the same definition of “All Searchable Metadata” previously available in Lightroom 2
• Text watermarks or portions of text watermarks could have failed to be applied to images on export
• SmugMug publish collection dialog included a mixture of English text  when using a language setting other than English
• Lightroom would not import files from the Panasonic LX5 that were shot with the iZoom Function set to above 90mm
• Choosing the Limit File Size option in the export dialog could have stripped certain EXIF fields from the exported file
• The Targeted Adjustment Tool may have performed slowly in the Lightroom 3.3 release candidate
• A single image published to multiple collections for a single publish service did not display comments properly
• Updating an existing Develop preset with all settings could have failed under certain conditions
• The watermark drop shadow settings behaved differently in Lightroom 3.2 when compared to Lightroom 3.0.  They have been returned to the Lightroom 3.0 behavior.
• The YYYYMMDD file renaming option was not available when the Lightroom language setting was set to Dutch
• An existing Smart Collection updated to filter for all photos with “Ratings is Zero” would show all images in the catalog
• Publishing an empty category to SmugMug would cause an error
• JPEG exports in the Lightroom 3.3 Release Candidate were significantly slower than the same export process in Lightroom 3.2.
• A graphical Identity Plate included in output was not correctly color managed
• Deleting all images in a Flickr photoset could have caused Lightroom to return an error message
• Changing the sort order to “User Order” while in Survey View on the Mac may have caused an error to appear
• Lightroom could have failed to respond when viewing an image containing numerous cloning or healing spots at 1:1 view
• RGB values were not displaying properly in the white balance tool
• The Smart Collection criteria “Folder starts with” was not working properly
• The navigator panel in the Develop module would incorrectly display threshold information when holding down the alt or option key and applying adjustments
• Applying a flag, star or label setting to an image via the toolbar in the Develop module while in auto-advance mode would result in an incorrect setting display for the subsequent image
• The application of color noise reduction at low color temperatures (e.g., tungsten or candlelight) could have provided results below our quality standards

Camera Raw 6.3 Release Notes
These items have been FIXED in Camera Raw 6.3:

• Camera Raw would not correctly read files from the Panasonic LX5 that were shot with the iZoom Function set to above 90mm
• The scroll bar could stop working properly with over 150 images in the filmstrip
• The DNG Converter could prevent customers from setting a “Destination” folder outside of their Home directory
• Some Sigma X3F raw files were rendering incorrectly
• Embedding GPS information into a Sony ARW file using third party solutions utilizing Exiftool could result in a color shift
• All Auto-ISO values were not properly handled for the Nikon D3s
• Updated Camera Raw default settings were not respected in Bridge thumbnails or previews after applying a rating
• JPEG and TIFF Previews re-rendered as over-exposed after cropping in Camera Raw
• Adjustment settings via the numeric entry field could have failed with multiple raw files selected

Known Issues in Lightroom 3.3/6.3

• A Japanese language file name is not properly preserved when uploading images to SmugMug

Known Issues in Lightroom 3.3/Camera Raw 6.3

• Raw images shot with the Nikon D7000 in Multi Exposure Mode have a strong magenta color cast.  The cast can be partially corrected by setting the white balance using the eye dropper tool. The issue will be corrected in a future update.

• LR/Mogrify 2 pour Lightroom par Alpha Numérique (en français)
• Bilder auf eine neue Festplatte migrieren (Deutsch)
• La correction des objectifs (en français)
• Filters or Smart Collections?
• LightRoom 3 sur un netbook (en français)



• How to Get Dramatic Skies in Lightroom
• 8 Steps to Crafting Images in Lightroom gives an excellent example of how to use a good processing workflow for digital pictures, even if it goes too far into the image manipulation for my own taste (2 too many gradient filters, I think). See the example on the right.
• Light Stalking : Lightroom or Photoshop, What is Really the Best Post-processing Software?
• Le traitement du bruit avec Lightroom 3 par Gilles Theophile
• Light Stalking : How to adjust your white balance in Lightroom

The final releases of DNG Converter 6.2, Adobe Camera Raw 6.2 and Lightroom 3.2 includes RAW file conversion for the Sony Alpha 33, Alpha 55, Alpha 290, Alpha 390, NEX-5 and NEX-3. Those were included in the Release Candidate versions, but they become official/final now.

Of course, other cameras are also taken into account like the all new Canon EOS 60D, the Samsung NX10, the Panasonic Lumix LX5 and the Pentax 645D.

But Sony love is still very visible here.

Download the new Adobe files (updates).

Eiffel Tower, by night – Copyright (C) Yves Roumazeilles

Now, I would like to underline the quality of a full series of posts, published by Patrick Moll on Alpha Numérique, and dedicated to comparing as precisely as possible the various offers now on the market to develop and improve as much as possible the pictures that -sometimes- we must shoot using very high levels of ISO sensitivity (with the troubling levels of digital noise that come with big ISO levels).

The list of the software programs taken into account is quite respectable:

• Image Data Converter 3
• Lightroom 3 / Camera Raw 6
• DxO Optics Pro 6
• Aperture 3
• Bibble Pro 5
• Capture One Pro 5
• ACDSee Pro 3
• Silkypix 4
• Lightzone 3
• Raw Developer 1 (dcraw)

Not bad, eh!

Even if the comparisons done here are not only for Sony photo cameras, Patrick Moll applied its tests to a quite appreciable list of cameras too:

• A100
• A550
• A700
• A900
• A330 (not ready yet when I published this post)

Even if you are not reading French, I highly recommend checking these (most of the posts are made of image comparisons using the yellow buttons to select the software program results you want to see). Even if you are equipped with Pentax, Canon or Nikon gear, the lessons you will draw from this are applicable on all the photo camera brands, concerning strengths and weaknesses of each of these software tools.

To understand the review process and the methodology, I would recommend the reading of (here, all in French):

• Introduction
• Réduction du bruit et accentuation

With the tests, body by body, you will immediately recognize the excellent results of Lightroom 3/Camera Raw 6 (these two Adobe software programs share a single common RAW file management core). Just behind, comes DxO Optics Pro 6 which is a bit more violent (or more accentuation prone) and the (not famous enough) Bibble Pro 5.

From this point, you will always be able to get the best from the photos you were forced into shooting in poor lighting conditions which required big ISO figures.

• How to Remove Sensor Dust With Lightroom
• Adventure Photographer Tyler Stableford’s Lightroom 3 Beta 2 Workflow (Video on YouTube)
• 10 de los mejores sitios donde conseguir preajustes para Lightroom (en español)
• Hand coloring in Lightroom
• 10 plug-ins para mejorar tu experiencia con Lightroom (en Español)
• 5 (More) Lightroom Panel Tricks
• Lightrooom 3 books at Peachpit
• Round Tripping with Lightroom
• Embracing brightness (Lightroom)
• Choosing images using Survey view in Lightroom
• Stacking images in Lightroom
• Lightroom Compare View

Please, notice that I extended it to include a number of languages that are used only by some of our readers, but I felt that this could be useful. You can voice your opinion in the comments: Is this useful or not?

• Ars Technica reviews Adobe Lightroom 3 (6 pages)
• Photography Blog’s Lightroom 3 Review
• Erster Test: Lightroom 3 deutsch ist da – die Top-Neuerungen aus meiner Sicht
• Lightroom 3.0 est disponible ! (par Gilles Théophile)
• Les nouveautés de Lightroom 3 (vidéo en français)
• Lightroom 3 : visualiser et trier ses images avant leur importation
• Le watermark avec Lightroom 3 (en français)
• Vilka är nu de stora nyheterna i Lightroom 3? (in Swedish)
• A Quick First Look at Adobe Lightroom 3 & How it Compares With Aperture 3
• Adobe: What’s new in Lightroom 3 (Video in English)
• Photoshop User: Lightroom 3 Learning Center (with videos)
• CameraDojo’s Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.0 Learning Center (12+ videos in English)
• Lightroom 3′s Lesser Known New Features
• Lightroom 3 shortcuts (PDF)
• Lightroom 3 resources from Lightroom blog
• Lightroom 3: Q&A für Updater auf Version 3

After several weeks of waiting, I can now confirm that the latest version of Adobe Lightroom, version 3, is now available. You can go and purchase it.

Press Release

Major Release Advances Image Quality, Performance and Workflow Flexibility for Photographers

SAN JOSE, Calif., – June 8, 2010 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe(r) Photoshop(r) Lightroom(r) 3 software for Windows(r) and Macintosh, the essential digital photography workflow solution that allows photographers to quickly organize, enhance and showcase their images from one application. First released as a public beta in October 2009, the final version of Lightroom 3 introduces a completely redesigned performance architecture that better handles growing image libraries and provides an unrivaled raw processing engine with noise reduction and sharpening tools to achieve the highest image quality. The 64-bit capable Lightroom 3 includes new features that optimize workflows and allow images to be shared in creative ways, including support for DSLR video files and tethered shooting on select cameras.

“There have been over 600,000 downloads of the Lightroom 3 public beta, which has supplied us with a huge amount of valuable feedback from a passionate community of professional and advanced amateur photographers,” said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Digital Imaging at Adobe. “The open dialog we have with our customers allows us to further improve Lightroom and provide the best tools they need to produce high-quality images.  We’re happy to see that so many people are anxiously anticipating the final release, so they can start taking advantage of all the new features they had a hand in developing.”

Public Beta Process Perfects Lightroom 3 New Features
Re-built from its core to be lightening fast and responsive, Lightroom 3 adds power throughout the application to provide a fluid experience for photographers. Images load almost instantaneously, and the import experience has been redesigned to be more intuitive, with added previews and default selections that give users quick access to sort through and find images. Helping streamline and adapt to photographers’ changing workflows, Lightroom 3 now allows users to import and manage DSLR video files, as well as take advantage of tethered shooting for select Nikon and Canon cameras.

New state-of-the-art photographic tools help photographers bring out the best in their images. Unrivaled Luminance and Color Noise Reduction tools help produce a clearer picture from high ISO or underexposed images while still preserving details. The highly-requested Automatic Lens Correction feature can dramatically improve the results possible with any lens by allowing users to apply profiles that correct for undesirable geometric distortions, chromatic aberrations, and lens vignette effects that most lenses introduce to the image. Users now also have a straighten tool to perfect vertical and horizontal perspective, additional presets for applying more photographic adjustment styles, and three new contemporary vignette styles and a Grain effect to add a more natural look with images.

Lightroom 3 Expands Image Showcasing
Output options have also been enhanced in this release, with new capabilities to publish collections on online sharing sites. Flickr(r) users have the ability to synch their accounts to Lightroom with one click, and integration with additional online photo sharing sites can be added via third-party plug-ins. Customizable print layouts provide more refined control over how photographers present final images, and new watermarking features with options to modify text, size, location and style, help give professionals and amateurs flexibility for branding images. Lightroom 3 now also includes the ability to export polished slideshows as video files with the option to add audio and title screens.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for Windows and Macintosh is available now at www.adobe.com/store, for pre-order via Amazon.com and NewEgg.com and will be available soon at retail and online outlets such as Frys, BestBuy.com, Costco.com, Walmart.com, Staples.com, OfficeMax.com, OfficeDepot.com and select camera stores.

The estimated street price is USD $299 for new users with an upgrade price of USD$99 for qualified registered Lightroom users. Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OS X v 10.5, 10.6 with Intel(r) based processor, or Microsoft(r) Windows(r) 7, Windows Vista(r) Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise or Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Intel(r) Pentium(r) 4 processor, 2 GB RAM and a 1,024×768 resolution screen.

After the recent announcements, it would be useful to look where Adobe is going now, or in the coming months. Here, it is OK to start using the bits of news becoming available.

First, of course, Lightroom v3 will soon be available (you can download the beta 2, already). DPReview obtained an interview with Tom Hogarty from Adobe which reveals some important elements about the new RAW file engine that you will find inside L3: “Adobe discusses latest Lightroom 3 Beta” tells us (with pictures) how much progress is stacked up in this beta compared to the previous versions.

Of course, as usual for Adobe, this technology will be present in the next version of Photoshop under the guise of an Adobe Camera Raw tool integrated into Photoshop CS5. But CS5 is not announced yet! You’re right, but the rumor had it that Photoshop CS5 would be presented in April. It’s now official that its launch will happen on April 12.

Nevertheless, many will be interested in trying the newest improvements announced:

• A better handling of digital noise. By the way, you can find more about this in “Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta 2: Noise Reduction“
• Overall improvement of the execution speed
• Control mode for tethered operation of Canon and Nikon cameras equipped with this option (see below)
• Importing video files
• A clearly better support for dematricing of Sony Alpha camera sensors. If you read French, you will find more details by reading “Lightroom 3 beta 2 et les Sony Alpha 550, 700 et 900“
• Etc.

Download Lightroom 3 beta 2

And since I previously promised, here are also a few web links related to Lightroom that you may be interested in keeping around when you test the beta version of Lightroom or your current installation of Lightroom:

• Lightroom: What is it and When Should You Consider it?
• Two Fast Ways to Apply Develop Settings to Multiple Photos in Lightroom (in PhotoFocus)
• How to Publish Images from Lightroom to Flickr
• Better Skies with Lightroom’s Graduated Filter
• Top tips for working in Lightroom’s Grid view
• Arrange Files Your Way in Lightroom

List of the photo cameras officially supported in tethered mode:

• Canon
• EOS 1Ds Mark II (except for Windows 64)
• EOS 1D Mark III
• EOS 1Ds Mark III
• EOS 1D Mark IV
• EOS 5D (except for Windows 64)
• EOS 5D Mark II
• EOS 40D
• EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi/EOS Kiss X2)
• EOS 500D (Digital Rebel T1i/EOS Kiss X3 Digital)
• EOS 7D
• EOS 1000D (Digital Rebel XS/EOS Kiss F)
• Nikon
• D3
• D3x
• D3s
• D300
• D300s
• D5000
• D700
• D90

Download Lightroom 3 beta 2

But, please, remember that even if this is perfectly legal, beta-quality software may contain some bugs and glitches that are not backed up by a manufacturer’s warranty. You’re just helping Adobe make Lightroom 3 into a better Lightroom.

Download Lightroom 3 public beta for free.

Via DownloadSquad.