Attention Lightroom users! Adobe has just announced that the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Public Beta is now available for download. As with any Beta software (regardless of the developer), Caveat emptor. Make sure you have backups of any files you're working on and think twice about using it SOLELY as your only catalog during the beta period. For me, I'm using duplicates of my images while the originals are safe and sound on a separate hard drive and cataloged in Lightroom 3.

Okay, let's get on to some of the details you're probably most interested in. These are straight from the official Adobe Lightroom Blog. Please read through to the end because I'm going to discuss some specific items that relate to this Lightroom 4 Beta and the onOne Software products.

High Level Summary of What's New

• Robust Video Support
• Manage images by location with the Map Module
• Simplified Basic Adjustments
• Powerful new Shadow & Highlight controls
• Additional local adjustments including Noise Reduction and White Balance
• Soft Proofing Reinvented
• Elegant Photo Book creation
• Email from directly within Lightroom
• Publish videos directly to Facebook or Flickr
• Enhanced DNG workflows
• Adobe Revel export workflow

Supported File Formats

• JPEG
• TIFF (8 bit, 16 bit)
• PSD (8 bit, 16 bit)
• DNG
• Raw (Please visit http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html for a full list of raw file support. File support for Lightroom 4 beta, aligns with Lightroom 3.6 and Camera Raw 6.6)

Serial Numbers for Lightroom 4

Anyone can download and work with the Lightroom 4 beta for the duration of the beta program. There is no serial number requirement.

Be sure to read the full blog entry on the Official Lightroom Blog as they have, as  you would expect, posted many more details about the Public Beta than I have summarized here. Also on their site, they have the all important download links for the Lightroom 4 Public Beta.

FAQ on Lightroom 4 Public Beta and Current onOne Software Products

Do any of the onOne Products support the Lightroom 4 Public Beta?

While we are excited about the Lightroom 4 Public Beta, the Perfect Photo Suite 6 and the individual products that make up the Suite, are only officially supported (and thus available for our free technical support) when used with Lightroom 2 or Lightroom 3. We don't expect there to be any problems with our products when used with the Lightroom 4 Public Beta, but we cannot offer support at this time until the final shipping version of Lightroom 4 is available.

When will your products support Lightroom 4?

Adobe has not announced the final ship date for the GM version of Lightroom 4. However, in the past, we have made every effort to have any updates necessary to make our products work with new versions of third-party applications, such as Lightroom, within 60 days of the third-party application shipping.

Will the Lightroom 4 compatibility update be free?

Since we started onOne Software nearly 7 years ago, it has been our policy to make non-major releases of our software available to registered users of the most recent product at no cost as a downloadable update. As such, we expect that if an update is required to any of our currently shipping products to make them compatible with the shipping version of Lightroom 4, these will not be considered major updates and will be made available as free downloads to registered users.

To be clear, here is a list of our currently shipping products that would be eligible for a free compatibility update.

• Perfect Photo Suite 6
• Perfect Resize 7
• Perfect Effects 3
• Perfect Portrait 1
• Perfect Mask 5
• Perfect Layers 2
• Focal Point 2
• PhotoFrame 4.6 Pro

Older products such as the Plug-In Suite 5.5 are not eligible for a free compatibility upgrade with the final shipping version of Photoshop Lightroom 4.

Update 1/10/12 : For further clarification, we have no plans to update PhotoTune or PhotoTools to be compatible with Lightroom 4.

When will Adobe ship the GM version of Lightroom 4?

Adobe has not announced when they will ship the GM version of Lightroom 4.

With that being said...

Last week, I installed the R20 release of Lightroom 4 (the same one you can download now) and installed it. Prior to that, I had been running the latest version of Lightroom 3 along with the Perfect Photo Suite 6.0.2 release and I'm happy to say, that without having to run another installer again, the Public Beta of Lightroom 4 automatically found and loaded the Lightroom versions of the plug-ins I had previously installed.

The reason is that Lightroom 4 is looking in the same common Application Support folder (at least under Mac OS X) that Lightroom 3 uses. So you shouldn't have to reinstall anything.

As such, the onOne products will show up under the Export menu as well. Select an image (make sure the image is available and not on an external drive that isn't mounted) and then go to File > Export. You'll see this.

You'll want to go to the Export To: drop down menu and change it from Hard Drive to one of the onOne products. Like so...

Once you select the product you wish to Export to, you'll get some product specific options. In the following screen shot, I selected Perfect Effects 3 and then I am able to choose from the list of Effect Preset Categories.

Which then allows me to pick a specific Effect Preset within that Category.

The Export option works great if you're batch processing. But if you want to just work on a single image and you don't know which preset you want to use, just select your image and then go to File > Plug-In Extras > Perfect Photo Suite.

How to Leave Feedback

If you download the Lightroom 4 Public Beta and are using our products, please leave a comment below on your experiences - good or bad. Our technical support team won't be able to provide you with any official support, but if you leave your comment here, I'll make sure our development team sees it and will also respond to you here in the comments. Please note, if you would like to leave a comment here, you'll need to register on the blog first.

If you're looking for a list of non-Adobe web sites that are posting on Lightroom 4, be sure to check out this list on the Lightroom Blog.

Macintosh Perfect Photo Suite 6.0.2 Updater

Windows Perfect Photo Suite 6.0.2 Updater

This update includes improved performance and overall stability along with numerous bug fixes.

If you run into any issues with the updater, please submit a ticket request with our Technical Support team so that we can provide you with the best support possible.

I went through my presets categories, picked ten of my favorites, and am sharing them with all of you to enjoy, too! If you already have Perfect Effects 3, all you need to do is download the file linked below and import them in. To make things easy, I put together a video showing how to easily get these presets imported. I've also put together a few before/after images showing the effect that these presets have. Just swipe left and right to see the change.

So go ahead! Download this preset pack, import it, and have a blast! Don't forget to share your results with us on our Facebook and Google+ pages.

Click to download Brian's Perfect Effects Preset Pack Vol. 1

Today, we are so pleased to announce that the wait is now over! Perfect Photo Suite 6 is available to download for those who have pre-ordered it and is immediately available for download to new customers.

To give you a taste of what you can expect, we've been posting new video clips of our favorite features from Perfect Photo Suite 6 every day in October and will continue on through. We've also got a fantastic line-up of photographers who will be holding new Webinars for our 'Perfect Photo Suite 6 All-Star Week' (starting on 10/31!)

To learn more about Perfect Photo Suite 6, just head on over to our website.

And, as always, we'd like to take a moment to thank all of you for your continued support of our products! We know you're going to love what you see with Perfect Photo Suite 6!

Users of PhotoTools 2.6 can't wait to get their hands on Perfect Effects 3 so they can not only get the live preview of each effect on their own image, but also the ability to edit pretty much every aspect of each effect to their own liking.

Users of Mask Pro 4 are really excited about the new features and algorithm updates in Perfect Mask 5 that will make it easier for them to remove and replace backgrounds.

Wedding and portrait photographers have been floored by Perfect Portrait 1 not only by how easy it is to use, but by the quality of the results. We've gone to great lengths to make sure we keep skin pores and texture in tact so as not to produce that overly smooth mannequin look.

Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to write down all of the great comments we've received so far to share with you, but I can point you to two articles written in the last couple of days by some photographers who have seen the Perfect Photo Suite 6 in an early pre-announcement demonstration.

Andy Kruczek, a commercial photographer from the U.K. who does a lot of photo compositing and enhancing,  got a sneak preview and here's a quote from his review.

"This, it’s fair to say, is not a simple upgrade. Many of the component parts of the Suite have undergone a total rewrite, new features have been added by the bucketload and the look and feel is now slicker and much more modern. The new features and layout make for an incredibly powerful set of tools. So powerful in fact, that I found myself questioning the need for Photoshop at all."

[ Source ]

Colby Brown, a professional landscape, travel and humanitarian photographer who teaches photography workshops and has been an instructor for National Geographic, wrote this post on Wednesday of this week.

"With this latest upgrade, I truly feel like onOne Software has taken post processing to the next level. As a partner of onOne Software, I was given the opportunity to check out PPS6 (Perfect Photo Suite 6) last week and I can honestly tell you that I was blown away by what I saw. I am so excited about many of the new features that I have already began to re-imagine my workflow when it comes to processing my images."

[ Source ]

I just wanted to share this with you in case you too are excited about the new Perfect Photo Suite but wanted to hear from a couple of photographers who have had a chance to see it in action. We'll be shipping Perfect Photo Suite 6 in late October so we'll keep the early feedback and sneak peeks coming until then.

If you'd like to see the Perfect Photo Suite 6 before it begins shipping, sign up for one of our Webinars as we'll be demonstrating it next week.

I'm very excited to share with you today our announcement of the new Perfect Photo Suite 6. This is a really big update to the Suite and has been in the works for quite some time and we're finally ready to give you a sneak peek at this update which will begin shipping (or downloading) in late October 2011.

What's New in Perfect Photo Suite 6

As your workflow has changed, so have our products. We have heard over and over again for the past couple of years that more of your workflow is centered around Lightroom and Aperture. Also, that because you're spending most of your time in these types of apps, you're going less and less to Photoshop. Not that Photoshop is any less of a product - because it's not - but because you want as few distractions as possible in your workflow and let's be honest, there's a whole lot in Photoshop that most photographers have never and will never use.

For that reason and others, one of the biggest changes to Perfect Photo Suite 6 is that in addition to functioning as a plug-in for Photoshop (because lots of people still work there everyday), all of our products that are part of Suite 6, will now function as standalone applications as well as plug-ins. This means you can use our products as plug-ins to Lightroom or Aperture and not have to have Photoshop as the host application.

The Perfect Photo Suite 6 introduces four new products - Perfect Portrait 1, Perfect Layers 2, Perfect Effects 3 and Perfect Mask 5. Perfect Resize 7, FocalPoint 2 and PhotoFrame 4.6 remain in the Suite but have not undergone any significant updates with one exception that I'll get to in a moment.

Perfect Portrait 1

Perfect Portrait 1 is a brand new product that we built from scratch to address the needs of portrait photographers who need to make their clients look their best. We developed an algorithm that will automatically locate a face (or multiple faces for a group shot) and automatically apply blemish removal and skin smoothing. Not only that, but we also identify facial features such as eyes, teeth and lips and give you simple to use tools to enhance those features.

It's really pretty amazing and I think if you spend any amount of time retouching portraits with other tools, you're going to love this new product. Check out the video below or read more on the Perfect Portrait product page.

Perfect Portrait is available for pre-order today for only $99.95 or can be purchased as part of the new Perfect Photo Suite 6.

Perfect Effects 3

Perfect Effects 3 is the replacement for PhotoTools 2.6. Why replace PhotoTools? Well, we know that a lot of you love this product  - it's our second most popular individual product behind Perfect Resize - but we had to completely rebuild it from the ground up in order to give you the experience and control you have been asking for.

Specifically, with Perfect Effects 3 you can now get a live preview of each effect on your image before you apply it. No more canned previews based on images that we've chosen. Nope, you now get live previews based on your image - and the cool thing is that as you stack more and more effects on your image, all of the previews update along with you. Also, we've built our very own effects engine so now, you can modify any of the preset effects that we will ship the product with. Much more than a simple fade slider like in PhotoTools, you get complete control over each effect and how it blends with the underlying effects!

Check out this preview video or read the full product description on our Perfect Effects product page. Perfect Effects 3 is available for pre-order today for only $99.95 or is part of the Perfect Photo Suite 6. Registered users of PhotoTools 2.6 or earlier can upgrade to Perfect Effects 3 for only $69.95.

Perfect Layers 2

Perfect Layers 2 is now the heart and soul of the Perfect Photo Suite 6. It is still available individually, but when you get the Perfect Photo Suite 6, that's where Perfect Layers 2 really shines. Perfect Layers 2 now has a built-in file browser which makes finding and opening your images quick and simple. Perfect Layers 2 also includes a touch up brush that you can use to remove minor blemishes on portraits, dust spots from your camera's sensor or just about anything else like unwanted power lines in a landscape shot.

But the biggest change comes when you use Perfect Layers as part of the Perfect Photo Suite. You get a new module selector at the top of the interface which lets you seamlessly move between each of the products in the Suite. For example, you can open an image and do a portrait retouch using Perfect Portrait and then move over to the new Perfect Mask to remove a background and then go to Perfect Effects to stylize it and then move over to Perfect Resize to create a gallery wrap out of it. All from one interface without having to open and close the image several times.

Check out this sneak peek video or read more on our product page. Perfect Layers 2 is a free update to all Perfect Layers 1.0 owners. Owners of Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 can purchase Perfect Layers separately or as part of the integrated Perfect Photo Suite 6 by upgrading to version 6 of the Suite.

Perfect Mask 5

Last but not least, we've got a major update to Mask Pro 4 with the new Perfect Mask 5 product release. Perfect Mask 5 is the next generation of Mask Pro, the leading software for background replacement. Perfect Mask takes the core strengths of Mask Pro to another level, by automating many common masking tasks with incredible accuracy.

Perfect Mask's new masking technology makes selecting subjects and isolating backgrounds surprisingly easy. With Automatic Background Removal, an initial mask is made on your image and can then be fine-tuned using the Erase and Refine Tools. With these new features, you can create high quality masks in just a few clicks. You'll be amazed at how well this works even when masking tough subjects like hair and glass on complex backgrounds.

Check out this sneak peek video or read more on the Perfect Mask 5 product page. Perfect Mask 5 is available for pre-order today for only $99.95 or as part of the Perfect Photo Suite 6. Mask Pro 4 owners can upgrade to Perfect Mask 5 for only $69.95.

 Perfect Resize 7, FocalPoint 2 & PhotoFrame 4.6

For the other products, Perfect Resize 7, FocalPoint 2 and PhotoFrame 4.6, these products have not undergone major updates at this time. The biggest change for these apps is that they are more tightly integrated into the Perfect Photo Suite 6 via the new module selector functionality that Perfect Layers 2 brings to the update.

Availability

All of these new products are available for pre-order beginning today but will not ship until late October 2011. We really wanted to show the products off to you now and if you're at Photoshop World Las Vegas this week, stop by our booth and you can see the products in action for yourself!

Otherwise, you can either pre-order today and we'll send you a serial number now and then the download links in October.

The Perfect Photo Suite 6 will have a new, lower, everyday price of $299.95. Perfect Portrait, Perfect Effects, Perfect Mask, FocalPoint and PhotoFrame will have new, lower, everyday prices of $99.95 each. Perfect Resize 7 starts at $99.95 for the Standard Edition and $199.95 for the Professional Edition. For information on upgrades from earlier versions of each product, please visit our Upgrades page for more details.

The reason seems to stem from a preference in Photoshop to open new documents as Tabs vs separate Windows. Adobe is moving towards the tab interface and that preference is set to open as tabs by default, which is how our test machines were configured, which is why we never saw this issue happening here.

So if you have unchecked that setting and are having crashes with PhotoTools 2.6.4, trying turning the preference back on. You can read more about this on our Support site here.

A big thank you to Rick S who figured this out and posted to our blog comment thread.

Here's a description of the workshop from Seth & Greg.

Learn or improve your studio and location lighting with Greg Gorman, and Seth Resnick for a special one week All shooting and creative workshop in spectacular Mendocino, CA
.

World renowned photographer Greg Gorman invites you to join him at the Greg Gorman Digital Workshop in Mendocino, California where Greg shares his knowledge of digital photography in the intimate setting of his home and studio on the Pacific North Coast. Greg's special guest is Seth Resnick who is returning for a third time.

This workshop is ideal for any photographer looking to enhance his/her camera, lighting, color management, image editing and fine art printing making skills. The locations are beyond spectacular with shooting on the rugged coast, amazing sand dunes, the redwood forests, and vineyards.

The workshop provides two professional models from New York and Los Angeles and one on one instruction from Seth and Greg.

<- end description from Seth & Greg ->

The cost of the workshop is normally $4,250 but if you use the discount code D65 you can save $750 to bring the cost of the 6 day workshop to $3,500. I've talked to several photographers who have been to this workshop in the past and I'm told it's well worth it.

For more information, you can visit Greg's web site at http://www.gormanworkshops.com/Directory.html

Well. That happened faster than I thought. I said a few minutes ago that the installers would be ready later tonight, but I just got an email from our support team with the download links to the installers for Perfect Photo Suite 5.5.4. Please note, these are only the UPDATE installers intended for those who already have Suite 5.5.x installed.

This update to the Perfect Photo Suite adds our official support for Mac OS X (10.7) Lion as well as addresses the Time Machine error that prevented your automatic Time Machine backups from taking place. Please note for the Time Machine fix, you may have to replace any Mac OS X dock shortcuts you may have to any of the onOne products. If you don't keep one of our apps in your Mac OS X Dock, you should never know the difference.

If you are using Windows, there is an update for you as well that addresses some issues with Perfect Layers not launching properly.

Here are the direct download links - please note, you should only use these if you already have Perfect Photo Suite 5.5.x installed. If you are looking to install Perfect Photo Suite 5.5.4 for the first time, visit our Downloads page. Keep in mind that the FULL installers for Suite 5.5.4 have not been posted yet but will be available later this evening.

Perfect Photo Suite 5.5.4 UPDATE installer for Mac OS X

Perfect Photo Suite 5.5.4 UDPATE installer for Windows

If you own an individual product outside of the Suite, those update installers will be available on Tuesday, August 16, 2011.

Update: We now have the FULL installers available for Perfect Photo Suite 5.5.4 available as well. These installers are if you do not have Suite 5.5.x already installed.

Perfect Photo Suite 5.5.4 FULL installer for Mac OS X

Perfect Photo Suite 5.5.4 FULL installer for Windows

The 5.5.4 update also is available for Windows users as it addresses an issue where Perfect Layers would sometimes not launch as expected.

Stay tuned for another post with the direct download links when the files have finished uploading.