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.

Earlier today, we posted 12 new Photoshop template files that you can download and start using right away. I've posted a little gallery below so you can see what they look like. The files are all high res 300 dpi/ppi files that are fairly large so you should have plenty of room to work with them. Now, the key here is that what you see, isn't necessarily what you get.

You see, each of these free Photoshop templates have multiple colored backgrounds so within any single PSD file, there are over a dozen (probably more, it just hurts to count that high) different combinations that you can put together. All of the individual elements are on separate layers so you can hide them, move them, transform them, etc etc.

To put your image into the layout, look for a layer named PLACE YOUR IMAGE HERE. It's also labeled in red to make it stand out better (hopefully). Select that layer and then from the File menu in Photoshop, choose Place... and then chose your image. If your image doesn't show up correctly in the file after you do that, move your image layer under the PLACE YOUR IMAGE HERE layer and it should get clipped (or masked) but if it doesn't for some reason, just hold down the Option or Alt key on your keyboard and click your mouse (or tap your Wacom pen) on the line that is between your image layer and the layer beneath it.

You can download all 12 of these free Photoshop template files from our Free Frames page on our web site. Just scroll to the bottom and you'll see them. Here's a preview of the layouts you'll get.

Update 12/8/11

My apologies, but the previous URL above broke when we made an update to the structure of our site and I'm just now realizing that it was broken. Here are the new links.

Free Christmas Photoshop Template Number 1

Free Christmas Photoshop Template Number 2

Free Christmas Photoshop Template Number 3

Free Christmas Photoshop Template Number 4

Free Christmas Photoshop Template Number 5

Free Christmas Photoshop Template Number 6

Free Christmas Photoshop Template Number 7

Free Christmas Photoshop Template Number 8

Free Christmas Photoshop Template Number 9

After talking to Doug for a bit, he told me about how much he enjoys using and teaching Mask Pro 4.1 so I asked him if he would share a couple of examples of how he's using Mask Pro. Here's the first composite Doug forwarded to me to share with all of you. All of the images below are courtesy and copyright Doug Landreth. His words accompany the images.

From Doug...

"I'm conducting workshops for photographers that focus on the creative process and the photoshop techniques I use in my fine art.  My work is heavily constructed and many times combines large numbers of images to construct a whole new image.  I discuss layers, layer masks and selections extensively and of course I show my students the many benefits of using the suite of tools provided for making great selections in Mask Pro.  I'm including this image because, #1, it's fun, but most importantly we use it as a tutorial on making selections for compositing images."

"I pass out the 4 raw files used in the composite and walk everyone thru the process of masking out the parts of the images we want to use and we gradually build this image... dare I say, from the ground up ."

"It's a great project for Mask Pro for several reasons....  we mask the original building image with a combination of color based selection and pen tool selection, the rocket ship is the hero hard edge selection with the pen tool, and the face is a great combination of both the hard edge pen tool selection as well as a selection of the hair."

"Several points that resonate with the students are that all the tools can be used in the same selection process, the path created by the pen tool automatically becomes a selection with a refinable edge, and there is no chance that 45 minutes into a complex pen tool selection that the path will disappear with no hope of recovering it (a chorus of groans from those who've experienced this in Photoshop )."

"Another major benefit I demonstrate is the ability to use all these tools and view the results against the background they've been placed over to see the final appearance as well as the color decontaminate feature. It is also important for them to know that the mask and any of it's soft edges are a greyscale image. I show them how they can further refine the mask results with some burning or dodging of the shadows or highlights of the mask to contract or expand areas of the mask they need to refine. That's a real eye-opener."

To learn more about Doug's workshops or to see more of his work, please visit his web site at http://www.douglandreth.com.

From looking over the shoulder of one of our tech support reps, here's what I've seen happen.

Aperture 3.1 & Photoshop CS5 (64-bit Mode)

Scenario 1: With Aperture 3.1 and running Photoshop CS5 as a 64-bit application, if you right click on an image and choose Edit with Photoshop CS5..., the image will be opened in Photoshop CS5, but you will get an error message (about there not being enough RAM) when you try to access one of the onOne plug-ins from the File > Automate menu within Photoshop.

Scenario 2: With Aperture 3.1 and running Photoshop CS5 as a 64-bit application, if you right click on an image and choose Edit with Plug-in... and then choose any of the onOne plug-ins, a copy of the image is made, it appears briefly that one of our plug-ins is going to open and then nothing happens.

Aperture 3.1 & Photoshop (32-bit Mode)

Scenario 1: With Aperture 3.1 and running Photoshop CS5 as a 32-bit application, if you right click on an image and choose Edit with Photoshop CS5..., the image will be opened in Photoshop CS5 and you'll be able to use any of the onOne products.

Scenario 2: With Aperture 3.1 and running Photoshop CS5 as a 32-bit application, if you right click on an image and choose Edit with Plug-in..., and then choose any of the onOne plug-ins, a copy of the image is made, it appears briefly that one of our plug-ins is going to open and then nothing happens.

Current Work Around

With Aperture 3.1 and running Photoshop CS5 as a 32-bit application, if you right click on an image and choose Edit with Photoshop CS5..., the image will be opened in Photoshop CS5 and you'll be able to use any of the onOne products.

To set Photoshop to run in 32-bit mode, click once on the Photoshop CS5 application icon in the Finder and then do a Get Info. You'll see this window appear.

Click the box that says "Open in 32-bit mode". To revert back to 64-bit mode, uncheck the box and then re-launch Photoshop.

We'll post an update here when an update is available.

Here's what you need to know about these updates.

1. If you are a registered user of any of the current versions of our plug-ins, these updates are provided free of charge.
2. Even if you're not using Photoshop Cs5 but are still using Photoshop CS2, CS3 or CS4, you will benefit from these updates as we've fixed several known bugs in this release.
3. This release includes our official support for Aperture 3, specifically running in native 64-bit mode as opposed to running in 32-bit mode as was previously required for our plug-ins.
4. This release includes preliminary support for the public beta of Lightroom 3. Official support for the shipping version of Lightroom 3 will be available after Lightroom 3 officially ships. ((Seems obvious, but I thought I should mention that.))
5. The safest, most foolproof way to do these updates are to visit our Software Updates page and download the appropriate installer and then run it. Please note, if you are a Suite 5 user, be sure to download the Suite 5.1 installer/updater and not the individual product installers/updaters.
6. If you have any of your own custom frames that you have created and imported into PhotoFrame, be sure to make a backup copy of your User frames folder BEFORE you install the Suite 5.1 update and then re-import your custom frames. Unfortunately, if you do not, you may lose these frames as we have seen where the database installer may wipe these out. Also, any ratings you've given your frames will be lost.

So if you're ready to download the Photoshop CS5 update for your particular product, please visit our Software Updates page and get the installer you need. If you're wondering, here are the official most recent version numbers for each product as of this release.

• Plug-In Suite 5.1
• Genuine Fractals 6.06
• FocalPoint 2.0.1
• PhotoTools 2.5.3
• PhotoTune 3.0.2
• PhotoFrame 4.5.1
• Mask Pro 4.1.8

Photoshop 20th Anniversary! Celebrate with Adobe and NAPP

For 20 years, the world has used industry-leading Adobe Photoshop software to transform creative inspiration into nearly everything we see, from magazine covers to medical devices to city skylines. That's why, every day, Adobe is inspired to create the innovative technologies that build more speed, intelligence, and magic into each new Photoshop product—so you can continue to turn your creative vision into reality.

Adobe is kicking off a year-long celebration of Photoshop's 20th anniversary starting with an Adobe and National Association of Photoshop Professionals star-studded celebration, live at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco, February 18th, 7:30pm.

The evening is hosted by NAPP Founder Scott Kelby and Adobe Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Creative Solutions Business Unit, Johnny Loiacono, with the NAPP Photoshop Guys -- Dave Cross and Matt Kloskowski, plus Adobe Photoshop star Russell Brown, and other important members of the Adobe team.

As a valued partner of Adobe, onOne customers are invited to join for this history-making, fun-filled night packed with amazing Photoshop tricks, incredible tips, and a celebration of the program that changed and shaped popular culture forever. Plus, you will get an exclusive sneak peek at the future of Photoshop.

Everyone attending gets a one-of-a-kind Photoshop 20th anniversary t-shirt and poster commemorating this amazing night of learning and fun. You must pre-register to attend.

Can't make it live, the event will be webcast.

Visit http://www.photoshopuser.com/photoshop20th to register or learn more

I'm a few days late in getting to my Photoshop User TV, but fortunately, once they go up, they never come down. Anyway, if you haven't seen Episode 198 of Photoshop User TV, you should check it out.

Matt Kloskowski goes over how to use the sharpening controls in Adobe Camera Raw and does a good job of explaining what each slider does and how it affects your image. Scott Kelby gives a nice demo on improving your waterfall shots. And last but not least, they cover several different plug-ins that they use including Genuine Fractals and PhotoFrame 4. They even covered the watermarking plug-in from Digimarc which I thought was cool because a friend of mine works there and they (Digimarc) have their offices just a few minutes down the road from us here at onOne.

Additional plug-ins covered included a couple from Nik Software and Topaz Labs. They also talked briefly about the new MpixPro service which I just signed up for and will be sharing my experiences with you all in a future post.

Our plug-ins all about helping you enhance the inherent power of Photoshop. So, it only makes sense that you can find all of the onOne products in the Photoshop Marketplace. If you're new to onOne products, you can go up there and read what others are saying or if you are already an owner of an onOne product, I would appreciate your time to head over to the Photoshop Marketplace and rate our plug-ins (hint: the more stars the better!)

I mean Scott, come one. I know you're busy with NAPP and all, but this is the ultimate in service to your Country and you'd only have to do it for a year. In fact, you could choose a new Photoshop Czar to replace you (or subsequent Czars) at Photoshop World. In addition to the Guru awards, the audience (we're a democracy afterall) could vote on a new Photoshop Czar.

Okay, okay, it's late in the day and I'm tired and just trying to have some fun, but this is fantastic. If Scott Kelby's blog isn't part of your daily read already (which it probably is) here's a great example of why it should be.

Dear White House...

Two things about Scott's blog post.

1. I can't believe the government would spend $360,000 just to update their photo library. I mean, I understand it's expensive to get that big 747 up in the air with the miltary escort, so I can imagine that the cost might have been over $300,000. But the part I can't believe is that someone over in the White House would say, "Oh, it's going to cost $300,000+ to update the pictures? Yeah, that seems reasonable." I don't think Scott as the Photoshop Czar would have approved that one.
2. I like the shadow of the plane Scott put in on the water.