PDN - May 2012

wasn’t perfect, I miss it already. However, the new highlight and shadow recovery sliders seem to provide more exacting adjustments. It just takes longer and requires closer attention to detail (no pun intended) as one is modifying an image. And, if you really want to use recovery, brightness and fill light, just go to the Camera Calibration panel and choose “PV 2010” from the Process drop-down menu to revert to the Lightroom 3 Basic panel.

Localized corrections are not new to Lightroom but in version 4 you can now brush on white balance and noise adjustments. Both are important and useful additions but I found myself using the white balance brush more frequently than noise reduction, particularly on runway images (imagine trying to color correct a show with three different light temperatures across each image, including colored spotlights). Localized moiré removal is also possible and works quite well.

Scroll down to Lens Corrections (Profile) and you’ll notice a new, separate option for removing chromatic aberration (CA). CA removal was, previously, part of the lens correction profiles but is now more effective (at least on most of the images we tested) as a standalone option.

SOFT PROOFING (FINALLY)

Perhaps one of the most often requested features
for Lightroom has finally arrived. Even if soft proofing
isn’t part of your workflow now, anyone who prints
(or shows their images on their Web site or in a virtual
gallery) should use this feature to get the most accu-
rate output. It’s certainly a huge improvement over
what can be accomplished in Lightroom’s Print module.

ADDED VIDEO SUPPORT

It’s no surprise that Adobe has extended LR4’s video options without the complexity of most video-editing software applications. In addition to organizing, previewing and scrubbing MOV, MP4 and, yes, even MTS (AVCHD) files in the Library module, photographers can now make adjustments, trim clips, capture individual frames and easily upload the final video to social media and image-sharing sites from within Lightroom.

LR4’s video capabilities are limited, of course, and some features are not readily apparent. But most of its video tools are truly photographer-friendly so there’s basically no learning curve.

Beyond trimming clips by setting in and out points,
perhaps the most useful aspect of these new features
is being able to apply LR4’s Quick Develop presets
and settings to video footage. Video clips cannot be
opened in the Develop module. Instead, to gain access
to a fuller complement of adjustment tools, you can
easily capture a JPEG frame from the clip and bring it
into the Develop module.

BOOK MODULE

Adobe partnered with Blurb to add a Book module to LR4. DIY photo books are very hot these days, so being able to create and export a book layout to Blurb from within Lightroom is very convenient. You can save a book and get back to it whenever you have time.

Adobe reminded us that the Book module is not InDesign and it’s far from it. You get more choices when you download software from the Blurb Web site (along with the ability to use an InDesign plug-in). Part of the logic behind limiting options was that too many

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