• • Speed is greatly improved.
• • Importing has been improved and refined.
• • Tethering for popular Nikon and Canon cameras is now supported.
• • Watermarking is improved (although still not ideal).
• • Luminance Noise Reduction has been added to complement the new demosaicing and color noise algorithms.
• • New Vignette styles.
• • Adjustment Brush and Gradient tools can now be stacked to strengthen the effect.
• • New Print Layout capabilities with Rotate to fit and Rotate Cell options.
• • Video files can now be imported from DSLRs along with still images.
• • The X key conveniently toggles the orientation in the crop tool.
• • Perspective Control and Soft Proofing are not in this beta (but are in development for future release).
• • While LR3beta1 catalogs can be updated for use in LR3beta2, LR2 catalogs still cannot be. This is after all, a beta release that is not intended, nor recommended for production work.

Commentary
The biggest thing for my own workflow is the speed and overall responsiveness of this release, which is better than any 1.x or 2.x  release. When I upgraded to the 21mp Canon 5Dmark2 I’ve been frustrated with the responsiveness of Lightroom ever since – until now. It’s pretty hard to go back to 2.6 for production work. On high resolution 20+ megapixel files, LR3beta2 is far, far faster – sometimes more than 20 times faster when lots of localized adjustments are used.

The second biggest thing for me about this release is the Luminance noise reduction. Luminance noise reduction used to be something to avoid in LR 1 and 2 because it would blur an image and it’s detail. Luminance noise reduction in LR3beta2 maintains image detail nicely while smoothing out Luminance noise. For those that want a little “film grain” in their images and prints the new Grain too lets you do just that with controls for grain size and roughness. With these new controls I’m finding that I can take noisy high ISO images, smooth out the noise without loosing detail and get a more desirable result by adding grain if I so desire. IMO, Lightroom now offers more control than any other RAW software, in this aspect.

The third most significant development for my own workflow is the grain tool. I make a fair amount of 60×96 and 36×60 inch prints and I find that adding noise (and increasing localized contrast) makes these prints more desirable. I’ve been groaning as I render the files to a  TIFF so I can goto Photoshop and add this noise. With LR3’s new grain tool, I can now add the grain and print directly from Lightroom. One less reason to goto Photoshop and suffer with huge files – whew. What’s more is that I can save grain presets for each of these print sizes in Lightroom and quickly apply them, or not, depending on the print size I’m working with.

Ian Lyons’ has a review at Computer Darkroom

You can download the new beta at: the Adobe Labs Lightroom 3 Beta2 page.

Checkout Adobe’s video demonstrating the new features in LR3beta2.

Update: The iPad background image is licensed from RIchard Misrach. (via Mark Menjivar)

Update: See this in-depth article about the image and Misrach at ARTINFO

In his own words these images are "Untouched by Mac hardware or Adobe software. It’s liberating in so many ways. For the first time we have both camera and darkroom in the palm of our hands." Dan has, at the moment, four "iPhone Artistry" workshops planned around the country that focus exclusively on iPhone based image capture and development. Visit iphoneartistry.com to see more images.

Dan is also credited for inventing the digital negative for contact printing process, pigment over platinum and pigment over gold leaf printmaking.

The new X1 (pictured above on the right) is a compact sized camera that uses an unusually large and high quality sensor for a camera of its size. It has a 12.2 APS megapixel sensor and comes with a fixed 35mm equivalent f 2.8 aspherical Elmarit lens. At 10 ounces, it offers the image quality of the M8 yet in a smaller format. It will ship by the holidays for $1995.

My favorite feature on the M9 is that it shows highlight clipping (in red) and shadow clipping (in blue) just like lightroom does. Yes!! (illustrated on the right) Workshop participants will note that I’ve been predicting this in-camera feature for years now. We’ll see how long it takes to trickle down to the other manufacturers.

Both cameras save DNG formatted RAW files and include a Lightroom license when registered. Leica followers, you know who you are.

I’m taking part in the Yosemite Extreme Panoramic Imaging Project this weekend. Along with over 70 photographers and digital imaging experts we will spread out over the Yosemite Valley and will each capture gigapixel (1000 megabyte) images that will be compiled into one of the highest resolution images ever made.

The project began in summer 2007 as a discussion between xRes studio’s Eric Hansen and Greg Stock, staff Geologist of Yosemite National Park, about constructing a high res gigapixel image of the valley walls. Such an image would become a tool for Greg’s work in researching rockfall in the park, an ongoing hazard given the large percentage of vertical faces present in the valley. Utilizing cutting edge technologies in high resolution photography as well as 3D rendering techniques, the final image will be one continuous, unwrapped panorama of all valley wall faces.

Taken from twenty different locations spread throughout the valley, we will expose over 10,000 overlapping images in unison in order to achieve a congruency of light. Later, in postproduction, the 20 image sets will be stitched and draped onto a 3D terrain model recreating all shooting positions in an extremely high resolution 3D database. From this model, a synthetic camera will create the experience as if one was flying down the center of the valley, resolving all of the gigapixel images shot into one of the largest terrestrial based images ever created. Interactive displays, large exhibition prints, visitor center installations and fine art posters will all be final tangible results of the historic project. Image completion is expected by August 2008.

Visit the Yosemite Extreme Panoramic Imaging Project site and/or Download the project proposal PDF