There don’t appear to be any great differences in the latest release of Lightroom, available for download as a free upgrade for existing users. And although I took the usual precaution of backing up my Lightroom catalogue (which takes ages) the actual install was pretty fast and trouble-free and so far I’ve experienced no problems.
A few things do seem to be working a little more smoothly and I suspect there have been a number of minor bug-fixes and some tidying up of code. And of course there will be a number of people with shiny new cameras who will be pleased that these are now supported by the new version.
I’ve finally got round to buying a book on Lightroom, and Seth Resnick’s “The Photoshop Lightroom Workbook: Workflow not Workslow in Lightroom 2” seems to be very good, unlike some other volumes I’ve seen. Lots of good common sense suggestions about using the software and the settings to choose, most of which are similar to what I currently do, but even though I’ve not yet really had time to sit down and make use of it I’ve already picked up a few good hints.
It’s very good for example at reminding you of the useful keyboard hints, that are easy to forget. So in the Develop module, hitting G takes you back to the Library module in Grid mode, and Shift/Tab gets rid of the clutter (or F toggles full-screen.)
I’m sure there will be some things I prefer to do my own way, but this seems really to be a real practical photographers guide while some of the others are definitely more for geeks who like fiddling with software. At £15 (-1p) from Amazon I think it’s well worth it – and I just need the time to go into it in more depth. And I really must get my keywords organised better as it suggests.
It’s only slight fault is that it assumes you have a Mac and although it often gives instructions for PC (and where necessary notes Vista and XP differences) you do sometimes have to do a little translation for yourself. Of course there are some photographers for whom this will be an advantage. I’ve just looked at the reader reviews on Amazon when I searched for the link above – and one does mention this, and a certain Canon bias – which so far I’ve not really noticed, but all three give it five stars and so far I’d agree.