Lightroom 3.0 Public Beta Now Available!
Want to see what’s coming in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v.3? Now you can! Click here to get the free beta version and start experimenting with Lightroom’s newest tools and features.
I have been playing with the private beta for a few months now and I very excited about Lightroom v3’s potential. In particular, I am pleased with the advances Adobe has made in:
-Exportable slideshows with audio. I’ve been grumbling about the lack of this feature for four years but not anymore! Finally, we can make a slideshow with music in Lightroom and then export it to Quicktime so that anyone can see it and hear the music.
-Import. The Import dialog has been completely redesigned and improved.
-Performance. In my tests, the Lightroom v.3 beta seems noticeably faster particularly when performing large batch operations.
-Noise reduction. The brilliant engineers at Adobe went back to the drawing board and came up with a new set of noise reduction algorithms that make much cleaner images. Try this new technology out on one of your highest ISO photographs.
-Online publishing options. This is really cool. Now you can easily send your favorite images from Lightroom to photo-sharing websites like Flickr. Better still, Lightroom will keep track of the comments that other folks leave on your images while they are online.
Want to learn more? Check out these video tutorials from Adobe Evangelist Julieanne Kost.
Part 1: What’s new in the library and develop module
Part 2: The new slideshow and photo-sharing features
Part 3: Twenty-five new enhancements
For even more information, and some great video tutorials, check out the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom3 beta Learning Center from the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
Finally, a word of warning. This is a beta product which means that it is not finished. BE CAREFUL! Do not use this beta program without backuping your files and don’t be surprised if you encounter unexpected bugs and errors.
Adobe is making this product public so that we can help them find its flaws and fix them. Being a guinea pig is exciting but it comes with a price. Lightroom v.3 beta is super-cool but still experimental. When you find a flaw please help the whole community out and report it.
About the Author: David’s sports and landscape images are often used on the web and in outdoor sports publications. He has an extensive knowledge of digital photography and is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. David is a talented instructor and his entertaining teaching style works for students of all skill levels.
In 2009, David Marx led digital photography programs for the 
When will Lightroom 3.0 come out?
Dear Kim,
Only Adobe knows its exact release date but I would guess that it will hit the streets sometime in February or March.
–David
Thanks David. I was looking to get it soon, but do you think it would be worth waiting? I know sometimes new software takes awhile to get the kinks out too. I am new to lightroom, so not sure what to expect. Appreciate it!
Kim,
Lightroom 3 is available right now as a beta program. It is certainly not 100% bug-free and shouldn’t really be used as production software. Once it is released publicly in early 2010, I’ll feel confident in recommending that photographers use it as their primary image editing and cataloging software.
If you’re wondering whether or not to get Lightroom 2 right now, that’s up to you. I certainly recommend it. Though I’m not sure of the details, Adobe typically offers discounted upgrade pricing when going from one version of their software to another, so if you bought Lightroom 2 now, I’m sure there would be a relatively-inexpensive upgrade price to move to Lightroom 3. My guess is that it would be around $99.
-Scott Rouse
Hi guys, any ideas on when Adobe might be releasing Lightroom 3? I was just about to purchase the upgrade to LR 2 when I saw that 3 was being beta tested. I’d love to just wait for 3 if it’s due out soon. Thanks!
Dear Sejal,
We can only speculate on when Lightroom 3 will be released. I think that it will hit the market sometime around April 2010 but only the folks at Adobe know its definitive launch date.
–
David