The Lightroom engineers make periodic tweaks to its components to provide better image rendering and/or enable new editing functionality. What's a process version and why should you care? Well, it's the image processing engine behind Lightroom (and Photoshop's Adobe Camera Raw plug-in). Lightroom 4 introduces Process Version (PV) 2012. Lightroom now requires a version of Windows Vista or Windows 7. On the Windows side, support for Windows XP has been dropped. You must be running a 64-bit Intel processor and OS 10.6.8 or higher (read this Apple support document to determine whether your Mac has a 64-bit processor). Lightroom 4 does not support 32-bit Macs. We'll take a look at the following features:īefore we get started it's important to note that the minimum system requirements for Lightroom have changed. Of course, if you've already decided to take the plunge, this article will help you get started in exploring these new features for yourself. My goal is to explain the new features so that you can decide whether the upgrade to Lightroom 4 is one you should make.

Keep in mind this is not a step-by-step Lightroom tutorial, rather an illustrated guide to what has been added and updated. I've been using the shipping version of Lightroom 4 for a few weeks with my own personal image catalog and in this review I'll take you through the tools and features that have changed since Lightroom 3. Upgrade pricing for current users as well as the student/teacher versions also see a (more modest) price reduction to $79 US. For the first time in Lightroom's five year history, the retail price is now $149 US for a full version. One welcome surprise to everyone, though, is Adobe's announcement of a 50% price drop. If you've spent time playing with the public beta and are already comfortable using these features, you can jump ahead to a listing of the few (and mostly minor) changes that have gone into the shipping version of Lightroom 4. Image editing tools have also been significantly updated, with a new process version (PV2012) that includes a reworking of the Basic panel controls and new localized editing options. These include a completely new book-creation module, expanded support for video, soft proofing capability, and geo-tagging of still and video images via a Google Maps-powered module. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 offers an impressive list of features, the vast majority of which will be familiar to those who explored the previously-released public beta Adobe made available in January.

Adobe lightroom 4