Lightroom 4 Now Available: The Good – The Bad – and The Best News

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It’s official.  Adobe’s Lightroom 4 is now available.

We have expected it for months.  Now it is here.

MCP Actions stays on top of the trends so you can too.  Here is what we know:

The Good: Lightroom 4 has many new features to excite photographers.

  1. A huge price drop.  Lightroom 3 was introduced at $299.  Lightroom 4 retails for $149.95 and has an upgrade price of $79.95. Yes, that is 1/2 off. Lightroom continues to be an essential tool for professional photographers, but now it will be more affordable for hobbyists too.
  2. Changes to tonal controls. For example Lightroom 4 handles highlights and shadows better.
  3. More local adjustment brushes. There are now brushes for things like white balance and noise reduction.
  4. Lots of gadgets. From photo book creation to GPS, there are many new and exciting things to try.
  5. Video is the rage.  If you shoot video and still photography with your SLR, you will love the easy-to-use video features of Lightroom 4.

The Bad: Changes create compatibility issues.

  1. Process version switch. Lightroom 3 used Process 2010 while Lightroom 4 uses Process 2012.  What does this mean for you? If a photo was edited in Lightroom 3, you will need to select the older process version or have Lightroom guess how to change old settings to new.
  2. Favorite sliders are gone. Brightness, Recovery and Fill are not part of Process 2012, the LR4 processing engine. Exposure incorporates Brightness now so one slider will serve the function of both. The upside of this is there are three more specific sliders: Highlights, Shadows and Whites.
  3. Presets incompatible. Many Lightroom Presets made or purchased for LR 2 and 3 will not work in Lightroom 4.  Any presets that use the updated sliders will not work correctly. Some, like exposure presets, will not work at all.

The Best: We are recreating our Quick Clicks Collection of presets currently. Since most looks are dependent on sliders that changed, we will literally be starting from scratch. Because we value our customers and always strive to provide you with the best customer service, we are making this upgrade complimentary for those who have already purchased Quick Clicks. Please subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook to be the first to know when this upgrade is available.

* If you purchased the Quick Clicks Collection for Lightroom 2 and 3, we will have the complimentary upgrade available for Lightroom 4 later this Spring.

 

process-version Lightroom 4 Now Available: The Good - The Bad - and The Best News Lightroom Presets MCP Actions Projects

 

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No Comments

  1. Alice C. on March 6, 2012 at 2:59 pm

    Wow, I can’t believe they got rid of recovery! How weird!

    • MisMarissa on March 6, 2012 at 3:27 pm

      Alice, Highlight has taken the place of Recovery. (Essentially, a name change)

    • Randy Hotz on March 6, 2012 at 3:31 pm

      That IS weird! I relied on that.

      • Traci Spencer on March 6, 2012 at 3:48 pm

        Recovery is something I’ve used often as well. 😐

  2. Kym on March 6, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    What does it do to photos by default when importing? What I mean is, in LR3 it applied a Brightness of +50 upon import, and I’m wondering since the Brightness control is gone now, if it will do any modifications to Exposure (or any other slider) by default upon import.

    • Carrie on March 6, 2012 at 4:31 pm

      Lr4 does not apply anything upon import. All the sliders are at zero.

  3. Tamara M. on March 6, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    Geez. Don’t think I’ll be buying the 4 anytime in the near future. I have so many presets. Crazy to just get rid of them. I’m disappointed.

  4. Amanda on March 6, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    Do you know if we can we have both Lightroom 3 and 4 installed on the same computer? Or does 4 over-ride 3?

    • Jodi Friedman, MCP Actions on March 6, 2012 at 3:43 pm

      You can have both on the same computer.

    • Wendy M. on March 6, 2012 at 4:35 pm

      My LR4 install incorporated all of my LR 3 pics and presets and they are all easy to find and apply. I am LOVING it!

  5. Suri Teller on March 6, 2012 at 3:29 pm

    But I looove recovery.. 🙁

  6. Mia on March 6, 2012 at 3:44 pm

    You are awesome! I’ll look forward to the updates so I can purchase!

  7. Hilarie on March 6, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    You are so awesome to give a complimentary upgrade!!! I recently bought Quick Clicks and was bummed when I heard it might not be compatible with LR4. So awesome to have the upgrade available! Thanks!

  8. Kim Motter on March 6, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    They didn’t get rid of recovery, they made it more intuitive. You recover the shadows by using the shadow slider, highlights with the highlight slider, etc…….

  9. Mandy on March 6, 2012 at 4:26 pm

    For those of you mourning the loss of the recovery slider, you can still choose to use the 2010 Process under the Camera Calibration settings, but yes, as mentioned above, the highlights slider does that job now, and actually (I find) gets better results. (Along with so many other new settings/tools in version 4). I’ve been using the beta version of LR4 since January, and I love it – wouldn’t go back. It’s like everything in life, change can feel uncomfortable at first, but in a year from now, you’ll forget what you were worried about! “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” Charles Kettering

  10. pam on March 6, 2012 at 4:33 pm

    Since I use Quick Clicks on every single photo that I edit, this is wonderful news!!

  11. Dawn's Recipes on March 6, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    Thank you so much, Jodi! You always take good care of us! I love your actions and presets, and I can’t recommend them enough to friends!

  12. Danielle on March 6, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    Bumming that they sold Lightroom 3 last week for $89 and it will cost $79 to upgrade… More than buying 4 from the get-go. Out of principle I won’t be upgrading anytime soon.

    • Amy on March 7, 2012 at 10:33 am

      Danielle, if you bought LR3 in the last 30 days, you should be able to upgrade to 4 for free. You can either contact Adobe by phone or you can go here http://www.adobe.com/go/pa and fill out a form. You’ll need your serial # and a digital copy of your receipt.

  13. Liz on March 6, 2012 at 7:56 pm

    Will this free upgrade always be available or is it just for right when it comes out? So, if I decide to wait to upgrade to LR4 until the fall, can I still upgrade my Quick Clicks in the fall for free or will it cost if I wait that long?

  14. N.L. on March 6, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    I appreciate it so much that you are offering the Quick Clicks Upgrade for free! You.Are.Awesome! 🙂

  15. guest on March 7, 2012 at 12:04 am

    neat

  16. Ryan Jaime on March 7, 2012 at 5:58 pm

    sweet!

  17. guest on March 7, 2012 at 10:03 pm

    😀

  18. Lisa on March 22, 2012 at 10:10 am

    I LOVE quick clicks, I could not live without my favorite presets! Always excited about an upgrade, I was happy to hear about LR 4 but quickly worried about not having my quick clicks! So thank you sooo much for providing the free upgrade, I am a very appreciative customer!Ps. Anyone know about the book templates in LR 4 and if you can tweak and size them to use on blog pages?? Thanks!

  19. Koni on April 11, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    How and why does LR benefit editing? Thinking of purchasing, but don’t know enough about it. How is it different from the Camera RAW side of Elements?

  20. Francis on April 23, 2012 at 11:34 pm

    Ditto on the free upgrade. Still hesitant on moving to LR4…won’t migrate until presets are available.

  21. leo on August 14, 2013 at 8:25 pm

    Hi, I want to know if LR4 I can change the background?

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