With Lightroom 3 Beta already out, we’ve seen a number of great new features including better import/export, improved noise reduction, print and slideshow coolness and more.
With a great feature base in place, there’s certainly always room for improvement, though. The following are a few features I would like to see in future versions of Lightroom.
Tethering
Tethered shooting allows you to connect a USB cable from your camera to your laptop and, while shooting, have the images show up instantly on the computer.
Lightroom sort of supports this today using watched folders. It does require, though, other software to transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer. I’d really like to see all this integrated into Lightroom as one full package.
Integrated Geotagging
Geotagging allows you to take your photos and tag them with information about where they were taken (latitude and longitude).
I geotag a ton, especially when I’m out shooting landscapes or wildlife. I use a small handheld hiking GPS and then sync that data with the pictures using a great plugin by Jeffrey Friedl. Like tethering, some things (like viewing the pictures on a map based on their location) have to happen outside Lightroom. I’d really like to see this integrated. When Aperture 3 was released recently, this was one of the only new features that Lightroom doesn’t have that made me think “Oooh, I want that!!”.
Soft Proofing
Soft proofing allows you to get a better idea of what your picture will look like when you print it off on your printer. It takes into account the printer, paper type, etc.
While I don’t print a ton (I send the majority of my work to online labs), I do see value in having a better representation on screen of what I’ll see out of the printer.
Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are the cornerstone of any efficient workflow. While Lightroom has a vast array of keyboard shortcuts (trust me, there are a ton – check out my keyboard shortcuts list here), I’d like more flexibility. Nearly every one of Adobe’s other products, including Lightroom’s cousin, Photoshop, allow you to change them to work with you and allow you to add shortcuts to those less common features that you might happen to use frequently.
Additional Web Gallery Options
I use Lightroom’s web gallery options all the time to upload galleries from individual shoots for my clients or family members (depending on the shoot) to review. I really like a number of the galleries, but would like to see the Flash galleries especially expanded. Something more robust like SlideShowPro would be great. I REALLY want a full screen gallery option.
How About You?
So, how about you? What features are you craving that aren’t there yet?
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About the Author: Brian Reyman
Contact Brian
Brian lives and breathes Adobe products and loves using pretty much all of them. He is an Adobe Certified Expert in Lightroom. Brian is also Manager for the Denver Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop User Group.
When not shooting and using Lightroom (or other Adobe products), Brian is an IT professional living in Denver, Colorado.
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