Lightroom 4 Ships with New Album & Video Editing Features

Adobe announced the immediate availability of Lightroom 4 on Tuesday, bringing digital photo management and editing application for the Mac out of its two-month public beta. The new version added improved photo album layout features along with better editing for DSLR video files.

Adobe Lightroom 4Adobe Lightroom 4

Lightroom includes better auto-adjustments for image exposure and contrast, improved controls for managing the dynamic range from cameras, and local adjustment control for white balance, noise reduction and moire.

Version 4 also offers drag and drop image geotagging, a new geotag view that shows all photo locations on a single map much like Apple’s iPhoto, and support for marking specific locations as private. Photos can be uploaded to Flickr and Facebook from within the application, although Lightroom’s Principal Product Manager, Tom Hogarty, told The Mac Observer that support for uploading images to other photo sharing services is being left “open to third party developers.”

Version 4 added new layout tools for Photo Book albums that offer better control of book designs, savable custom layouts, and fine-tuned control over text in photo albums. Photographers that also manage video files shot from DSLR and point-and-shoot cameras get some new features, too, thanks to nondestructive clip trimming, a new white balance control, and new color correction tools and filers.

Lightroom 4 requires a multi-core Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.6.8 or higher. It is priced at US$149, or about half what previous versions cost. Upgrades are priced at $79.