here’s a run through of the latest from adobe on the lightroom front. version 3 beta 2 came out a week ago + i took it for a test run on a shoot for top secret project called broken. adobe’s refined a handful of things with this beta + there’s something like 350,000 of us current users waiting for the real thing sometime this summer. among other features is a revamped tethering capability that is solid so far.

to get tethered shooting working you’ll need a few things:

first, make sure your camera’s compatible. the canon 5dII is good to go as are most recent bodies.

next you’ll need either a usb or firewire cable (should come with camera). at this time it doesn’t look like the wireless transmission units currently on market are compatible. i imagine this could change in the future.

then download lightroom 3 + it’s as easy as file/tethered capture/start tethered capture.

overall it couldn’t be smoother. granted i was working with a short cord + raw images + all was solid. i would definitely like a few more things, however;

the ability to have the raw images on both the card + the hard drive. better yet an option to toggle back + forth so that if you’re ever card free you could always shoot tethered. better workflow wise though to have all the images in one place. if you start tethered + then jump off you’ll have images in two different place but not in a completely redundant way.

like to see more options on the shoot bar within lightroom. great to see the camera controls + have a nice lg shutter but the horizontal bit takes too much room. i’d like to be able to opt for a vertical stack as well.

this would be brilliant for video as well. when’s that out adobe? you’ve gone far enough with this beta to include video import + metalogging into lightroom so how far off are we? be way smooth to pull a histogram up with live video while you have one subject interview another etc, without you even being in the same room. the day that comes around + works wirelessly i’ll be one happy puppy as canon already has video doable over their WFT-E4A.

if that isn’t enough of the future for you in one day, try this from the photoshop front or this from ol’ pogue himself on the iphone front.

and lastly, rip jim marshall

while it’s one sweet update, there are a few things still on the radar for this workhorse of a still + video machine. here’s what i’ve picked up in a day of use under the latest update;

Note: Firmware v. 2.0.3 does not add the HD 1280×720 resolution option that is available in other EOS models, such as the EOS 7D and EOS-1D Mark IV, and likewise does not add the 60 fps and 50 fps settings in those cameras. (that’s slow mo if you’re not familiar)

While the menu display will show level meters for Left and Right stereo input, please note that this upgrade will not allow users to separately adjust L/R stereo balance. There is one main manual adjustment for audio recording level only.

and a few quirks that you might have missed in the hurry to update;

Shutter-priority (Tv mode): Selecting Tv (‘time value’ or shutter priority) on the camera

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here’s a toyota tv ad i was able to contribute to for an agency out of atlanta. any guesses?

after a bit of thought + talk it’s official – we’re relocating full time back to my hometown of portland, or. couldn’t be happier. it’s been 14 years since i lived in oregon for any extended time but managed stints in japan, seattle + montana along the way so feel it’s a full circle kind of thing.

looking forward to being closer to clients, the coast, voodoo + the freaks. sad to see the office go as it’s been a great space but it’s up for the taking now.

large shout out to everyone around whitefish as the last decade+ has been unbelievable. couldn’t have done it without you. stay tuned for the thank you show later this spring.

in a bold bit about the changing of the guard, there are at least three things that i see coming. actually one already has to some extent + i’ll bring up more then three but as i had another major prediction come to fruition this past week better put a hold on the doubt.

1. the three elements we have as for control as photographers + filmmakers have always been aperture, shutter speed + iso. can’t do much with the first two in most situations but i’ve always wondered what happens when we blow the roof off of iso limitations (this is the one i was saying was already on the table). to some extent it’s not really future but now. nikon + canon, among others, have especially has pushed up to what, 12,800 most recently with readings depending on how you measure over six figures. that’s not iso that’s some poor wall street salary. the crazy thing being it’s only bettering exponentially.

what i see this doing is really altering the way we collectively shoot in many environments. dark + you’ve got this thing with depth of field, now it’s doable. hate the blur? game over. i’m not saying this is happening overnight but i know i can’t wait to really use iso variations in my work. think about the days shooting film – how many of you actually used to use that funky film puller to extract a role midstream ’cause you were heading inside (or vice versa)? (that’s it below in case you never had the pleasure.)

2. the altering + increasing tech assistance working with imagery will forever change the way we compose as well as the final product. like something out of csi or whatever the latest tech oriented crime drama maybe here’s a very real, though not photo specific, example via wired. this idea of compressed sensing could vastly change the landscape of storage + battery life for us. if the industry starts to see, “instead of steadily improving compression algorithms …steadily improving decompression algorithms that reconstruct the original image more and more faithfully from the stored data”, well then, hell, the future has arrived.

i’ve also read about researchers + uber geeks playing with computer technology that could lead to variable focus done in post production. the two together make you wonder how long craft will be involved with visual media.

3. i claim no brain power on this this last one but picked it up somewhere along the way from a communciation among shooters on what the future holds some time ago. the actual opinion (if this is yours feel free to claim) was that images would be wirelessly transmitted (i’m down with that) via satellite (ok) directly to editors anywhere in the cubicle world (have to try this to believe).

that said, i do see the bottle neck of transmission + after the fact editing losing ground quickly to the efficiency of technology. while eye fi may be a good start, it’s just that – a start.

so give it some time + we’ll see if i need to head to vegas at some point down the road. you’ve got better predictions?