Adobe announced today the availability of a Photoshop upgrade, Lightroom 2, which offers some new features that make photo post-processing and working with pictures easier. One of the enhancements Lightroom 2 brings is the dual-monitor support, which makes manipulation and management of photographs much more convenient. Moreover, this is Adobe Photoshop's first application to run on a 64-bit platform.

Another feature related to the handiness of the new product is the Library Filter Bar, which allows an efficient display of the searched images. Suggested Keywords, another feature that comes with Lightroom 2, offers suggestions on what the best keywords for identifying a picture would be, interconnecting the names of the pictures by the same author. Photographers will have the possibility of using the new Adobe product to print their work faster, as pictures can be quickly arranged in different, flexible templates. Trim images are obtained almost automatically, as photographers can always avail themselves of the algorithms that determine what is the ideal sharpening for print and screen.

All these enhancements make handling pictures easier, but the new version of Lightroom also offers some tools that help with the development of raw material into polished photographs. The Local Adjustment Brush allows clear-cut corrections of small surfaces, whose colors, exposure and tonal range can be dramatically changed without affecting the whole architecture. The Graduated Filter is another tool Lightroom 2 comes equipped with. The exposure, clarity and saturation of a picture can be gradually modified, separately or in combination.

Photographers are also offered camera profiles, which are the starting viewpoints for every editing. Certain default positions of the camera are accompanied by custom profiles, to meet everyone's tastes and habits. "Adobe really listens to the issues and challenges today's photographers face and they've built a complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom 2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate freedom to produce professional images quickly." says Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals about the Adobe new product.

Lightroom 2 has been tested in the Softpedia labs and no types of malware were discovered. You can safely download the application here.