I have been somewhat reluctant to keep demonstrating new features in Lightroom 2 Beta, because some of you like to remind me that the "new" features I am demonstrating were already there in the later versions of Lightroom 1. To me the entire interface of Lightroom 2 Beta is new though and deserves to be reviewed, because it now includes a second window and second monitor support.

For instance in this post I am taking another look at the Before and after Views of the Develop Module. In the past if I wanted to see how the original image and a new version of the image compared I would have to toggle back and forth many times, between the original (before), comparative (side by side), split (one image split in half), and the new (after) view in one location.

Using the second monitor with Lightroom 2 Beta, I can view a large (loup) version of the newest (after) image, no matter which version of the Before and After views I select on the main screen. The larger view on the second monitor also eliminates the need to hide all the panels in the main window for a larger view of the image. It really seems pretty obvious to me that, even in this early Lightroom 2 Beta stage, the addition of a second monitor (and second Lightroom window) allows for a smoother and faster Lightroom workflow for almost all Lightroom functions..

Main screen - The split image view of the original color image and the new grayscale version.

Second screen - The newest version of the image in Loupe View.