Adobe has started shipping the 2nd generation of Lightroom (officially “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2″). I’ll say it up front, “I love Lightroom.” As a commercial shooter, Lightroom has become the backbone of my post-capture workflow. In my studio, Photoshop now handles only those things that Lightroom cannot do… which is much less now that Lightroom can handle many localized corrections.

Is Lightroom 2 perfect? No. Is it the best software around for one-stop handling of ingestion, DNG conversion, keywording, metatagging, sorting, ranking, RAW processing, exporting in multiple formats, creating slideshows and web galleries? Definitely yes.

Licensed owners of LR 1 can upgrade for $99. The list price for new users is $299. If you’re running the beta version, it will expire no later than the end of August (and maybe as early as 30 days from the day you downloaded it). If you’ve gotten hooked on Lightroom, start planning your transition to the release-version now. If you’ve not yet tried it out, click here to jump to the Lightroom info page and look for the link to download a 30-day trial version.

I ordered my copy of Lightroom 2 direct from the Adobe store figuring that they would be the first to fill orders. My expectation was fulfilled when my shipping confirmation arrived in my mailbox this afternoon. You can get it almost immediately via download. But, I’ve long been a sucker for software packaging… I still have my disks, manual and box for Photoshop 3 on my bookshelf.

In you’re anxious to make the change, click on the LR box above to place your order at the Adobe store. Amazon does not yet list Lightroom 2 — but they do have all the latest and soon-to-be-published books online. (Click here to jump to Amazon’s collection of Lightroom books.) I checked with the other online super-stores and found that none had Lightroom 2 listed.

For two great posts covering what’s new in Lightroom 2, check out the blogs of John Nack and Tom Hogarty – both Adobe-men extraordinaire. You’ll also find that these posts contain a ton of links to other sources of info and training on Lightroom 2. Also, check out Scott Kelby’s post over on ‘Photoshop Insider’ about his thoughts on the release-version of LR2. As always, Scott has many great insights and some colorful things to say.