The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers (Paperback)

~ Martin Evening (Author)
Key Phrases: identity plate, camera raw, tone curve, Quick Develop, Import Photos, Quick Collection (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

While Adobe Photoshop has long been their choice for editing digital photographs, many photographers want a more focused tool. That’s where Adobe Photoshop Lightroom comes in. Designed from the ground up with digital photographers in mind, Photoshop Lightroom offers powerful editing features in a streamlined interface that lets photographers import, sort, and organize images. This completely updated and expanded bestseller, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book, was also written with photographers in mind. Author Martin Evening describes features in Photoshop Lightroom 2 in detail from a photographer’s perspective. As an established commercial and fashion photographer, Martin knows first-hand what photographers need for an efficient workflow. He has also been working with Lightroom from the beginning, monitoring the product’s development and providing feedback on the public beta. As a result, Martin knows the software inside and out, from image selection to image editing to image management.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book contains 624 pages of comprehensive and detailed coverage of all aspects of Lightroom. In this book you’ll learn how to:

• Work efficiently with images shot in the raw or JPEG format
• Import photographs with ease and sort them according to your workflow
• Create and manage a personal image library
• Apply tonal adjustments to multiple images quickly
• Integrate Photoshop Lightroom with Adobe Photoshop
• Export images for print or Web as digital contact sheets or personal
portfolios

The book structure has been organized to match a typical Lightroom workflow. The introductory chapter provides an overview of all the main Lightroom features, showing how Lightroom 2 was used on a studio photo shoot that was specially shot to illustrate the book. The following chapters cover all the essentials, such as importing photos, working with the Library module, and managing the catalog database. The biggest section of the book is devoted to working with the Develop module and provides some unique insights into working with new features such as the localized adjustment tools. There is also a whole chapter devoted to image sharpening and another on integrating Lightroom and Photoshop, where you will learn how to devise the best workflow methods for working between these two programs. This is followed by a chapter on printing and a presentation chapter on the Slideshow and Web modules. Lastly, there are two appendix chapters. One offers a complete overview of the Lightroom 2 preference settings, while the other provides some in-depth explanations and background reading on how the Lightroom program works.

The book is richly illustrated, mostly using the author’s own photographs, and one of the nice features of this book is the way enlarged panel views are used throughout, making it easier for readers to follow the settings used in the various step-by-step examples. There are also lots of tips that will help you take your Lightroom techniques to an advanced level.

If you are looking for the most comprehensive coverage of Lightroom, written by an author who is closely involved with the development of the program, this is the book to get.

About the Author
Martin Evening is a London-based advertising and fashion photographer and noted expert in both photography and digital imaging. In addition to being a bestselling author, Martin is sought after for speaking and lecturing. He also works with the Photoshop and Lightroom engineering teams, consulting on new feature development and alpha and beta testing. He is one of the founding members of PixelGenius, a software design company producing automated production and creative plug-ins for Photoshop.

About the Author

Martin Evening is a London-based advertising and fashion photographer
and noted expert in both photography and digital imaging. In addition to
being a bestselling author, Martin is sought after for speaking and lecturing.
He also works with the Photoshop and Lightroom engineering teams,
consulting on new feature development and alpha and beta testing. He is
one of the founding members of PixelGenius, a software design company
producing automated production and creative plug-ins for Photoshop.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Adobe Press; 1 edition (August 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321555619
• ISBN-13: 978-0321555618
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #42,810 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First Across the Finish Line, August 14, 2008

By	Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

Adobe began shipping its new Lightroom 2.0 (LR2) software at the end of July. A week later this book was available. It made me think that Martin Evening is really a team of writers, each working on a chapter of this book, or even some smaller portion, and that the publisher, Peachpit, must have incurred huge overtime costs. (Actually, the software was available in beta form for a long time, and authors had final copies of the software before it was delivered to the public.) There are enough changes in version 2.0 that this early edition is welcome for people who want more details.

After an introduction to the software, Evening goes through each of the modules in LR2, explaining what the sliders, radio buttons and check boxes do, and occasionally discussing his preferences and techniques for using the software.

I suspect that with the large installed base of Lightroom, most of the people anxious for details will be using an upgrade, and might prefer a book equivalent to Ben Willmore's "Adobe Photoshop CS3: Up to Speed" which just dealt with the new elements in an image processing software upgrade. On the other hand, there are a lot of new features in LR2, and the software is so integrated that it may be useful for experienced users to review all of the capabilities.

Even though it's comprehensive, new users may be a bit overwhelmed by Evening's work, especially since it often is far more detailed than a beginner needs. The discussion of sharpening and noise reduction may seem like a foreign language to someone who has never used Unsharp Mask. While past performance is no indication of future performance, newbies might do better to wait for something that will probably be more accessible, like Scott Kelby's "The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)" which is presently scheduled for a September release.

The book shows the pressure of early release with some typos and repetitions. On the other hand, Evening describes many of the features in more detail than the tutorials that are available on line.

I found it difficult to view the screen captures of the LR2 menus. This is no doubt due to the fact that LR2's menus are in shades of gray that are highly visible on a monitor, but less so on a printed page. I for one would have no objections if publishers would increase the contrast so that seeing the menus would be easier.

This book is about the technical use of Lightroom. It doesn't talk much about how the features can be used for more impressive pictures. For that, one should look at a few of Rob Sheppard's books like "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Digital Photographers Only (For Only)" or even better "Outdoor Photographer Landscape and Nature Photography with Photoshop CS2 (Outdoor Photographers)" or (subject to the caveat about past performance) his upcoming "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 for Photographers Only", presently scheduled for October release.

If you want to get your hands on a LR2 book right now, this is the only game in town. It's dense, but comprehensive, and for the experienced user, will require some sorting out, but all the information one may need about LR2's new features are included.

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I have seen on digital photography editing, August 23, 2008

By	Mike W (Bellevue, WA) - See all my reviews

I have a common complaint about most Photoshop and Lightroom books: they all go over the same basic information. Information that I have already learned by myself simply by experimenting with the software. How many times can people write the same basic-to-intermediate information on how to organize files, set white balance, adjust contrast, etc.? I am already an intermediate Photoshop and Lightroom user, so most books I have found do not offer enough new knowledge to make them worth the investment.

But Martin's book is different. In this book, I have been able to find detailed and advanced information that I have been unable to find in many other books. Everything I can think of in Adobe Lightroom 2 is clearly and deeply explained in sufficient detail to obtain the knowledge necessary to use the application at an advanced level.

Along with having the knowledge, the book does an outstanding job of communicating the knowledge. All information is discussed in full detail, with complete explanations of what the feature does, and detailed explanations of every step in the process of using the feature. There is never a feeling that some small amount of information was left out between the steps. Nothing seems to be "glossed over" as the explanations move from one step to the next. Additionally, the examples are detailed with lots of photos, with many of the examples having a photo for every step in the process of using the tool.

This review might not be useful to some if I don't find at least one thing to be less-than-ecstatic about. I can say that if you know absolutely nothing about Lightroom, are lost with it, and are looking for a very easy and basic book to get you started, this may not be the book for you. Martin's book is nearly 600 pages of deep detail. It may be a bit overwhelming if one is looking for an easy to read book on the basics. But if that is the case, I would recommend buying this book along with a more easy and high-level book on the basics. That would be a great pairing for someone who is just starting Lightroom, but is planning on becoming an advanced user.

If you would like to see some examples on the author's writing technique, he has written numerous articles on the Internet. Simply search for his name in an Internet search engine, and you will find some of the articles he has written. This can be useful if you wish to see an author's writing style before making a purchase.

If becoming an advanced Lightroom user is your goal, you owe it to yourself to get this book.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent companion book... VERY useful reference, August 23, 2008

By	R. Kaufmann (San Diego CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

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Basically, I highly recommend this book as *the* reference for Lightroom 2.

The author's writing style is quite clear, and is obviously based on access to inside sources within Adobe (it's published by Adobe Press!). It's no surprise that the book came out quickly after LR2's release, and that it is so well polished. This early access was also used to help the reader understand how/why various features were implemented as well as how the implementers envisioned the features would be used. This is quite useful, especially for advanced users.

As previously pointed out, this is not a prescriptive book. However, the "Develop" section does an excellent job stepping the reader through a recommended workflow through the basic settings, the tone curves, and then the spot/gradient tools. If you'd like a GREAT prescriptive book, check out Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies. Although it's written for Photoshop CS2, it does a great job walking the reader through the basics of camera calibration, lighting, and post-processing of pictures of skin. (Lee Varis has some DVDs that apply to CS3, but I haven't looked at them.)

What's not to like? The book is heavy and a bit cumbersome to read while using a computer. Seriously, I'd much rather have this book be the "Help" pages of LR2. Why programs as complicated as Lightroom (or heaven forfend, Photoshop) can't have reference books integrated as help files is beyond me.

It's also worth noting that the book went to press before the DNG profile editor (beta) was launched by Adobe. This tool allows the user to take a picture of a Gretag Macbeth color checker and then *quickly and easily* build a profile. LR2 can then be configured to automatically apply the profile to any image taken with the particular camera. So, the readers should completely ignore pages 310-311, and go to http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles%3AEditor to learn how to download and use the DNG profile editor.

Finally, I should say that I've been using Lightroom (on both PCs and Macs) since the beta. The quality and usefulness of the program have been increasing significantly since its early days. Aficionados are refered to http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/ for a great insider's look into Adobe's Photoshop and Lightroom groups.