Customer Reviews

Digital Photographer's Guide to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (A Lark Photography Book)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While it is true that this book does not cover LR 1-1 release due to it reaching circulation at the same time (July 2007) the thought process behind Lightroom is covered very well and much of it, and the details, is easily applied to LR 1-1.

If you are a visual learner (like me) then this book is for you.

The overall format is some printed thought process (two paragraphs or so), with 4-7 steps worth of screen captures. This got me 99% of the way there for nearly every major function of LR

The author is a big time believer of Presets and batch processing (as am I) and it was great to see the workflow laid out nice and simple.

The steps described are very simple to adapt to the current version so don't be held back by that, after all who knows when the 1-1ish book version will be out.

I did look thru Kelbys books, others, and this one (all at B&N) and found the other ones far too wordy but again that is simply because of my learning style.

I only gave this four stars due to the unfortunate publication date coinciding with the release of 1-1 LOL, but I will also buy the next version from this author :)

Now that Lightroom has been on the market for a little while, it may be time for books to appear that tell users not just what the effect of each of the sliders and buttons is, but how to use the software to process pictures in a better way than its more expensive big brother, Photoshop. John Beardsworth, a perceptive and thoughtful photographer and writer promises that this book "is not a feature list...but does assume... [the reader]... doesn't need too much low-level guidance...."

The book is nicely laid out with each set of facing pages dealing with a single subject with several screen captures keyed to a numbered workflow that deals with that subject. Throughout the book Beardsworth emphasizes that Lightroom's strong point is to allow the photographer to process large numbers of images quickly. There are subjects like "Adding structure > Collections", "Recovery and the white point" and "Black and white > time savers". In a section called "Advanced topics", the author includes topics like "The Polarized Image" (get the effect by using the Color Adjustments saturation and luminance sliders), "Creative vignetting" and "Photoshop workflow > Blended exposures". Each of these subjects is easy to understand, given the author's accessible writing style.

Yet what the book contains is mostly a less than complete feature list. The reader who is past the low-level guidance stage will not find much new here. Moreover, Beardsworth may be wrong in his assumption that Lightroom's main benefit is a better way to process large numbers of images. My own feeling is that Lightroom generally offers a better front end for image processing than Photoshop's Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw which are part of Photoshop, not because of its ability to process large numbers of pictures (the late Bruce Frazer often showed us how to do that with Photoshop), but because the entire process, including asset management, is so completely integrated.

Advanced photographers will be highly interested in moving images back and forth between Lightroom and Photoshop to do things like selective adjustment and sharpening where version 1.0 of Lightroom is lightweight. Unfortunately, this aspect of image processing was mentioned too briefly in this book. (Version 1.1 of Lightroom, which is available for free download by Lightroom owners, offers much improved sharpening features, although this book was published at a time when the features were not available for the author to consider.)

Photographers who are interested in covering all of the features list would be better served by reading Scott Kelby's "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers" Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers,The (Voices That Matter). Meanwhile there is still room for a comprehensive book aimed at advanced Lightroom users.

I've looked through (and even purchased) several Lightroom books and was always overwhelmed by their sheer volume and wordiness. I'm new to it and just wanted the basic concepts and most useful tasks explained in a simple way, and Mr. Beardsworth's book does just that. After reading it, I feel like I've laid the foundation for moving on to the wordier and heavier volumes. I thank him for increasing my skill set and comfort level with Lightroom. I have Lightroom 2, and though the book applies to 1, the basic concepts and actions are pretty much the same. Looking forward to an updated book!

For anyone who has the old lightroom (up through 1.4) this is the book you NEED! Its the perfect reference book, and great book to read through to learn about all the hidden things lightroom can do. In the matter of a few hours, just reading through this book and messing around on the computer- you can really get a great overview and knowledge of how this great program can speed up your workflow. HIGHLY RECOMMEND FOR LIGHTROOM 1.4!!!

Excellent book. I am a professional photographer and an advanced photoshop CS3 and bridge user. This book is easy to learn from in front of your computer and is quite advanced in technique without any lame attempts at humor or asides.
After reading this I am a believer in Lightroom!
Jason
[...].

This was a very basic, barely OK book to start with. Based on the screen captures used to illustrate many points, much of it was being written based not even on the released version 1.0, but on an earlier beta (see sliders on the adjustment panels, and light-gray panels: all these were gone even in version 1.0).

And now that Adobe released version 1.1 of LR, this really is to far from what the current software looks like (and how it works) to be of much use. For those looking for a current book that covers Lightroom 1.1, Photoshop Lightroom Adventure: Mastering Adobe's next-generation tool for digital photographers may be it. I haven't seen it, but I read online excerpts, and it does cover ver. 1.1.