Customer Reviews

Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure: Mastering Adobe's Next-Generation Tool for Digital Photographers

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought Scott Kelby's Lightroom book and I wasn't very happy with it because I think it is not very thorough. Not satisfied with Kelby's book, I bought Lightroom2Adventure and this book is way more thorough and very well organized. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn LR.

This book does what all photography software books should do. It is clear, well organized, concise, easy to comprehend and is loaded with phenomenal imagery. A must have for both new and advanced LR users.

I'm a recent Lightroom 2.1 convert and have Scott Kelby's Lightroom 2 book. This book was a purchase intended to learn more about the actual use of the program, as opposed to how all the buttons work, and in that I was disappointed. The Lightroom 2 Adventure provides good basic instruction on how the Lightroom features work, but not nearly as much about why you'd use them as I was hoping.

So I'm still looking for a "Lightroom 2 in Practice" sort of book.

I recently picked up Lightroom 2 and have been very impressed with Adobe's product and the powerful and largely intuitive tool set that Adobe has given the professional and serious amateur photographer. That said, there is still a lot of room for learning and figuring out how best to get under the hood with Lightroom, and this book does a fine job of showing you how to do just that. I had read another Lightroom book by a well known Adobe evangelist, that I found to be a bit thin on details (and his constant attempts at cute humor quickly grew old) but this book manages a nice balance between brevity and detail, making it quick and easy to pick up what you want to accomplish with enough attention to detail that the correction or adjustment you are working on need not match the example exactly. The problem with many step by step how-to books is that the focus is often too narrow per example, but this book manages to give a thorough overview with enough detail to see your way through the points that don't hit the given example exactly. Enjoyable to read, and still useful, I would definitely recommend this book for beginning to intermediate Lightroom users (or those new to version 2 and looking for the how-to on new features).

Of the many Lightroom books I've perused, this is my favorite. It's one thing to create a book that efficiently teaches you how to use a complex piece of software and another to produce a book of great photos but this book manages to do both.

I love the concept behind this book (and its predecessor):a group of photographers and software designers (some of the Lightroom team) travel to faraway Tazmania to capture amazing images during the day and then edit those photos in the evening. As a software designer (and amateur photographer) myself I can't think of a more perfect way to develop a product. I can imagine how powerful it was for the Adobe folks to get detailed feedback from their target market and how empowering it was for the photographers to see the software evolve based on their suggestions and use.

I've been using LR now for nearly two years and when I discovered this book and how useful it was I immediately ordered the first version as well simply for its journey to Iceland. How many software books cause that kind of response?

I'll be teaching a Lightroom class this weekend and telling every student to buy a copy of this book if they want to get more out of LR and actually enjoy reading a software how-to guide.

More importantly, I can't wait for version 3 of Lightroom simply because I want to buy Lightroom 3 Adventure and see where they go this time!

First off, for the price, you can't beat a tutorial book for anything having to do with Adobe. It's a great deal, just to keep in your arsenal.

This was an excellent resource for a beginner, but not particularly for anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in Lightroom 2. I did find there to be some useful nuggets about how to more easily manage workflow and at the end that there were some useful "recipes". I would recommend this to anyone who is just beginning their journey into Lightroom 2.

It's also a very interesting idea taking people to one island and using Lightroom 2 in a real way...truly testing it.

As a footnote, however, the photographs weren't as impressive as I had hoped they would be.

[...]

The author is one of the most clear and informative that I have read on Lightroom and Photoshop. I really appreciate his step by step and coherent approach with organization and language that is accessible and explanations that are easy to retain.

LightRoom undertakes to convert RAW images into view-able .tif's or .jpg's, with your control over a great deal of the image characteristics. It wants to let you 'process' a great deal of images quickly and smoothly. We're talking multiple gigabytes per day. The pros I know use a number of 4 GB chips in their cameras per day.

LightRoom is set up to let you work with this many files, to weed out most of them, to make multiple simultaneous adjustments as desired, and then to let you trim and fine tune each one as needed. The controls are set up - coarse, then fine adjustments. I don't have near as many images as a professional, but I appreciate the control and ease of use. Mouse or keyboard - it just goes smoothly and quickly.

The book is a lovely thing to have - it taught me much of what I learned about LightRoom. the instructions include lots of screen shots - with circles & highlights. Within a short time I was well into using the program, and (figuratively) bickering with the author over subtleties. (note: so far, he has proven right when I really understand what I'm doing.)

I am now working well past the 'grandfather trap' level of picture taking, and into serious, RAW mode work. My pictures are technically better than ever before, for which I thank Mikkel Aaland and LightRoom. And Adobe for putting it all together.

I found Mikkel Aaland's book to be well organized and thorough. I have referenced the book multiple times after completing it and could quickly find the answers. By reading the book studiously you'll gain a very solid knowledge of Lightroom.

It's important to note that the book is for people starting out with Lightroom. It is not intended to help you master how to develop your raw photos. The author clearly explains all the options in the development module and the effect that they have. He also dedicates a chapter on some professional photographer's actual development of their photos. But developing photos is an art that you will have to practice. There are also many sources on the internet that will help you develop photos. Prior to taking advantage of the internet resources you'll need to familiarize yourself with the fundamentals. This is what this book accomplishes very well.

Reviewed by: Zachary Zaletel, Alaskan Apple User Group Member
Product: Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure
Author: Mikkel Aaland
Company Website: http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com
PRO: Fun concept, well laid out, input from multiple photogs gives for many visual perspectives
CON: I don't have Leo Laporte's job and therefore don't get randomly invited to Tasmania.
Moose Rating: 4

Who hasn't said to themself, "Of course I want to go to Tasmania and learn Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2!?" If you're like me, then this question hasn't crossed your mind lately, but don't let our collective failure to do some out of the box thinking get you down. Not only has Mikkel Aaland had that idea, they went and did it, and even brought a bunch of photographer friends along for the trip, collected a number of photos from each of them and then combined the end result into a book. But was all this effort worthwhile?

Rather than your standard "How to Work the Latest Mousetrap 4.3", which plods through each menu, from File to Help, then each window with little thought to narrative, rhyme or reason (unless left to right, top to bottom is a good reason), Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure (henceforth known as L2A) gives a nice change of pace with the Tasmanian trip as an excuse for a How-To book. While it's hard to get away from left to right, top to bottom as a format for a manual, the variety of photographic material (both in terms of location and number of material generating sources) and depth of capabilities outlined in the program makes for a winning combination. L2A runs through the workflow, as laid out in Lightroom 2, giving a quick primer for each of the many tools. Sprinkled throughout are brief bios of the many photographers who were invited along on the trip, along with a 'recipe' for some sort of Lightroom wizardry pertinent to one of their pictures.

Lightroom 2 Adventure is as enjoyable a software guidebook as I've had the opportunity to read. As an added bonus, Leo Laporte makes a surprise guest appearance and introduces the tome to readers (this guy gets around - whether the bonus is for us or for him, the jury is still out). It's not a book I'd find myself curled up on the couch with for hours, but for a quick chapter here or there, or next to the computer, which I'd guess is where the majority of the usage of L2A takes place, it performs admirably, nourishing the Lightroom diner without having to rely on overwhelming amount of filler (who wants all that pasta salad anyway?). I will keep within handy reach for some time to come.