The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

by Martin Evening

Revision of Martin Evening's bestselling Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book - the definitive book on the topic for professional photographers. ?In-depth look at how Adobe Photoshop Lightroom works and how... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321555619
• ISBN13: 9780321555618
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Adobe Press
• Length: 601 Pages
• Weight: 2.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.6" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Read this book before you read Kelby's

I bought both this book and Kelby's book, and I look forward to reading both, cover to cover. Yes, this will take time, but I want to really understand Lightroom 2, inside and out. I first started reading Kelby's book. But he is colloquial and less verbose _at the expense of clarity_. Martin Evening's book is long, and incredibly detailed. But written _very_ clearly. Long story short, read Martin Evening's book first. Nowhere is this point made more clearly than the two author's treatments of the "xmp"/sidecar issue. Martin Evening devotes 4 full pages to discussing this very confusing topic (pp. 179-182), whereas Kelby seems to cut corners and offer under-explained, possibly incorrect advice (see his three paragraph discussion on pp. 69-70). Buy both books (Kelby's book seems to offer more tips and tricks related to the Development module, which I have yet to get to), but read Evening's book first. Kelby's book is too imprecise, cuts too many corners, to be your foundational course in Lightroom 2.

Excellent guide to LR2

Evening's guide to LR2 is an excellent piece of work. It is well written and illustrated, clearly organized, comprehensive, and accessible to a wide range of readers. It will be valuable for all levels of LR users. There are two aspects of Evening's book that I particularly like. First, he puts LR2 in a richer photographic context by including useful short discussions of topics like color management, capture and output sharpening, raw vs. jpg formats, and exposure. He goes beyond the recipe approach, enabling photographers to develop a more thorough appreciation of how to integrate LR2 into their workflows. There is lots of "why to" in Evening's book to go along with the "how to." Second, Evening makes good use of his understanding of the way LR2 works. He points out, for examples, that the standard Saturation adjustment is linear, while the Vibrance adjustment is nonlinear; that the Clarity control works by sharpening midtone edges; and how algorithms underlying the Exposure/Recovery and Fill Light/Blacks tools are different. Information like this allows photographers to understand how to use LR2's tools individually and in combination to make both more efficient and more effective decisions in processing their images. To test this, after finishing Evening's book, I made virtual copies of a dozen or so recent "keepers" I'd already processed and printed, then followed his recommended work flow, and compared the two sets of images. I found myself using some tools differently (e.g., Fill Light), some for the first time (e.g., adjusting Split Point sliders on the Tone Curve), and some tools less (e.g., Brightness/Contrast). Not only did I arrive at satisfactory results more quickly following Evening's recommendations, but in most images the tonal nuances are better defined. This is the best of the several LR2 guides I've read. My recommendation: If you want to understand as well as use LR2, read Evening's book. If you just want to use LR2, read Kelby's. Both are good, but Evening's is richer and ultimately more rewarding photographically.

Excellent companion book... VERY useful reference

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.

One of the best books I have seen on digital photography editing

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.