The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

My rating is not based on how good the book is. If it were, I would have given it 5 stars. I based it on how useful the book is to me and how well it addresses my needs as a non-professional but fairly competent and dedicated amateur photographer (with a limited budget) and a fairly computer-literate individual.

This is a book to read through before using Lightroom. You will find thorough and knowledgeable information. What it is NOT is a book to have in front of you while you are using Lightroom. This is not a quick reference book. You will not easily locate the particular little bit of knowledge you need at that moment or the answer to the question that comes up as you're using a new program.

I bought it because I have had it with Kelby's humor and I wanted a serious and professional approach to learning a new program that is not a simple or intuitive as it might, at first, seem. Mr. Evening is, without a doubt, a professional and, even more so, serious. He approaches teaching as an intellectual conversation between two peers. Unfortunately, I am not anywhere near his level of competence on any of the subjects he addresses (photography, Lightroom, good archival practices, camera and monitor callibration, workflow, etc).

While I am absolutely certain that every aspect of Lightroom is competently addressed in this book, it is extremely difficult to navigate when puzzled by a particular issue. There are 330 pages of text (punctuated by very useful side tips and explanations as well as excellent color illustrations). There are only 5 1/2 pages of index and not a very thorough index at that. (I found it difficult to locate passages I knew I had previously read when looking under the most obvious categories). I actually find that the Table of Contents is more helpful than the index.

The text is wordy and self-referent. It is not at all unusual for paragraph blocks to be 4 1/2 to 5 inches long (and you're going to have to read them through, because they contain excellent info, though maybe not what you're looking for that minute) and to say something like "the same as in the xxx module." This doesn't help much because, here you finally managed to locate a section about the issue you want addressed and you're now going to have to read yet another wordy section in order to understand it.

The problem may lie with me. I like to dive into a new program being hand-held by someone who can (quickly) reassure me as to which direction to go. My system is to learn by doing while avoiding catastrophic pitfalls. It is not a question of short-attention span, but I want brief, concise, and to the point text, logically arranged, separated by bold easy-to-scan headings, and thoroughly indexed. I scan the book first, then I open the program and the book at the same time and gain confidence as I go. I am not really interested in deep conversations about color theories or future technologies, or what the professionals do at this point in my Lightroom education.

I may have to bite the bullet and get the Kelby book to go through the hand-holding stage, but I will keep this one for deeper reference when I get to a higher level of competence. It is an excellent treatise on Lightroom.

Martin Evening is a photographer and the author of a very popular Photoshop manual (one that has been updated and enlarged with every new version of PS). Since he is part of the Adobe test team for PS, it seems logical that he has been tapped to write one of the first books on Lightroom.

The book itself is very good, covering Lighroom in detail (note that Lightroom is feature-rich, but nothing like PS). And the book is recommended with a caveat.

And that's the bad news. Shortly after LR was released, Adobe released v1.1, which brought LR closer into line with the new Adobe Camera Raw 4.1. Other features were also added to LR. The bad news is mitigated by the fact that the publisher Peachpit Press is going to post a pdf of a 177 page update(!) for download from their website. The update and the book should now be considered a set, rather than the book as a standalone.

I bought this book right when it was released and have read it twice from cover to cover over the last month. One of the reasons I bought it was because although I'm good with software and photo management, I wanted to be better and I wanted to learn workflow from a working pro. Lightroom is all about workflow and no one understands photography time-constraints more than a commercial photographer. The writing style suits beginners to professional photographers. By that I mean you'll find discussions of topics such as RAID drives less applicable to casual shooters, but the concepts are well-explained even if you have no prior knowledge. Some people might find the book dry compared to other more colorful writers out there but I find this approach refreshing. It's like reading the User Guide with a professional photographer sitting beside you to help interpret what each setting means and whether it makes a difference to you. I personally would rather spend less time processing photos and more time outside shooting - this is the value that Mr. Evening's comments and tips add for me.

This book is divided into sections that match Lightroom's modules. If you just want to get going quickly, Ch.1 on introducing Lightroom will do just fine. You can even read Adobe's documentation and that will get you started. The real value is when you delve into the rest of the chapters and after each chapter, practice on Lightroom.

Some people have criticized that the screen captures were done on a Mac rather than Windows version. I use both platforms myself and found that Mr. Evening has done a great job covering usage that is applicable to both Mac and Windows users. The screen captures are a good size, well-labelled and placed so that you don't have to go hunting for them. Nothing more confusing than reading some instructions then having to turn the page to find the applicable diagram/photo.

Whether you're a beginner or expert on Windows/Mac I believe you'll find this book extremely useful. A great idea was to leave some of the more technical discussions on Lightroom in the Appendix. I loved this section because like other outdoor photographers, I juggle Win vs Mac hardware/software and the other nuances specific to how would I use a laptop in the field, then transfer settings back to my other PC at home.

On the other hand, this book isn't perfect, you do have to read between the lines to pickup some of the criticisms of Lightroom. This will become apparent to you when you start using Lightroom and wonder why no author talks bluntly about the sluggishness and other problems with Lightroom, especially under Windows. Yeah, yeah, I know it's a 1.0 product. Without getting into a XP vs OS X debate, I suggest you try Lightroom on both platforms and you'll see that it is a great program under OS X, but has some catch up to do under WinXP. In other words, the author wasn't lying, Lightroom is useable even for a large number of photos. This was a source of great frustration for me after reading the book and finding my workflow wasn't as fast as it appeared in the book.

I found that by reading this book AND purchasing the very inexpensive but great value Luminous Landscape Lightroom video tutorials (also created by working photographers) I've become very proficient at Lightroom in a very short amount of time. I don't think I'll get much more from another book or attending a seminar - the rest is just practice and monitoring Lightroom user forums. Finally, when reading other reviewers negative comments on the book, keep in mind that Mr. Evening's book was the first to market. If you've been following the beta incarnations of Lightroom you'll appreciate that it was no small feat to get all the book updates in time for 1.0. No, the book isn't perfect, yes there are some mistakes, but given the time constraints it's pretty darn good and well worth the money and time invested in reading it.