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The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers | 
 enlarge | Author: Martin Evening
Publisher: Adobe Press
Category: Book
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $24.15
You Save: $25.84 (52%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 4578
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 624
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0321555619
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.696
EAN: 9780321555618
ASIN: 0321555619
Publication Date: August 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Very Thorough Lightroom Reference December 20, 2008
This book is certainly one of the best if not THE best book on Lightroom 2 (that is currently available). While extremely dense with information (so much so the type had to be reduced a bit to fit it all) and very nicely done screenshots, it is quite a lot to read through. If you're one of those people who starts books and leaves the rest unread at page 100, be sure it's what you need. The good news is, if you buy this book there are few scenarios I can think of that would require you to own any other Lightroom book; it is quite comprehensive. Lightroom 2 has many features to learn, but all are fairly easy to digest once you have gotten the lay of the "land" and see how the different functions affect your images and work with one another.
The only real question you'll want to ask yourself is whether you really need this much information. If you're new to Lightroom, then unquestionably I think this is a good investment. If you're not new to Lightroom and are just looking for information about the new and updated features, it might be a bit overkill for you. In that case I might recommend you check out one of the thinner, well-reviewed books out there before buying this one. You definitely get your money's worth but if you already know 60% of the material inside (i.e. what you've learned from prior versions), there might be better options for you.
 The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book December 14, 2008
I have been reading Martin Evening's books for 10 years. He brings the important role as a photographer to the technical focus of software and using equipment while achieving an aesthetic balance in terms of information.
This book is not only readable but explains in important detail what the user needs to do to be successful. Thanks to Mr. Evening for doing the hard work of making the photographer's job easier. My copy is already becoming raggedy with wear.
friendly and comprehensive November 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lightroom seems friendly enough to "learn by doing", but this book taught me a number of techniques and explained details that I had missed. From the ins-and-outs of input and output sharpening, print color-management, and even efficient methods for working through the development sliders, I couldn't ask for more.
Excellent guide to LR2 November 10, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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.
First Across the Finish Line October 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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 for Digital Photographers Only (For 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.
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