Friday , April 26 2024
Do you do Lightroom?

Book Review: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book For Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby

Since the release of the first edition of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book For Digital Photographers, it has been the number one book on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and, with this latest version, author Scott Kelby is updating this one to encompass all of the improvements that have been added to enhance this already great product.

Throughout Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book For Digital Photographers, Scott Kelby takes you through each area and shows you just how to get the most from Lightroom. Using his character and wit, Kelby takes you step-by-step through each aspect of the Lightroom application. This version is 480 pages in length and contains 14 chapters (3 additional chapters)

Chapter 1: “Importing” devotes it’s time to showing you how to get your photos into Lightroom. You will see where to store your files, how to set up your folder organization, shooting tethered, importing DSLR video, creating custom Metadata templates, as well as discussing topics like the use of the Adobe DNG file format advantage.

Chapter 2: “Library” focuses on organizing your photographs. Here the author looks at using Collections, Quick Collections, adding Keywords, working with Metadata, syncing catalogs on two computers, and working with multiple catalogs.

Chapter 3: “Customizing” looks at how to set up Lightroom 2 to fit your work style. Here you will see how choose what you see in loupe and grid view, how to set up two monitors, adding a logo to your interface, choosing what the Filmstrip will display, and learning to work with panels in a faster and much easier method.

Chapter 4: “Editing Essentials” gets into the basics of developing your photos. In this chapter you will see how to set the white balance, add more punch to you’re the color of your images, adjust the tone, hue, and color of your photos, as well learning techniques such as vignetting, getting that gritty look, and using AutoSync to fix a bunch of photos live while editing just one.

Chapter 5: “Local Adjustments” moves beyond basics to editing specific parts of your image. This includes Dodging and Burning, working with the Adjustment Brush, retouching portraits, and learning how to fix skies.

Chapter 6: “Problem Photos” will show you how to correct problems after you have taken the image. Here you will work with cropping, reducing noise, removing red-eye, fixing backlight photos, sharpening, and fixing chromatic aberrations.

Chapter 7: “Exporting Images” shows you how to save your images as JPEG’s, how to add watermarks to your images, how to email photos from Lightroom, using the export plug-ins to auto upload to sharing sites like Flicker, and how to export your original RAW photo.

Chapter 8: “Jumping to Photoshop” examines how to move between Lightroom and Photoshop. This includes how to get there and back again, how to add Photoshop Automation to your workflow, stitching panoramas by using Photoshop, and working with High Dynamic Range images in Photoshop.

Chapter 9: “In Black & White” begins by showing how to determine if a photo would look good in Black and White. Then you will see how to do it yourself, how to tweak individual areas, how to add a split tone, and how to create a duo tone image.

Chapter 10: “Slideshow” begins with a basic slide show and quickly moves to customizing your show, adding music, picking preferences, and finally how to email the show.

Chapter 11″ “The Big Print” examines how to properly setup the print, and then moves onto adding text to your print layouts. You then see how to print multiple images on one page, how to setup your final print and management settings, and how to add boarders to your photos.

Chapter 12: “Web Galleries” starts off with a simple online photo gallery and then from there customizes the gallery layout by working with the layout colors, working with templates, and then shows how to put your gallery on the web.

Chapter 13: “My Portrait Workflow” is the first of the workflow chapters that will give you a sense of how you should work with Lightroom from a professional standpoint. This is a step-by-step on-location shoot process that will give you a feel how someone would use Lightroom in real life.

Chapter 14: “7-Point System” now takes a look at how to implement Kelby’s system to work in Lightroom. This is based on an updated version of his techniques for his bestselling 7-Point system for Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book For Digital Photographers once again is an excellent reference book to have by your side. It is very easy to read, and even easier to find things when you stumble across a task that you need to accomplish.

The step-by-step pacing along with full color pictures printed on glossy paper make this easy to read and easy to learn from. As with the prior editions, there is a work flow in the back that gives you a good feel on how the author works. What I like as well is there is a 7-Point system for Lightroom which will help you get the most from the fewest steps.

For new users to Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book For Digital Photographers is a must have. For intermediate and even advanced users, it makes for a good reference, and so I very highly recommend this book.

 

About T. Michael Testi

Photographer, writer, software engineer, educator, and maker of fine images.

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