The first book written specifically with Photoshop Lightroom 1.1 in mind, this beautifully illustrated and eminently practical book offers a complete tour of Adobe’s integrated digital photography workflow application. Augmented by photos and case studies from a demanding road test in Iceland, award-winning photographer Mikkel Aaland explains how Lightroom 1.1 allows you to import, select, develop and showcase large volumes of digital images.
If Adobe’s Lightroom opened my eyes to DSLR photography then Lightroom Adventure ($39.99) opened my eyes to all that could be done with it.
Thoughts and Impressions
I don’t know about you but when I get my hands on a new product I tend to quickly find out how it will do what I want it to do, and then I sort of leave it at that and carry on in blissful ignorance of all its other features.
That was certainly the case with Adobe’s Lightroom, so I owe Lightroom Adventure a huge ‘thank you’ for kicking me off the proverbial couch and back into the application to shift my skill set up a level or two.
With any book on photography I think you are bound to ‘judge the book by its cover’ to some extent and if you avoid that then you are going to want to get some enjoyment and inspiration from the actual images used in the book. Lightroom Adventure gets a tick on both accounts from me. I really enjoyed the quality, creativity and thought provoking nature of a lot of the photographs in the book.
Next up on the litmus test as far as I am concerned comes the ‘can I follow the examples clearly?’ Again, tick for that box as well.
Of course it helps if you actually learn something from the book as well, and in my case I certainly did. Now of course if you happen to be an expert Lightroom user already you may not, but I would hazard a guess that there is something in the book for most of us.
For anyone that has used Lightroom you will know that it is based around five sections: Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print and Web, which go a long way to establishing your workflow. Not surprisingly the books starts with these and pretty much goes through them a la a workflow over the course of 12 Chapters:
- The Lightroom Workspace Revealed
- Importing Images into LIghtroom
- Using the Library Module
- The Develop Module
- Develop Great-Looking Photos
- Color-Tuned Photos
- Black and White and Special Effects
- Develop Recipes from Iceland
- Exporting Files
- Lightroom Slideshows
- Power Printing
- Creating a Web Gallery
The photographs and inspiration come from an ‘adventure’ in Iceland and that certainly adds interest to the book as some of the photos are simply stunning.
All in all avery useful and well presented book that is easy to follow yet manages to set some good challenges and help you improve your skills.
Book Description
This beautifully illustrated and eminently practical book is the first to offer a complete tour of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.1, the integrated digital photography workflow application that allows serious photographers to import, select, develop and showcase large volumes of digital images. Augmented by photos and case studies from a demanding road test in Iceland, award-winning photographer Mikkel Aaland explains how Lightroom 1.1 can improve the way you work.
After watching — and often helping — Adobe create Lightroom entirely from the ground up, Aaland (author of Photoshop CS2 RAW) was ready to see how well it would do in the field. He organized a group of 12 top-notch photographers for a trek to “Nature’s Light Room”, the pristine Icelandic landscape where each summer day is bathed in 22 hours of horizontal light — and where the only studio was Lightroom on a laptop. In Photoshop Lightroom Adventure, Aaland uses hands-on knowledge from the trip to demonstrate how Lightroom 1.1 can help you create the best possible image under any conditions.
This unique tutorial walks you step-by-step through Lightroom’s:
* Library module for uploading, sorting, tagging, ranking and adding keywords to your images
* Develop module with Adobe Camera RAW for complete non-destructive color and tonal adjustments
* Slideshow module, where you select and size images, and export the show to HTML, Flash, or PDF formats
* Print module, which includes several templates for printing contact sheets or full images
* Web module, where you can create Flash or HTML web galleries
With many gorgeous examples shot in the soft natural light of Iceland, this book lets you see the results for yourself. Mikkel Aaland’s trademark ability to teach complicated topics on digital imaging with straightforward, easy-to-follow text makes this book a valuable learning tool for anyone serious about digital photography. This is not an update of previous Lightroom versions, but the first book written specifically with Lightroom 1.1 in mind.
Book Details
Title: Photoshop Lightroom Adventure
Subtitle: Mastering Adobe’s next-generation tool for digital photographers
First Edition: July 2007
ISBN 10: 0-596-10099-X
ISBN 13: 9780596100995
Pages: 350
On the Other Hand
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I’m very much like you in that I grab a piece of software, get to grips with the basics by ‘feeling’ my way and often never get under the hood or learn how to harness advanced features.
I’m currently considering the whole lightroom vs aperture situation so interesting to hear about this book.
I’m curious how you find these books, and do you borrow them from a local library (I gather probably not)…. then how do you get them?
Dunks – Lightroom!!! Serach around the site a bit and you will see that it gets reviewed, mentioned etc a fair amount. To be fair I haven’t looked at Aperture, but I am pretty sure Mac has looked at both!
Mac – as a “recognized” blogger I have somehow managed to get myself on the PR list of a couple of publishers, who seem to like how I review stuff so they are always happy to send me books that they are releasing to review 🙂
That is great, the downside is I pretty much have my own library here now 🙂
I guess it’s time to start scanning them in, like you did with your DVDs. 🙂 Also you could share and send some of them across the ocean.
I think that would tip me over the edge!
It is a dilemma as I don’t really want to keep all the stuff, but nor do I feel it is right to sell it, but the items have some value.
Maybe I will do some sort of raffle/donation/give away ‘thing’ and give any proceeds to charity. Another issue is postage costs – in many cases it would cost more to post the item to the US or UK than someone could pick the same item up for off eBay.
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I have been teetering on the edge of buying this package too (having just upgraded from Photoshop CS to Photoshop CS3), and you have probably helped push me over the edge. Like I’m made of money – thanks Chris! 🙂 (I think I can get away with the 30-day demo initially though…)
Anyway, I just spotted this interview and thought it might interest you as a followup. (I haven’t listened to it yet, buy I’m book-marking it for later.)
🙂 happy to assist!!! I think you will like it.
It is a pretty good interview. What I was more interested in though was (once again) the idea of trying to get a group together and all go somewhere and take some photos. Would be pretty cool to get 6 or so of us that had never met in person together for a long weekend or something. Hmmm – wonder if we could come up with an angle to get some sponsorship 🙂
Anyone that can sponsor my trip to spain is welcome 🙂
Why Spain? IF this was an option which country would you (all) prefer?
I would be very tempted by South Africa personally!
Hmm if you put it like this, I heard there are african safaris organized for photographers. Not necessary South Africa, just Africa in general. I think the whole idea would be very very cool.
That would do for me!!! Dig out the details if you can – we can but dream, or we can see about making it a ‘project’, maybe start saving for a couple of years/decades!!!!!
There are a lot of places on the web that advertise these. I found a very interesting article here: http://www.bythom.com/safari.htm … then again not like we will be going anytime soon.
Hopefully sooner that we think!!! Rather than aim too high, why don’t we pick a time of year to aim for (which may depend on the location), and then see about the logistics. One option is to make it an annual event and for a number of us to ‘host’ it. Or we can just aim for a city break as a start, meet up for a long weekend somewhere, have a few beers, take some pictures etc.
I am relaxed about where and how – but am liking the idea of trying to set something up more and more!
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Well, have just downloaded the 30 day trial so will be starting on my own lightroom adventure tomorrow.
Have a good trip 🙂
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