The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

Martin Evening has written a first-rate book about Lightroom. It is clear, comprehensive, and well-written. I was anxious to get started with the program when it was released and so I purchased this book and also one by Scott Kelby. Kelby's book is generally good and I found it somewhat useful in a few instances to read the two together, but Evening has written the better book and it stands alone very nicely. Soon after Lightroom 1.0 appeared, Adobe issued a major program revision as version 1.1. Evening and Peachpit Press are to be commended for dealing with this situation by making a 179-page free update to the book available (as a PDF file) on the Peachpit web site. This update is also excellent and very thorough. (By contrast, the update for Kelby's book -- in similar format -- is only 28 pages long.) I'm very pleased with Evening's book and I think you will be, too.

Kind of surprised at the negative reviews of the book. I bought all three of the books out on the subject. Kelby's book is good but so annoying to read. Tim Grey's Lightroom Workflow maybe of interest to some who have not used light room but I found nothing of use in the book. Evening's book is by far the best of the lot. I must say that my copy is even getting a little dog eared. I pretty much liked his approach to every topic and found many usefull features in the program that I had overlooked. I would guess that some of the reviewers are completely new to the program and that is the reason for some of the low star reviews. I think you have to step back and consider what Lightroom does and what Photoshop does and change your mindset. I have used Lightroom ever since the beta program was realeased and consider it my primary image tool. Great program and a very good book.

This book by Martin Evening takes one beyond standard expectation into the realm of excellence. It is well written and helps give depth understanding to a subject that deserves more than just admiration of its GUI. It becomes quickly apparent that he has lived with this application and that it has become an integral part of his workflow. I've been reading sections of it for several days, then making practical use of what I've learned. Before his book I'd failed to realize the just how extensive was the Develop module. He takes you step-by-step into an understanding of this module applying it to various images. He also does this with the other modules. For me Lightroom is faster and more fun than Photoshop. It makes photography workflow a joy rather than an unwelcome interruption. Sometimes images still need a finishing touch in Photoshop, but now at 85 to 90 percent of my work is carried out in Lighroom. Martin Evening's book is the kind of book I like. It goes to the heart of the subject.