Digital Photography Books

This is the fourth Tim Gray book and second Jon Canfield book I have bought and read. While this book treats many of its various subjects in much less detail as Tim and Jon do in their other books I still found it useful. The section on creating digital slideshows was particularly helpful and all of the other subject matter is covered at least a summary level, providing good review and synopsis of the more detailed treatments in their other books.

This is an excellent book for anyone needing the basic on producing web content or printed media. However, I found it not up to the standards I have come to expect from Tim Grey. It borrows from a lot of his other work and does go into great detail on how to produce web files or printed media. It falls well short of providing content on Showing and Selling Images. While there is certainly an art to these two processes, I had hoped to see some examples of how to incorporate these into my current procedures. There really was no content on these subjects.

Great book for the beginning to intermediate photographer wanting to improve their product. Falls well short of useful content for the more advanced photographer.

When I found Photo Finish listed in Outdoor Photographer I thought it would help me with selling my photos. I didn't realize the amount of material it covers in helping prepare to sell. Not only does it cover the actual preparation of the photo, it will take you through a complete web site construction in order for you to place you images on the Internet. It also covers a lot of material in between. I find Photo Finish to be a resource that I return to frequently as a text in hand as I proceed with various photography projects.

This book was a huge disappointment. It's content is weak in almost all sections with much of the information available from either the Internet or you local photo lab. I didn't find it very useful at all and I'm even tempted to send it back.

The book is pretty much broken up into the three section as described in the book's title. The first part brushes over optimising your workspace - calibrating your monitor - and selecting a printer and then basic printing output. Things most people know already.

The second goes into a bit more depth regarding getting your pics on the web: registering a domain name, selecting a hosting company, etc. Information you'll find better provided by a quick search in any web search engine. However, one of my main gripes is that it reads like a magazine review of 3rd party programs you should buy to help with the web authoring in html. In fact it advises using Macromedia Dreamweaver. A program which cost more than 500 USD. Now, I understand that writing html sounds complicated to the novice but you would - honestly - be better served and save some money from learning a bit from any basic html/web authoring book(any of the O'Reilly books are well recommended) Creating a basic html web gallery is not complicated.

The final part of the book continues on the team of glossing over the subject. It briefly mentions approaching galleries and selling on the Interent. I was expecting so much more from ths section but I really didn't learn much more than I knew already.

I find it hard to believe that one of the reviews here gives this book 5 stars yet points out some of the same failings of the book as me. The book has good intentions but just doesn't deliver the level of content and information required to make really useful.

I really thought the book would be more geared to professional photographers and workflow, etc. with regard to digital photos. Much more space was spent on website building, which I would have expected from a website book, not a book titled as a digital photographer's guide. Did I get $30 worth of information? Probably, but I would have liked more information on digital workflow, file management, professional lab tips, etc. as a professional photographer making the move from film to digital.

This is the book on digital photography for which I've been searching since first immersing myself in this hobby. Every question that I've been trying to get answered is here. It's like the author wrote this book just for me.

This book would have rated 5 stars, if only a CD with digital images were provided for the part II "Digital Darkroom" techniques. An excellent text for easily learning a lot about digital cameras - and worth the $20 for that part alone. But talking about digital image processing, supported only by poorly reproduced black-and-white shots on greyish paper, doesn't hack it. Had the author provided a CD with practice images to support his well-done imaging tips, it would have been masterful. But words alone are incapble of giving you the "feel" for fine-tuning options and sliders in PhotoShop Elements or similar programs. The author does provide a website address that perhaps will have the missing pictures? But no, I receive a puzzling message of "account unavaiable; contact your support rep". Huh? Anyhow, even if the images could be downloaded, it would be an inexcusable waste of the reader's time, and once again no substitute for an included CD. Ken Milburn is an excellent teacher - let's hope a 2nd edition of this potential winner will address these issues.

This books is more focus in how to edit your photos with adobe photoshop, that how to take a picture. the author do not cover the diferents techniques, nor he explain how to improve the shot with you camera or before you take the picture, basilly the books has 4 or 6 chapters on the difirent features in the camera and then goes on in how to edit the photos in you computer. not a good book if you want to improve you technique on taking pictures

This is a useful book for beginning to intermediate digital photographers. The writing is mostly clear and concise (though a more thorough editing job would have caught a few typos and more than a few awkward sentences), and Milburn does a fine job avoiding geekspeak without talking down to his readers.

The cheesy-looking cover is a turn-off though, and a foreshadowing of the lack of visual sophistication throughout. The print quality of the black and white example photos strewn through the book is somewhere between mediocre and atrocious; there seems to have been little effort on the part of the publisher to ensure print quality and a modicum of contrast (all the b/w pics look washed out).

But Milburn mostly has himself to blame for the unappealing-looking photography. The guy just isn't that good a lensman. So while he knows his stuff, his pictures are only moderately competent -- and wholly uninspiring. A 16-page color section in the heart of his book is meant to show off his work to its advantage, illustrating different techniques. These pictures are well-printed for change, but their mostly compositional flaws shows that Milburn just can't practice what he preaches. The best example is his picture of a roller coaster, a photo whose surprisingly dreary colors are accentuated by what looks to be a mudfield occupying the whole bottom third of the image. Ugh.

Nevertheless, this is a solid and suprisingly exhaustive primer on digital photography. It could have been a great book if Milburn had had the modesty to use high-quality third-party pictures (even stock images would have worked fine), instead of uninspiring samples from his own ho-hum portfolio.

this is a great book to expand your horizons with your digital camera. I like the layout and a digital camera makes it so easy and inexpensive to experiment with all the ideas laid out in this great book.

If you have a good background in photography, some of the concepts will not be new to you, but its a great gift for someone starting out with a new digital camera.

Get the new 5D Field Guide that just came out instead. That is way better than this. This is more like an expanded manual. The 'Field Guide' covers everything you can do, including which lens to buy, which accesories, etc. in FULL COLOR! This book just sits on my shelf unread.. actually I just went to find it to confirm something for this Lantern review.. Guess what? It is LOST! No real loss ..LOL I think it has a pull out cheat sheet which might be the most useful part. But ever there.. get the BLUE CRANE Digital lamenated fold-up cheat sheet instead.

Magic Lantern guides have always proved to be an invaluable addition to a photographers library. They are formatted roughly in the same way sequentially as the instruction manuals that come with a new camera. The difference is that the Magic Lantern guides expand on each section to provide understanding not just explanation. Each section is also brimming with tips from the pro's on how to achieve the best outcomes and how to get the most out of the available functions. The guide for the EOS5 lives up to expectations in these respects. The biggest gripe we have about this guide is that it appears to have been rushed to print after the release of the camera. As a consequence it is full of typographical errors from misspellings to missing words. Nothing that affects the integrity of the information but it does however reduce the quality of the publication and the credibility of the publishers. Not to mention being a bit of an insult to anyone that buys the book.

After purchasing the Magic Lantern Guide for the Sony A-100, I ordered this as soon as I purchased the Cannon 5D. The A-100 guide was well written, well organized, and contained information not included in the manual. The Canon 5D guide is poorly organized and contains less information than is found in the manual. On several occasions I have grabbed this book first only to be unable to find the information needed. In those cases, the manual was the better reference.

My advice, don't buy it, use the manual or find a guide that is well organized and complete.

This book may be fine for those who have lost their manual. But if you haven't lost your manual you wont be needing this book.

I find the Magic Lantern Guides to be very helpful. I've used them for the Canon Rebel XT, the 30D, and now the 5D. I don't understand the few negative comments I've seen here about these guides. Of course, I'd like to see even more detail with examples on several of the features in the 5D guide, but I guess that kind of knowledge must come from experimentation with the camera.

I corresponded with Peter Burian briefly, six or seven years ago, getting advice on photographing my daughter ice skating. He was very nice, and very helpful. That same attitude comes through in this very attractive book. He covers all the important areas: cameras, scanners, software, and printers. This book will give you a solid and accurate understanding of all these areas. It's not going to give you up-to-the-minute details on Nikon and Canons' latest models, or try to convince you about which brand is the best. But if you haven't already made up your mind about one or the other, this book will give you the background to make sensible choices. This book is ideal for someone making their first move to digital, or moving up from snapshooting to something more capable.

I carefully read through the book and found it is a very informative tool that gives the readers a lot of tips and advices.

For readers who like to buy or upgrade digital equipment, there are chapters that listed major considerations and technology differences of equipment categories. For readers who already own digital equipment, the book shows you how to optimize your equipment to get the best result. Readers who like to improve photography would found advices of taking better pictures, and technique of digital darkroom.

The book explained complicate but important concepts in simple language, with deep enough detail. I found the book easy to read and very helpful. I had a lot of "I see" and "Now I know why/how" while I read through the book.

If you are new to photography or moving from film to digital, this is a must-read book for you.

This book is best suited for people with little understanding of photography who are looking to get started with a digital camera; the first two thirds of the book are largely meant for this audience. However, there is quite a bit in the last third of the book for readers who are moving from film to digital or learning how to use digital editing software. For this more advanced audience, there is even some useful advice on picking a digital camera in the first sections.

Although the core concepts covered in the book should carry forward for sometime, much of the book is becoming outdated (for example there is no discussion of the new Adobe digital negative format as an alternative to compressed TIFF for archiving images, and camera specs are also behind the times). An updated version would be welcome for the intended audiences, and I would most likely rate that book 4 to 5 stars.

Because this book is a broad introductory text, and does not go in-depth into any topic, use of the word "Mastering" in the title, not to mention trademarking this one word, is inappropriate.

I must admit that the book title had me fooled. The cover looked stunning and I believed that this would be a book that would, indeed, help one to engage deeply in digital photography.
However, the book turned out to be little more than a basic primer on getting started in digital photgraphy. In fact, it didn't go into sufficient detail on anything and, despite the excellent paper stock and beautiful color photographs, was an extremely disappointing buy.

this book is very very basic, most of what is covered ( software current cameras etc.)will be out of date soon. do not expect to learn anything regarding taking better pictures ( shutter speed , mastering the light meter , etc. ). if you have absolutly no idea of how - what or why regarding digital cameras then this book is for you , but if you have any knowledge then pass up on this book

Excellent Book! Full of useful information that is made simple by step by step insructions. Great information for someone who understands the basic tools of Photoshop, but wants to create more prfessional looking photos. Wonderful examples that inspire new ideas and twists on classic pictures! Highly Recommended!

I read the book cover to cover while using it as a companion tutor to an on line dslr course. I found many of the steps not complete. I had basic questions on basic elements of PSE 3.0 and didn't find any mention of them in the book or index. I was left "wanting" for my answers on the basic of uses in Organizer and Editor.

I like this book as a starting place to help with learning some of the ins & outs of Photoshop Elements (PSE) - I actually happen to be using v. 5. It is a bells & whistles book, not a general tutorial book for how to use all the features of PSE.

I just started digital scrapbooking about a month ago, so I wanted a few tricks for making my photos better and beginning to create some elements, so for me it has worked out very well. I've gotten a couple other books that ended up being too simplified and the results somewhat "cheesy", so I found this book more of a middle ground for a beginner who learns quickly - not too simplified, but not complicated.

This is yet another book from the man who is trying to take over Photoshop with his "Photoshop Professionals" organization.

Someone should take Scott Kelby into a quiet room and tell him some home truths. The first one, in fact probably the only one, is that he's just NOT FUNNY.

If you want a second one, the most important word in the English Language is not one character long, usually expressed in upper case, and is the character that appears between H and J in the alphabet.

And here's one that might save people some money - if you see a neat technique in advertising, it is a good idea to remember it (cut out the page, if necessary) and try to reproduce it yourself. There are a number of "Down and Dirty tips" like this - the one I recall is the one using a watch.

In fact, the tips here are more Up and Clean than Down and Dirty. If you want your Photoshop work to be slightly more interesting (but not too interesting), this is the book for you.

This book bears all the hallmarks of a book done by several authors, none of which had too much interest in it. I don't know whether Mr. Kelby contributed every word in this book, but there are parts with altogether too much sophomore humor (and I'm doing it a favor rating it that high), along with mildly interesting techniques. The humor is something that was passe at the time of DOS for Dummies, and the only reason that I give this two stars is that someone can use the techniques.

However, the techniques shown are yawn-inspiring. There's little or nothing that will blow your socks off, and this book comes a long way behind the Elements One-Click Wow! book.

According to the blurb, this book shows you "Photoshop Element 3's most closely guarded special effects." If you think about this for a minute, why would Adobe want to guard the special effects you can make with its program? And why would Scott Kelby need to have the words in the title "Voices that Matter"?

If a book can't stand on its own merits, why should it need to be bumped up? And why can't the author put over his points without obscuring them with unfunny remarks?

Look elsewhere. This book is for the Windows version only (not that I care that much, because I use Windows). There are plenty of better books on Photoshop Elements techniques.

I am an Adobe fan. I have Adobe Album 2, Elements 3 and Photoshop CS. Using a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II camera with my Epson 4000 Printer going through Photoshop CS is a marriage made in heaven. But first, I want to store and organize my photos in my own way. This I did with Album 2, 2nd Version, to the limits of its capability. Its limits, I can see are mostly overcome in Elements 3 and I want to transfer my Album 2 organization to Elements 3 with its much more sophisticaled capability. I have 5,000 photos. There is nothing in Mr. Kelby's book about organizing photos at all. His index is 4 pages long. Under the word "photos or photographs" there is nothing. Under the word "organizing" or "organization" there is nothing. Under the "word" albums, there is nothing.
Yet this is the first thing this Elements 3 Program wants to do is to collect all my "bmp's" and "jpegs" and drop them in one file for me to organize. With 5,000 photos, I don't want to go through this very time consuming procedure again. If there was some space spent on this first step, I could figure how to transfer my Adobe Album 2 photo organization to the expanded capability of Element 3. The organizational ability of Elements 3 is ignored. The other aspects elaborated on are much better done through Photoshop CS. The lack of explanation on the basics of photograph organization makes me feel this book is of little help.

I started wioth Photoshop Element version onme and have updated ever since tom the newest version.

I have found Photoshop CS too expensive and too much info for what I need as a photograopher.

Therefore Photoshop Elements is just the right product for me.

This is the latest of Philip Andrew's series of books covering Photoshop Elements, now at Version 5, and fully updated, is aimed at those who are new to digital imaging and the software. One of the many strengths of the book is its "backward compatibility"; that is to say, you can use this book, even if you have a previous version of the software. This is achieved by stating clearly at the start of each section what the commands are for versions 1 through to 5. The book is divided into15 Chapters, covering everything from an overview of digital imaging and the software to creating a web photo gallery. In between each of the following topics and more is covered: Getting your pictures into Elements, tonal control, retouching techniques, making and using selections, organising your photos with tags, understanding and using layers, working with text, using painting tools, creating panoramas, preparing images for the web and printing, making creations. A further Chapter contains 12 "real world" projects that can be followed step-by-step to further hone your skills. There is also a useful companion website where there are further downloadable resources and all the photos used in the book are available to download and practice on. In summary, this is an excellent book that I commend to anyone interested in getting the most from the software. Philip Andrews has a clear, concise and easy style, and manages to explain complex terms in an easy to understand way. This, combined with great full colour screen shots and clear step-by-step instructions makes this a must for any Photoshop Elements user.

Having jumped directly from Elememts 2.0 to Elements 5, I decided to seek professional help on getting maximum usage from the program. My purpose is scanning 35mm slides and enhancing them along with digital images. I shopped and read many portions of various Elements 5 books and decided that Philip Andrews was talking to me so I bought this edition from Amazon.com. I now have better results and a better workflow for digital capture and editing. Mr. Andrew's explanations and particularly the advise on 16 bit vs 8 bit images has helped the quality of my images and my hobby enjoyment as well.

I am new to elements and I needed a guide to learn all the ins and outs of the software. This book is not it. I cant tell you who the target audience is but it is not the novice user. There are NO clear instructions in this book, just a lot of verbage from a guy who wanted to fill pages.

If you learn by doing, this book is not for you. I have recently gone from PSE 2.0 to PSE 5.0 and really needed to learn the new features. When I bought PSE 2.0, I also bought "50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques". It was a wonderful book. It included a CD of photos used by the book, so the reader could start with the original photo and follow the book step-by-step to end up with the final image. The book showed the "before" and "after" and all of the steps in between. That is what I had in mind when I purchased this book. What a letdown. Some of the sample pictures that this book uses are available at their website, but the book does not indicate when to use their picture and specifically which sliders to manipulate and to what value to obtain the final result. So it does little more than explain what each of the features do. You can sit on your couch and read it. No `real-world' applications. Don't waste your money on this one.

I was a practicing architect for 30 years before becoming an architectural photographer. As the negative reviewers have stated (with such passion) experienced photographers will find this book elementary. Regardless, I highly recommend it for those starting out in architectural photography (digital or otherwise) and for designers who want to photograph their own work. The chapter on the author's post processing workflow is worth the price of the book alone.

Basically replaced his previous book, but with the digital tips, like shooting tethered. I picked up a lot and I've been in business 24 years, but more architecturally the last 2.

Unfortunately, this book is a waste of time and money for anyone who is serious about learning anything significant about using digital technology for architectural photography. Here's why:

1. The book has 135 pages. 77 pages are dedicated to information about
equipment, digital work flow and post shooting. The information in these 77 pages is widely available in other, more complete, sources and only serves as padding in this book.

2. Significant portions of each page are blank. But many of the photo illustrations are so small that they can not convey the kind of information that someone needs to evaluate them. On page 58, there are several photos sized at .375 square inch (a postage stamp is .8 square inch). Although other pictures are larger, they are so small that they do not illustrate enough information. Why is not the wasted, blank space on each page used for larger, easier to read photos?

3. The use of High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography, the digital technique of combining the useful segments of more than one exposure, is of important consideration to someone contemplating the extreme brightness range of many architectural interiors and some exteriors. The author devotes only 1/2 page of text (if you consider the blank area), and 1 photo slightly larger than a postage stamp and 3 others .06 square inches in size to this important topic.

In the middle ages, alchemists would write books about their experiments but withhold essential information that would have allowed the reader to duplicate the process. The author of this book, who apparently is an experienced architectural photographer, has succeeded in upholding the archaic tradition of these alchemists.

This is the first book I have found dedicated to shooting architecture digitally. Thankfully it is also quite a fine little book on the subject. While I would have liked a tad more depth, what is there is extremely good. It is aimed at the beginner but is also helpful to an experienced photographer who needs to make the switch from 4X5 film to DSLR.

This book is for the architect or engineer who doesn't want to hire a professional photographer, so it's a little dry and covers ground that most photographer's already know, such as how a camera works. However, it gives a lot of good information for the novice architectural photographer such as using shift lens and "painting with light." My favorite part was how to cut and paste in Photoshop when windows are blown out by exposure

Having just started into Digital Photograhy I find this text a welcome addition to my library. This book allows you to customize your photo's to suit your taste. I am going to get a lot of use out of this excellent
reference.

Did I mention that it is great? This is the same program that came with a digital camera I bought a few years ago, but I changed computers and couldn't find it again until now. (I found it by accident in the Computer Books for Seniors series.)

Arcsoft PhotoStudio is user friendly and does everything that I need it to do. The price is awesome AND it comes with an instruction book which I did not have before (yet I figured it out!!!!.) I recommend this program to anyone and everyone.

Aug.12,2006
I returned the above noted book to your Mississigua, Ontario Canada address because the Arcsoft PhotoStudio software was missing from the book.I requested a new copy with the software enclosed but as of today I have not received any news from Amazon, in Mississauga as to when I can expect my new book.
Should I request a refund ? What do you suggest because I have really enjoyed other computer books for seniors in the same series.At this point I am disappointed that I have not received my correct order.Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Connie Moore

This is a great book! I teach PC/Digital Camera classes in an adult ed setting and see this as a breakthrough volume. I'm working at convincing management to incorporate this as a required text/course.

A key is that it INCLUDES a powerful editing software program. In classes, we use the SW that is resident on the lab PC's, so students are sent home to practice with either an unrelated product, or they are off to the store to face the dozens of choices for purchase at up to $100.

Too bad the cover and title cater to seniors. This book is valuable for any one interested in the subject of digital imagery, not just Geezers. Hopefully however, that cover will interest more seniors who should buy this book and plod, yes plod, through it because learning something new ain't always easy, at any age.

This book and the included Arcsoft program will guide users through very basic and simple editing functions like cropping and brightening their treasured images--alone worth the purchase price. But, what's surprising to me is the fact that some of the most advanced aspects of editing are covered, like cloning and the use of layers which are true pro-level features.

Purchasing a "latest" comparable entry level program like "Photoshop Elements", or "Paint Shop Pro" at around $90, plus an explanatory step-by-step book at about $30, would be overkill when this all-in-one solution is available for under $20!

Perseverance is required for anyone learning something new and potentially complex, but this book should be considered by anyone of any age group. Another volume I recommend, if one already has a complicated program they're stumped by is: "Digital Photography, The Missing Manual". manual"

Dennis

The previous reviewer quibbles with the title but neglects to address the content. I find this book extraordinarily useful in two respects: it includes the software that it is teaching, and the lessons are carefully designed to lead the ignorant learner through unfamiliar processes. Terms are defined, and ample opportunity is given for practice, to achieve good results.
A prime volume for someone who wants to know something about digital photo editing. NOT a book or application that someone who either already has another, more powerful application, or for those who have no patience with reading directions.

From my point of view this book is really good for novice panoramic photographers (or for them that haven't search the net well). It gives some overall information about panoramic techniques and then describes some programs with which you can produce interactive (or simple) panoramas. The reality is that in the Internet you can find find lot more information about panoramas BUT from different sources.
Although it is useful this book's price is quite high.

If you are interested in all aspects of panorama photography (cheap and expensive ones, easy and difficult ones, it's history, ...) then this book gives a good overview of solutions on the market.
If you did already some research on the net about the subject because you want to come immediately to the point, there is not so much reading to do.
I'll take this purchase as a lesson for the future: I browse the internet for information and if I don't find enough, then I will turn to "buying books".

Interactive Panoramas is a good introduction to a photographer thinking about adding this type of media to their product list. It covers cameras, lenses, software and equipment.
It even includes Demo versions of some of the popular Virtual Imaging software although the technology is changing so fast, the versions are a little old now.

Yes, this is an expensive book, and it probably is meant as a textbook (and would be a decent one), but if you are a true photo novice seeking to get involved with interactive panorama photography, this is fairly cheap once you consider the money you will likely eventually spend for camera, lens(es), software, tripod, and panohead. By putting in one place much information you could cull for free from various sources on the Internet (namely, software reviews, analog vs. digital camera comparisons, nodal point, lenses, and codecs), this book might help you make better choices when it comes time to buy your equipment and start shooting and stitching. For the absolute beginner, 4 stars.

This book covers much software, for both Windows and Macintosh, quite thoroughly in terms of its operation (however, software development cycles will probably soon render this section of the book out-of-date). However, for Mac users, it omits the software from Click Here Design.

If you've already shot a few panoramas, even bad ones, this book will offer you little benefit (2 stars). Case in point: I use "VR Worx 2.6" and feel that software's manual provides almost as much information as this book, which in fact covers "VR Worx 2.5." I was looking for tips, techniques, ideas, and examples when I bought this book, but that's not really what I found in it.

I sincerely wish Corinna Jacobs had tried a bit harder or had a different publisher and editor because this book could have been a classic.

Jacobs attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of digital panoramic photography. Unfortunately that's precisely what she does. The book is long on overview, some of it of no interest to the average photographer. The sections on $20,000 panoramic imaging systems could easily have been eliminated. Where she describes techniques of panoramic photography and, more importantly, putting the panorama together, the sparsity of detail takes it toll. In the end there is littl, if any, information here that you couldn't find on the web or in the Help files that accompany the stitching software she speaks of.

While "Interactive Panoramas" could serve as a passable reference manual, the price of over $50 rules this out. I would pay not more than $25 for this book and even that would be a stretch. I suspect this book is intended as a college text: my heart goes out to those who are forced to expend their limited budgets on this book.

Hopefully, Ms. Jacobs will find the opportunity to expound on the subject for O'Reilly or another publisher with a different, better attitude toward the reader. I am sure she knows the subject and has much valuable insight to impart: but it just doesn't happen in "Interactive Panoramas."

Jerry

An excellent book if you want to learn how to work with Photoshop Lightroom.
No frills, no ego's from the writer interfering with the information. Just plain information how the programm works. Clear explanations, following the workflow.
Just what I needed.
Four stars due to the principle that things are not perfect, because it is made by humans.

I am a self-taught Photoshop hack. First started using it when version 3 came out (on a TON of 3.5 floppy disks). I have been able to use it enough to generate/ edit web images, scan prints, etc. It is grossly overpowered for what I use it for, but it's all I know and the company I work for is willing to pay for it. I am equally inept in my photographic workflow processes. I just take pictures, use my limited knowledge of Photoshop to get them to a point where I like the finished product, and go on my merry way. Until now.

Managing Your Photographic Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom is helping change my bad habits. Originally written to cover Lightroom 1.2, the processes are still applicable to 1.41, the latest version I am using. I had seen Lightroom and sort of dismissed it as just more $$ to spend until I started reading this book. Managing Your Photographic Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom has given me insight into using the tools contained in Lightroom and how using them will affect my images. At just over 200 pages, this book is full of images and practical examples. I used to edit my images exclusively in Photoshop. Now I do most of my post processing in Lightroom, exporting the results to be uploaded into flickr, iStockphoto, or burned to CD. I doubt I would have changed my habits were it not for this book. Needless to say, it is highly recommended if you have been curious about using Lightroom.

I completely disagree with the positive feedbacks regarding this book for a variety of reasons. I took it fascinated by the "covers Version 1.2" note, thus suggesting a specialized "version 1.2" text, a most current book of them all, an advanced insider instruction to Lightroom. The dilemma about Lightroom is that it keeps changing from version to version. Users of this program know about its immaturity and stability issues. "Version 1.2" really sells in such conditions.

Another reason to pick this book was that I like to read the essays from Outback Photo and the FotoEspresso Online Magazine by the same author. But the reality with this particular book is different:

1) Too short to really provide any add-on value to the standard Adobe's manual, and to the many web-zines. 200 pages, minus approx 50 *not* about Lightroom at all, make this book too short to cover any advanced issues in the 5 main modules of Lightroom. This book is virtually just as brief and insufficient, as is the PDF file provided with the Lightroom by Adobe.

2) Tries to please everybody at the risk of not satisfying anybody, to quote the great Donald Knuth from one of his forewords. For example, do you really need to buy a specialized "version 1.2" Lightroom book to learn about what is a Jpeg and what is a RAW file? Yes, its true! This thin booklet spends a few pages to tell you revelations that Jpeg has different levels of compressions, and, yes, you guess it: You should use the lowest compression for highest quality.

3) Digresses into usage of other software and/or hardware. Do you really need whopping 3 full pages with screen shots from a Huey screen calibration software? No, you surely do not need that, a product flyer and a self guiding menu will do it! Besides, Huey is only one possibility. We have also all the "Spiders" and several more. In any case, I would rather be using the manual provided with the device instead of buying an extra book about something else, to look into it for another copy of a hardware gadget manual. I use Huey, its fantastic. And trust me, the menu is self guiding. You ought to press the Next button and proceed with the instructions. These 3 pages 191-193 in this book should be better devoted to Lightroom.

4) Poor print quality. It is really kind of difficult to talk about color, and look at the pale faded looking print by rokynook press. These images look like projected through a light gray filter.

5) Instructions seem to be very MacIntosh oriented, thus not attracting the vast majority of users, who are rather likely to use Windows and see completely different Lightroom menus. Its basic statistics...

I am at peace with author attempt to describe the workflow between Lightroom and Lightzone (8 pages), but this shows even more how few information is about Lightroom 1.2 per se. Do you need more examples of "not to the topic"? Have you seen compact flash cards in a box? Jeez, now you can! Have you seen a card reader? Now you can too.

One puzzling thing about Lightoom are its color curves. I am a seasoned computer scientist with a PhD, I do photograph for 30 years, and yet I fail to make any use of them based on information and instructions provided so far. I would rather be still using RawShooter, but Adobe bought and shut it down to "assimilate" its user base for Lightroom. A look into Adobe's forums shows just how many people are confused, if not lost in Lightroom's baroque interface, shuttered by bugs, malfunctions and poor performance. Such program needs instructions of more experienced photographers, who maybe stand in direct contact with Adobe development team and can explain what the manual and own experiments fail to provide.

Would you believe that the ENTIRE set of development operations, what includes these dreaded tone curves, is covered on mere 32 pages (pages 78 to 111, chapter 4.) Can we really learn anything new but to see another enumeration of menus and sliders in such a brief description?

Example: Split toning, half page 98. ..."split toning can also be (mis)used to reduce the blue cast of your shadows." Excellent, I am excited! Lets see it, lets learn!! Oops, there are no instructions, no lesson of just how to (mis)use the split toning to work on the blue shadows... This was it! Authors said "it can be used" and that was it. This is the KIND OF VALUE PROVIDED BY THIS BOOK. I am sorry, this does not do it.

My recommendation is to take rather Mikkel Aaland's book, what is clearly my favorite among the otherwise hastily thrown books about Lightroom.

I have only Scott Kelby book to compare with Juergen Gulbins and Uwe Steinmuller book. Both have their advantages. Managing Your Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom is a simple with book with straight forward easy to follow examples. Kelby book has mare examples for advance uses of Lightroom. Workflow makes a good reference book to use for every day use. Kelby book gives good advance step by step procedures for different images.

I will continue to use both. Like most of Kelby books his humor detracts from the information. Maybe he should write a joke book.

I get tired of Scott Kelby's humor but at least his books are readable, and useful. This book, well, I suppose all the information is there but I kept drifting off from the dull text and even duller PC-inspired graphics (they could at least use Mac screen grabs). I think the front cove pretty much sums up the book.

It looks and reads like your basic college text book. It's going back