Kelby's Lightroom tutorial

[Shadowman]

I was considering ordering this book and found the reviews quite interesting. I currently own Kelby's Elements tuturial and found it most helpful in learning the software. I've read a few books borrowed from the library on Lightroom (only versions available so far are up to version 3) and they all seem to provide a basic understanding of the software, so perhaps Kelby's style doesn't really warrant coverage of this particular package.

http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Ligh...DateDescending

[rpcrowe]

Kelby's books are always good even though I don't like his cracked (IMO) sense of humor...

[Brownbear]

Hi John,

I have this book and it is helpful to have, and the only one I have on Lightroom. It is easy to understand and a good basic guide. It's only shortcoming for me is that it doesn't explain anything in great detail so one does not gain an understanding of the why's behind an edit. This did not bother me a few months ago, but now it does because I want to know the why behind a photo. ie; why use curves to increase contrast over the contrast tool, why and when one might decrease highlights...

But I think it is a good book, I just need a better one now.

I was considering ordering this book and found the reviews quite interesting. I currently own Kelby's Elements tuturial and found it most helpful in learning the software. I've read a few books borrowed from the library on Lightroom (only versions available so far are up to version 3) and they all seem to provide a basic understanding of the software, so perhaps Kelby's style doesn't really warrant coverage of this particular package.

http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Ligh...DateDescending

[Shadowman]

Kelby's books are always good even though I don't like his cracked (IMO) sense of humor...

Kelby's humor was a common complaint by the reviewers.

[Shadowman]

Hi John,

I have this book and it is helpful to have, and the only one I have on Lightroom. It is easy to understand and a good basic guide. It's only shortcoming for me is that it doesn't explain anything in great detail so one does not gain an understanding of the why's behind an edit. This did not bother me a few months ago, but now it does because I want to know the why behind a photo. ie; why use curves to increase contrast over the contrast tool, why and when one might decrease highlights...

But I think it is a good book, I just need a better one now.

Christina,

I'll have to give it more consideration. I'm currently using a borrowed copy of Rob Shepard's "Photoshop Lightroom-for Digital Photographers Only" and it's pretty straightforward text. One thing Shepard emphasizes is that "Lightroom is not for fixing mistakes or a replacement for Photoshop, it's for organizing digital images to make them more accessible, processing them quickly, and then getting them to an audience through slide shows, prints, or Web galleries (and of course image files).

In my brief experience with Lightroom, processing them quickly has not occurred yet.

[DanK]

I agree with Christina. I started with Kelby's book and found it useful, but it does not go into much detail at all. It's a useful place to start, if you are starting from zero, but not much more than that. There is much more detail, for example, in Adobe's free videos. I never go back to Kelby's book to look something up.

One thing Shepard emphasizes is that "Lightroom is not for fixing mistakes or a replacement for Photoshop, it's for organizing digital images to make them more accessible, processing them quickly, and then getting them to an audience through slide shows, prints, or Web galleries (and of course image files).

I really can't understand this sort of argument. We had it in a stronger form recently when someone said that "Lightroom is not an editor." Lightroom has evolved into a very powerful editing tool, even though there are still many things that Photoshop can do that Lightroom can't. I now use Photoshop so rarely that I keep forgetting how to do things in it.

Using instructions from LR 3 would be a bit of a problem because the tonality adjustments were changed dramatically in version 4.