Lightroom 5 book

[angilee]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question regarding Lightroom 5. Can anyone recommend a good tutorial book I could buy for learning to use it

Thanks

Angilee

[Shadowman]

Scott Kelby's Lightroom 5 book for digital photographers.

[Downrigger]

I have Scot Kelby's "The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom book for digital photographers". It is a bit encyclopedic, but reasonably clear and well-organized, and I use it as a reference for particular issues or questions that arise, or sometimes I browse it to see if I can pick up something interesting to add to my armamentarium.

I learned Lightroom by fooling around with it in the context of watching tutorial videos. Scott Kelby has some, there is a pretty complete curriculum here: http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-lightroom-5/
I found to video tutorials by Julianne Kost somehow very clear and helpful: http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/lightroom-training-videos.
You can watch the video tutorials - see a skill - pause the video and switch to your lightroom and practice/mess-with the skill and then return for more video. It really seemed to me much more efficient that reading and then attempting to execute what I had read.

Be aware, there are two separately very important fields of learning with Lightroom: First, the essential and unique strength of lightroom: library/catalogue functions... importing and organizing images, and second, the really fun stuff about how to bring out the best in your images and express yourself in the editing process. My learning has been sort of parallel between these two aspects of the software - I go back and forth - the photo editing is fun, the file management is essential.

As you get into this I think you will enjoy it very much!

[Macmahon]

Hi Angilee
Have a look at the little series of e-books by Andrew S Gibson which you can find on the sidebar here. These and his free "Use Lightroom Better" are the best introductory books I've ever found. If you want really in-depth stuff "The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book" by Martin Evening, and "The Digital Negative" by Jeff Schewe offer everything including the kitchen sink!
Cheers
Tim

[mknittle]

Scott Kelby's Lightroom 5 book for digital photographers.

I have had several of Scott Kelby's books. I like them better than most others I have found.

[Shadowman]

I have had several of Scott Kelby's books. I like them better than most others I have found.

Bookstore clerk described the Kelby instructional books "for photographers who want to learn editing techniques", meaning the books aren't designed to teach you photography or how to use your camera.

[Glenn NK]

I have the whole set of Martin Evening's LR books (except LR5). Also have Nat Coalson's LR3 book - he's quite good.

If I was to buy something for LR5, it would be by Martin Evening. I perused Kelby's book when I started with LR1, but found that when I went back to re-read something, the jokes in the text (which were good the first time), wore a bit thin.

The other option is to join: http://www.lightroomforums.net/forum.php

When things don't work out as they should, the people on LR Forums have the answers for the difficult aspects.

Glenn

[Andrew1]

I've looked at many of the websites and books from Kelby, Adobe, and a few others before finally settling on Martin Evening's books. I found them easier to read and use as I do for ongoing reference material. We each have varying methods of how we absorb teachings and his just work for me. You may find one of the others more suitable for you. Take a large coffee and go sit in a comfortable chair at a local bookstore with a couple of the options. Choose a few topics and review then in each of the manuals to see which one uses a style that makes the most sense to you.

[angilee]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you to all for the book suggestions...it is good to get advice from more experienced folk. I will check them all out and make a decision.

Angilee

[mknittle]

Bookstore clerk described the Kelby instructional books "for photographers who want to learn editing techniques", meaning the books aren't designed to teach you photography or how to use your camera.

Exactly. That is what I like about them. For me It works because I can get enough information to do a task and experiment from there.

[mknittle]

I've looked at many of the websites and books from Kelby, Adobe, and a few others before finally settling on Martin Evening's books. I found them easier to read and use as I do for ongoing reference material. We each have varying methods of how we absorb teachings and his just work for me. You may find one of the others more suitable for you. Take a large coffee and go sit in a comfortable chair at a local bookstore with a couple of the options. Choose a few topics and review then in each of the manuals to see which one uses a style that makes the most sense to you.

I looked at Martin Evening's book on Photoshop CC lately It also looked very good.