Black and White in Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom: Create Stunning Images in Photoshop CS4, Photoshop Lightroom, and beyond: Create Stunning Images in ... CS4, Photoshop Lightroom, and Beyond [Paperback]

I heard about this book on Photoshop User TV (I can't remember which episode), and it was one of those moments of serendipity: I was experimenting with black and white, and this seemed like a good way to replace luck with judgement. Could the authors pull that trick off?
The book's title suggests that it is specific to Photoshop CS4, but actually it's relevant to CS3 users too. (I'm still with CS3.) In broad terms the book starts with a large amount of background theory and history, which leads into practical advice on how to use Photoshop and Lightroom to turn colour digital images into black and white photographs with impact.
The theory and the history is gathered together into a prologue of about 18 pages. From what I can tell, the purpose of this section is to encourage the reader to think about the what before she thinks about the how. By that I mean, this is more about the philosophy of what you as a photographer/artist are trying to achieve rather than the nuts and bolts of what you can do with a particular slider in Photoshop or Lightroom.
Some people will love this, but others will find it rather heavy going. The authors understand that they are exploring a complex area, and believe they have succeeded in simplifying it through (for example) the use of metaphor. Of course what is a gross simplification to experts in a field can still be perplexing to the lay person.
The highlight of the introductory section for me was "Seeing in Black and White", because it was the first section that offered something that I could directly apply. Still nothing about PHotoshop and Lightroom, but plenty about how to take better photographs that are suitable for transformation into black and white. For me this is key, because software can help turn a good photograph into a great one, but it can't raise the dead. If the original material is sterile, then nothing can be done.
Chapter 1 discusses why colour space is important to black and white imaging. We're still not doing anything to photographs, but we are finding out that the environment within which we work is important. It turns out that there are many ways of representing colour, and that colour itself can depend on the environment you view it within. When you process images you need to understand the environment within which you are working, and also the environment within which they will be displayed.
Chapter 2 discusses how to get the best image as starting material. It talks about using RAW format to capture as much information as possible, and getting the right exposure. There's a really good section on reading histograms, and a section on scanning. I don't scan in photos, so I skipped over it. The chapter finishes with a section on dealing with noise.
Chapter 3 explores the Lightroom user interface, and how it integrates into Photoshop, and it is in chapters 4 to 7 that we finally engage with the business of creating black and white images. These chapters are really well done, and I felt that I learnt a lot about what techniques to use in different situations. I tried out all of the techniques, and at the moment my favoured way of doing conversions is to use Lightroom. You can see the results of my experiments at http://bit.ly/covent.
So how do I feel about this book? It's not for the faint hearted, but it's worth the effort. It reads like a textbook in places, which might put some off. I think I'd add an example tutorial at the start of the book as a teaser. I think this would give readers a hint of what they will learn if they persevere. Make no mistake, anyone who goes the distance will learn a lot. If I were to score this book for content alone, it would be a 4 or a 5, but I think the authors need to revisit making it accessible. Perhaps interweaving theory and practice would be a way forward. With regret I gave it a 3, because I don't think many people will read all of it. If you really want to learn, you should though.

Ignore the last review. The book has something that can benefit all photographers with varying levels of skill and experience. Good explanations and well put together in my opinion. Would recommended.