The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter) [Kindle Edition]

I've been using Lightroom ever since it first came out, and have upgraded to every new version. With each new incarnation of Lightroom Scott Kelby produces a new version of the Adobe Lightroom book for Digital Photographers, so of course, I buy each one as it comes out. Why? Because each new version has something the previous one didn't have, and each of Scott's books covers the new and/or improved features. However, there's much, much more to each book than simply a run-down of new features. Scott Kelby is one of those writers who is able to approach familiar subjects and give them a new spin. So although there is a considerable overlap with his previous Lightroom books (after all, it's basically the same program with improvements), he takes a fresh look at every module in Lightroom. I read it from cover to cover as soon as I received it, and realised that I hadn't been getting as much out of Lightroom as I could have done.

As usual, Scott doesn't go into the whys and wherefores of every feature; he sensibly leaves that to authors like Martin Evening, whose Lightroom and Photoshop books are packed full of technical info,which is very useful once you've mastered the basics, but daunting for the beginner and even for more experienced Lightroom/Photoshop users. Instead, Scott's approach is the same in his other books (I don't know how the guy finds time to write all those books and do all the other things he does): he talks to his readers as if he were giving them a lesson in person. He never makes assumptions about his readers' levels of knowledge, but he doesn't talk down to them either. Some readers are put off by his jokey intros to each chapter, but I enjoy them (as Scott says, they are a bit of light relief which enables the reader to clear the brain for the chapter to come) and, after all, if you don't like the intros, don't read them!

If you've used Lightroom before, you can dip into this book wherever you like, but for beginners I'd really recommend starting at the beginning - as I say, I'd used Lightroom for years and still found I learned a lot even from the chapters that cover the initial basics of Lightroom. I'd recommend it to anyone using Lightroom 4, whether beginner, intermediate, or experienced.

Oh, and by the way - Lightroom 4 itself rocks!

Scott Kelby has a sense of humour and so suits me very well indeed. He freely admits that those without one might wish to skip the preface to each chapter, which is designed to give you a break and make you smile, which it does. (For me)
The book is well laid out and whilst most of Scott's books can be dipped into, he recommends that you take the journey from front to back. Good advice, because a lot of what comes later is helped by setting Lightroom up properly in the first place.
His style is relaxed and informative, but is based on his personal experience as a photographer and he frequently gives tips on the way he personally works.
All in all a good read, as well as a technical book on Lightroom. For me it covers all the bases.

I purchased Lightroom 4 about two months ago and was impressed with the software and its capabilities. Having read the reviews of this book I decided to purchase a copy and eagerly awaited its delivery in order to try and improve my editing skills further. I agree with other comments that it is light and "chatty", but in my mind it is too light and therefore superficial in parts. It gives an extensive overview of libraries and organisation but it lacks detail on the developing, and here it often explains how but not always why. As a landscape photographer (mainly) I was looking forward to guidance on two functions/tools in particular. Firstly, the defringing tool and secondly the graduated filter. I had been playing around with the defringe settings and found I could eliminate or accentuate fringing of certain colours but I wasn't sure how I was doing it. In the book, however, chromatic aberration and defringing is relegated to two small paragraphs on page 261. Moreover, the author has reported erroneous and misleading information and instructions (e.g. there is no "all edges" function under the "manual" panel). Likewise, there is very little information on the graduated filter (p226). The author exemplifies its use with a picture of blue sky and wispy clouds - in landscape photography, you are not likely to graduate a blue sky! I had been learning how to apply multiple grad filters at different angles and at different points on the image, and to use them to selectively remove noise, sharpen, desaturate, enhance detail in shadows... Imagine my disappointment when the author gives one simple and rather inappropriate illustration of graduation. In short, this book is good as a general reference guide but, as a landscape photographer, I was found wanting and wonder whether self-teaching and use of resources on the web may have been a better option.