Explore Lightroom 4: A Roadmap for Photographers 1st Edition

chock full of useful and innovative information.

I have been searching for two years for a book that covers light room 4 thoroughly. Most other books are a story by the author of how they use light room. They are very helpful unless you want to know something specific. Books like missing manual and light room fax are very helpful if they have the answers to the right questions.I have never given a five before, but this book really deserves it. It is incredibly thorough and easy to read.Since I've been using light room for two years I was really looking for a book that cover the subject well. Especially a book that focused on organizing your pictures and importing and exporting photos.I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has been using light room, and can't get the right answers from the first light room book they bought.

Lightroom is a fantastic software product that has a complicated catalog system. Until (or IF) you understand it. This entire book is devoted to the catalog system (I think because I'm lost in the catalog and gave up tiring to understand it (It the book and the cataloug) - I wish I was smart I aint- PLEASE someone show me to the back of my hand, the dang catalog IS (simply) the hardest part of the program to understand. Forget this book because Lightroom 5 is a better product and just watch you tube for the catalog fuss up.

This book is really only half a book. The first part of the book, which deals primarily with the Library Module of Lightroom 4, is included in the printed document. The second half of the book which may contain everything else about Lightroom 4 must be downloaded from the publisher's web site.In the first half of the book, the author writes in great detail about each and every aspect of the first module of Lightroom, called the Library. He describes every control over the software. I'd never heard of some of the ways he suggested for controlling Lightroom. This may be the definitive book on the Library module.The second half of the book has to be retrieved from the publisher's web site in what may be the largest PDF file I've ever downloaded. It's difficult to find one's way around, since there is no table of contents and even the book mark links in Adobe Reader just indicate page numbers. But perhaps it's just as well because the information contained in the second half of the book really gives short shrift to instruction. Because the actual adjustment of RAW files is one of the most important functions in Lightroom, I was interested in McCullagh's explanation. With no table of contents, I turned to the index for help in finding the applicable information but there was not even a reference to the Exposure slider, which is one of the tools in the basic panel. When I finally found Exposure with the Adobe Reader search tool, a single short paragraph covered exposure, highlights, shadows, blacks and whites. After a similar search for printing, I found what was essentially an abbreviated description of the print module.In the printed half of this book, the author's descriptions of the Library functions were quite good, showing many seldom discussed Lightroom facilities. On the other hand, while there were plenty of illustrations there were no tutorials. An experienced user might pick up some new ways of accomplishing a task in the Library and might even find this a useful reference for that module. It's too bad that the author didn't apply the same methods to the second half of the book. On the other hand, a novice may be completely overwhelmed by the paper text. No one can conveniently use the on-line portion of the book.

Let me say that both the book and the customer service from the publisher make my experience much worse than the reviewer calling this half a book.First of all, the fact that the print copy is only partial is true. Although the publisher's information on the book lists 17 chapters, only 11 are actually included. At the end of the Table of Contents is an information box referring the reader to a web site where the remainder of the book can be downloaded. There is no link at the web site to do that. I have talked to their customer service twice, and although both times the individuals involved were pleasant and tried to help, they do not have access to any information indicating that a portion of the book is not included in the bound copy, or what can be done to obtain the balance.This is obviously frustrating on many levels. The portion of the book that was included is actually very well written and the author is obviously very knowledgeable on the subject. In general the book is well illustrated, although there are some illustrations where the contrast of the menu bars is so limited that the detail cannot be read. The editing is spotty in a few places, with the text referring to illustrations or highlights of illustrations that do not exist.It appears that at some point a decision was made to push a half-completed effort into print, leaving the reader shorted and with no recourse, other than posting a negative review to save others from this fate.

Let me start by saying that the author has a very enjoyable and succinct style and his coverage of the Library Module within LightRoom is excellent, hence the one star rating. That said, this book is misleadingly described as covering all aspects of LightRoom in actuality only the first two parts covering the Library module are contained within the book itself. In order to read about the other principal module within LightRoom,Develop, which is covered in Parts 3 & 4 you must go to the publisher's web site to access those. None of Parts 3&4 are included in the book itself. You are only advised of this fact at the end of the book's Contents page which refers you to their web site.I have returned the book. If I wish to receive content on the internet then I will choose to do so. If I wish to be old fashioned and take my information from books then I expect the book to be whole and complete and not have to access half of it on the internet. I definitely don't want a publisher making that decision for me and at my expense.