Still working my way through this superb tutorial but with the "work on" photos it is easy to follow and see the changes etc. that are described. There is so much information that going back to find something might be a problem. I am already using "post-it" notes to identify parts of the book that I know I will need in the future -- at least until I am familiar with the program. I shall certainly be looking to see if I can make use other Scott Kelby books to improve my photographic experience.

If your into digital image editing before you use Lightroom 2 you need to read this wonderful book by Scott Kelby. He shows you all imaging editing steps that Lightroom 2 can do. It would be almost impossible to learn all the nuances of this software without reading this detailed book.

I have a lot of respect for Scott Kelby. He strikes me as an honest, earnest guy who is truly intent on helping people as he also makes a few bucks with seminars, books, associations and a variety of other moneymaking enterprises. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, there is much that is laudable.

Kelby researches his subjects and, over the years, he has become a better writer. If only he didn't try to be a comedian as well - but I've learned to skip over his lame attempts at humor. Yes, I know, some people like his attempted jokes: I don't.

I do like his approach for learning the basics of a program, in this case Adobe Photoshop Lightroom2.

Kelby takes you by the hand and walks you through the program, baby step by baby step. It's a great way to learn the basics of a new application, especially one that could be very confusing, such as Lightroom2. Kelby gets you through the basics and little beyond without inflicting pain. It is a good approach and Kelby does it well.

Kelby begins at the beginning (importing your photos), moves into the next logical step of organizing your photos. (Remember, Lightroom2 is at heart a workflow management program.) He then takes a little diversion into customizing your workspace. Chapters 4 through 6 deal with editing, adjusting and correcting images. The rest of the book deals with exporting images, creating slideshows, deciding when to invoke Photoshop and a variety of other topics such as printing and building online photo galleries. Kelby includes two chapters on workflow, one for location portraits and the other for travel. These two chapters are gems because they give you real life examples of how Lightroom2 should be deployed.

Overall, an excellent book and a great introduction to Lightroom2, despite the (in my opinion) lame jokes.

Jerry

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 book for digital photographers, by Scott Kelby. Book is easy to follow, able to jump from area to of the book to another for me is great. Following the information presented and trying it I had no problem. Learned alot from the book and still learning.

I have a couple of other books writtin by Scott Kelby and all are very informative from the ground up. This books begins with the basics of loading Light Room 2 (LR2), to setting up the 'behind the scenes' working operations of LR2. Scott continues with setting up each stage: Library, Develop, Slide Show, Print and Web.

There are snapshots of the screen as he progresses through the steps that show the highlights the icons that are used. The only problem is the font is very small to read for those with an issue with fine print, but you can tell by the areas circled in red, where he's pointing.

I paired this book with LR2 written by Martin Evening. Some areas are repetitive, but where Scott glides over, Martin has a more in depth approach and Martin's layout of the screen shots includes texted highlights.

All in all Scott's book is a keeper and great reference material. I rated it five for because it covers the entire LR2 process to get you started on the right track.

This book is very helpful getting you started in Lightroom. It's easy to understand and use.

I think this is an outstanding resource. I am still in the midst of reading it, but there is so much information in this guide helping you learn how to make the most of Lightroom. From learning the keystrokes that make your workflow more efficient to understanding the best ways to correct your images in Lightroom, Kelby uses practical examples to help you understand the tools that Lightroom offers. I would definitely recommend the book.

I purchased a few books to help me with using Lightroom, but this one is by far my "Go To" book when I have a question about Lightroom. This is the first one I reach for and the only one I really need. I enjoy Kelby's style of writing and the easy way he explains things. It is thorough and comprejhensive. This is the one and only book you need to understand LR.

Very comprehensive, yet a with sensible organization. Written in a "down to earth" style that makes it more like a conversation with a friend rather than a reference book. That makes some of the drudgery parts of Lightroom more fun. Illustrations are many and relevant.
Scott Kelby is a knowledgeable and effective author. Good job.

I purchased this book knowing Kelly's writing style from previous books and wanting a baseline understanding for what a new user must know to get Lightroom (LR) up and running. Written for version 2.0, I found the differences between LR versions 2.0 and 2.5 to be minimal and thus this book met all expectations. I was moving over 15,000 images into LR and setting the program up correctly to incorporate this library was easily accomplished using Kelby's first few chapters. This book, coupled with the videos by Chris Orwig ([...]) provided a sound understanding of the program. If you are just getting started with LR, these two sources together will provide the information to generate an efficient workflow and maximize the utility of LR in cataloging and processing images. Kelby's book still sits on my desk and is filled with page markers for quick reference, much like his other books on Photoshop that sit above my desk.

The step by step from start to finish is great. And the book size is great as it is wide and able to spread on the desk while learning in lightroom 2 on your PC / MAC. That is one of the great things about this book as some books are just hard to hold and keep open while learning steps.

Scott Kelby is probably the best teacher of Photoshop and related items I have ever seen. This book is clear and concise. If you want to learn lightroom at your speed this is the way to do it.

I bought this book based on recommendations on Amazon. I'd been looking around for classes on this tool, thinking a book couldn't do the software justice, but I gave the book a shot anyway. I've been following the lessons using my own photos and with just a few evenings' practice I'm seeing dramatic improvements in my workflow and resulting photos. Lightroom is no longer this mysterious widget-filled tool. I know what all the sliders do. I've memorized and use a bunch of the shortcut keys. I know how to add punch to my photos. All this and I'm less than halfway through the book! Thank you Scott for opening up a new chapter in my photography.

It has taught me so much, and it shows you stuff you wouldn't find out on your own. The tips are invaluable.

10/10

I really liked Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS3 for Photographers. This Lightroom2 book is really confusing. He tells you things that you can do and than tells you not to do them. A lot of contradicting information from a great author. You seem really confused through out the first four chapters. The first four chapters you have to import your own photos, this creates problems. It is kind of hard to stay consistent and establish a workflow this way. So far, I am disappointed in this book. I would give this book a D+/C- for a lightroom2 education source. I hope the next version is better.

I was a new Lightroom user when I bought this book, and it has been just the right depth and amount of content. Prior to buying this I watched the video tutorials on Kelby's Learning site. Those are well done but for me it's much beter to have a book to grab while you are working with the program. I'm only using the basic capabilities so far, but know when I need more the book will get me started. There is a huge amount of additional learning material on Adobe's site (many short videos on specific topics)for additional instruction - those are free by the way. My previous experience is with Photoshop Elements, I'm not a power user of photo software.

Scott Kelby does a good job of clearly illustrating a step-by-step approach the critical steps in your digital workflow. Instead of simply documenting Lightroom's features as other guides do, he takes the approach of showing you how to *use* Lightroom to accomplish particular tasks - more like a tutorial.

For example, Lightroom can automatically convert your images to black-and-white. But Scott uses that only as the beginning step, and gives you detailed instructions on not only how he made his image better but how you can make your particular B&W image really pop, too.

He tells you what works, what doesn't, what's really cool about Lightroom, what still needs work, what's the best method to do almost anything, and most importantly, has screen shots of everything so you can see the results of each step (the entire book is full color). The final chapters are useful in that he takes all the topics covered in the book so far and shows you how he uses them in real-life situations.

I've owned or read a few Lightroom books - this is the one that sits on my desk all dog-eared and torn from constant use.

Scott Kelby humor complainers, build a bridge and get over it! I hear so many people complain about Scott's goofy sense of humor but I've only noticed it in the Chapter intros which he forewarns everyone in the Book's Introduction - so you have a half page of goofy and a chapter filled of experience filled shared knowledge. The screen captures of each step remain so helpful.
This is a great learning tool. Almost anyone can go in and eventually figure out how to tweek images in Lightroom's Develop section but Scott shows you the shortcuts, tips and other tools that may not be so obvious.
However, until I read portions of this book, I was lost when it came to the Catalog, importing and using the other parts of Lightroom. If you have a website, there are good chapters on utilizing Lightroom's web ready tools.
I really like how Scott reveals the tools in Lightroom's Library as he shares his workflow.

This book of goodness is broken down into 14 chapters. Starting with chapter 1 "Getting your photos into Photoshop Lightroom" & ending with chapter 14 "Mr. Kelby's step by step travel photography process" Or is it? Could Mr Kelby have a secret chapter for us about wedding photographers somewhere? Hmmm, guess you'll just have to buy the book to find out. ? At the end of each chapter you will find a page or two of Lightroom Quick Tips. Like, how to fix white balance on the fly when shooting tethered. Or using separate catalogs to make Lightroom faster! Not to mention all the keyboard shortcuts that this book is full of. I will not be going though every chapter. Not that I couldn't mind you, but with 14 plus chapters it would take everyone 2 days to read my review. So I am just gonna go though some of the chapters that gave me a SHAZAM Moment that sent me running to twitter to share what I had discovered with the rest of the world.

The first thing I noticed is that there are a couple of pages before chapter 1 that are a must read. You'll have to read them to find out the rest. (heh, yes I am starting already.)

The next thing I noticed was that the top of the book is laid out like you were inside Lightroom itself. I thought that was a neat effect and very Kelby style until I started flipping though the book and realized that it was more then an effect! It is how the book is laid out too. He has corresponded the chapters with each module in the same order that they are set up in Lightroom! Man, you guys just don't know how much I really appreciated that. It helped me to organize my workflow which helps to break the bad of habits of jumping all over the place, which in turn saves you a lot of time in the end. Thank you Mr. Kelby!!

If you're new to Lightroom, chapter one is where it is at. Ok, so all the chapters in this book is where it is at. However, chapter one is going to help you get your images into Lightroom not only the right way, but the easy way. He will help you with where to store them, how to organize your folder, how to choose preferences for importing them and a lot more.

Chapter two is about organizing your images. Keep in mind that in chapter one he showed us how to organize the folder; here he shows us how to organize our images with in the folder/folders. I don't think the man left anything out of this chapter. It is 33 pages of nothing but organizing make your life easier detail love from Mr. Kelby to us! From viewing your imported photos to relinking missing photos. In this chapter he show us how to "get Lightroom out of the way" I loved pages 43-53. "Sorting your imported photos using collections." Yeah, sorry, that is really all I am gonna say about it.

I can not stress enough how essential this chapter is. Please do not skip it because you want to immediately jump into dodging & burning or something you think is much more fun or you just have to know it now. You're not going to have much fun if 3 months from now or 50 gigs of images later and you can't find what you're looking for! Let Mr. Kelby show you how to set up different catalogs that will suite YOUR needs. A work catalog. A family catalog, a wildlife catalog, & so on. Like Mr Kelby says and I quote. "The advantage is it keeps your database "lean & mean" and running at top speed, rather then having one huge database for every photo you've ever taken." See, see! I just saw several of you sit up & go Shazam! How does he know what my computer hard drive looks like? I am telling you guys, this is a must read chapter!

To me Lightroom is a lot easier to learn then Camera Raw. Don't ask me why. All I know is that it hates me and I believe it to be an evil that was spawned by the devil! But that is neither here or there. To successfully use any software and come away with the results you want and need, one must establish a good foundation of the software they work with. I believe that Mr. Kelby puts us on the right path to creating a good, strong, solid foundation within Lightroom in these first three chapters that will stand us in good stead for many years to come.

What can I say about Chapter 4, 5, & 6? Freaking great? Rocked my world? A lot of OMG's going on? How about all 3 and then some! These 3 chapters were major eye openers for me. I am surrounded by a lot of pro photog and I hear get it right in the camera a lot (which is good advice). I also hear, if you take it into Photoshop or Lightroom it is not consider a "image per say any more" because more or less you have doctored the image with a software program. So at first I was just taking them into Lightroom and doing hardly anything to them. Not even changing the white balance. I would check the exposure to make sure it was blowned out anywhere and then use the recovery slider if it was. Some I might have used the sharping slider a tad. I was trying not to cheat as I thought of it. But shoot fire; do you know how hard it is to shoot a perfect image when you're just starting out? Ha! You can't!

In chapter 4-6 Mr. Kelby made me realize that it is OK if my image aren't perfect. That it is ok to move the sliders over 85% if it is needed! I am aloud to add a deep vignette or just tweak the hue and leave the saturation alone. It is ok to play with ever slider in the Develop module if you want or need to. Gasp! Here I was so worried about messing this them to much that I wasn't doing enough to draw out the real beauty of my images. Is your sky not blue enough but the rest of image is great? Well Mr. Kelby will show you how to take care of this with out effecting anything else in the image. Sweet, right?

I thought page 190 "Reducing Noise" ROCKED! I now know what type of noise goes with the Luminance slider and what noise I need to use the color slider on. Before, I was trying to use both sliders at the same time. There is no need to over work these sliders if you understand what kind of noise you are correcting to begin with. Nuff said!

My all time favorite chapter? Chapter 9 "Gorgeous B&W" Hubba, Hubba! I don't care if you have to use your BBQ Apron, or one of your children's "Daddy's little princess" bib. Just do NOT start this chapter without some kind of protection! Because, this is a drool alert chapter... I love how he shows us how to achieve blacks so deep that the only place it should be legal is on a freshly buffed 57 Chevy! Did you know that not every image will look good as a B&W? Yeah, me either. However, thanks to Mr. Kelby I now know how to check my images to see which ones have promise. Just like in chapter 4-6 he shows us how to add depth and dimension to our B&W images.

I had no idea what duotones were till I got this book. All I can say is thank goodness I hadn't removed my bib yet! We are talking about taking an image and turning it into a piece of art, and it is so easy to do if you let Mr. Kelby show you the way!

Ok guys, I think by now you get the gist of this review and which way I am leaning. I wish I could keep going because there really is so much more to this book then the little bit I have shared with you. So just let me say this. Mr. Kelby doesn't miss a beat with this book. I really can't see anything that he has missed or left me going "but how do you do this?" He even covers plug-ins to auto upload to Flickr! All this time, I've been exporting to Photoshop shrinking the image size & DPI and then uploading to Flickr. Jeesh!

I really don't understand how the man was able to pack so much information in to 400 pages but thankfully for us he did. It is really one of those books that you will have to go though at least twice and maybe even 3 times. Not because you won't understand what you're reading, but because he has jam packed it so full of information that you just won't remember everything from one reading.

You definitely get your money worth with this book. To be honest, the book pays for itself in chapter 2 as far as I am concern. All the chapters after that is just one big bonus that made me a very happy camper! This is another book that will not leave my desk. I reach for it every day and it has to yet leave me hanging.

I am a amateur photographer, who just bought a decent digital SLR and Lightroom 2. I must say this book is very easy to read, provides exercise photos to download and try all the Lightroom tools directly on the pictures used in the book. Each single aspect of Lightroom is explained in an easy-to-understand fashion. For me this book is simply superb.

WOW! Another home run for Scott. If you want to learn Lightroom from a photographer's point-of-view, this is THE book. It is not a book to jump from one item to another; this one you sit with highlighter and pen in hand and make notes from START to END. Scott alerts the reader upfront that this book is something you read IN ORDER and not bounce around. After reading, it becomes (in my opinion) the "MISSING MANUAL" of Lightroom. Peppered with humor and always a "seventh-inning stretch" between chapters, this book keeps you informed, educated, and coming back for more. If you are learning Lightroom, as I am, my strong suggestion is that you thoroughly digest the first four chapters even before you open the application! Then go back and re-read your notes. It will be a resource you'll treasure throughout your Lightroom use.

I've been walking reading and using Scott Kelby's The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers and am amazed at how easy Kelby makes things seem.

The book is the ONLY book I'd recommend for Lightroom 2. It walks you through everything you'll ever need to use in Lightroom 2 and provides screenshots for darn near every step.

It's the perfect book for anyone wanting to learn Lightroom 2. Not only does it provide step-by-step guidelines for using LR2, it also provides tips and tricks for setting to the tool up to make workflow easier.

High Recommended!

This book is set up as a series of tutorials/walkthroughs, and at this it does a very good job. I also like S. Kelby's humor (the "black clothes" one is so funny and true).
The problem is that not all features in LR are suitable to be taught with a tutorial. Because of this, many features/controls are left out, or are talked about who knows where in some of the many step-by-step procedures. They are just not in one plce, easy to find, and to grasp.
What I needed, after learning all the basic procedures/features, was a book with a very comprehensive index that would address specific features and suggest workflow ideas.
I still have the Kelby book but I ended up buying the Martin Evening "PS LR2 book". It's much better, and much bigger (in this case the size of a book may tell you something about how much material is covered).
Before I finish this review, I want to give you an example of what I meant above:
I wanted to know all the features and uses of the image retouching module (top right in the develop module). Well, in the Kelby's book this is treated as part of a few step-by-step tutorials on
how to achieve certain effects. In the Evening book there is a 10 or so page section that talks and show all about these tools, with screen-shots to show exactly what happens when you do something. Furthermore, Evening also shows some workflow examples where he uses these tools.
Pros: very clear and easy to follow, very appropriate for a beginner.
Cons: not comprehensive for the more curious/advanced user; leaves out a wealth of information about metadata, workflow, and lacks specific sections that address single features in detail.

I had no experience with Lightroom, and was not anxious to move out of my comfort zone (Photoshop Elements 5.0, shooting jpg files), but when I received the software as a gift with instructions to shoot my photos in RAW, I decided to take the plunge. And now I just LOVE Lightroom.

This book was incredibly easy to use, the instructions were clear and the images helpful. I had the book open right next to me as I opened the software program, imported pictures and started to process them. It really is like having a friend right next to you, "first do this, then do this, then do this, and last, do this", as opposed to a reference book "Mmmm. Let me look up the chapter on importing pictures. Okay, now let me look up the section on Basic Settings. Okay, now let me look up the section about how to turn on the brushes."

I am sure I will eventually purchase a comprehensive reference type book, because I am dying to learn everything there is to know about Lightroom, but for getting started right away, with some very pleasing results, this Kelby book is outstanding.

Like most of Scott's offerings he does a good job with his book "Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers". The problem is it just didn't work for me. I did learn a few things about Lightroom 2, but in the end I was disappointed with my purchase. I had been looking for something to speed my workflow through Lightroom by suggesting a logical path of steps, giving some good tips, and then getting out of my way.

I was still shopping around when I found Nathaniel Coalson's book Lightroom 2: Streamlining your Digital Photography Process. This was the book I was looking for. Nathaniel sets out to give you the tools to carry out your vision, streamline your workflow and then gets out of your way. Perfect.

Both these books provide the basics of using Lightroom 2 - there is no arguing that. What is different is how one book gives you recipes and formulas while the other gives you a strong foundation for building your workflow. Here are some key differences in the two books that I feel make Nathaniel's offering stronger than Scott's.

Nathaniel's book is laid out in classic form - text interspersed with graphic examples. Shortcuts, tips, warnings and reminders are all identified by small graphic symbols in the main body of text. Scott has put his graphic examples front and center. This forces his text to the margins of the page in smaller font which I found harder to read and, more importantly, harder to skim when looking for an answer.

Scott's book walks you through the basic Lightroom 2 commands in a step-by-step fashion. If you are fairly new to computers or have never used Lightroom you might prefer his book. On the other hand Nathaniel does a very good job explaining image capture basics, presents the logical steps you'll follow from importing your images to processing them and starts you thinking about the end goals you have for your images. If you've used computers before or have tinkered with the Lightroom 2 program Nathaniel will get you on task faster.

This brings me to one of the more important differences between the books. One of the most powerful aspects of Lightroom is its ability to help manage images, acting as both an image processor and DAM (Digital Asset Management) tool. Managing a large number of images requires a well thought out workflow - something simple yet consistent that we can shape to our particular needs. Nathaniel provides this in early on in his book and, even better, continues to refer back to it. This helps in showing you how all the pieces fit together.

Both books cover the basics of Lightroom 2 while giving you slightly different extras. Nathaniel shows how to change the default quick collection while Scott covers HDR a little more in-depth; Scott has 4 pages on split-tones while Nathaniel shows you different options for your crop screen. These books will become references for you as you discover all that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 has to offer. The difference, in my opinion, is that Scott shows you how to use Lightroom 2 while Nathaniel teaches you - a subtle difference but, in my book, worth every penny.

The Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers is a straight foreward explanation of the workings of the Lightroom 2 software. Scott Kelby takes you step-by-step through the sometimes complicated digital photography process in a light hearted and understandable way. This book should be bundled with the software.

Before I continue my review, I would just like to say I am a NAPP member and watch Photoshop User TV every week. I wouldn't call myself a fan of Scott Kelby (SK), but I value his experience, knowledge and opinion as a professional photographer and design professional. Does this make me bias? Perhaps, but I'll try to give as objective a review as I can:

Having owned one of SK's other books (7-point system), I felt confident this book would provide as much insight as that one did (at one point I contemplated buying Martin Evening's book, and I still might). I am completely new to Lightroom. Prior to reading this book I had never used the program, however I am familiar with its features and capabilities. After finishing this book I felt LR wasn't as threatening or complex as I had originally thought.

I thought the book flowed very well, similar to the interface of LR (Gallery-->Develop, etc). It started out with importing photos and ended with the web galleries. The layout of the book itself made it easy to read. I found myself going through it fairly fast. I enjoyed the extra tips and tricks sprinkled throughout the chapters. I am a keyboard shortcut junky, and I thought SK did a fine job of mentioning those whenever relevant. I am a PC user, and I thought he did a great job of covering the differences in using certain features between Mac/PC users (ie preset locations, preferences).

I do all of my Photoshop/design work on a laptop, so the chapter at the end about SK's travel workflow was of particular interest to me. I continue to reference the book whenever I get stuck or forget how to do something. I really can't think of something I did not like. I know some people find SK's humor a little bland, but it doesn't bother me and can be refreshing sometimes.

If there was one thing I wish could've been added, it would be information about integration with 3rd party software, like Nik, OnOne or SlideShow Pro. I'm sure that's not SK's territory, but I think it would be worthwhile for those companies to maybe submit a chapter or two to help promote their products.

All in all I am very satisfied with the book and would highly recommend it to anyone regardless of skill level.

Like his book on Elements this is an excellent book. He gives so many helpful hints that I think everyone is bound to find value here. For both the beginner and those who can intuit there way through most products. There are also quite a few techniques to help us make our photos better.

Kelby does just what he says, he teaches it as if he is standing right beside you. His humor at the start of the chapter turns some off- hey, just turn the page and don't read the humor intro. Excellent for getting up and running. He does not explain every thing but enough that you will feel confident to explore all the options. Some have commented that all the screen shots are Macs and the command examples are always Mac with PC in parenthesis following. Hey, photographers tend to use Macs and that is the way the majority of books are written.

I vacillated between thisw and Martin Evenings book which is also an excellent resource. I chose this to get up and running and may get Evening's book later as it is described by some (and from what I looked at) as more of a college course type book. I have found that a fair number of people get both. But if I only bought one book, this would be it. He offers download photos to do what he does to the same picture (although some appear to be jpeg when he is working with raw or DNG). Strongly recommend this book.

I love this book. I'm an amateur photographer who was using Bridge to manage my photos in conjuction with Photoshop. I didn't like Bridge and decided to move to Lightroom. Trying to figure out how to use Lightroom via Adobe help wasn't working and I was pretty frustrated. After reading the reviews on Amazon I bought Kelby's book and have been slowly working through the book chapter by chapter as Kelby suggests in his list of Seven Things You'll Wish You Had Known Before Reading This Book. The information has been really easy to understand and practical. His suggestions on organizing in the Library module have greatly improved my photo collection's structure and accessibility. His explanations on the Develop, Slideshow, Print and Web modules are also very clear and easy to follow. This book made Lightroom a valuable tool and photo management system for me. I highly recommend it.

As a film photographer making the move to digital I was not expecting the importance of a good workflow software. After purchasing Lightroom I knew there was more I could do .... if I could just unlock the power that I could see in lighroom. Scott Kelby's book helped me to do that. I have read my copy cover to cover twice and sections within multitudes of times. Each time I find or am reminded of a tidbit that helps to improve my workflow.

This is a must have for anyone delving into Lightroom for the first time and a great reference for the lightroom pro.

I found this book to be a must have when working with Lightroom2. It is well organized and really makes learning Lightroom2 a breeze.

This book is easy to understand and layed out so that you can start to use Lightroom as a beginner and lets you master Lightroom. This has been exceptionally helpful an downloading, saving and applying corrections to all my RAW files. The tips and shortcuts are worth the price of the book. This is the best book I have found on Lightroom 2.

The beginning is a bit lengthy and the author makes a lot of jokes that you may or may not get. However, this is a great reference book for when you need to remember something while working in lightroom 2.

This is my first review ever but I reacted so strongly to reading this book that I had to post this.

This book is filled with irrelevant commentary and is insultingly condescending--much more so than the "dummies" or "idiots" books. I recommend reading the section before the first chapter, if you can stomach that, you might like the book. A waste of money in my view. There are free tutorials on the Adobe website that provide clear instructions for beginners.

I am new at doing RAW and now i just love it.Now i think LIGHTROOM-2 is the best out there.
Glenn

I bought both this book and Kelby's book, and I look forward to reading both, cover to cover. Yes, this will take time, but I want to really understand Lightroom 2, inside and out.

I first started reading Kelby's book. But he is colloquial and less verbose _at the expense of clarity_. Martin Evening's book is long, and incredibly detailed. But written _very_ clearly.

Long story short, read Martin Evening's book first. Nowhere is this point made more clearly than the two author's treatments of the "xmp"/sidecar issue. Martin Evening devotes 4 full pages to discussing this very confusing topic (pp. 179-182), whereas Kelby seems to cut corners and offer under-explained, possibly incorrect advice (see his three paragraph discussion on pp. 69-70).

Buy both books (Kelby's book seems to offer more tips and tricks related to the Development module, which I have yet to get to), but read Evening's book first. Kelby's book is too imprecise, cuts too many corners, to be your foundational course in Lightroom 2.

I have both books, and although I would like to root for the British author, I have to say the Kelby book is better. If only he would leave out the "Thank you Jesus" stuff and keep his religeous views to himself, this would rate 100% for me. It is user friendly and guides you thru the whole process, telling you everything you need to know on the way. The Martin Evening book covers everything too, but it's more like a maintenance manual than a how-to book. Kelby's book is really good.

This book is great. It's funny, which is unexpected from a technical book, but also very effective. It will have you reading by your computer so you can follow along. the stuff you will use first is presented first, so you'll be able to put the book aside and work effectively for a while then go back to the book when you are ready for more.

It's written in a way that even us amateurs can follow along and learn. I love Scott Kelby's style and this has been a valuable tool for my growth in photography and post-processing. Worth every penny!

So I have been using LR2 for about a year and really like it but felt my work flow and image manipulation could use some help. Scott Kelby's book doesn't 'feel' like a technical manual, more like a friend sitting down next to me at the computer and saying "ok, now this is what I do." From the first to the last chapter the book takes a very systematic approach that starts with setting up the program, moves on to import and database catalog setup and then moves seamlessly into image manipulation. All written with a quirky humor that only Scott seems to infuse in his books. I recommend this to any photographer that is using LR.

Seems like a well known author tried to rush this one through without too much effort. It is difficult to understand what the actual steps are to use the software. A lot of words that are not actually instruction. It was not thought out. I will go to the bookstore to find a different book.

I found the book to be an excellent tool for using Lightroom 2. Learned about hidden features that would have taken me months to uncover. Scott covers the options in detail and offers real world examples. If you use Lightroom 2, buy this book.

I don't think that I could possibly have navigated LightRoom2 without Scott Kelby's manual. He helps you prepare by getting your images filed into folders and stored in an external hard drive to avoid problems and frustration later. His writing is clear and concise, taking you step-by-step, with humorous notes and tips so that you won't have a melt-down.
The book is well worth the money -- it will put you light years ahead!

Well written and helpful. I have his first book from when Lightroom came out. The product changed dramatically when it went to version 2 that I found the book to be needed. It has helped me find new features and some I had forgotten about.

One problem I have had is keeping my pictures (40,000 a year) organized. I wish I had read that section before I started. Now I am going through a major reorganization that is time consuming. Lightroom kept creating new folders within a folder. I found out why and have amended how I save the files.

There are lots of tricks and shortcuts to learn. I wish they would come out with a one page or two page shortcuts page.

I highly recommend this book.

Scott Kelby has done it again with an enjoyable, readable, informative text on how to get the most out of Adobe Lightroom 2. I recently purchased the lightroom program and thought that because I was adept at Photoshop, that I could teach myself Lightroom. I struggled for several weeks and finally broke down and forked over the $ to get Kelby's book. I don't regret a penny of the cost. Reading the book and implementing its tips and ideas has streamlined my digital workflow and simplified my life. Lightroom is a great program and if you want a speedy and efficient introduction to its ins and outs this is the perfect companion book.

I have used previous versons of Scott Kelby's books to great success. They are well written and easy to understand. Far better than larger books that do not have the ability to find what you are looking for immediately. Kelby's books allow the consumer to immediately use the software and thus build their knowledge based on their needs and uses.

I normally use cs3, however, I am occasionally also using Lightroom.
I use this book as a reference book only, for which reason I have not been through all pages yet.

It is very helpfull for beginners, medium and advanced users. The autor teach us some tricks and tips, the book is full colors, and explains about the two OS (windows and Mac).

Like his book for Lightroom 1, this one makes it quick to keep working, more so than going for help on the website. I work well with a book. It's also a great companion to my NAPP membership which Kelby contributes a lot to. I work with less anxiety because I have these "tools", would have done some things better if I had them two years ago....