Pixiq

Read Me First Book Review by John "Nemo" Nemerovski

Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 — A Photographer's Handbook
by Stephen Laskevitch 
Rocky Nook Publishers 
ISBN: 978-1-933953-67-3
277 pages
$39.95 US, $49.95 CN (Discount pricing is available on the Internet)

This beautifully illustrated book emphasizes coherent terminology and streamlined workflow. Pages are loaded with screen shots and sample photos, with lucid descriptions and itemized steps. 

The physical book is extremely attractive and well designed. Everything is bold, colorful, and easy to follow. Color coded edge tabs indicate whether Lightroom, Photoshop, Bridge, or Adobe Camera Raw is being discussed. Ample white space is available for writing notes, although readers may be uncomfortable marking up such a gorgeous volume.

Author Stephen Laskevitch writes as an educator, not a techie. Information is presented so newbies will feel comfortable and experienced digital photographers will appreciate a refresher course. Here is the Table of Contents.

Terms and Concepts, in Chapter 1, begins with basic definitions of essential terms such as pixels, image size, resolution, resampling, bit depth, and color channels. This chapter also has extensive material on color management and digital image file formats. Photo educators need their students to grasp these terms and concepts, but few people make the effort. The experience is relatively painless with Laskevitch as the tutor. Here is the first chapter, compliments of Rocky Nook, in PDF format.

Basic customization of Application Preferences is in Chapter 2. Some other books cover these preferences in excruciating detail, which can be overwhelming to most mortals. Laskevitch insists on only a few specific tweaks that won't intimidate the user or throw an interface out of whack. 

The Interface: A Tour conveniently appears next in Chapter 3, and the tour is pleasantly brief. A full page in Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 — A Photographer's Handbook is a masterpiece of clarity, devoted to an astonishingly detailed visual guide to the Adobe Camera Raw interface.

All the above is in Section 1, The Setup, which is a lean 60 pages of useful introduction. The book shifts into gear in Section 2, The Workflow, with 190 pages of distilled wisdom. Most workflow-heavy books are not enjoyable to read, because they are based on the author's own methods, without much flexibility. This book is an exception.

Laskevitch explains that two or three Adobe applications can be used for each of his seven workflow stages: capture and import, organize and archive, global adjustments, local adjustments, cleanup and retouching, creative edits and alternates, and output to print, web, or slideshow. A wonderful full-page chart provides a visual representation of how each stage flows and interacts with the others. Every stage has its own chapter, adding up to a comprehensive, flexible approach to workflow that can be as serious or casual as the reader prefers.

The author has a sense of humor, which comes in handy when subsequent pages switch back and forth between discussing Lightroom and Bridge in his chapter on organizing and archiving. In his pithy example of how he assigns star ratings to imported images, Laskevitch writes "I reserve 5 stars for only those images I think should win a Pulitzer Prize!"

Global Adjustments in Chapter 6 may be confusing at first, because computer users now have multiple Adobe applications for handling cropping and lighting alterations. Photoshop dominates much of the following chapters, because the software is so powerful and versatile for precise and creative image editing. Lightroom sneaks in at the end of Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 — A Photographer's Handbook because of Lightroom's many output options.

This book will make readers feel comfortable and knowledgeable about what each Adobe photography application does, and how to use them individually or in tandem for optimum results. Abundant choices are our friends as we determine flexible workflow methods that can be as consistent or variable as are our personalities.

Read Me First recommends this title for beginners and intermediates to Photoshop or Lightroom who want to understand how their applications work, and use their software for customized image workflows.