I’m really pleased to announce the release of Adobe Lightroom 4 – The Missing FAQ!
It’s already been available for a couple of days, and the response has been brilliant. I do love hearing from readers who find little gems they hadn’t previously understood!
Roy emailed to ask what was new, as he already owns the Lightroom 3 book, so here’s a quick summary:
Lightroom 3 | Lightroom 4 | |
Pages | 500 | 685 (to be confirmed) |
Chapters | 16 | 19 |
Questions | 678 | 921 |
There are 3 entirely new chapters:
- Map module
- Book module
- Designing your Workflow (which will be a free update available this week).
The existing chapters also have lots of new questions based on your feedback, and many more were rewritten for changes in Lightroom’s behavior. All of the new Lightroom 4 features are explained in detail. These are a few of the highlights:
- Import discusses the new Lossy DNG format and the new Layout Overlay.
- Library module has 24 new questions, including Video Editing, and the changes to Flags, Collections and Stacking.
- Working with Catalogs expands on syncing presets and catalogs using Dropbox.
- Develop module has 47 brand new questions, and many more have been rewritten. They include the new Basic Develop sliders, how to work with the new PV2012 process version and how that interacts with your defaults and presets, and also a section on the new Soft Proofing tool. RGB curves, automatic Chromatic Aberration, Moiré removal and the additional local adjustment controls were also added.
- Edit in Photoshop goes into the interaction between the new PV2012 process version and older versions of Photoshop, as well as CS6, which is yet to be released.
- Export explores the new Email feature as well as the expanded ‘minimize metadata’ options.
- Publish Services adds details on Facebook, which were not in the previous book.
- And the other chapters have extra new questions and changes of behavior too.
- Click here to see a full list of all of the changes made to Lightroom 4.
If I counted correctly, having removed 21 outdated questions, that’s 264 new questions. I have a further 166 of the existing questions noted as having changes or having been completely rewritten. If you look at the Table of Contents, you’ll see I’ve marked the brand new questions in red. It turned into a much bigger job than I planned, as Adobe made so many changes. It’s had my undivided attention for months, but it was worth all of the late nights and weekends. I’m sure you’ll find it useful!
The release schedule is as follows:
- The PDF version available for download now. It’s complete with the exception of the final chapter – Workflow – which will be a free update on Wednesday this week (21st March). I want to spend a little more time on that before it’s released, but didn’t want to hold up the rest of the book.
- The Paperback – I’m expecting the paperback preorders to ship by mid-April, and I’ll update the main page as soon as I have a confirmed date. Anyone preordering the paperback bundle will be able to download the PDF version today.
- The ePub and Kindle versions will also be available at the same time as the paperbacks, if not before.
- Anyone ordering now gets access to all of those updates – the updated copy with the Workflow chapter, the ePub and Kindle formats, and any further 4.x updates.
So what are you waiting for? Visit the main book page to order and download it right now.
The bundle of eBooks is only £14.95. I have to price in British Pounds Sterling due to the terms of the payment processors (PayPal and Google), as I’m based in the UK, but that’s approximately $23.67 US at today’s exchange rate. Or you can preorder the paperback bundle with flat rate shipping, and the paperbacks will ship from UK, US and Australia as soon as they’re available.
If you own a previous version of my book, and you haven’t received an upgrade discount code by email, I’ll be pleased to arrange that for you – just send me an email.
I look forward to hearing what you think!
Laura Shoe speaks so highly of you and i just found out why. Great Work.
Thanks, much appreciated!
Someone strongly recommended that I buy your LR4 book. I have a question: can a total beginner (never owned or used any photo-editing book or software) understand and follow your guide without any difficulty?
Basic computer literacy would help – I don’t explain stuff like how to right-click or how to navigate the basic computer folder system, but I think anything else you’d need to know is in there. If there’s anything that’s not clear, you’re welcome to email and explain further.