Books or tutorials on LR Development Module

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HerrB

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I was wondering whether someone has recommendations for a good book or tutorial for the LR development module. I have been mucking about with it on an ongoing basis but my impression is that I am not really getting the best out of it because of my (hopefully current) lack of skill.

Had a browse in the forums here but found not much.

Any feedback would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,
Joerg
 
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George Jardine's tutorial podcasts are good, Martin Evening's book is good too, and if I may be so bold I too have a book on Lightroom (see sig)
 
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I'm still busy trawling my way through a variety of other people's books, having finally finished the leftover paperwork on my own, and I'd agree with the previous recommendations.

My vote in the past has always gone to Martin's book (other than my own, of course, but they're a completely different style and content), however both Dave Huss' and Richard Earney's books arrived on my doorstep a few days (thanks Richard!), and I'm really impressed. I'm looking forward to exploring further! When I eventually manage to finish reading them all, I'll see if I can post reviews/comparisons up somewhere.
 
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I've learned a lot from Martin Evening's book and his treatment of the Develop module, but still I feel like if he had made it three times longer, it still wouldn't be sufficient. Part of that is because there is sooooo much power in Lightroom's develop module that maybe you can't cover every possibility with any reasonable sized chapter. Still, I can't get past the feeling that Evening (who is a professional photographer and I am not) sees things in the photos that I don't see, and he makes changes that aren't noticeable to me; or he chooses tools to use and provides only a cursory explanation why he chose that tool, and a longer explanation would have been much more helpful (for example on p. 295 where he uses Tone Range split point adjustments to achieve an effect, but its not really clear how he knew to make those specific adjustments).

So like I said, I did learn a lot. He does go through a few examples in quite a bit of detail (and in particular, I liked that he shows how he Develops an image that has a lot of highlights and a lot of shadow and not much in between). I just get the feeling that I have a whole lot more to learn about the develop module.
 
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dj_paige said:
...for example on p. 295 where he uses Tone Range split point adjustments to achieve an effect, but its not really clear how he knew to make those specific adjustments.
Click to expand...
It is hard to put experience into words and harder still to write in such a way that the reader is suddenly acquiring years of experience... :roll:
 
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Hi Paige,

Thanks for your comment. I think I myself might be prone to feel a bit like you there too on occasions. I guess the whole thing also is about seeing things in photographs and realizing what one sees -- a bit of an analytical thing, if you wish. And that's hard to learn. It's probably best done though lots of exposure (no pun!) to photos but different to achieve by reading a book. Anyway, will let everyone know once I got a book and did some working through it.

Cheers,
Joerg
 
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Hi Denis,

Sure. That's probably one of the reasons that there are many more readers of books than writers and also only a few real killer books. Also the writing style of one author and their way of explaining things might work well for some readers while it might not for others.

Cheers,
Joerg
 
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You can find a whole host of video tutorials here

http://tv.adobe.com/#pd+Lightroom

Julianne Kost has good overviews and Matt Kosklowski's Lightroom Basics series is very good.
 
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I use Martin's books 1 and 2 for reference. The second book is almost twice as big.
There was a recent thread- "Stuff I can do?" (11/17/'8) or for those others(17/11/'8) which dealt with the same subject.
I cannot help but notice- nobody is pushing Scott Kelby's book. Mmmmm, I wonder why. I do not have his book.
As I mentioned in the other thread, go to Youtube and type in lightroom tutorials.

For those who are celebrating Thanksgiving-
Happy Thanksgiving!

Bob- the slide shooter at heart
 
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Robert T Higaki said:
I cannot help but notice- nobody is pushing Scott Kelby's book. Mmmmm, I wonder why. I do not have his book.
Click to expand...

Scott's sense of humour and writing style... it's like Marmite - you either love it or you hate it. :D
 
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Well, in the States, we do not eat Marmite( at least, I do not). I guess it is similar to Vegemite. I have met Australians in other parts of the world and almost all of them carry a bottle of Vegemite. They always offered it to me and I have always refused. Somehow, we are off subject. Victoria- you started it.


Bob- the slide shooter at heart
 
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Thanks Robert. Have updated the the list in Lightroom Tips & Tricks with Scott's book. By the way and just for the record, I do like a bit of marmite on toast every few months or so -- I am not addicted, though.

Joerg
 
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