Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4: A Photographer's Handbook Paperback – August 17, 2012

I have decided to modify my review and raise the rating while leaving what I originally wrote attached for reference. I apologize to anyone who might have been mislead by my original review.After writing my review, I decided to read reviews for earlier versions of this book. They were so good that I decided to start over from word 1 page 1. With a little patience I was able to finally decipher the most confusing statements that I had encountered. I had to read several passages several times before I was finally able to create an hypothesis that fit. Once I did this, things started falling into place and I have found the material to be quite useful.I still contend that this is no book for beginners - like me they are likely to give up too early to glean any real learning. On the other hand, it could be easily edited for beginners if only the author and his fans understood the meaning of beginner. I do not consider myself to be a beginner and yet I had a great deal of difficulty with the early chapters because of the author's concept of a beginner.Page 5 System requirements: "OpenGL 2.0 - capable system" This requirement is never defined or explained. Later in the book we are told how to determine if our system is capable but never why we should care.Page 9 indicates a lack of understanding as to what a "beginner" might understand.Page 14 Bits & Bytes: "There are 8 bits in a typical byte, providing a range of values from 0000 0000 to 1111 1111, or 0 to 255 in the decimal notation that we commonly understand." He is correct that an 8 bit binary system has 256 possible combinations but his sentence makes no sense and tells me that he doesn't really understand why this is true.Page 16 HDR Images: Poor explanation.Pages 16 to 18 Channels / Color Models: Very confusing. Required reading several times to decipher his points. He totally missed the opportunity to explain the difference between pigments and colored light. This would have added a great deal of clarity to the discussion. A later comment about the relationship between RGB and CMYK suggests that he doesn't understand this either.I still don't know if "Adobe Camera RAW" is a separate piece of software, an aspect of Photoshop and other Adobe programs, or a synonym for DNG files.These are but a few of the examples of poorly presented material that can easily confuse and frustrate a true beginner.My first review is still basically accurate except for the overall value of this book.I will revise this review again when I complete the second reading.==============================================================ORIGINAL REVIEWThe first book I read about Photoshop was Photoshop for Dummies. It was totally incomprehensible even after I had become proficient in using Photoshop Elements 10. Since then I have purchased and read about twenty books about digital photography that addressed Photoshop and Lightroom in one way or another. They were all excellent. This is like the first book. The testimonials are all written by experts in the field. They all said that this is a great book for beginners - THEY COULDN"T BE MORE WRONG.There are hundreds of illustrative photos but never a clear reference to any of them. It is up to the reader to guess which ones are relevant to the discussion. In the beginning he goes into a great deal of detail about setting preferences in Photoshop without ever explaining what they mean or do. There is a great deal of never defined technical jargon.I am very proficient with Photoshop Elements and have some knowledge of Lightroom. Even when he is talking about topics that I understand well, I don't have a clue what he is trying to say. His way of writing is so sketchy that it sounds like a person making mental notes on a topic that he plans to teach. I can't imagine a more worthless book.The topics addressed are what I want and need to know. I will have to look elsewhere.

The book is straightforward, but not very comprehensive. Very basic. It's more for casual photographers wanting to understand how Photoshop works so they can do image enhancements than it is for people who want to use other Photoshop tools or for serious photographers/designers. There's no discussion of 3D, for example, and the first 5 chapters are all about filetypes, workflow, organizing, etc. There's also not enough explaining of the principle at work behind the use of the tools for me to be able to really understand what is going on and apply it to something else. It also has a cutesy casual tone at times that I find really irritating.I recommend The Creative Digital Darkroom for a detailed step by step discussion of how to use the tools and what is happening when you make certain adjustments, such as how the white point moves or the use of a clear layer to do blending.

I purchased this as a special offer with a new DSLR camera. I already own Photoshop CS6 and from what I had read this was a good adjunct to that program. However, after trying the program I find it redundant to the software that came with my new Canon camera especially concerning the file management aspects of Lightroom. As far as the limited editing capabilities of Lightroom I find it easier to use Photoshop. I am sure that this program fulfills many needs for a lot of photographers and what it does it does well. I advise others to to test the product before buying.

There is so much that these programs do that the help screens(no such thing as a manual any more) can teach you. This book is very good a explaining the technical aspects of Lightroom 4 & CS6 Photoshop. I learned some things that I did not know or understand before reading the book. I read Scott Kelby's book on Lightroom 4 and that is the best one for understanding the whole work flow process and how Lightroom can make it easier for you.

This is a good book if you already know these programs. However, it is not very useful if you do not know the programs. In my case, I know photoshop well and found the book to be helpful. But, I have no knowledge of Lightroom and the book does not provide a step by step approach that would enable me to learn how to use the software. I will need to buy another book to get that information.

This is a pretty well-written book I'll use as a reference. The screen shots are plain and helpful and so far it seems he's telling me what it is I need to know. So many books explain things I'll never use. Not so here.

This is a good general guide for the three programs, CS6, LR4 and Bridge. I like the layout, but it needs to be a lot more detailed. The instructions assume the user is already well experienced in older versions so its not for beginners in Photoshop.

As an amateur user of both Lightroom 4 and Photoshop 6, I was concerned about the interface of the two programs for post processing the raw images I take. This book answers that question very effectively. It also fits Adobe Camera Raw and Bridge into the workflow. In addition, it deals with the organization, archiving and file management of images in a concise and easy to understand manner.

Very well written and very useful

A really practicle and well writen book, covering Photoshop and Lightroom, has helped me to get more out of the software, good service and very prompt delivery, Thanks!

Sadly for us kindle users, there's no table of contents. That simple and really silly mistake renders the book ultimately useless for anyone wanting to find a tip quickly on a specific subject, and makes it more generally a pain in the neck to use. That's really a shame, because there's actually lots of well written information in this book, you just can't find it when you actually need it.

Still learning while using the book. Easy to read.

I have just downloaded the Kindle edition. Looking for the Table of Contents I was amazed to find that the download edition does not include one. No matter how good a book it may be, I find it astonishing that a technical guide of 344 pages comes without such an essential tool, especially one that is supposed to help with workflow. Yes, there is a search option but there is no help with the basic structure of the book. Disappointing start.