Sebastopol, CA--"Field testing in Iceland turned out to be a stroke of brilliance," enthuses George Jardine, pro photo evangelist for Adobe Systems, about Mikkel Aaland's new book, Photoshop Lightroom Adventure (O'Reilly, $39.99).
Aaland turned his experiences from a once-in-a lifetime photography expedition to Iceland into a striking guided tour of Lightroom. Along the way he shows readers how they, too, can use Lightroom to create exciting new images. More importantly, Aaland, an award-winning photographer and bestselling author, inspires readers--everyone from photography enthusiasts to working professionals--by providing a far deeper experience than most instructional manuals. Part Icelandic road trip, part photo essay, Lightroom's photo-rich pages come packed with beautiful, exciting, and emulate-able photographs from a dozen talented working photographers.
"Yes, it's a technical book. Yet it's not only a complete guide to the latest version of the application, but a pleasure to look at, too," explains Aaland. For this is not an update of previous Lightroom versions, but the first book written specifically for Lightroom 1.1. "And my new book honors photography through the beautiful images that fill every chapter," adds Aaland.
Both the title and most of the content of his new book emerged from Aaland's singular passion to road test Lightroom in a wild and light-filled setting. So last year Aaland convinced 11 colleagues, including Jardine, and five Adobe Lightroom team members to travel with him last July to Iceland, long known Nature's Lightroom. In July the picturesque arctic nation is suffused in various shades of dappled light for nearly 24 hours--making it the perfect landscape to test and experiment with Adobe's revolutionary, all-in-one imaging application.
"I wanted to road test Lightroom in a visually exciting environment and we did," writes Aaland. "At the end of a long day of shooting, we all gathered in workrooms, fired up our computers, and got to work."
The result is the most beautiful digital photography software book available. Illustrated with extraordinary images taken by the bold team of renowned photographers, this unmatched tutorial walks readers step-by-step through Lightroom 1.1's:
- Library module for uploading, sorting, tagging, ranking and adding keywords to your images
- Develop module with Adobe Camera RAW for complete non-destructive color and tonal adjustments
- Slideshow module, where you select and size images, and export the show to HTML, Flash, or PDF formats
- Print module, which includes several templates for printing contact sheets or full images
- Web module, where you can create Flash or HTML web galleries
"My book is for anyone who uses Lightroom. I tried to strike a balance between basic instruction and advanced technique so it should be valuable to both the serious photographer and the professional," says Aaland. "I worked with a group of photographers I know pretty well, and they are not only great photographers but really good people who I enjoy being around. My adventure in Iceland was a dream come true, and I can’t say how much I appreciate all of their help on this project, not to mention the great images they provided for the book."
Mikkel Aaland is an award-winning photographer and author of 10 books, including Photoshop CS2 RAW (O'Reilly), Shooting Digital: Pro Tips for Taking Great Pictures with Your Digital Camera (Sybex), and The Sword of Heaven (Travelers' Tales). Visit his web site at http://www.shooting-digital.com.
It wouldn't have been an adventure without these intrepid contributors:
Bill Atkinson--Although Bill is now a full-time nature photographer, his name is also well known in the field of software design. Bill is being empowered in his own art by the accuracy and fine control made possible with the digital printing process. See his work at http://www.billatkinson.com.
Russell Brown--Russell's job at Adobe is to facilitate the exchange between digital designers and software developers. In addition, he's the prolific creator of an entertaining collection of Photoshop tips and tricks, some of which can be found at http://www.russellbrown.com.
Angela Drury--Angela is a fine art photographer whose work has received numerous awards and been shown in shows around the country. Her work has also been featured in several publications, including the premiere issue of Darkroom magazine. More at http://www.angeladrury.com.
Melissa Gaul--Melissa is an accomplished photographer and a member of the original Adobe Lightroom engineering team based in Minnesota. Her midnight Lightroom instructional sessions to the Adventure team were well attended and much appreciated.
Johann Gudbjargarson--Johann has lived all his life in Iceland. He has a degree in computer science and his hobbies are books, computers, traveling, and photography (talk about being lucky being on this adventure). Johann's work can be seen at http://gudbjargarson.net.
Maggie Hallahan--Maggie is an accomplished photographer with over twenty years of experience shooting advertising and editorial assignments. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and can be seen online at http://www.maggiehallahan.com.
John Isaac--John is an award winning photojournalist and documentary photographer, who's traveled to more than 100 countries in his photographic career. He was a photographer for the UN for 20 years. His work can be seen at http://www.johnisaac.com.
George Jardine--George took his degree in photography in 1972. He has photographed food, fashion, architecture and sports, with his work appearing in many well-known publications. George is currently the Pro Photography Evangelist at Adobe.
Peter Krogh--Peter owns and operates a full service commercial photography studio in the Washington, DC area. Peter is both an award-winning photographer and the author of the definitive work on digital asset management. His work can be seen at http://www.peterkrogh.com.
John McDermott--John is a San Francisco photographer who shoots corporate annual reports, portraits, and sports for editorial and advertising clients. But mostly, he'd rather be wandering the streets of some strange city pretending to be Cartier-Bresson or Jay Maisel. You can see his work at http://www.mcdfoto.com.
Richard Morgenstein--For over twenty years, Richard has photographed people for magazines, corporations and private clients. The common denominator in Richard's work is his interest in all kinds of people, their passions, and their environments. See his work online at http://www.richardmorgenstein.com.
Michael Reichmann--Michael is a fine-art landscape, nature, and documentary photographer with more than 40 years of experience. He is a well known photographic educator and author, and the publisher and primary author of The Luminous Landscape website, http://www.luminous-landscape.com.
Addy Roff--Addy works for Adobe and basically solves problems and makes life better for everyone around her. "Addy" is short for something exotic and Icelandic, which only George Jardine has ever been heard to utter in public. To quote an adventure blog post, "The horses loved Addy."
Sigurgeir Sigurjonsson--Sigurgeir is a photographer based in ReykjavIk and has a broad selection of clients in Iceland and other countries. He is presently working on two books: the Icelandic horse and a new book on Iceland that will be out in the summer and autumn 2007. See his work at http://www.portfolio.is.
Derrick Story--Derrick is the digital media evangelist for O'Reilly http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com. He's the author of "Digital Photography Hacks" and "Digital Photography Pocket Guide." You can listen to his photo podcasts and read his tips at http://www.thedigitalstory.com.
Martin Sundberg specializes in capturing imagery of people who are passionate about what they do, while they are doing it. By land or by sea, he embraces every opportunity to make pictures that move and inspire. Martin is based in San Francisco. His work can be found at http://www.martinsundberg.com.
Sonja Thorsdottir--Sonja is Icelandic and has lived in Iceland most of her life. Her main hobby is photography and traveling all over the world. Sonja thought the adventure was a wonderful opportunity to be able to combine this and join a team of great people in Iceland.
More information about the book, including table of contents, index, author bio, and samples
Photoshop Lightroom Adventure:
Mastering Adobe's next-generation tool for digital photographers
Mikkel Aaland
ISBN: 0-596-10099-X, $39.99 USD
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
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