Book Review – Adobe Lightroom 2: The Missing FAQ by Victoria Bampton

Holding true to its title, Victoria Bampton’s Adobe Lightroom 2: The Missing FAQ answers real questions asked by real Lightroom users. Chances are, you’ve asked yourself some of these questions…get them answered in this book.

Quick Facts

• Title: Adobe Lightroom 2 – The Missing FAQ: Real Answers to Real Questions asked by Lightroom Users
• Author: Victoria Bampton
• Publisher: Self-published (The Lightroom Queen)
• Publication Date: July 29, 2008
• ISBN: 978-0-9560030-1-0 (PDF Format); 978-0-9560030-2-7 (Paperback)
• Cover Price: US $39.95 | UK £25.95 [See other pricing options in the Where to Buy section.]
• Pages: 397

Review

Most seasoned Internet users are familiar with the idea of FAQs. A FAQ page on a website strives to answer customers’ Frequently Asked Questions. Many times, those FAQs are simply reverse-engineered marketing ploys for a company’s product, but not this time. Victoria Bampton, aka “The Lightroom Queen,” has produced a straight-to-the-point, reasonably-priced book answering the most pressing and important questions about Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

As an active moderator of LightroomForums.net, Bampton is well-versed in the types of questions Lightroom users want answered. This is not a cover-to-cover, step-by-step how-to guide for Lightroom, but rather presents commonly-asked questions with straightforward answers.

The book moves through the following sections:

• The Database Concept
• Import
• Library Module
• Develop Module
• Raw File Rendering and DNG Profiles
• XMP and ACR Compatibility
• Importing and Editing in Other Programs
• Slideshow Module
• Print Module
• Web Module
• General Troubleshooting
• Useful Information

Each of those sections has many sub-topics, each with a number of answered questions. There were too many to list on this review, but you can view the entire Table of Contents here.

To get an even better idea of the book before you purchase it (and you really should purchase it), check out the generous offering of PDF excerpts on Bampton’s website.

The book is available both in a PDF eBook version and a paperback version. If you don’t mind working from a PDF, I highly recommend that version. It saves you money on the cost of the book, reduces waste through printing and shipping, gets to you immediately, and has built-in clickable links that take you right to other sections of the book…a real time-saver that Gutenberg failed to implement.

My final advice is to buy this book. As a seasoned Lightroom user and instructor, I found answers to questions that I didn’t know right along with answers to questions that I hear from Lightroom beginners over and over. I feel confident in saying that you, too, will find answers to question you have!

Savings hint: Use discount code LRL2009 for an even better deal!

About the Author

Victoria Bampton is known to many as The Lightroom Queen. In Southampton, UK, she runs Photoshop Services, a photography processing and retouching service. Her website, LightroomQueen.com, offers a helpful blog and a free Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts download. In addition to her work there, she’s a very active moderator at LightroomForums.net and a helpful Twitter resource as @vbampton and @LightroomQueen.

Where to Buy

My favorite place to purchase books (and a lot of other stuff) is Amazon.com. They tend to have the best prices online, and I’ve been pretty happy with their quick shipping and customer service. Here’s a link to Adobe Lightroom 2: The Missing FAQ at Amazon.com. It’s not available for the Kindle.

If you buy from Amazon.com very often, I recommend an Amazon Prime membership. An Amazon Prime membership gives you:

• Unlimited free two-day shipping
• Upgrade to one-day shipping for $3.99 per item
• No minimum order size to qualify for free shipping

Click here for more information on Amazon Prime membership.

In this situation, however, the author also offers the option to purchase the book directly from her website. Here are the all the options and pricing details:

• Color PDF eBook Version – Buy from LightroomQueen.com and download immediately. Ahh…instant gratification. – £14.95 (About $21.95 USD) – Get it!
• Color PDF eBook and Black & White Paperback Bundle (Shipped by Amazon) – Get the paperback from Amazon (my fav) and get a PDF version to start looking at while you wait for your paperback to arrive. The cover of the printed book is color, but the interior is black and white. The author explains why here. After you purchase the book from Amazon, you can contact the author to get your PDF download link. – £25.95 (About $39.95 USD) with Free Shipping – Get it!
• Color PDF eBook and Black & White Paperback Bundle (Shipped by the author) – Get the paperback from the author and get a PDF version to start looking at immediately. The cover of the printed book is color, but the interior is black and white. The author explains why here. – £25.95 (About $37.95 USD) with Free Shipping in the UK (International Shipping is #163;3.50 (about $5.00 USD)) – Get it!
• Upgrade from eBook to Paperback – If you’ve previously ordered the PDF eBook and would like to receive the paperback version, you can do so for £14.00 (About $21.95 USD) with Free Shipping in the UK (International Shipping is #163;3.50 (about $5.00 USD)) – Get it!

When ordering from the author’s website, be sure and use coupon code LRL2009 for some savings.

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Tags: book • FAQ • lightroom • lightroom-book