Product: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom For Digital Photographers Only by Rob Sheppard Publisher: Wiley Publishing, Inc ISBN: 978-0-470-04723-1 Pages: 308 Price: $34.99 US Level: Digital photographers only Rating: 4.5 out of 5 apples

Rob Sheppard not only shows you how to use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to improve your digital photos and how to improve workflow but also takes you beyond its features and makes it fun. The book also compares Lightroom with Apple's Aperture and gives you tips on Photoshop, RAW files, and printing.

The wonderful thing that struck me as soon as I opened the book was the dark print, making it easy to read. My tired eyes were grateful for this. I also liked the layout and the plethora of color graphics to illustrate descriptions. There are also Pro Tips throughout the book with gems to save you time or to teach you something new.

The Table of Contents is well laid out, making it easy to find topics quickly. It also contains a Pro Glossary and an Index. I liked the Q&A page after each chapter. The questions are from users of Lightroom who need additional information or have questions that fit their specific needs. But there are also observations from other photographers on how Lightroom's controls are displayed and whether or not it fits the way they correct an image. Sheppard prefers looking at an image based on its needs rather than purely following the program. He recommends that photographers follow the photographic approach: Set blacks, Check white, Adjust midtones, Correct color, and Enhance color.

I went straight to the section on Customizing Lightroom's Identity Plate and found it more complete than another book I had reviewed. The explanation, the graphics, and the variety of customization features on how to do it are more thoroughly explained. There are also warnings about making the Identity Plate so colorful as to distract from the photo. He emphasizes that Lightroom's neutral interface is meant to avoid tonal and color distractions. This is valuable for photographers.

The title of the book emphasizes the words For and Only in red. This book is recommended only for digital photographers using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. It is a welcome addition to my library.