The book is nicely laid out with each set of facing pages dealing with a single subject with several screen captures keyed to a numbered workflow that deals with that subject. Throughout the book Beardsworth emphasizes that Lightroom’s strong point is to allow the photographer to process large numbers of images quickly. There are subjects like “Adding structure > Collections”, “Recovery and the white point” and “Black and white > time savers”. In a section called “Advanced topics”, the author includes topics like “The Polarized Image” (get the effect by using the Color Adjustments saturation and luminance sliders), “Creative vignetting” and “Photoshop workflow > Blended exposures”. Each of these subjects is easy to understand, given the author’s accessible writing style.

Yet what the book contains is mostly a less than complete feature list. The reader who is past the low-level guidance stage will not find much new here. Moreover, Beardsworth may be wrong in his assumption that Lightroom’s main benefit is a better way to process large numbers of images. My own feeling is that Lightroom generally offers a better front end for image processing than Photoshop’s Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw which are part of Photoshop, not because of its ability to process large numbers of pictures (the late Bruce Frazer often showed us how to do that with Photoshop), but because the entire process, including asset management, is so completely integrated.

Advanced photographers will be highly interested in moving images back and forth between Lightroom and Photoshop to do things like selective adjustment and sharpening where version 1.0 of Lightroom is lightweight. Unfortunately, this aspect of image processing was mentioned too briefly in this book. (Version 1.1 of Lightroom, which is available for free download by Lightroom owners, offers much improved sharpening features, although this book was published at a time when the features were not available for the author to consider.)

Photographers who are interested in covering all of the features list would be better served by reading Scott Kelby’s “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers” Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers,The (Voices That Matter). Meanwhile there is still room for a comprehensive book aimed at advanced Lightroom users.

Photographers control the camera and lens to “expose” the light recording material (such as film) to the required amount of light to form a “latent image” (on film) or “raw file” (in digital cameras) which, after appropriate processing, is converted to a usable image. Digital cameras replace film with an electronic image sensor based on light-sensitive electronics such as charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The resulting digital image is stored electronically, but can be reproduced on paper or film.

In all but certain specialized cameras, the process of obtaining a usable exposure must involve the use, manually or automatically, of a few controls to ensure the photograph is clear, sharp and well illuminated. The controls usually include but are not limited to the following:

• Focus of the lens
• Aperture of the lens – adjustment of the iris, measured as f-number, which controls the amount of light passing through the lens. Aperture also has an effect on focus and depth of field, namely, the smaller the opening [aperture], the less light but the greater the depth of field–that is, the greater the range within which objects appear to be sharply focused.
• Shutter speed – adjustment of the speed (often expressed either as fractions of seconds or as an angle, with mechanical shutters) of the shutter to control the amount of time during which the imaging medium is exposed to light for each exposure. Shutter speed may be used to control the amount of light striking the image plane; ‘faster’ shutter speeds (that is, those of shorter duration) decrease both the amount of light and the amount of image blurring from subject motion or camera motion.
• White balance – on digital cameras, electronic compensation for the color temperature associated with a given set of lighting conditions, ensuring that white light is registered as such on the imaging chip and therefore that the colors in the frame will appear natural. On mechanical, film-based cameras, this function is served by the operator’s choice of film stock. In addition to using white balance to register natural coloration of the image, photographers may employ white balance to aesthetic end, for example white balancing to a blue object in order to obtain a warm color temperature.
• Metering – measurement of exposure at a midtone so that highlights and shadows are exposed according to the photographer’s wishes. Many modern cameras feature this ability, though it is traditionally accomplished with the use of a separate light metering device. To translate the amount of light into a usable aperture and shutter speed, the meter needs to input the sensitivity of the film or sensor to light. Thus there needs to be a setting for “film speed” or ISO sensitivity.
• ISO speed – traditionally used to “tell the camera” the film speed of the selected film on film cameras, ISO speeds are employed on modern digital cameras as an indication of the system’s gain from light to numerical output and to control the automatic exposure system. A correct combination of ISO speed, aperture, and shutter speed leads to an image that is neither too dark nor too light.
• Auto-focus point – on some cameras, the selection of a point in the imaging frame upon which the auto-focus system will attempt to focus. Many Single-lens reflex cameras (SLR) feature multiple auto-focus points in the viewfinder.

Many other elements of the imaging device itself may have a pronounced effect on the quality and/or aesthetic effect of a given photograph; among them are:

• Focal length and type of lens (telephoto or “long” lens, macro, wide angle, fisheye, or zoom)
• Filters or scrims placed between the subject and the light recording material, either in front of or behind the lens
• Inherent sensitivity of the medium to light intensity and color/wavelengths.
• The nature of the light recording material, for example its resolution as measured in pixels or grains of silver halide.