Introduction

Welcome to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 On Demand, a visual quick reference book that shows you how to work efficiently with Lightroom 3. This book provides complete coverage of basic to advanced Lightroom skills.

How This Book Works

You don’t have to read this book in any particular order. We’ve designed the book so that you can jump in, get the information you need, and jump out. However, the book does follow a logical progression from simple tasks to more complex ones. Each task is presented on no more than two facing pages, which lets you focus on a single task without having to turn the page. To find the information that you need, just look up the task in the table of contents or index, and turn to the page listed. Read the task introduction, follow the step-by-step instructions in the left column along with screen illustrations in the right column, and you’re done.

Step-by-Step Instructions

This book provides concise step-by-step instructions that show you “how” to accomplish a task. Each set of instructions includes illustrations that directly correspond to the easy-to-read steps. Also included in the text are timesavers, tables, and sidebars to help you work more efficiently or to teach you more in-depth information. A “Did You Know?” provides tips and techniques to help you work smarter, whereas a “See Also” leads you to other parts of the book containing related information about the task.

Exercise Files

The Develop module section of this book uses exercise files that are available to you. You can locate these files on the Web by navigating to www.queondemand.com. By following along with the exercise files, you won’t waste time looking for or creating your own assets. Note that not every task requires an exercise file, and some, such as those described in the Library module chapters, require the use of your own catalog images.

Get Updates

Like any software, Lightroom continues to change and get better with updates and patches, so it’s important to regularly check the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom site at www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.

Photoshop Family

Lightroom 3 is part of the Adobe Photoshop family, which also includes Photoshop CS5, Photoshop CS5 Extended, Photoshop Elements 8 (Windows), and Photoshop Elements 8 for Macintosh. Lightroom 3 can be used with any of the other Photoshop products. For more info about the Photoshop family of products, please visit www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/family/.

Workshops

This book shows you how to put together the individual step-by-step tasks into in-depth projects with the Workshop. You start each project with a sample file and then work through the steps. The Workshop projects and associated files are available on the Web at www.queondemand.com.