I am putting together a basic photography class for people at work, to help support a photography contest we are going to host in order to boost our internal stock photography library. Putting together the presentation is easy enough, and defining terms in said presentation is easy thanks to the power of Google and Wikipedia. But how do I deal with things that come up while I am giving the presentation? I am no expert, and I don’t want to derail the presentation to go online and look something up. Enter The Glossary of Digital Photography by John G. Blair. The book is 311 pages, and is full of definitions and illustrations of terms ranging from “16.7 million colors” to “bokeh”, “layer masks”, “ISO” and ending with “zipped” (as in zip file). There are no tutorials, this book is purely meant to define terms and concepts. That said, some concepts, such as “descreening” do include before and after images to show what the results of the concept could be. I have found this book to be an excellent reference as I put my presentation together, and will keep it handy as I continue to learn more about this hobby of mine.

I am a self-taught Photoshop hack. First started using it when version 3 came out (on a TON of 3.5″ floppy disks). I have been able to use it enough to generate/ edit web images, scan prints, etc. It is grossly overpowered for what I use it for, but it’s all I know and the company I work for is willing to pay for it. I am equally inept in my photographic workflow processes. I just take pictures, use my limited knowledge of Photoshop to get them to a point where I like the finished product, and go on my merry way. Until now.

Managing Your Photographic Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom is helping change my bad habits. Originally written to cover Lightroom 1.2, the processes are still applicable to 1.41, the latest version I am using. I had seen Lightroom and sort of dismissed it as just more $$ to spend until I started reading this book. Managing Your Photographic Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom has given me insight into using the tools contained in Lightroom and how using them will affect my images. At just over 200 pages, this book is full of images and practical examples. I used to edit my images exclusively in Photoshop. Now I do most of my post processing in Lightroom, exporting the results to be uploaded into flickr, iStockphoto, or burned to CD. I doubt I would have changed my habits were it not for this book. Needless to say, it is highly recommended if you have been curious about using Lightroom.