Publishers Beware: here comes Lightroom 4′s Book Module. PHD

Just a few days ago I was talking with my brother about that uncanny way in which you might mention a person and then, days later they appear on the scene. It might be those multiple universes that modern physics allows deep in the mathematics. Whatever it is yesterday evening I discovered the release of the Beta Version of Lightroom 4 after a great deal of discussion with fellow blogger Clay about our forthcoming ebooks…watch this space. Suddenly, the process is that much easier.

Set out before you - the complete book. The choice of layouts for individual pages, text is your choice to make...

Lightroom 3 is the one-stop-shot program I use for almost everything as previous posts show and I love its simple and clear design capabilities for producing cards, prints and pdf slide shows.

Now with Lightroom 4 there is a book module where you can output files to produce your own hard-cover volume through Blurb (prices are high and shown on the page as you mage changes…) or as a pdf and take the ebook route. It is not as sophisticated as using inDesign where bells and whistles of all sorts can be incorporated as you’ll soon see from Clay… but it will get a lot of people thinking about how, on a limited basis they can display their work.

A wide variety of templates can be employed on a page by page basis to crete rhythm and pace in your work

I have just been playing with this module for a few hours and there is a series of videos beginning with Lightroom 4 – Book Module Basics with the no-nonsense approach of Julieanne Kost showing you how this works. Legitimate Lightroom and other Adobe users can download the BETA version of Lightroom 4 which expires when the main program is launched. You cannot upgrade your whole catalogue – I created a new collection of images in Lightroom 3 exported that to my desktop and then imported that.

There will be more about this aspect of Lightroom 4 at a later stage but I was immediately struck by the possibilities for wildlife organisations, individual photographers…family albums where things can be done in a fuss free fashion. I always get a buzz at producing something that looks well-laid out and if that can be done without fiddling so much the better. Here you can change layour, text and a vast variety of things…I did not find it limiting at all. In fact there is an excellent choice but not so much that indecision cramps your style!

A douyble page spread is shown with several styles of caption and text - controls in Lightroom fashion at the right

There is no doubt that this addition makes it easier for anyone to create their own books – my hope is that what will be even more important is quality of imagery and the accompanying text… those two ‘small hurdles’ raise the game.