PhotoLab books

Does anyone know if there are any books for PhotoLabs similar to the ‘for dummies’ series that can be used as a reference manual.

Rather than wading through books, which may not cover your exact use case, you can always post a message here and that could yield the combined wisdom of several “masters”

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I don’t think anything can be a good supplement for good manuals and books. When I used Lightroom version 5 and 6 I read Scott Kelbys books and learned a lot in a fraction of the time it would have taken me to do twithout them. These books was a clear selling point for Lightroom compared to both Photolab and Capture One at that time.

Especially Capture One at that time had lots of features you would never have just guessed how to use without help. In their case they have put in a lot of efforts giving webinars and not the least a lot of instruction videos easy accessible via the “Help” in the application. They have also made a lot of changes and efforts to streamline and improve workflows and improve efficiency also using AI quite a lot,

Despite I might have 15 years experiences with Sony cameras I have bought at least five of Gary Friedmans eminent “friendly manuals” that are the most educational when it comes to really understand all the functions of modern Sony cameras. The strengths of these manuals are also that they explain with real examples how to solved certain “problems” with just that camera model you happen to have.

If I compare my present A7 IV with the A7r I had 10 years ago and still have, it has at least twice as many functions and systems as the A7r has. I have seen so many “stress testing photo journalists” that just do what even they have done for years just used with Canon or Nikon when building their verdicts and missing it all because they were not even trying to understand the concepual changes coming with the mirrorlesscameras - just to pick the most obvious example.

So I look upon Friedmans manuals as an absolute advantage over other camera brands. Well informed Sony-users will always know where to go for in depth info over just their camera models and it is far more effective than shopping around on the net. He has written just for the Sony-users for many years but has broadened his scoop to include even a lot of Fuji-models too in resent years. So even the Fuji-photographers has an advantage in Friedman these days.

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Hi, not a book, but useful and clear informations to start and improve:

Hello Joanna, using one screen to watch a how to video, or wait for a reply in the forum while working on an image, is very awkward.
I am what you may call old school and like to have a book I can flick through to find a solution/answer as and when I hit a stumbling block.

Lightroom produced a book with each version and Kelby How Do I Do That In Lightroom are excellent reference books (though you seldom need to keep updating the published book).
I had used them no end to help me.
Similarly Tony Phillips guide to the OM-1 system is a great reference book.

I am guessing that PhotLabs is not as popular to warrant guide books. Though looking at the number of members of these forums I am surprised.

I am looking for something similar for Photolabs.

Yes Scott Kelby produces some excellent books. I did contact Rockynook publisher asking if they had anything on DxO PhotoLab they said that they had nothing published and nothing in the pipeline, which is a shame.

Ian, Gary Friedman started to write Sony-manuals when Sonys market share was just a fraction of what it is today when taking over Minolta A-mount. When the A 100 came it might have been just around 5%. He has managed to do so without the slightest help from Sony from what I know. When I got my NEX 7 several months before it was released in the States, he asked me if he could buy or borrow mine!

I don’t know the installed base world wide of Photolab but these days you have almost no distribution cost at all if you don’t print. Gary does print too but I always have bought his books electronically to get them instantly.

There is an advantage too with electronically searchable books too.

Especially these forums at DXO Forums are very unreliable as a source of support, since DXO rarely participate in them. Maybe they feel that Joanna is doing such a good job for free doing their job, so they just don’t seem to bother. It might also bee the case that Joanna knows more about how their software works IRL than they do by themselves. She has always been fantastically quick, helpful and knowledgeable :slight_smile:

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Something in the pipeline here.

Hello dear friends of the good book,
As I wrote above, I have to manage the project on my own after one of my partners dropped out. This is a higher four-digit euro amount. I can write a German book on my own (as I am German - I only pay for the language editing). But my English is too poor to deliver a book in English at the level I expect. So I need translators and language editors.

I have to live with the risk of not knowing whether I will sell 10, 100 or 1000 of the English-language eBooks. What can currently increase my willingness to take risks is only the interest of potential future book buyers. So if you want to promote the book and are really interested in it, please put your name down for the book without obligation. Simply send an e-mail to en.dxophotolab@akkimoto.net . The eBook will cost 25 euros worldwide.

Here is the status of the book. The German book on DxO PhotoLab has already been completely translated into English. The English language editor has already commented on 50% of the book. The picture editing is also 50% complete. These comments must then be incorporated. After that, I will delight the test readers with individual chapters. Like you, I am also waiting for PhotoLab 8 and will probably not get it before you. The 2nd edition of the German book (on PhotoLab 8) is already in progress. I have also incorporated readers’ requests and my own findings. When I have PhotoLab 8, I will have to incorporate the changes into the German book. Then these changes will go to translation and language editing.

I won’t say when the English-language compendium will be published, it will be ready when it is ready. Your emails support my willingness to take risks (e.g. that I outsource parts of the book production - such as the typesetting). However, I asked my crystal ball at the same time and it says that it could be sometime around the turn of the year. Later updates to PL9,10,11… will come much faster. The effort here was to translate an entire book.

Thank you for your support (translation with DeepL)
Akki

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You might find this link even more useful than books:

(It’s been a while since I last viewed them - I can already see things I missed…)

Sent email for English E Book

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