I’ve read three Scott Kelby books recently. Two, I borrowed, which convinced me that I liked his style and his approach to Photoshop which led me to buy this one.

My first impression was one of disappointment. The first book I read (reviewed here) was quick and snappy – easy to pick up and grab a useful tip or snippet. This felt much harder to track, to find something from.

I’d almost discarded it when desperation (my daughter wanted me to watch Dora) made me pick it up and just read it.

When you actually start on page 1 and read from front to back (I tend to flick books from back to front for some reason), suddenly lights came on – it made sense!

Since then, it’s gone from being lost in a pile of magazines to my bible for post processing.

OK, there are sections in it I have no interest in – I’m not bothered about the best way to save an image for email for example. But for every wasted section, there are four or five which are really informative and provide good insight.

I’m currently stuck in the convert to black and white section – the tips and tricks here alone make the book worth the £18 or so I paid for it.

Here’s my latest B&W conversion (using Scott’s calculations, shadowing and sharpening guides)

And this is using Lightrooms default conversion