Mikkel Aaland’s new book, Photoshop Lightroom Adventure (O’Reilly, $39.99, 350 pages) is different from most instructional manuals. It features the gorgeous imagery and on-site experiences of 12 photographers who took part in a joint photography expedition to Iceland in July 2006.

“I wanted to road test Lightroom in a visually exciting environment,” explains Aaland. “At the end of a long day of shooting, we all gathered in workrooms, fired up our computers, and got to work.”

They chose Iceland in July because it’s known as Nature’s Lightroom. In the summer, Iceland’s picturesque landscape is suffused with various shades of dappled light for nearly 24 hours.

With tutorials and case studies based on the images shot in Iceland, the book explains how to use Lightroom’s modules, including the:

Library module for uploading, sorting, tagging, ranking and adding keywords to images

Develop module with Adobe Camera RAW for non-destructive color and tonal adjustments

Slideshow module for selecting and sizing images and exporting to HTML, Flash, or PDF formats

Print module with templates for printing contact sheets or full images

Web module for creating Flash or HTML web galleries

Some of the photography pros who joined Aaland on the Lightroom Adventure were nature photography and color expert Bill Atkinson, landscape photographer and Luminous Landscape publisher Michael Reichmann, fine-art photographer Angela Drury, advertising/editorial photographers Maggie Hallahan and John McDermott, photojournalist John Isaac, commercial photographer Peter Krogh, people photographer Richard Morgenstein, and three photographers who live in Iceland.