jennyfilip47 Loc: Michigan City, IN

I am new to Lightroom 5
1. Just purchased LR5 and I am asking for anybodys opinion on how to "ORGANIZE THE FOLDERS", Before I jump right into using Lightroom we must first organize the files. Any suggestions on what yall do, so I can get an idea.
2.Also any tips on using the program would be helpful. I am trying to learn and I have some photos I am anxious to edit. Any help or links to help me learn this program would be greatly appreciated. From the Very Beginning with NO experience whatsoever.
3. I am looking for a mentor, somebody who has the knowledge of Lightroom 5 and takes professional pictures with whom I can chat with and share emails and possibly talk to once a week on the phone. Thank you so much in Advance. Jenny

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

I don't use Lightroom but I know there are loads of tutorials on youtube also you could Google the name for many more. Good luck, I am just learning post processing and I think the best way is to learn bits and to practise them on unimportant photos.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Photographer named Chris Marquardt (on line and on radio with Leo Leport's tech show frequently) has a multiple video 6 1/2 hr tutorial series. A few of the basic ones are free and pricing is on the honor system, you get all of them for 14.95 to 99.95 depending what you believe they are worth to you, you get the same videos no matter what you pay. It was just upgraded for LR5.

jennyfilip47 Loc: Michigan City, IN

Thank you. HOWS THAT 6D?

jennyfilip47 Loc: Michigan City, IN

Thank you.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Better than me. I need Canon 6D for Dummies. It is a great camera. I tried some moon shots last night, the trees between me and the moon actually had grainy colors when I blew it way up in PP and I was at ISO 100, f11, 1/250. If I had put it on auto it probably would have come up with some very dark color shots.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

1. No you don't. The point of Lightroom is to organize by your personal thought process using collections, keywords, grading, etc. It does not care what folders you put the original photos in. However, if YOU like to keep organized folders there are some choices you can pick from the import screen. The easiest for me is a folder for each camera and a sub folder for shooting date.

2. My primary tip for any that ask is to take an organized course. It is usually ignored and most want instant gratification and like to learn randomly. Lightroom is too full of tools and techniques you will never discover if you don't take a course. My favorite will cost you $25 at Lynda.com. My second favorite is free from Adobe with Julieanne Kost where within three or four hours of watching you will understand the basics of a useful workflow. (http://tv.adobe.com/show/getting-started-with-adobe-photoshop-lightroom-5/)

3. Good idea. Find a pro who spends every waking minute trying to make a living and convince him/her that you are worth a major investment in time and energy. Good luck! Instead, try participating in the Post Processing forum here (http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-116-1.html) or the Lightroom beginners forum provided by Adobe.

GordonB. Loc: St. Petersburg, Fl.

I've been using Windows Explorer for years to organize my photos and I know where each photo is located. I have no
intention of changing my system. It works for me; perhaps no one else.

Many people use years to organize their folders, that would not work for me. I have no idea what I was shooting in 2005.

Again, whatever is the easiest type organizational method that is good for you is what you should use. Having someone work with you on a one to one basis would be great.
Good luck in finding that person unless you live in a large city. In that case, take a course. As was mentioned previously, no pro can beat Julieanne Kost's method of instucting. Her vids are excellent. Go to the Adobe site to get her instructions.

Nick K Loc: Long Beach CA

Jenny; I just upgraded to LR5, there is a lot to learn but it is a great program. Check out the tutorials on Adobe they will help get you started. One tutorial I found recommended organizing file structure before putting it into LR, which I did. I had my photos organized by date but that became too hard to retrieve certain images. My system I use now is main folders like vacation then sub folders with place and date. We went to Europe a few years back that vacation I split into different sub folders for each country or region due to the large number of photos we took. This way works for recovering photos as I ussally know where a photo was taken so I can find it. With lightroom you can keyword the photos upon import which helps with searching later. Hope this helps. Work with it for a few weeks or a month it will be frustrating at first but it is a great program.

Bob Boner

There are lots of choices. I do mine by date (2014xxxx). Within the folder I type the name of the subject/area/whatever and renumber the images (otherwise you can end up with two images in the same folder with the same numbers if you have had a good day). Other folks name the folder by location, or subject matter or whatever. I use the date because with nature photography I tend to remember dates when I was in a particular location. I can then use key words to identify subject matter (elk,bear,whatever). I HIGHLY recommend Tim Grey's Lightroom, etc, instruction which can be found here

http://greylearning.com/join.html

It will be the best $50 you have ever spent. He has lightroom, photoshop, photoshop elements, Nik, OnOne instructions (and others) and for the $50 you can download all of it. He devotes a good bit of time to naming folders in Lightroom. He has about 8 movie downloads devoted to Lightroom, most of them in excess of 1 hr viewing time. Since you are just starting with lightroom, this would be the best place to get information from a really great instructor.

jennyfilip47 Loc: Michigan City, IN

[Thank you!!!


quote=bsprague]1. No you don't. The point of Lightroom is to organize by your personal thought process using collections, keywords, grading, etc. It does not care what folders you put the original photos in. However, if YOU like to keep organized folders there are some choices you can pick from the import screen. The easiest for me is a folder for each camera and a sub folder for shooting date.

2. My primary tip for any that ask is to take an organized course. It is usually ignored and most want instant gratification and like to learn randomly. Lightroom is too full of tools and techniques you will never discover if you don't take a course. My favorite will cost you $25 at Lynda.com. My second favorite is free from Adobe with Julieanne Kost where within three or four hours of watching you will understand the basics of a useful workflow. (http://tv.adobe.com/show/getting-started-with-adobe-photoshop-lightroom-5/)

3. Good idea. Find a pro who spends every waking minute trying to make a living and convince him/her that you are worth a major investment in time and energy. Good luck! Instead, try participating in the Post Processing forum here (http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-116-1.html) or the Lightroom beginners forum provided by Adobe.[/quote]

jennyfilip47 Loc: Michigan City, IN

Thank you! :)


uote=Nick K]Jenny; I just upgraded to LR5, there is a lot to learn but it is a great program. Check out the tutorials on Adobe they will help get you started. One tutorial I found recommended organizing file structure before putting it into LR, which I did. I had my photos organized by date but that became too hard to retrieve certain images. My system I use now is main folders like vacation then sub folders with place and date. We went to Europe a few years back that vacation I split into different sub folders for each country or region due to the large number of photos we took. This way works for recovering photos as I ussally know where a photo was taken so I can find it. With lightroom you can keyword the photos upon import which helps with searching later. Hope this helps. Work with it for a few weeks or a month it will be frustrating at first but it is a great program.[/quote]

jennyfilip47 Loc: Michigan City, IN

Thank you!

Bob Boner

Just a comment about one of the responses about experimenting on unimportant images. Lightroom does not change a single pixel of the raw capture, only its interpretation. You can always revert back to the original raw file. Just another reason to always photograph in raw.

GordonB. Loc: St. Petersburg, Fl.

quote=bsprague]My favorite will cost you $25 at Lynda.com. [/quote]

Am I correct in thinking each course is $25? Or, even, $25 per month? I've heard wonderful things about her courses but the cost is why I couldn't take advantage of them. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks,
Gordon