Brian in Whitby Loc: Whitby, Ontario, Canada

I have been using LR 5 Since Late December. I organize my my photos into folders by date shot and rename the files by prefixing the date shot to the camera file name. That prevents duplicate names. I lesson I learned earlier in PSE when I accidentally overwrote photos with new files with the dame camera name/ If you use a numeric date format in descending order, your photos will be ordered in sequential order.
So today's date would be 20140518 you could alternately use 2014-05-18 as long as you are consistent in your date format.

One other piece of advice: Tag like crazy. The more tags you apply to a photo, the easier it is to find just the photo you are looking for later.

I would be willing to mentor. Please contact me by PM if you are interested and I will give you my e-mail address. I can also send you the script I used for a recent workshop I lead on the Essentials of the develop module. It was meant for absolute beginners you should find it quite useful.

n64uw

Purchase Martin Evening's book. You can get a clear picture of how to organize. Pick Large topics important to you for Catalogs; use keywords to identify more specific image topics; read the book; hire someone to help like I did yesterday so that I could write this today...

lsimpkins Loc: SE Pennsylvania

is Laura Shoe's "LR5: The Fundamentals and Beyond". Although this is a complete course, it is set up in modules that are graded as to basic, intermediate and advanced techinques. Although the DVD course is not free, she does offer free tips on her website. She has also taught on CreativeLive.com (free while live on line).

brow3904 Loc: Upstate South Carolina

I like Anthony Morganti on youtube. All his videos are free and he is very thorough. Also Adobe has good ones although the woman goes too fast for me and assumes I know too much and skips things I need to know.

ljmeis76 Loc: Bedford, MA(Delray, FL)

Try this free tutorial from yesterdays UHH. Free. Logic behind fLR rather than mechanics.Excellent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsuJZoWDRFA

Navygmari Loc: Rhode Island

B & H has a tutorial on how to start using Lightroom. The first thing you want to do is organize all your pictures into folders before you even start lightroom.

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

redrocktom Loc: Sedona

A video I found particularly helpful about organizing with LR5:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsuJZoWDRFA&list=TLzL1TS0bvRIppc6jf-UJIZq_9OgA3LIlc

etheralwalker

Thank you everyone for the list of tutorials. I do have someone to help me... the curser issue is extremely vexing to say the least, as is the Develop mode with no tools... appreciate all input.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

You will never "get" Lightroom until you spend a few hours taking an organized course.

The "no tools" in Develop was likely turned off when you pressed the arrowhead on the right side of the screen. Press it again and the tools will come back.

When you slide the mouse over images in the Develop module it is supposed to be a magnifying glass. It has a purpose. When you find the tools in the develop module and select one, the cursor will change to what is appropriate for that tool.

Hammer Loc: London UK

Hi,

I got in the same position as you , felt like giving up but too late !

Found a tutorial video series by Laura Shoe (Laurashoe.com) . Seems to be aimed at dummies like me so you should not have a
problem . Found it best to split my screen into two with the LauraShoe videos in one half and lightroom open in the other . Just practised as I went along .

For reference I use the Scott Kelby book which the Hoggers here
seem to like , its good as well.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I don't believe that is exactly true for everyone. I have never had an organized course in any post processing tools and I use a bunch of them at least adequately. BUT...

What I do think is absolutely essential is purposeful learning. This can be an organized course in person or online, it can be a series of free videos on the youtube, it can be a good solid reference book, or it can be work with a more experienced friend or any combination of these.

These software programs are very complex, and you are not likely to figure them out sufficiently with hit and miss questions on the forum or just by fiddling without a frame of reference. Fiddling is essential, but if the fiddling isn't tied to an understanding of what the tools do, you will achieve accidental results that you can't replicate.

Whichever learning route you choose, you should approach it systematically, keep detailed notes, and practice every skill that is taught with every tool, even if it doesn't sound like something you're interested in today.

Lightroom is an amazing program, but it will only do what you tell it to, and you'll have to learn how to direct it or it'll just sit there and look at you:)

Brian in Whitby Loc: Whitby, Ontario, Canada

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
I agree. What works for one person does not work as well for the next. It has to do with learning styles. It is much like learning to read; Some people learn better with sight reading while others do better with phonics. Apply the wrong method to the wrong kid and you have frustration and possible failure.
To learn Lightroom, I tried a video tutorial and was frustrated by the amount of filler in the course and quit after one 4 hour session. Actually, I had shut down in the first hour but persisted listening until I was convinced it was not going to get any better.
I tried Scott Kelby's book but again, I was frustrated by his plodding descriptions of procedures that were self evident.
I prefer to read the manual but software companies these days have discovered that by not including the manual, they can sell you all sorts of learning videos, books and study guides.
In the end, I decided to go it alone and just explore my way through the program. I have not yet mastered it but I can do almost anything I want to do and have enough understanding of the program that anything else I need to do, I can figure out on the fly.
I have found the Missing Manual books to be an effective help in learning software but there isn't one for Lightroom.

twillsol Loc: St. Louis, MO

Lightroom is totally non-destructable. You can post process to your heart's content and still revert back to the original photo and start over. That is one thing that I really like about it.