Best way to learn Lightroom?
Dec 13, 2015 20:46:24 #
Mr.Ft
Loc: Central New Jersey
I'm new to this forum and have only been into photography for about a year now. I want to take my photos to the next level. I was told to buy lightroom 6, but my question is where or how is the best way to learn this software? Are there books, DVD's, classes ect. or would trial and error be the best. Thanks for any advise you can give me, also the best place to buy the program.
Tom
Tom
Dec 13, 2015 20:49:49 #
Hi Tom - you can rent it and photoshop for $9.99 a month. That is what most do since you get all the updates free. There are books, YouTube videos etc... No shortage of resources - free or paid.
Dec 13, 2015 21:07:27 #
Mr.Ft
Loc: Central New Jersey
Thanks for the fast response, That may be my best option right now.
Tom
Tom
Dec 13, 2015 21:11:35 #
Mr.Ft wrote:
Thanks for the fast response, That may be my best option right now.
Tom
Tom
You are welcome - it is a very good option.
Dec 13, 2015 21:41:09 #
lightroom is a great photo editing program, easy learning curve to begin with. there are a lot of you tube tutorials that you may learn for free. if you are more of a bookworm, there are many great books to learn from, just choose a book that is easy for you to follow, everyone has a different level at which they enjoy to learn. also, google learning lightroom and you will find several free tips on using it.
Dec 13, 2015 21:54:04 #
Mr.Ft wrote:
I'm new to this forum and have only been into photography for about a year now. I want to take my photos to the next level. I was told to buy lightroom 6, but my question is where or how is the best way to learn this software? Are there books, DVD's, classes ect. or would trial and error be the best. Thanks for any advise you can give me, also the best place to buy the program.
Tom
Tom
Trial and error is a bad plan for Lightroom, because you really need to learn something about setting it up before you start using it. The editing part is pretty easy to learn by trial and error but if you set up the database part badly you will hate the program and will soon be posting messages like "lightroom lost my photos, what do I do?" Here's some stuff on the UHH Post Processing section http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-156310-1.html that can help. Adobe has an excellent user guide for Lightroom online. There are many youtube tutorials that are free. The website Lightroom Queen has great information. There are a number of useful books if you're a book person.
The $10 a month Lightroom and Photoshop deal works great for me, but if you don't want to tangle with the complexity of Photoshop right away, you can buy a single copy of LR from Adobe or from a number of retailers. For many people, LR is all they want/need, especially for the first leg of this journey.
Dec 13, 2015 21:56:19 #
Adobe has a great tutorial selection for most of their software. For LightRoom, start here:
http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/tutorials.html
http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/tutorials.html
Dec 13, 2015 21:56:43 #
After using Lightroom for a couple of years in earnest and absorbing many video tutorials on YouTube, at Adorama, B&H and at Adobe's web site, I got Tony Northrup's Kindle book on Lightroom 6 for $10. It took me to the next level. Even if you don't learn well from a book, it is well worth it, he has hours and hours of video tutorials linked to the book where he shows you everything from basics to advanced stuff in great detail. He also has another book that helped me immensely with the basics of digital photography, it's also a Kindle book with lots of video tutorials and is also $10. It's called Stunning Digital Photography, wherein he covers basics and then every type of photography known to man from weddings to birds in flight to sports to HDR to landscapes and on and on. Good luck.
Dec 13, 2015 22:22:35 #
Trial and error is probably the most difficult way to attempt to learn Lightroom. I see there's a title Adobe Lightroom 6 / CC Video Book: Training for Photographers as a printed book. Using utube is a great resource except the topics and quality are haphazard and unstructured in organization if you don't know where to start.
Dec 13, 2015 22:29:53 #
CHG_CANON wrote:
Trial and error is probably the most difficult way to attempt to learn Lightroom. I see there's a title Adobe Lightroom 6 / CC Video Book: Training for Photographers as a printed book. Using utube is a great resource except the topics and quality are haphazard and unstructured in organization if you don't know where to start.
If you use Tony Morganti's Video lessons he starts at the beginning(setting up the library) and goes from there. Very easy to follow and he does one episode on each function of Lightroom.
Dec 13, 2015 22:43:02 #
Jessie
Loc: SW Texas
Hal Schmitt has a series out that cost $50. As far as I am concerned well worth every cent. I started at beginning-took some time, but was time well spent. Good luck. It finally starts to make sense.
Dec 13, 2015 22:54:41 #
Dec 13, 2015 23:24:14 #
If you decide to use Lightroom, the first thing you need to learn is the library! If you decide to use lightroom, make sure that you have ONE folder on your computer for all you photos, use Lightroom to import your photos, and use Lightroom to manage your photo file system. FORGET that you can use your operating system to move your photo files, change file names, or anything else that has to do with your photos.
Scott Kelby has some great books on Lightroom, so does Tony Northrup. as well as others. For $10.00/per month the Lightroom and Photoshop combination is outstanding, but learning about the two and how to use them can be time consuming (but well worth the effort)!
Scott Kelby has some great books on Lightroom, so does Tony Northrup. as well as others. For $10.00/per month the Lightroom and Photoshop combination is outstanding, but learning about the two and how to use them can be time consuming (but well worth the effort)!
Dec 14, 2015 04:51:21 #
minniev wrote:
Trial and error is a bad plan for Lightroom, becau... (show quote)
If you typically learn by T&E, you have a challenge ahead. I have learned over 500 software packages without taking a single course, workshop, class etc. LR was not difficult on the photo editing side - and just a little confusing on the catalog side, partly because Adobe uses some "unique" nomenclature for familiar things identified by other more conventional terms. Once you make that translation, you are golden. It took me one weekend of immersion to understand that one should not use the catalog as a browser, and that you cannot right click on a file and open with LR. All file management either has to be done inside the catalog, or you must be vigilant about syncing any changes made at the Windows Explorer (or Finder if on Mac) level. Last, even if you think you lost a file, in LR, you have only lost its location per the catalog. It is in the catalog, but the catalog can't find it. So you need to sync and point the catalog to the image location.
Have fun exploring the software, and check out Julieanne Kost and others that make LR easier to use.
Dec 14, 2015 05:31:22 #
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.