robertcbyrd Loc: 28754

Affinity Photo is great and inexpensive.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Lightroom is a pretty good editing program. There are other programs that have more capability than Lightroom (e.g. Photoshop), but what the other programs lack is the Digital Asset Management. DAM is what enables you to keep track of your photos and find them quickly when you need them. That is, to me, the real reason to learn Lightroom.

The Adobe Photography package at $9.99/month (plus sales tax) is a bargain. It includes Lightroom, Photoshop, and a couple other programs like Bridge (another program some people prefer for DAM). The price is probably less than most people spend on impulse purchases. When you import images into LR, you can add keywords. If you add a good set of keywords to each image, years from now you can search for all the photos with a given keyword and LR will show them to you in seconds. Even photos you don't remember taking. I try to add peoples names as keywords so if I look for a particular name, LR can display them all.

The other strength of LR is that although it's a pretty good editor, it can handshake with Photoshop, which is (in many peoples opinion) the best editor available. The combination gives you an unbeatable program set. For short money.

As is the case with anything, it takes a bit of time to learn how to use it. Online tutorials (both paid and free) are available that will help you work with it. You don't have to learn it all at once.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Don't give up. LR is awesome. There are youtube videos on how to get started using LR. They are very helpful. But if you want to make a picture look nice, simply click on one picture, then up top click on the Develop module button or letter D on your keyboard. (Type letter G to go back to grid view in Library mode) Then when in Develop, click on Auto button and watch you picture change for the better. Then from there you can make minor adjustments on the same sliders that LR changed to your tastes. The go down the list and play with all the other options. Some will apply, and some are never used. The ones that I use all the time are: Basic, Detail & Lens Corrections. I sometimes use HSL and Effects. But start with Lens Corrections and choose the lens you had on your camera so that it can automatically get rid of any distortion from your lens, and any Chromatic Aberration. Then use the Basic panel to adjust the looks of your picture and don't forget you can crop the image from there too.

Don't give up. It's really not complicated. It's just different than anything you've ever used.

arweber Loc: Pacifica, CA

Fear not. You will be using it like a champ in no time. I have a book called Lightroom 6/cc the missing faq by Victoria Brampton. It is a helpful reference. I skipped the chapters on catalogue and import because I figured it out myself and only do the minimum. If you want, I can write out the steps for you. Once you have your photo imported and ready for editing, then the fun begins. Much of you it will be able to play around with and figure it out. I also look at u tube videos for the specialized things. Good luck.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

There are a lot of independent resources for Lightroom... but if you still find it overwhelming, you might try Adobe Elements. It's got a lot of built-in support for new users, while LR has none.

Plus, LR is not really designed as a stand-alone, do-it-all program. It has fairly limited image editing and optimization capabilities. LR is designed to partner with Photoshop, the two complement each other. (But if you hate LR, you'd REALLY find Photoshop a problem, it's FAR more complex.)

Elements is more of a stand-alone program.... incorporating aspects of both LR and PS. There also are a lot of independent resources for Elements. "2018" is the current version. It's available as a free 30 day trial download, too. Has "Beginner/Guided" mode, "Intermediate" mode and "Expert/Unguided" mode. (LR and PS don't have those... you buy books and study them and/or take college level classes to learn to use them... especially Photoshop.)

EarlJ Loc: North Carolina

Aloha...
old question... current dilemma...

Look here for a comparison...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9fz4Pn_GSM

and here for a beginners introduction...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn8kwOQhMJA

I gave up on 13 years of Adobe P[o]S for Affinity Photo earlier this year...
Yes, they have a free trial period... before you buy... [$50]

They also have a Designer version [$50] for creators and a Publisher (beta) to replace InDesign [free to download - final pricing unknown by me at this time]...
* * *
Enjoy. . .
* * *
Until that time...

nervous2 Loc: Provo, Utah

Is your son available for rent?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The problem you have is that you don't know how to search (or haven't thought of searching) the Internet. There are BILLIONS of articles and videos on how to use Adobe products. Look up

Julieanne Kost, Adobe product evangelist and master trainer
Scott Kelby, a professional, for-profit trainer
Lynda.com, a web site full of all sorts of training materials

Or, just Google 'lightroom training'

Don't give up on Lightroom!

It is an image database, raw and TIFF and JPEG image processor, rating tool, finished image export tool, printing tool, web posting tool, book layout tool... and it NEVER alters your original files. It only saves links to them, along with instructions to render them when you export, print, compose a book, or post to the Internet.

You can do 90% of what you need in Lightroom. For the other 10%, there's Photoshop and a hundred other apps.

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

Actually, there are plenty of instructions for LR. The Adobe website has a lot of good information. You have been given a list of places to find more.

Listen to Gene51 and others who describe the benefits of LR and how to use it.


Ridiculous? The only thing that is ridiculous is not being willing to take the time and effort to explore something that is worth learning. You have a camera that shoots in RAW, and you have learned to use it - wasn't that worth the effort?

The most complicated part of using LR is the Catalog system. You will have a folder on your hard drive for your photos. In LR, you will have a folder with the same name. The organizing is up to you, but you want the two folders to match. As you want to bring images into LR, you can make a sub-folder the same as the one with those images and import them. The images are NOT actually in the LR Catalog, the Catalog simply "sees" them inside the folder on your hard drive. This is why you MUST only move photos, delete photos, and create folders from WITHIN LR. If you do it on your hard drive, that breaks the connection with LR's Catalog, which will then tell you the image is "missing"!.

After that, you go into the Develop Module, click on Auto if you want to start there. Then start moving sliders in the "Basic" section. See what they do by going to extremes. Play with them. Figure out how to get the results you want. There are a few tools at the top, and those when you click on them also have sliders specific to them.

There is a lot you can do with LR [Now called Lightroom Classic CC]. Start slow and learn. Yes there are some aspects that can be confusing. But at the beginning you really only need the basics.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Lightroom is powerful, but probably 5% as difficult to master as is Photoshop.

Serious photography is not without effort. Darkroom work was laborious, tedious, and took lots of money and time to master. It was also FAR less precise!

Lightroom is much less time-intensive to use and to master. You can go from a raw file to a usable image in just a few minutes, or seconds if you save a preset and apply it to multiple similar images at the same time.

It ought to be a crime not to use the full capabilities of your camera. You can, of course, put it on Auto, Intelligent Auto, or Program Auto, and just save JPEGs. Some of them will be quite nice. But eventually, you will encounter a scene that REQUIRES post-processing from a raw file to render it well.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Start here and dial in lightroom. https://onlinephotographytraining.com/ You will find a well articulated individual video on just about every feature of LR.

Sorry that you were expecting a how to guide but none of them provide one. Good that yoou didn't just start with Photoshop or you would really be a deep dark abyss/ Hell, the manuals they provide with cameras suck! There are also books but I find a video of someone talking and hitting the keys, much better than a book.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Here is the rub. The Lightroom image editor has one of the shortest learning curves due to it's extremely well organized user interface.

On the other hand, the powerful image management is where everyone has problems. Not because it is difficult - but rather because most people approach it like a file browser - which it is not.

I think one of the best places to get some hands-on advice would be your local photo club. Many of the paid and free sites - while good - only teach you want they think you need to know, and they assume a basic working knowledge of a computer and file system. If you are missing the basic computer skills, then you will just be more frustrated using online resources, at least in the beginning. People in photo clubs are more likely to show you the ropes, regardless of your skill level, and your experience will be a better one.

There are over 9,000,000 Adobe subscribers - and I can tell you - from experience - that the majority faced the same stumbling blocks you are dealing with now. Just stick to it and soon enough this will all be in the rear-view mirror.

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

If you can't figure out Lightroom you won't figure out anything. The hardest thing to understand about Lightroom is how to setup your libraries & Catalouges and you can learn all of that on YouTube. RAW is not difficult to understand it simply gives you better control over the adjustment sliders. When you export your files is when you convert them to JPEG, TIFF or other. See Gene51's quote above - he's right on the money.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

So you downloaded LR and don't like it. Did you expect to know everything right up front?

Most of the responses have been from pro LR users telling you how to learn it. Listen to them!

You also asked about a good and I suppose an easy PP. In my opinion and for the past ten years or so, there is nothing better than Capture One Pro but you have to know that it initially took me a good half year to really get comfortable with it. Every PP has a learning curve. Since you have LR, use it a little at a time and get used to it. As for lessons, do a search. I wish Capture One had as many free lessons as LR does. (Not any more though.) After that expand as you see fit. Just don't try too much at once.

If you have a problem after all that, then and only then, change.

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

Actually I find LR a pleasure to use - I figured out the basics myself through trial/ error and just poking around, but one day I will stop to learn the more advanced features. There are many resources online (YT, Google, and of course Adobe themselves). LR is much easier to learn than PS which has tons more bells and whistles.