Red Sky At Night

No one could find LR more daunting than I did. But once I got over the fear and just did it I actually found the basics quite easy and wondered what I was ever so afraid of. Take the plunge.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

“Honestly, I only want to edit one picture at a time and nothing fancy or involved. (for now). Would I need to take a class or do a lot of reading to just do some "basic photo editing"? I'm very middle of the road when it comes to tech savvy or photo editing knowledge. I would appreciate any thoughts. Thank You!“

Canon provides a free product for their cameras call Digital Photo Professional. It has all the “standard” editing tools.

https://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/product/canon_software/dpp_video_tutorials.do

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

You can get a bundle for photographers for $10.00 a month, it includes Photoshop and Lightroom. Lightroom has excellent tutorials and IMHO is much easier to learn than Photoshop. However, in Lightroom you can go to Photoshop with your photo is you want to. I am not a post secondary expert by any means, but in a few days of viewing the excellent tutorials that come with Lightroom, I was loading my shots and processing them easily. I still have a lot to learn but the basics are down.

alby Loc: very eastern pa.

check put the "edit" part of "photos" on your mac. not bad for a little editing. .. works for me, but i don't need much.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

I do not think Lightroom is overwhelming. Photoshop is another discussion. I would go to Youtube and enter your question(s). There you will get precise directions.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

For the free book, go to: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/ It is an e-book you get in exchange for your email address. Victoria will send you occasional informative emails.

Lightroom usage is so widespread that there is an industry of support. These are some of the more well known teachers.

Laura Shoe: https://laurashoe.com/
Matt Kloskowski: https://mattk.com/
Tim Grey: https://www.greylearning.com/

Another place to look is at your local library. Linda.com (also named Linkedinlearning) may be available as an online service. If not you can subscribe directly for about $20 a month.

(There are a few Lightrooms. One is called Lightroom CC and your image files are kept at online servers. The other is Lightroom Classic CC where image files are stored the traditional way on your own computer. Both are licensed by subscription. A third is Lightroom 6.14 that can be licensed on a perpetual one time fee but it has become a little old and is no longer being updated.)

woodemp

I use Lightroom and like it. I used steele Training, Lightroom made Easy, and found it very helpful.

rond-photography Loc: Connecticut

You can easily over complicate LR. Get Scott Kelby's book "The Adobe Lightroom X" (where X is the version closest to what you have bought - I have the "4" where I started and very little has changed since).
Once you have imported the photos onto your hard drive, you can just pick "AUTO" for the develop and see what happens, and then learn some brushes, set your white balance, and a few others. The book will get you through and you will probably never open it again once you have gone through it - it is that good.
As with any processing software, the hard question is never how do I do such and such - the problem is that you have no idea that you need to DO such and such, so you can't look it up! Unfortunately, that is common to every program out there, so having a book that guides you through step by step is the best starting point.

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

I would say that the most difficult part of using any photo editing software is not the actual use of the software, but knowing and understanding what it is that you want it to do for you. Several decades ago, I thought that computers were pretty much a waste of time and money. That is until I discovered word processing! I was so poor at typing that my typing instructor in high school passed me because she felt sorry for me. I had to pay people to type my papers for me in college. Once I discovered word processing I declared that computers were worth whatever they cost just for the word processing. The Adobe Photography subscription is $10 a month. Or, if your computer will run it, you can download and run Topaz Studio for free or get one of the other multitude of editing programs. In any case, you will need to be willing to spend time to "play" with it to start to understand the things it can do.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, it can be difficult, but it doesn't have to be. Just work your way down the right column. You move sliders to adjust exposure, contrast, color, etc. It's like operating a DSLR. You can set it on Auto and get great pictures, or you can use all the buttons and adjustments on the camera.

There are very good alternatives -

Affinity
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/software-review-affinity-photo-1-5-2
http://www.shutterbug.com/content/affinity-photo-software-review-has-photoshop-met-its-match#d1c5lY5EQ03QoLjh.97
http://www.diyphotography.net/affinity-photo-can-give-adobe-run-money/
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/affinity-photo-1.5,review-4257.html

Others
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-lightroom-alternatives
http://digital-photography-school.com/a-beginners-guide-to-choosing-the-right-post-production-software/
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/photo-editing
https://www.reviews.com/photo-editing-software/
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-photo-editing-software,review-1972.html
http://www.redmondpie.com/best-adobe-photoshop-alternatives-for-windows-and-mac-list Affinity
http://www.shutterbug.com/content/affinity-photo-software-review-has-photoshop-met-its-match#d1c5lY5EQ03QoLjh.97
http://www.diyphotography.net/affinity-photo-can-give-adobe-run-money/
https://photographypro.com/photo-editing/

For free -

https://www.darktable.org/
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/59324818
https://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-edit-rawtherapee/
https://www.lightstalking.com/free-photography-software/
http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-photo-editor
http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/the-best-photoshop-alternatives-that-are-totally-free-5974500
http://lightzoneproject.org/

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

As far as editing is concerned, I find LR pretty intuitive.
Where most people get into trouble with LR is in the way it organizes your files. Most people start out thinking that you put an image into the program, edit it, and save it, and you're done. LR is not quite like that. You don't put the image into LR, you "import" it. LR stores the location of the image file, not the file itself. For that reason, if you move the file from one folder to another, LR will lose track of it and you will not be able to use LR to edit it until you tell LR where it is now.

LR is a basic editor with a few more advanced features. If all you're doing is editing your images and you don't care about managing them you can use most any editor.

When my photopile got above 10,000 images I started to have trouble finding things. LR helps me in that regard since it allows me to organize my photos in several ways. If you're just starting out, that may not be too important to you. But if you plan to continue taking photos for the next few decades, you should start thinking about how to organize things so you can find important photos later. LR is ideal for that.

I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from using LR because I think it's a very useful piece of software. But it does have a learning curve. In my opinion the learning curve is worth working your way through because there are benefits to the total program that go beyond the editor.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I also have a Canon 5D MIII. I began my post processing with simple programs - Picasa, Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements and eventually graduated to full blown versions of Photoshop and LightRoom. All Adobe products may be sampled (free) for 30 days. I recommend Photoshop Elements (PSE) current version. It has three levels: Beginner, Guided & Advanced. Easy to learn - lots of tutorials and help. You will probably have to establish an Adobe ID (email & Password). You also have a free program built into the Mac operating system. It may be called, "Photos"?

Good luck,
Mark

neco Loc: Western Colorado Mountains

Try Anthony Morganti.com
His series on Lightroom got me started.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I don't own or use Adobe Bridge but I have read that if basic editing is all you're after then it's a viable alternative to Lr. Alternatively, Photoshop Elements contains ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) which is a bare bones version of Lightroom. Much of what you pay for in Lr is the cataloguing capabilities.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

It’s like anything else in life. It’s very hard to learn if you THINK it is/will be. It’s very easy to learn if you THINK it is/will be.

With a 30-day free trial and then $10/month for two different Lightroom apps, plus Photoshop and Bridge and more, plus thousands of training resources on the Internet, what’s the risk?

I won’t lie, learning it WILL take time. But, then, photography is a life-long learning experience anyway.