GLKTN Loc: TN

I was playing with aperture priority to see if it would improve my flower pictures and I don't think it helped any.

Stephan G

The adage "Less is more" should be placed on all processes for post-processing.

You don't need to know as much as you might think. The suggestion to ask yourself as to what you want to change about your image is a great start. Write (yes, write!) out a list of ten changes you feel you need. You don't really need ten, but the number is to keep yourself from "going crazy". Do a search on line specific to your list. Strive for answers that include a printout. Work out the suggestions on the computer and make notes on paper. Once you get to a proximate image, run a print and compare with the image on the screen. You may find that you need to adjust in your result. (Prints may not match due to the printer's settings.)

Along the way, you will build up a comprehension about the basic steps needed. And you will have your notes to go back to.

It is like learning a new language, you have to put the lesson into your own words.

Do have fun.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I used my first "personal computer" software about 40 years ago. I had two programs...a text editor called WordStar and a spreadsheet program called MultiPlan. Each offered huge productivity advances over the pencil and paper work we had been doing. They each added revolutionary value to our ability to do productive work, even though they were both very primitive when compared to what is available today.

It wasn't too long before Lotus 1-2-3 came along. Everyone was clamoring to get it. It let you have three worksheets in each file. Pretty soon, it would even let you make simple graphs. Over the years, the floodgates opened. Programs that did fancier graphs, provided color choices, and even choices of fonts. Lots fancier looking...very impressive, in fact, but very little that truly enhanced meaningful analytical capabilities for most people...lots of "form," but not a whole lot of meaningful "substance" for the vast majority of people. In fact, the software became an end in itself, consuming untold numbers of work hours with very little added intelligence.

In my mind, there is a real parallel with photo processing software for the majority of us. Early photo editors, including Paint Shop (which I've never used) and Microsoft Photo Manager (which I have used) offered the revolutionary ability to make some quick, easy, and incredibly useful adjustments to photographs. It was revolutionary, in fact. But the same thing happened all over again. Features were added, computers got more powerful, so more features were added, and pretty soon we ended up with these monster programs full of capabilities that no one really ever asked for.

Of course, there have also been some other parallel paths. In the 1970s, calculator nerds salivated over which calculator could compute 69 factorial fastest (the largest calculated number that scientific calculators could display). Or which calculators carried 13 digits of precision and which carried only 10.

Later, there were other folks who spent hours stretching the capabilities of spreadsheets to do calculations and analyses that no one else cared about. Or in making the presentation that looked the least like it came from a spreadsheet program.

The point of all this is that there is a basic question around all this that we do. It is, "Just because we can do a thing, does it mean that we should do it?" Or that we need to do it?

My suggestion is that you use post processing to get the results you want, then stop. Just don't worry about the stuff you don't need or care about. Have fun. Do lifr.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Your D750 should generate excellent jpegs that need just nudges in PP. As mentioned already, simplify it down to what you really need, which means the basics - brightness levels (Exposure, Shadows, Highlights) and sharpening/denoise. To cover those basics takes about 7 or 8 sliders.

Then when you feel adventurous you can learn how to make your images pop. Again, limit it to basic stuff - Contrast, Saturation, Clarity. That's literally 3 sliders to cover the basics of adding pop.

Until you have these things under your belt, consider everything else to be a distraction. Lightroom gets complicated only if you try to tackle too much too soon.

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

Linda gave great advice. Everyone here has a favorite camera, lens, software package. More postings will produce more opinions.

Like Linda, I heard you asking for something simpler, easier-to-use as a starting point. LR and PS are not simple or easy. I have PS, have used it for years. And still use it for specific retouching needs. But, you might want to see some youtube videos about a package like Luminar as a good starting software.

Not sure why you want to start with your D750 in M (manual) setting instead of auto. When learning with film, I discovered that I needed to keep all other things the same (as much as possible) and change only one 'variable' to learn what I was doing/what was better or worse/what I wanted from it. Then I could try a different 'variable' until I learned what I was doing.

If you want quick and easy, start with some of the recommended quick and easy packages here. - The learning curve for LR and PS is called "lifetime". I'm still learning more after many, many years of using PS.

jim quist Loc: Missouri

My wife bought lightroom 6 a few months ago and I bought her this book. It is for LR CC, but it also applies to LR 6, there is only one chapter that is different and applies only to CC. I find Kelby's books very easy to follow. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-adobe-photoshop-lightroom-classic-cc-book-for-digital-photographers-scott-kelby/1127258228?ean=9780134545134

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

LR has a lot of power and complexity. Try the 'getting started' videos for the Basics of the Develop module. Focus on LR6 rather than PS as PhotoShop does the same things, but in completely different ways. You really need a lot of experience, in both, to understand the two together and why / when one is better than the other. Although complex to a beginner, LR is intended to be more straight-forward and easier to get started for a novice photographer.

There was a suggestion above about using the <Auto> tone in the Develop Module. Honestly, that's a great way to get started, do Auto WB too. The auto results, particularly in the older LR6 can be quite garish, but they usually give you the 'starter' of where you should be editing your images. With the image in Develop, use the Before / After 'swap' key (the backslash: \ ) and watch the differences and the various sliders that are moved. Make your custom adjustments to one image until you're satisfied. For similar images, use the 'sync' option and sync those changes across the similar images, rather than hand-editing every single image from scratch. This process will be demonstrated in many of the 'getting started' videos.

Another thing you can do in LR is 'export' to the DNG format. This is a 'shareable' format that lets you export both your edited image and the LR edits you made. Anyone with LR can import that DNG and see your edits, make suggested updates and re-export the DNG back to you. Similar to that Before / After swap, you can also compare the two images in your LR catalog and see how someone else edited your image and the exact changes they made.

Summary: Lightroom is very, very useful for digital editing and there are tons of free training to watch and thousands of exports who can help you understand the basic through very complex capabilities the software provides. The tool even provides a native share format (DNG) letting you share images with others back n forth.

GLKTN Loc: TN

Thanks CHG CANNON. I read your advice often on UHH. My Lightroom automatically changes my Nikon format photos to DNG. I appreciate all the comments and will stick to LR and very slowly. As suggest above, when frustration sets in I will walk away and come back later.

GLKTN Loc: TN

Thanks Linda. I enjoy your input here on UHH. I will take your advice.

GLKTN Loc: TN

Thank you one and all. Lots of info to learn from. My perpetual journey continues.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Got any 9-15 year old computer geeks in the family or friends?
Get the kid a subscription to Adobe CC with the new versions of LR and PS and pay the kid in gift cards for video gaming sites to do your editing. $9.99 a month to adobe and $20 gift card and your editing gets done for $1 a day. Plus the kid may turn into a pro image editor.

In the mean time, just play with the sliders etc to see what happens until you find effects you like.
Just keep a file of the original out of camera shots and do this with "virtual copies" in LR while you are learning. The real disasters you just delete and then make a new virtual copy in LR and try something different. You will probably end up getting great images while only using 10-25% of the features in LR & PS.

Two of the most important things are learning composition and cropping either in camera or after. I usually take images that cover a bit more than I want just to allow for cropping. I can always crop down to a detail/close up of a subject but I cannot go the other way if it isn't in the OOC image.

And keep shooting RAW - storage is cheap and after you learn editing the RAW gives you the most to work with.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

The tools you end up using depend on the results you want and the goals you set. If you just want quick snapshot type images shoot in jpeg and "call it a day," as the saying goes. If you want to create images that are more along the lines of fine art prints, then shoot in RAW and process in any one of the many very good processing software programs, including LR and PS, among others. I started with LR 10 years ago and today have processed over 12,500 images. You learn as you go. Read the LR Help manual found online at the Adobe website to get started. I would recommend that you not use PS at this time. Concentrate on learning LR and later on you can learn all of the great things you can do in PS. The first thing you can do in LR is to click on Auto Tone and see if that works; if it does not do what you want then start to use the other sliders in the Tone panel. You can set a black and white point using the black and white slider and holding down the option key until just a bit of color shows, slide left for the black slider and slide right for the white slider. This evens out your histogram, read up on the histogram to learn what it means. There are many learning aids on the Adobe website as well as on other websites. You could buy a book and read it; I like the Martin Evening book on LR. He was part of the group that created PS and LR. It takes time and patience to develop skill in processing, but process a lot and you will eventually get better at it.

anotherview Loc: California

Learning how to edit photographs in the beginning feels like trying to drink from a fire hydrant.

My suggestion. Take baby steps. Build on what you know. Improvement takes time to achieve.

Good luck.

mflowe Loc: Port Deposit, MD

Processing is not fun for some people but others feel it's like an orchestra conducting a symphony. I don't understand this cult of fear built up around PS and LR. If you just use the basic tools it's no more complicated than any other PP program. Then as you get more comfortable all those other amazing tools are there for you.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Start with Lightroom and learn the basics for each module first, then think about PS