Lightroom

[kaneohebud]

After spending 10 days shooting in Alaska with a pro photographer, I finally drank the Kool-aid and bought Lightroom. I have worked with Aperture for years and realized that Apple has not kept pace with photo processing (even with NIK and Topaz plug-ins).

I know that Adobe has very good tutorials on Lightroom, but is there anywhere I can go to get a "quick and dirty" introduction to Lightroom 5 basics to get started?

[davidedric]

I don't know about "quick and dirty" because LR is such a rich package. Julianne Kosts's videos are very good http://jkost.com/lightroom.html

Since it sounds as if you main first step is process your Alaskan images, you obviously need Import to get the images in there, a skip through Library to understand the principles (some understanding of the catalogue is really important)

I then suggest her create stunning images video http://tv.adobe.com/watch/getting-st...tunning-images

Followed by a look at exporting.

Other views may appear here!

Dave

[Digital]

I could not agree more with Dave's suggestion about Julianne Kost's videos on Lightroom 5. She apparently is one of the gurus at Adobe.


Bruce

[DanK]

Ditto re Kost's videos.

For starting out, it's not essential that all of your sources are updated to LR 5. The changes from 4 to 5 are not fundamental, and you can pick them up easily once you know the basics. However, it IS essential that your sources are updated at least to LR 4. LR 4 and 5 use a different processing engine than earlier versions of lightroom. The basic tonality controls are different and work different.

Scott Kelby's book is a decent intro, though chattier and not terribly detailed.

[Trina]

I have Scott Kelby's book and it has been pretty helpful...... I checked out the links from above they are GREAT!

[nimitzbenedicto]

Hi y'all,

Yes, Adobe's tutorials and Ms. Kost's vids are cool. More videos on youtube.
Perhaps, start off with "New Features...", as they said , check out how to import , library, develop module, export/save.

Sadly, there's no " quick..." fix. You just have to take time to read/view those tutorials. If possible, while reading LR manual, open your LR and go through each and every item.

Have a nice time with LR........

HTH

[Brownbear]

I think Scott Kelby's book is a great intro to the basics. When I first started using LR I chose a photo to play with and used his book as a reference, and played with the sliders... And still do so.

I am also in the process of doing Hal Schmitt's tutorials and I think they are good. I like how one can pick and choose the topic of interest to learn at the time.

http://en.elephorm.com/tuto-lightroo...-training.html

[inkista]

+1 on Kost's videos. The full "getting started with Lightroom 5" is here:

http://tv.adobe.com/show/getting-sta...p-lightroom-5/

[Alandb]

Laura Shoe and George Jardine have excellent training videos. One suggestion about "quick and dirty" is that this is a very robust program and it very useful to learn how to set up the proper workflow as a beginner.

[Simon Garrett]

+1 to the Kost videos.

From reading queries here and on the Adobe Lightroom forum, there are two Lightroom concepts you really need to get your head around. That is, two ways in which Lightroom is a bit different from most other programs:

1. The catalogue. Lightroom keeps its own database of your images called the "catalogue". You have to import images into Lightroom before Lightroom can use them, which means Lightroom adds entries for your images in the catalogue. That's all it means, but it can be rather confusing until you've got the idea. Your image files remain wherever you put them (or tell Lightroom to put them, if you use Lightroom to copy files from the memory card).
2. Lightroom's non-destructive editing. Lightroom never alters image files when you edit in Lightroom (except the metadata part of the file). Instead, Lightroom keeps a list of all the edits you do in its catalogue (and also optionally in "sidecar" files). If you ask Lightroom to edit a file in another program (e.g. Photoshop) then it creates a copy for that other program to play with.

You probably know all this, but most the questions and confusions I've read on forums about Lightroom are about one of these two, especially the catalogue, and it's worth making sure you really understand what is going on - which is pretty simple, but conceptually different to most other stuff.

[nimitzbenedicto]

Hi Bud,

Just some impt info for LR5 users.

There's a new LR5.2RC ( release candidate) up-date supposedly fixed some LR5 bugs.

check this out from Adobe:

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjour...dobe-labs.html

Matt Kloskowski's comment:

http://lightroomkillertips.com/?p=5044

Download link:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom5-2/

HTH

[kaneohebud]

Thanks all for your continuing input. I'm learning a lot quickly!

[Jeff S]

Lightroom's non-destructive editing. Lightroom never alters image files when you edit in Lightroom (except the metadata part of the file). Instead, Lightroom keeps a list of all the edits you do in its catalogue (and also optionally in "sidecar" files). If you ask Lightroom to edit a file in another program (e.g. Photoshop) then it creates a copy for that other program to play with.

Hey Bud,

This is my favorite feature. As I learn more about LR5's processing power I can do anything I want to a photo. Later, when I've learned more I can go back to the original image and process it using newly obtained knowledge, resulting in a different outcome. I still go back to photos I made a year ago and rework them from time to time. That makes LR a great learning tool.

I also started with Kost because her Adobe site is excellent, quick, and free.

I also like the PDFs put out by Sean McCormack, Essential Development for LR5 (150+pp), and Piet Van den Eynde's Lightroom5: Up to Speed (70+pp), both of which you can buy for $12 at Craft and Vision. They are quick reads because there are so many photos to illustrate what they are talking about.

I am currently reading Kelby's Lightroom5 Book for Digital Photographers, which is really an easy read with lots of steps and photographs to illustrate what he is saying, but more than 500 pages long so I wouldn't say it is a quick study.

I also like Jeff Schewe's The Digital Negative (but it is not a quick study), which uses LR4 rather than LR5 (similar but not identical). I find that I learn some refinements (and a whole lot of technical background details) that are interesting and helpful.


Aloha.

[davidedric]

Lot's of good advice here. One thing I find is that I often used to forget something, knew it was somewhere in a book or video, but struggled to find it again.

Another resource that I find fills that gap is The Lightroom Queen's (Victoria Bampton) "Lightroom - the missing FAQ". This is a fully indexed and searchable pdf book of how to do things. If the other books and videos are "how to" guides, this is a Reference Manual. It has certainly saved me a lot of time and frustration.

It's pretty comprehensive - 700 pages long with a 50 page Table of Contents, but, as I said, fully searchable.

Dave