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zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,809
134
Believe it or not, one application that is giving me a very hard time to understand, how one can work with, is LightRoom! Very hard menu to understand and its not only that but the interface has nothing to do with Adobe's other products.
Im trying to find a good tutorial so i can have a look at and comprehend this very hard application.
If only there was such a tutorial of explaining things about LightRoom and also showing how one works with it efficiently.
 

TheDrift-

macrumors 6502a
Mar 8, 2010
879
1,400
Its a steep learning curve but great when you 'get it' I used scott kelby's book it really helped me
 
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Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
57,037
56,067
Behind the Lens, UK
Believe it or not, one application that is giving me a very hard time to understand, how one can work with, is LightRoom! Very hard menu to understand and its not only that but the interface has nothing to do with Adobe's other products.
Im trying to find a good tutorial so i can have a look at and comprehend this very hard application.
If only there was such a tutorial of explaining things about LightRoom and also showing how one works with it efficiently.
Tbh I learnt myself through trial and error.
Saw this yesterday that might be useful.

http://froknowsphoto.com/how-i-learned-lightroom/
But Scott Kelby is probably the one I hear most recommend.
 
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Cheese&Apple

macrumors 68010
Jun 5, 2012
2,004
6,606
Toronto
Don't give up on Lightroom. As TheDrift mentioned, it's great when you get it. There is tons of free information around the net with some great tutorials on YouTube. Try Photography Life. They have a long list of great reference articles for beginners to advanced users.
 

zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,809
134
Thanks guys, im mainly looking for video tutorials though!
 

nrvna76

macrumors 65816
Aug 4, 2010
1,243
1,268
Ok not trying to hijack but I have what I think is a Lightroom question.

My wife has recently started a photography business. After she has a session she imports the photos to her windows 10 comp just using the auto import feature. Then she looks at all the images to pick the ones she wants to edit and makes a handwritten list of the file names before editing. I have absolutely no photography skills but isn’t there an easier way? I thought Lightroom did this organization stuff.
 

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
57,037
56,067
Behind the Lens, UK
Ok not trying to hijack but I have what I think is a Lightroom question.

My wife has recently started a photography business. After she has a session she imports the photos to her windows 10 comp just using the auto import feature. Then she looks at all the images to pick the ones she wants to edit and makes a handwritten list of the file names before editing. I have absolutely no photography skills but isn’t there an easier way? I thought Lightroom did this organization stuff.
X for rejects. P for picks. Or 1-5 for a star rating. Then filter to show just picks or 5 stars or whatever. No need to write file names.
 

kenoh

macrumors 604
Jul 18, 2008
6,507
10,850
Glasgow, UK
X for rejects. P for picks. Or 1-5 for a star rating. Then filter to show just picks or 5 stars or whatever. No need to write file names.

+1 for this
[doublepost=1508101697][/doublepost]
Believe it or not, one application that is giving me a very hard time to understand, how one can work with, is LightRoom! Very hard menu to understand and its not only that but the interface has nothing to do with Adobe's other products.
Im trying to find a good tutorial so i can have a look at and comprehend this very hard application.
If only there was such a tutorial of explaining things about LightRoom and also showing how one works with it efficiently.

I have learned by watching youtube videos and 100s of hours of reading books and practice.

Try you tube searching for things like "workflow lightroom" "dramatic landscape lightroom" there are usually loads of videos there for whatvyou are rrying to achieve.
 

OzBok

macrumors regular
Mar 15, 2016
155
540
Melbourne, Australia
If you get more specific about what you're trying to do and having trouble with, there's plenty of knowledge around on here too.

See if there's any Lightroom courses around you as well, camera stores, photographers, colleges etc. I couldn't get my head around it til a couple short courses put it all together for me.
 

webbga

macrumors regular
Feb 22, 2014
249
164
Cincinnati, Ohio
Ok not trying to hijack but I have what I think is a Lightroom question.

My wife has recently started a photography business. After she has a session she imports the photos to her windows 10 comp just using the auto import feature. Then she looks at all the images to pick the ones she wants to edit and makes a handwritten list of the file names before editing. I have absolutely no photography skills but isn’t there an easier way? I thought Lightroom did this organization stuff.

A handwritten list is unnecessary and very cumbersome. There are rating features, color coding, and other ways to "flag" the photos you wish to keep and use. Collections are also a very good way of organizing and tagging photos. I would suggest to your wife that she get Scott Kelby's Lightroom book for Digital photographs and spend an hour a day or so with it. it will save her a load of time down the road and make the whole Lightroom experience much more enjoyable!
 

Cheese&Apple

macrumors 68010
Jun 5, 2012
2,004
6,606
Toronto
This guy from PiXImperfect on YouTube is amazing with his knowledge as well as how simply and thoroughly he explains things.
Thanks for this link Alex. I watched a couple videos this morning and learned a few things to make processing easier and faster. Amazing thing about Lr is that just when you think you've got it all figured-out, someone comes along and points-out things like some keyboard shortcuts that you didn't know existed.

~ Peter
 

bunnspecial

macrumors G3
May 3, 2014
8,353
6,497
Kentucky
I just have to drop in and say that Lightroom has been my primary image handling program for two years now. Yes, it took me a while, but admittedly I'd been using Photoshop for long enough that it was most of the adjustments were the same-just in different places.

I will say that I'm STILL learning new shortcuts and capabilities all the time, but it's such a powerful software package that it's worth it. When people ask me what LR is, I sum it up with "It's Photoshop for photographers, basically an image browser that makes sorting, flagging and rating easy and with all the stuff you use in PS right in front of you, and the stuff you never use either not there or buried in menus." I always use the example of setting curves in PS requiring you to go Image->Adjustment->Curves while in Lightroom levels and curves are just in the right hand tool bar.
 

TonyC28

macrumors 68030
Aug 15, 2009
2,885
7,256
USA
YouTube and Google are my main resources. I think Adobe has tutorials for subscribers.
 

Alexander.Of.Oz

macrumors 68040
Oct 29, 2013
3,200
12,501
Thanks for this link Alex. I watched a couple videos this morning and learned a few things to make processing easier and faster. Amazing thing about Lr is that just when you think you've got it all figured-out, someone comes along and points-out things like some keyboard shortcuts that you didn't know existed.

~ Peter
You're welcome, Peter! I use Lightroom with selective adjustments for probably 95% of my images now, and then go to Photoshop when I need the use of layers or some of the heavier tools. I find Lightroom is so fast in getting an image edited as compared to using Photoshop to do the same adjustments. I purchased Lightroom and Photoshop sleeves for my keyboard with all the keyboard shortcuts there for me to see! I'm slowly learning them off by heart.
 

tw1ll

macrumors regular
Aug 3, 2010
246
387
Look up Terry Whote and Julianne Kost on Youtube. They both have a good mix of beginners and improvers tutorials. Well worth sticking at it and won’t take long to start being productive and get some good results.
 
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mofunk

macrumors 68020
Aug 26, 2009
2,421
161
Americas
You can search around youtube for videos. I recently looked at the Book module in LR. It was frustrating because it wasn't doing what I want it to do. But eventually I found a video which helped.

Someone posted Jared Polin's videos. He has a series of editing photos that he has shot. You can download the RAW files and try to edit them too. If you are starting in LR, one of Jared's buddies, Adam Lerner, has a youtube channel with a series of LR tutorials to help you get started. Go to link below and find the LR playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AdamLernerPhoto/playlists


Also Terry White (which someone also posted).
 
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zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,809
134
Guys, here is something i dont get. Ive begun to edit a pic using LR and as expected the history tab is filling up.
I close LR and open it back a different day, i continue to make edits to the pic, the history tab continues to populate even more. Suppose i want to delete a few of those edits and leave the pic with only the latest 5 edits in history because they are the ones that look ok to me. What do i do? How do i keep only the changes i want to and not the whole bunch that i have done?
 

robgendreau

macrumors 68040
Jul 13, 2008
3,471
339
Guys, here is something i dont get. Ive begun to edit a pic using LR and as expected the history tab is filling up.
I close LR and open it back a different day, i continue to make edits to the pic, the history tab continues to populate even more. Suppose i want to delete a few of those edits and leave the pic with only the latest 5 edits in history because they are the ones that look ok to me. What do i do? How do i keep only the changes i want to and not the whole bunch that i have done?

The history is linear, so one builds on top of the other, so to speak. Sort of like a list of un-dos. And it records each change, so that if you changed exposure five times, each is recorded. So it's rather hard just to go back to say +.33, since that might be number 3. Better to just look at the steps and go, "oh, .33 was best" and do that as a new step. Not only that, but the order you make adjustments can affect the ultimate image. For example, you might have denoised, but then you decide to bring up shadows, and oops, now more denoising is needed. The order can affect performance too.

Going forward, better with a long session of edits to do them in some order that makes sense to you, and use either snapshots you can go back to, or forking. The latter is done by say making a virtual copy at some point. Like say after lighting adjustments, then make a VC to use for BW, while using the original for color. Each then has a separate history going forward. In your case, another thing to do might be to make a VC and reset it. Then go to say your last adjustment, and use copy to copy just that last adjustment, or maybe the last five. It's bit more general, but might work depending on the adjustments.
 
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zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,809
134
Is there a way to delete some of my History steps so that he History Tab is not so populated with steps etc.?
 
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