Note: Photo tips are answers to questions asked on our Facebook page. If you would like to submit a question, please click here to submit your question. We will then post them on our Facebook page and let our fans respond to the question. We will then transfer the question over to our blog so we can keep them in an organized way for others to see.
Question from Laura: ” I just purchased LR3 (upgrade from Picasa,lol) and I’m really nervous at trying it, does anyone know of some good cheat cheats for LR3 or any EASY tutorials for this program?”
Jenna: Don’t be nervous. All editing is non-destructive. You won’t ruin anything. 🙂
Megan: Google or YouTube
Stephanie: there are a several books that have been published for help with Lightroom
Cara: Play around with it! Lightroom is pretty easy to learn because like Jenna said it’s non-destructive. Find out what each of the controls in the “develop” module do and just try stuff. Google what you don’t understand. A good place to start is right at the top of the “develop” screen with white balance and exposure.
Brian: The first thing that you will need to know about lightroom is that it is a nondestructive program. It loads your originals, and stores all the changes you make in its own Catalog folder. When you export it creates brand new images based on your originals and changes stored in the catalog.. So edit away; there’s nothing to be nervous about. Don’t be overwhelm about it. It is a very powerful program; just do one thing at a time. And keep at it! you’ll love the results
K. Ellen: I liked Scott Kelby’s book when I was getting started. (probably some cheap copies available on ebay)
Ramona: Scott Kelby’s book on Lightroom walks you through the whole thing and I LOVE that book. He is easy to read and funny and gives you a million little tips at the end of each chapter. The best thing is how he walks you through setting up all your imports TO BEGIN WITH so you get it right the first time and don’t have a bunch of catalogs and folders and get confused (which is what I did and got discouraged!). He makes it easy . . and after that Lightroom was a breeze! I rarely touch Photoshop anymore and that is itself speaks volumes for Lightroom!
Chris: The best tutorial is time . Spend it on it
Krysteena: My first advice is always to make sure you’re shooting RAW if editing in lightroom.
Stephanie: Pretty presets offers great tutorials
Belinda: Youtube for tutorials, and shortcuts are your best friend 🙂
Laura: Thank you so much BP4U Photography Tips & Guides for posting my question and BIG thank you to all of you for the helpful suggestions. I’m a true believer in constructive criticism and listening and trying out other peoples suggestions, especially n this field. So once again THANK YOU! And please feel free to look and critique my photos. I’ve only been doing this for 6 months so I’ve have LOTS to learn.
Stephanie: agree. And don’t be afraid, it’s a pretty straightforward program and it’s pretty impossible to permanently hurt any of your images. 😉
Michael: Ramona hit the nail on the head. Before you even fire up LR, find some online tutorials about catalogs and importing. It will save you a lot of time and aggravation down the line. Actually Adobe has some very good free tutorials.
Heather: Pretty Presets for Lightroom has great webinars, presets, and cheat sheets! <3
Andrea: Honestly play with the presets a little here and there just for fun 🙂
If you want some free presets contact me, I’m happy to send a few your way just to help you out…
Apphotography87@yahoo.com. LR is a great and wonderful program. I love it and it’s simple once you get the hang of it. One way to work with LR is make copies of a few raw files throw them in a test folder, upload to LR and just play with a few different details, colors and see how it feels, tweak presets already there and enjoy 😉
Laura: Thanks Andrea :o) Definitely will do that. And will check out Lynda, Tina. Thanks Ramona for suggesting Scott Kelby’s book, amazon.com here I come…again. You guys are all so awesome for taking your time to leave theses very informative comments, you all ROCK!
Bobbi-Alan: Scott Kelby has the best book around for learning Lightroom.
Oona: Google lightroom workshops (free). I can’t remember where I found them (I’m on my mobile, it’s bookmarked on my laptop) but I found some very helpful ones when I started using LR. I think it was either ClickinMoms or Pretty Presets for LR.
Gabby: Scott Kelby
Feel free to keep responding to this question using our comment section below.