One thing I’ve wanted to do recently for our readers who are staying at home, while I’m staying at home myself, is to make a (free) complete video course to Lightroom so you can hone your skills if you like. I’ve published the first chapter (three videos) so far, so check it out and follow along if you’re interested!
The chapters in this course are as follows (and all three videos in chapter one are published now):
- Getting Started in Lightroom
- Organizing Your Photos
- Editing Your Photos
- Odds and Ends
I’m planning to publish at least a couple videos per week, and hopefully more as I find my groove. Here’s the first video, which introduces Lightroom and how it works:
And the second video, which explains Lightroom catalogs as straightforwardly as possible:
Lastly, the video I just published on importing photos into Lightroom:
Hopefully you find this course useful, or you know someone who might! (It’ll get much more comprehensive in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.)
If you’ve already subscribed to our Youtube channel but are not receiving notifications, click the “bell” icon under any of our videos on Youtube to enable them.
And if you want to follow along with this course, feel free to subscribe to our Youtube channel here.
Thanks for watching, and stay safe!
Thank you very much, Spencer, for the good and clear explanations in the three videos that I’ve seen so far. I registered as recommended into your channel so I’ll make sure to keep learning all the good things you’re sharing. One question though: how can I get the ‘Classic’ version of LR?
I’ve been using Lr since version 1 and am currently holding steady with Lr6. Your video of how catalogs work is well done and covers the basic issues nicely for first-time and beginner users.
I was using ACR/Bridge/Ps when I started testing Lr but was uncertain of what Lr was going to do with my file and directory structure during the import operation.. Once I figured out that Lr would respect that structure it was Lr all the way.
I still use Ps for specialty needs including masking, layering, annotations, and a few other things.
great job
Thank you. I have been using Lightroom Classic for several years, but I appreciated the clear review you’ve provided. You did not leave the Print module Visible, indicating that you did not make much use of it. I have just started exploring the Print module, and wondered if you are planning to cover it in a subsequent video.
Spencer, thanks. This “house arrest” is killing me. I had a trip to SE Utah planned and that went belly up. Everything there is closed. I was supposed to leave tomorrow. This will give me something to do. Keep them coming.
Spencer:
Nice informative video. I enjoyed it as I have your many other articles and videos.
I hope you will do reviews of Lightroom alternatives. I am a LR 6 user. I do not wish
to do a subscription. So when I need to replace my aging D300s with a newer model, I’ll
need to move to an alternate software. Would be nice to have you or Nasim do reviews/videos
of LR alternatives (Raw editor + Image Managment). I trust and enjoy your informative website.
KQ
Beautifully done video, Spenser. The lighting is just superb!
As a Bridge/ACR/Photoshop user of many years, my main concern with making the move to Lightroom is how to organize my photos. I always keep only the current year and the year prior on my hard drive. All other years are on external drives. In addition, I have other folders on my hard drive such as “Portfolio” and “Vacations” that contain finished jpeg images from all years. If I need a photo that’s not on my hard drive I simply plug in the appropriate drive.
How does lightroom deal with external drives and back ups etc?
Thanks again for making these videos!
Dave
I’d like to know about this subject too, please!
Thank you very much for these two videos, very simple to follow and very instructive. Great job !
I look forward to the next ones :-)
Spencer,
I really enjoy your videos. You make them look effortless, I’m sure they are not!
Since I use Affinity Photo for my post processing I hope you will put in some comments regarding “other” softwares. Also I’m really looking forward to you showing what to look for to tell if I’ve sharpened too much, too little , or the Goldie locks just right. This would be good for other processes as well please. I understand that sometimes it is a matter of taste.
Thanks, David
Much appreciated, David! Yes, lots of effort goes into these videos behind the scenes, especially the catalog video. Hopefully the next few will be easier, though, because they won’t need a very complex script – for instance, I can just riff on importing photos into Lightroom and don’t need to be as precise with my choice of words. Little things like that help a lot.
As much as I hope there will be some crossover information for non-Lightroom users, these videos are going to be fairly specific and may not have as much as I’d like. Some of the develop settings have analogs in Affinity, though, and I will touch briefly on the creative side of some of them (including determining proper sharpening and noise reduction), so I’d keep an eye out for the videos in chapter 3 (editing) of this guide.
Thanks
Spencer, thank you for the great, informative (and for me very timely) videos! I recently have been getting into photography and just finished the Level 1 photography course from PL, and this is a great next step!
Thanks again
Thank you, Adam! I’m happy to hear it and glad the timing works well for you. Seems like a good time to go back and edit photos, or learn something new about Lightroom.