While Photoshop has some excellent features for editing photographs, it’s not necessarily known as fast way to edit multiple images. That’s where Lightroomcomes into play. According to Future Media Concept’s, Katherine Houghton, we should be thinking of Lightroom as a combination of Camera RAW, Adobe Bridge, and Photoshop. Three powerful editing tools rolled up into one package. Houghton, a Lightroom expert, has made a video tutorial aimed at teaching photographers how they can make Lightroom work for them. The video is just under an hour long, so make sure you have some free time before you get started watching it:
Did you see any features that are new to you? Despite it’s simple design and ease of use, Lightroom is a much more powerful editor than some people give it credit for. Check out some of the features this handy program packs:
- Quickly add data to multiple photos by using the paint can tool. In Library mode, click the paint can and spray the photos you wish to add data too. Input your data once and Lightroom will apply it to all sprayed photos.
- In Quick Develop mode, the histogram will allow you to make fast adjustments to the light/dark balance of your photos.
- Save any changes you make to a photo and easily apply them to other photos with a click of the button. Similar to setting up an action in Photoshop, but the process is much more simplified.
- As a non-destructive photo editor, Lightroom saves your original source file in it’s catalog. The filing system Lightroom uses is actually a great way to preserve your precious hard drive space.
- Has clone and heal tools that work by dragging and dropping, very simple.
- Like Photoshop, Lightroom also has Photomerge, Content Aware features, and many other popular tools that come in handy when editing.
Ready to give Lightroom a try? Remember, most Adobe products have universal keyboard shortcuts. If you use shortcuts often in Photoshop, try using it in Lightroom, chances are it will still work. You can also hit the right slash key while holding down the CTRL or CMD key to bring up a list of the shortcuts. Still need one last reason to give Lightroom a shot? Nik Software makes Lightroom editions for their popular Color Efex and Silver Efex.
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This video was very informative and inspiring! I learned more watching this short video than I did fumbling around with Lightroom 3 on my own for the past year! Thanks for the great tips and for helping me to get started.
Im not sure I’d put “simple design and ease of use” in the same paragraph with Lightroom. I’ve tried each new version as they have been introduced and have been frustrated by its user interface and general ‘lack of ease’ that I’d experienced in using it. It’s organizational ability is equally difficult to manage. After each trial, I have returned to using Aperture. It is much more logically arranged for both editing and file management. It gives me the opportunity to have both referenced file locations or managed files within the library (catalog). I know it typically comes down to personal preference and in many cases is probably a matter of what you started with, but I have yet to be swayed by new additions to Lightroom. To me, they seem to be catch-up steps to provide features that I’d been using in Aperture. They seem to leap-frog each other to some extent with each new version. But, that’s better for all us users, right? Competition breeds better products. I just haven’t seen enough to convince me to switch over 500k images to a new system. It’s kinda like switching to Nikon after buying all those expensive Canon L lenses!
If you’re going to stand in front of people to give a workshop, you should look the part. Her appearance was very distracting and untidy. The demonstration was all over the place, needed more structure. Lost interest. I hope this is taken as constructive criticism.