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Time to learn LR

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RMW:
Hi All,
An existential question for a digital photographer: What's the best way to learn Lightroom ?
I've been using Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge for 9 years and think it's time to improve my workflow. (Obviously I don't venture anything that's 'rash'.) There's any number of choices for on-line courses and I wonder which one(s) are best suited for someone who's perpetually challenged with all thing high tech.
I used Jeff and Michael's PS tutorials and found them accessible.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions or comments.
Richard

graeme:
I made the transition from Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge a couple of years ago.

Try these:

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photoshop-Lightroom-CC-Questions/dp/1910381020/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461183390&sr=1-1&keywords=victoria+bampton+lightroom+cc

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photoshop-Lightroom-Book-Photographers/dp/0133929191/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461183331&sr=1-1&keywords=martin+evening+lightroom+cc

& the Luminous Landscape Lightroom videos.

Concentrate on getting your head around the concepts of catalogue organisation, keywording, collections & virtual copies ( virtual copies are a wonderful idea ). The print module is brilliant - you'll never want to print from photoshop again.

Good luck.

Tony Jay:
Given your familiarity with the products already mentioned the big learning curve for you is with how the Library module works as well as the import dialog. The export dialog and/or the Publish services are also important to your overall workflow.

The LuLa video series is excellent and I would work through it in detail with regard to the points raised above.
Make yourself a TEST catalog and shoot a few images to play with (use your big toe as your subject if nothing else comes to mind). Practise and experiment with your workflow process in the TEST catalog safe in the knowledge that mistakes and stuff-ups  are merely learning opportunities.

Once you are past the knobs and buttons stage you will also need guidance on fine-tuning your workflow.
The LuLa video series "Where the #$%^ are my pictures" with Michael Reichmann and Seth Resnick is excellent. Seth's book is also well worth a look.
Another workflow video series well worth investigating is George Jardine's offerings - he has a different philosophical approach to Seth - and it is useful to get a handle on different approaches.

One of the key aspects that will require re-orientation in your workflow is that you will need to wean yourself off using folders as the prime means of organising images to using collections and Smart collections in Lightroom. Going forward I would suggest just using a simple date-based folder structure.

Enjoy yourself!

Tony Jay

digitaldog:

--- Quote from: Tony Jay on April 20, 2016, 07:06:49 pm ---The LuLa video series is excellent and I would work through it in detail with regard to the points raised above.

--- End quote ---
That and anything from George Jardine. Case in point, a free video on B&W conversions that's superb:
http://mulita.com/blog/?p=1244

Ken Bennett:
I made the move from Camera Raw to Lightroom a couple of years ago. The basics of how to process files are still the same. The database aspect turns out to be more useful than I expected, and it fit in well with the way I was already organizing my assignments. The biggest thing for me was being able to save pre-sets for everything in Lightroom, including Export presets (rather than fiddling with the dialog box in Camera Raw every time). Presets really speed up my workflow.

Edit: oh, yeah, suggestions on how to learn. I started with a very small set of photos (a few folders) and started playing with the import settings, making presets, etc., before starting to use it every day. I don't recall using any specific book, and I hate watching tutorial videos.

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