Top 10 Lightroom Tips For Beginners (Lightroom Classic) with Dustin Lucas
Whether you are just starting out or have been in business for years, you’ve likely come across Adobe Lightroom Classic. Learning this tool can be daunting at first—and with all the tutorials and courses you can buy, it seems hopeless to start. Having used this program for almost a decade, I am still learning and making my own workflows better.
If I can give an early tip it would be to map out a workflow or plan when you first start out. Do you want to make a single Lightroom catalog for all your work this year or make one per shoot? You might be thinking, “What the hell is a catalog and why do I need it?” We’ll get there and with this article you are gonna learn the top 10 Lightroom tips for beginners when starting out to help you along the way!
Lightroom is a digital asset management system, or DAM for short, which means you will basically have to create a catalog or catalogs, import your raw images in a catalog, edit within the program and export your edits to share them. If you’ve used Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw, Lightroom is the supercharged offspring of these two programs.
Tip #1 is catalog management and how to protect your work. Tip #2 is all about importing files and building smart previews. Tip #3 is all about building previews before you edit—I call this the preview game! Tip #4 is edit on the fly with Quick Develop to make global adjustments to your images. Tip #5 is to get focused when selecting or culling your images with Lights Out mode. Tip #6 is speedy crop and straightening technique. Tip #7 is use Reference Mode to dial in your color correction consistency. Tip #8 is making presets from import to keywording, to editing and exporting. Tip #9 is after editing, it’s time to rename the right way. Tip #10 is learn your shortcuts or hot-keys to work faster.
