The 10 First Things Beginners Should Know How to do in Adobe Lightroom

Beginner Photography  •  Lightroom Tutorials  •  Photography Tips

As we’ve covered before, Lightroom CC is, as part of Adobe’s Photography package, one of the greatest tools for amateur photographers. If you want to learn the basics of this software, we’ve got the perfect resource for you. Terry White‘s video covers the ten things that every beginner should know about Lightroom:

What more could you ask for? More than an hour of material is enough to make anybody know the software, even if they hadn’t ever used it before. Here are the ten things you should know after watching the video:

1. How to import images and videos. This is mandatory if you want to work in Lightroom.
2. The difference between folders and collections. Working with Lightroom’s storage system is essential if you want to keep an organized portfolio.
3. How to flag and rate your images. I don’t consider myself a professional, I’m barely even a steady amateur, yet I still have thousands of photos in my collection. Flagging the ones that I’m interested in is crucial.
4. Keywords and Face Detection. An even more advanced way to categorize your photos.
5. Syncing and using Lightroom Mobile. The software is available on your phone, as well as on your PC/Mac. If you sync your collection you can get access to it on your iPhone or Android phone as well.

Getting feedback on the web is easy with Lightroom.

6. Get feedback via Lightroom Mobile on the web. Use the community to your advantage and get useful feedback for your photos.
7. Adjust your images in the Develop tab. Lightroom isn’t only for organizing, it’s a very powerful editing tool for images.

Also easy: editing photos in Lightroom.

8. Edit your images in Adobe Photoshop CC. I keep emphasizing the beauty of Adobe’s Photography suite because you get to use multiple pieces of software, taking advantage of each’s best qualities.
9. Export images for the Web (or Social Media). When you post a photo on Facebook, you don’t need the raw 50 MB image. Here’s how you can strip it down and still keep the essentials.
10. Move your images to a different drive. Sometimes, you want to move your entire collection. White teaches you how to do this.

What’s your experience with Adobe Lightroom? Did this tutorial help you get started? Are there any other techniques or features you would need explained?