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Now reading: Everything you wanted to know covered in helpful Lightroom tutorial 37 comments

Everything you wanted to know covered in helpful Lightroom tutorial

Published Jun 10, 2014 | dpreview staff

Adobe’s Lightroom 5 is a powerful program, but that power comes at the expense of a learning curve that some find pretty steep. In this excellent video shot at B&H, Photographer Robert Rodriguez, Jr. walks photographers through the functions and features of Lightroom’s Develop module in an hour-long hands-on tutorial.

Despite the first few minutes (when attendees are seen still taking their seats), the video soon moves to a view of Rodriguez’s desktop as he works through several images from start-to-finish and covers just about every panel and slider in the Develop module.

The video is part of the B&H Event Space Seminars, a series of free events that teach photographic technique and skills.

Via: PetaPixel, Source: B&H

Tags: adobe, lightroom, other-news

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BobFoster

I think that this is one of the best tools for photo editing. LR5 is powerful especially for night and landscape photographers. Easy to use, manages your photography, and is easy to adjust into your work flow. A lot of great photographers use LR to create great images.

Dec 16, 2014permalink

keeponkeepingon

This video is 8 months old why post it now when there are so many other good LR videos?

Because you are regurgitating reddit 4 days ago:
http://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/27huyh/this_is_a_fantastic_runthrough_of_the_development/

Jun 11, 2014permalink

Timmbits

I'm glad they posted it...
I don't have time for reddit, and wouldn't have found out about this video if it weren't for me visiting DPR today and seeing it mentioned here.

Jun 21, 2014permalink

Raw Jaw

Informative but a bit dragged out.
Not easy to cover all the bases in one video.
Would like to download if for later step by step viewing.

Perhaps Adobe has How-toVideos for LR5.

Thank you Samsung for LR5, Mr. Rodriguez, and B&H.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

Smeggypants

Lightroom isn't difficult to use at all, in fact it's really simple, one of the best laid out and user friendly image processing programs out there.

If you find Lightroom difficult to use then it's your photography skills that need improving in the first instance. Once you nail that then Lightroom is easy and very intuitive.

Don't blame the tools

Jun 11, 2014permalink

Buena Vista

Ditto. I got Lightroom 5 when I bought my Samsung NX300M two months ago. But I've been avoiding the learning curve and just staying with jogs. With this video, I felt able to give it a try with some RAW images, and the results have been good. Thank you, Mr. Rodríguez!

Jun 11, 2014permalink

Jim Cook

Excellent. Watched the whole presentation.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

jazzphotog1

Video looks very useful. Physical problem here...must be able to watch the video in 10-15' intervals. Can it be downloaded & saved to my computer (Mac)?

Jun 10, 2014permalink

MisterBG

There are lots of YouTube downloader programs available.

I don't use Mac, but here a couple of many:
http://download.cnet.com/YTD-Video-Downloader/3000-2071_4-75894811.html
http://www.macxdvd.com/free-youtube-video-downloader-mac/

Jun 12, 2014permalink

thx1138

LR is a very easy tool to learn and I can get output from LR with much less effort than other converters I've tried such as DxO, and C1 Pro. Also flagging, keywording, cataloging are very intuitive.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

bugbait

I must say this is very cool of DPReview to post this type of thread seeing as how DPReview is owned by Amazon; and with B&H being a strong photographic equipment competitor.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

Duck87

It's almost like they have independent editorial clout....

Jun 11, 2014permalink

AbrasiveReducer

Great video but it's amazing how this has grown from something that was easier to use than Photoshop, to what it is now.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

jazzphotog1

I started with Ps 2.5...look at it now!

Jun 11, 2014permalink

Smeggypants

it still is easier to use than PS

Jun 11, 2014permalink

BaldCol

I don't think it was ever designed to be easier to use than PS, just more focussed. In any case it is still much easier to use as a package than PS. With PS there are 100's of functions that I don't even know about let alone use whereas with LR I use all of the functions in the modules I am interested in.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

MisterBG

It's a completely different program, with a different application to PS.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

mantra

hi
i still have lightroom v4 64bit ,for it permorms better then v5
honestly i did not find new v5 feature to push me to buy v5

is really v5 more powerfull then v4?
is worth to upgrade?

by the way thanks for the video!

Jun 10, 2014permalink

brian1366

Spot correction was worth the upgrade alone for me. That was my most common reason to take a photo into photoshop.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

Spectro

no it is not. It is a minor update, unlike from 3 to 4 which was bigger, better engine. The engine here is basically the same, but very few minor features like: straighten your image a little easier and spot heal is from photoshop which is a tad better then before.

the only reason I even upgraded was adobe trick of not updating camera raw on older software and just new one. Got a Sony A7, which wasn't supported in LR4. No, I am not interested in adobe dng converter for any old lightroom versions.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

Smeggypants

LR4 has spot correction.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

luchs

L5 has a some small but crucial enhancement to the perspective correction: aspect ration, without it does not always produce good result.
I really like the circular layer, it is very easy and intuitive to use, much easier and faster to use than the brush which.
Smartpreviews arw useful if you use external USB drives for images.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

brian1366

Sorry Smegma, I meant content aware fill.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

keeponkeepingon

Here's a meandering video discussing the new stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EcbMyqoWP8

Spot healing/removal is much much better. Pre LR5 you got to fix a dot but with LR 5 you can drag the spot removal which is incredibly useful for all sorts of stuff, from removing a hair to a light pole.

Spectro is way underselling the "straighten your image a little easier". The new tools go way way beyond just twisting your picture a bit, it can analyze buildings and correct for some forms of perspective distortion making crooked lines straight. Sometimes it falls on it's face but when it works it can be great.
I also find myself resorting to the radial filter a lot. If you take pictures of people it's so easy to just select a face and lighten shadows without affecting the entire picture. You can do this with the adjustment brush in LR 4 but it would take 4evah compared to LR5 with the radial filter.
Nice explanation of the "upright" tool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pVX4za3Y54

Jun 11, 2014permalink

blackwiggle

Even if LR 6 was released in two weeks, the information given in this video would still be relevant.
That's unless Adobe has changed the filing system from previous versions of LR yet again.
[LR Update problem from 3/4 to 5... filing system got changed slightly, could result with users thinking that all files were lost .... not a happy state to be in ]

Jun 10, 2014permalink

mantra

hi
sadly when adobe will release lr6 , it will maybe buggy
need some time (maybe) to be stable with good performances

Jun 10, 2014permalink

Antony John

Very nice LR video.
1hr 15mins and it kept my attention throughout :-)
Thank you DPR for bringing this to our (or at least my) attention.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

SantaFeBill

Thanks, but he should have waited 2 weeks or so and done one on LR 6. :-)

Jun 10, 2014permalink

Efrem

Good information, but I have to comment on the opening "Lightroom 5 is a powerful program, but that power comes at the expense of a learning curve that some find pretty steep." The learning curve describes how quickly the effort of doing something goes down as you do more of it. A steep learning curve means you learn quickly and easily, so the effort drops a lot in a hurry.

If you meant to say that Lightroom can be difficult to learn, this opening has it backwards. The fact that lots of other people have learning curves backwards too doesn't change that.

This has nothing to do with the content of the piece. The problem is that people who know about learning curves will think "if they can't get this right, how much can they know about Lightroom?" A good deal, it seems, but if you turn readers off before they even get to the article, some of them won't make it that far.

Please try to use "learning curve" correctly in the future.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

Stickarm

This ship has sailed, my friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_curve#.22Steep_learning_curve.22

Jun 10, 2014permalink

Artistico

I don't think anyone ever uses it correctly anymore, meaning that the incorrect way is now correct. It's a shame, but that's how it is. Incidentally, I do think Lightroom is one of the easiest programs to learn. Adjusting photos was never as easy before it arrived on the market, so perhaps it's "learning curve" in its original sense, after all...

Jun 10, 2014permalink

J Frank Parnell

They turned off one reader. They'll survive.

"Arguably, the common English use is due to metaphorical interpretation of the curve as a hill to climb. (A steeper hill is initially hard, while a gentle slope is less strainful, though sometimes rather tedious. Accordingly, the shape of the curve (hill) may not indicate the total amount of work required. Instead, it can be understood as a matter of preference related to ambition, personality and learning style.)"

Jun 10, 2014permalink

blackwiggle

There are some great videos put up by B&H.

Anybody that does their own printing should watch the video by the same instructor as above called 'Introduction into fine art printing'.

Excellent information given in a concise and easy to understand manner.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

mcshan

Great thread. I will check this out later when I have more time. . LR certainly takes some getting used to. As it is I am probably not using much of what it can do. Thanks again.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

Prairie Pal

B&H training videos are an excellent resource. I go back to many particular videos quite often.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

bigdaddave

Extremely good tutorial thanks. LR is a fabulous program, it's a shame so many blame it when in reality they just don't know how to use it.

Jun 10, 2014permalink

Lee Jay

If people don't know how to use it, more often than not it's Lightroom's fault for not being "discoverable". There are many hidden features like "T" and "\" in Library - features that are actually essential.

Jun 10, 2014permalink


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