Photo Editing in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: A Beginner's Guide

In this photo editing class I'll show you around Lightroom Classic CC, version 7.5

This class will take you through common processes and demonstrate importing, culling, editing, presets, and exporting.

**Included is 2 Lightroom Presets I made in the course. They are attached as a .zip file in the project section to the right of the project description**

I've packed this 2-hour guide with organizational tips, my exact workflow and settings, as well as a few editing sequences. To help you make the most of it, I've created a course syllabus below for your reference.

Introduction: About this class

Catalogs Explained:

1:11 - What a catalog stores and why you want more than 1 catalog

3:17 - What Lightroom creates and a visual explanation about Non-Destructive Editing

4:50 - Backups

6:45 - My Catalogs, naming, and storing

9:32 - My backups, deleting old ones to free space

10:25 - Creating a new catalog and adding your main hard drive folders

12:45 - Moving files off your computer and into long-term storage

13:36 - Prepping a session for storage

15:15 - Disconnected drives, missing files, finding files

17:05 - Dates and organization and how it helps me with my taxes and mileage

Importing and Library View: 0:46 - How to import

1:37 - Import settings

3:57 - Location of your previously imported photos within the Library

4:42 - The Navigator, grid view, thumbnail size, and Survey Mode

6:11 - Catalog Drawer including Quick Collection

7:56 - Building custom collections for organizing photos

9:23 - Metadata Drawer

Culling, Starring, and Color Labels: 0:03 - What's culling? How do you decide?

6:19 - How to cull in Lightroom and my process

10:40 - Filtering first pass of 1 star images

11:34 - Color labels

12:43 - Adding Keyword tags for easy searching

Develop Sliders: 0:34 - Develop Module: Histogram

1:51 - Slider Drawers

3:02 - Begin edit with light and contrast edits in Basic and Tone Curve drawers

6:12 - White Balance

10:08 - HSL/Color and Split Toning

14:34 - Detail, Noise Reduction, and Sharpen Masking

16:23 - Lens Corrections, Distortion, and Transform menu

18:04 - Vignetting and Grain

19:43 - Edit wrapup and a Dark and Moody tutorial

Cloning, Filters, Cropping, and Brushing: 0:38 - Basic edits before cloning and brushing

1:25 - Cropping

3:00 - Cloning Spot Tool for blemish removal

5:20 - Red Eye Tool

5:44 - Graduated Filter

8:34 - Radial Filter

9:43 - Adjustment brush

14:17 - Using spot tools on Chocolate/product photography

Lightroom Presets: Import, Create, Share: 0:05 - My personal feelings on Lightroom Presets

1:34 - Finding the Presets Menu and Lightroom's pre-loaded presets

2:27 - Online Lightroom Presets for purchase and download to get you started

4:28 - Downloading free presets from Greater Than Gatsby

5:21 - Getting downloaded presets into Lightroom

6:42 - How to create your own Lightroom Presets

13:19 - Making a Black and White Preset

15:00 - Sharing your presets with your friends

15:55 - Where to find the presets I made for you! (in the project section on the right!)

Export Settings: 0:38 - How to export

1:07 - Instagram Export Settings

4:25 - Getting photos to my phone for easy sharing on Instagram

4:40 - Full Resolution photo export settings

5:57 - Creating Export presets

8:05 - Export and Open in Adobe Photoshop for further editing

Miscellaneous Tips:

0:20 - Changing the Background color of Lightroom

0:55 - Copying edits, or better, SYNCHRONIZING a session

1:32 - Keyboard Shortcuts

3:25 - Changing your view options for library and develop tabs

4:38 - Map, Book, Slideshow, Print, and Web tabs (and why I don't use them)

5:25 - Creating a contact sheet

6:15 - Clone tool: Heal vs. Clone and feather slider

7:12 - Navigator zoom options

8:17 - Detail window and how to use it to check your sharpening

8:58 - Rotating a photo

9:34 - Keyboard keys for adding stars and colors

Final Thoughts and Project: Wrap up, share your project, etc! Thanks for reading, hope this was helpful!