Best way to learn Lightroom

[twinsrus]

I was using Rawshooter Essentials, but purchase Lightroom 1.0 when it was released.  I am now trying to move into LR as my primary program.  What is the best way to learn this program and utilize all of its power.  I never got into Photoshop - too expensive still - so I don't know how to use much of anything in LR besides the basic tabs.  In other words, I don't know what I don't know.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

Dick

[Photo_op]

Dick- try these out...

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/lighroom-illuminated.shtml

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers
by Martin Evening, Adobe Press Staff

Until the book by John Beardy comes out @June these should work well.

Dave

[Niall Horley]

There are some good online video here that are worth looking at.

http://www.whibalhost.com/_Tutorials/Photoshop_LR/01/index.html

Adobe are also working on a tool which will inderstand raw shooters rws files, and will hopefully  adjust the photos according to the settings you made in Raw Shooter. I am not sure if the tool works when you import the photos or can be applied after they have been imported, but it will save a lot of time especially if you ranked the photos.
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Pixmantec_RawShooter_Migration_Tool
As for when they will release it I do not know it was supposed to be about 3 weeks ago.

Apart from that the best way to learn it is to use it and abuse it.

Niall

[simonk]

I'm a big fan of video tutorials at lynda.com. They recently came out with a Lightroom tutorial: http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=364
Peter's DAM video is also available there. It's a very nice tutorial, by the way. I learned a lot.
It only costs $25 for a one month subscription to view ALL of their videos! One of the best deals around, I think. (I'm not associated with them in anyway. Just a happy customer).

Have fun!
Simon

[peterkrogh]

I agree that Lynda is a great learning service.
Peter

[dandill]

Dick- try these out...

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/lighroom-illuminated.shtml

I gave these a look last night, and was helped sorting out how Lightroom, Bridge CS3, Photoshop CS3, and IView Media Pro may or may not fit together.

More specifically, I keep stumbling over synchronizing between IView and the other apps. I am absolutely not an expert, but each time I try to incorporate iView (with the DAM book by my side), I find I stumble, by which I mean, my mental picture is expecting something different than what happens. I am beginning to wonder whether iView may become the odd man out.

Dan

[AlanDunne]

Dan,

I understand your frustration. I sometimes share it. It seems that I am always on the steep part of the learning curve because this is such a dynamic subject.

You say that Iview may be the odd man out. Be advised that of the s/w you list, only Iview would meet the criteria for a full blown DAM application:

• Bridge is a browser and does not support the database/cateloging functionality for true DAM.
• Photoshop is a pixel editor, the gold standard, but does not have any DAM functionality
• LightRoom has both editing and DAM functionality in an integrated package. The DAM features in LR may be sufficient to meet your needs and this has been discussed in some other threads. But LR at version 1 is not quite ready for primetime for a complete DAM application. Its limitations have been discussed in other threads as well

So if you remove LR from the discussion for a second as it is a special case, saying that Iview is the odd man out leave you with no DAM whatsoever. Bridge and CS3 do not have any DAM capability.

At the risk of adding more frustration, I could suggest that you look at some other DAM applications. One that comes to mind is IdImager which has some discussion and support at this forum. As an Iview user I have not had the need to try IdImager but some of the descriptions of its capability for DAM are quite impressive.

Since you have The DAM Book, I presume that you have concluded that you need some form of DAM. You are beyond filing in folders. So this is a bridge (lower case b) that you must cross. You are not the only one going through all this so you are in good company in this forum.

Good luck ... Alan

[dandill]

You say that Iview may be the odd man out. Be advised that of the s/w you list, only Iview would meet the criteria for a full blown DAM application

Thanks for the encouragement to hang in there, and the apt advice that "this is a bridge that must be crossed." I do appreciate that iView is industrial strength, and also that integration of apps is hampered by the growing pains of shifting, evolving ways of handling metadata.

That Lightroom seems so straightforward, albeit for not too large libraries of images, makes me wish iView integration were similarly so.

Thanks again.

Dan

[ProPhotoResource]

I second the motion for the Lynda.com traiining. Spend a couple days and run through all the training it will get you from 0-60 very quickly.
However you need to deal with the trainers interesting sense of humor which i found a little daunting at times.

All in all it's money well spent then you pick up a great reference book like Martin Evenings new LightRoom book to keep on your desk as a reference.

Good Luck,
Cris...

[reidthaler]

I found this very helpful for learning LR: http://www.jirvana.com/fotoespresso/FE_US_1-2007_r4.pdf

Reid