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September, 2024

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Lightroom 5

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uni-corn
Posts: 13846 - Karma: 651
So I just discovered the awesomeness that is called Lightroom 5. I am fairly new to the program but know my way around(a little). So far, I also watched a tutorial from Tuts+(https://tutsplus.com/course/lightroom-for-photographers/) and that seems to cover a lot.

But is there more? Any recommendations for things to download and watch that will help me learn? Any tips?

Thanks in advance!
Feb 10 2014 6:53PM
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JuliusJ
Posts: 3778 - Karma: 2,106
I haven't used LR 5, but use LR 4 on almost a daily basis. Its great for organizing large sets of photos and being able to rate them within those catalogues. I shoot a lot of sports and photojournalistic stuff, which Lightroom is perfect for, as I am just doing minor adjustments to exposure and color most of the time.

It also lets you batch edit (apply same edits to large amount of photos with relative ease), and honestly I would rather edit on Lightroom most of the time anyway. It definitely isn't able to manipulate photos in the way that Photoshop is able to, but I don't end up doing that with majority of my photos anyway. Anything specific you're looking to hear about?
Feb 10 2014 9:22PM
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uni-corn
Posts: 13846 - Karma: 651
Just general tips/tricks/etc. I can fumble around in PS well enough to edit my photos but hardly need the photo manipulation side of things so I decided to venture to LR.
Feb 10 2014 9:26PM
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KrazyistKarl
Posts: 1725 - Karma: 599
Download cracked VSCO film pack 4. Great presets for film emulation
Feb 11 2014 12:32AM
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snowisawesome
Posts: 447 - Karma: 76
Watch these:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmXfFxjdp3CH8D2p_Rm5RKtOUmGGzpnFj
Feb 11 2014 5:55PM
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uni-corn
Posts: 13846 - Karma: 651
Thanks dawg.
Feb 11 2014 5:57PM
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gravel
Posts: 5515 - Karma: 42,153
Practice is the best way to learn. I don't think I've ever watched a tutorial on LR, I've just experimented for about a year and a half and now I'm pretty resourceful with the program.

DON'T get presets like the VSCO presets. They are cheap, played, and amateur ways to creating a look that "seems" good but it really isn't.

I don't use LR much to organize photos very much, mainly just for editing. Here are some of the things I always edit while in the "Develop" tab:

- Exposure
- Contrast
- Tone Curve
- Colors - Playing with the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness helps simplify an image and highlight a specific subject and make the image the least distracting.
- Lens Corrections - Both profile corrections and chromatic aberration
- Noise - I shoot with a T3i so my shots are usually a little more noisy than the higher level cameras, so I usually bump the Luminance slider up to about 20

Sometimes I also play around with a graduated/gradient filter, especially to bring out the contrast of a ski or something of that sort.

I think that's it, let me know if you have any questions, I think I'm familiar enough with the program to help out.
Feb 11 2014 6:43PM
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JuliusJ
Posts: 3778 - Karma: 2,106
Yes, this. Take an hour and just play around with some photos. Even if you don't use it to organize, its really fantastic to have all tools visible (unlike Photoshop).
Feb 11 2014 8:06PM
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uni-corn
Posts: 13846 - Karma: 651
Yeah, I never planed on using presets. Seems like a cop out. Otherwise thanks!
Feb 11 2014 10:28PM
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