Lightroom was designed for photographers and by photographers to help them focus on what they love—the art and craft of photography. Lightroom provides photographers with an elegant and efficient way to work with their growing digital image collections, bring out the best in their images, and make an impact from raw capture to creative output, all while maintaining the highest possible quality each step of the way.

LIGHTROOM INSTRUCTION - SAMPLE ITINERARY

Here is what a full course itinerary looks like. We can structure this however you want and what suits you needs best. We can tackle as much or as little as you want and at the pace that works best for you.

I usually come to my clients home so we can work on your own images with your own computer and set up. We can assess your current file structure and workflow and tailor the instruction to your individual needs.

I charge $75.00 an hour and find that 4 hour sessions seems to work best but that is up to you. Your current knowledge and comfort with post processing and raw conversions will determine how much we can get through. I have clients that I have done just one or two sessions with and I have clients that I see every week and we have gone from basic photography in the field, to Lightroom and now, onto advanced Photoshop techniques.

Whether you just need a quick help session or a comprehensive course of study I am happy to help you.

Overview

What is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom- does it replace Photoshop?

What exactly is Lightroom - how is it different (and better) from Bridge, iPhoto, Aperture, iView, Breeze Browser etc

How to migrate your images from these programs

Organizing your images, folders and collections

Lightroom Workflow Overview

The Lightroom user interface

Modules and Panels

Setting Preferences

Personalizing your interface

Frequently used keyboard shortcuts

Expanding your Desktop – using the secondary display features

Working with catalogs

The Library Module

Importing your images from cameras or hard drives. Creating organized and easy to find folders and sub folders.  Keywording made easy and fun, Importing and reviewing images,  editing and ranking images. Using the  powerful search filters and sorting options.  Creating Collections and Smart Collections.   Recommended workflow adapting and honoring your current workflow. Naming, renaming, moving or synchronizing files. Finding duplicate images or misplaced images.

Rating, working with flags, stars or labels. Reviewing and comparing with compare view or survey views. Working with multiple images at once.

Virtual copies, history and snapshots.  Exporting for email,  web, print, Facebook or smart phone

The Develop Module

The FUN part!!! Navigating the image and view options Using and creating Presets Snapshots and History.  Making Color and Tonal Adjustments Using the Targeted Adjustment Tools Using Adjustment brushes Gradient Tool The New Radial Tool Creating Grayscale or Toned images Getting really creative inside Lightroom Creating 32 bit images for increased dynamic Range Detail and Lens Corrections Sharpening and noise reduction Photoshop workflow integration Exporting in various formats and customizing output.

Creating beautiful blended exposures from two or more images.  Photo merge - Panoramas

Sharpening and noise reduction

Getting the abosulte best from your images

The MAP Module

Using your camera's built in GPS Using iPhone and Android apps to map your images Importing tracklogs Automatically assigning locations Fun and extremely useful Great for planning shoots and scouting locations

The Web Module

Selecting photos Gallery templates Customizing settings Uploading website via FTP Uploading to Facebook, Smugmug and other sites

The Slideshow Module

Building a slideshow Image selection Configuring the Slideshow Using Templates and settings Playing and Exporting Adding music Working with video clips Customizing for professional look

The Book Module

Create a Beautiful book Selecting and adjusting images Customizing layouts Adding type and text Creating custom image pages Exporting as an E book or PDF Publishing your book

The Print Module

Selecting photos Using Templates Print Layout Output Settings-Color management Using and developing profiles for Print output Creative layouts Softproofing - What you see if what you get!

Backing Up

We may not be able to prevent hard drive failures, but you can prevent having it result in data loss if you have a solid backup plan and implement it. There are many different ways you can do backups, and choosing the right method depends on what we are backing up. Backup systems can be very simple if we have just one computer. They get progressively more complex when we add multiple computers and multiple drives of image data. We will explore best ways to organize your particular backup system. Internet backups are a great idea- but are they useful for people with lots of data- such as photographers? The whole concept of having backup is to make sure that you can restore all of your data. We will implement a easy and cost effective double redundancy system to be sure that your backup system actually works before you need to put it to the test.

ON TO PHOTOSHOP!!!!!

I've got Lightroom....do I still need Photoshop?? Lightroom's elegant, powerful and non-destructive workflow is the perfect foundation for your post processing. There is still a place for Photoshop however. Learning the basics of Photoshops layers and masks, selections and layer styles will open up a whole new level of enhancements and improvements to your images.

I consider Lightroom like my general practicioner. I go there for all my routine, basic corrections and enhancements but when brain surgery is called for I still go to Photoshop!

With the advent of Lightroom, I am going to Photoshop less and less. With Lightroom versions 1 and 2, I was going to Photoshop 95% of the time for my images. With Lightroom 3, that was down to 60%. Now with the amazing tools and refinements in Lightroom CC and my increased knowledge of all it can do, I go to Photoshop less than 10% of my time.

However, mastering a few techniques in Photoshop will take your image processing to a whole other level!

Layers and Masks - The true power of Photoshop -demystified - Selections Luminosity Masks - Magic!

Layer Blending Modes Perfect cloning and retouching Creating and using Texures Create your own "brushes" Panoramas HDR - done right.

Learn how to manually blend multiple exposures for a natural look Adding Text Creating Actions Using Droplets Working with Lightroom and Photoshop together Setting you prefernces and color setting correctly

Give me a call, I will be happy to go over all the options and tailor classes to your specific needs!