Camera Labs

Just picked up the student edition of Lightroom 3 for only £65. Trouble is I only know how to do basic editing with it. Does anyone know any free online quides for lightroom (video/article guides).

Any help would be great

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Camera: Canon 550D with battery grip
Lenses: Canon 24-105mm f/4L, Canon 50mm f1.4, Canon 18-55mm, Tamron 70-300mm,
Accessories: Manfrotto 055XPROB with 808RC4 head, Canon 430ex II speedlite, Lowepro Nova 180AW and Lowepro Pro Runner 450AW

Oh that is so lame, every hot girl who can aim a camera thinks she’s a photographer -Stewie Griffin

Great purchase of Lightroom 3. I've started using Lightroom 2 last February and upgraded to Lightroom 3 earlier this year to take advantage of the better noise reduction properties built into the software (previously I was doing an export to Photoshop, applied the Noise Ninja plug-in, then back to Lightroom). With LR3, I can keep the file inside Lightroom...much quicker. LR3 also has the capability of publishing to my SmugMug account which is pretty cool. Yes, there was an aftermarket plug-in available for LR2 that I used but it didn't work every time so I stopped using it. It works flawlessly in LR3 since it's a core function.

The one book I got that REALLY helped me when I first started with Lightroom was The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby. This was for LR2 last year but I also purchased the book for LR3 this year. One of the most important things I took away from the book was how to improve my workflow.

This first starts with composing good photos with the camera. For example, I have a Nikon D7000 and good Nikkor glass so I think my photos are good right from the start. After importing the hundreds of shots I usually take into Lightroom, Scott Kelby explains how to use the "Flag as Pick" and "Set as Rejected" functions. This is accomplished by using P for pick or X for reject. So I'll go through the 400 photos and mark them with P or X and, enable the Library filter to only show me the flagged or picked photos and now the junk is out of the way.

From there, Lightroom can increase the workflow by copying certain settings from photo to photo if you want. For example, maybe you wanted to sharpen each photo by 40 points and increase the black levels by 8 points. You just make those adjustments to one photo and you can copy them to every other photo.

For me, I usually stick to the following adjustments: blacks, fill light, recovery, clarity, vibrance, and sharpening. I also use the crop function for just about every photos as well. Shortcut is R. You can crop top to bottom and left to right as well as turning the photo to straighten it or turn it intentionally for an artistic flair. You can flip between the Develop tab and Library tab by pressing D for Develop or G for the Library Grid of photos.

The bottom line is that all of this stuff is available in the Scott Kelby book. It's an awesome read and Scott has a "regular guy" approach to writing so none of the info was over my head. I was a point and shoot guy from 2004 to 2010 and really didn't do any editing on my photos other than red eye correction. I then went to a Nikon D90 in February 2010, purchased Lightroom and the editing took off from there. I'm on a Nikon D7000 now and I love it with Lightroom in the mix. Scott is a pro and provides the tips that will advance you very quickly so it's a great read. It's available from Amazon for $28.99. Worth every penny.

Joe

I second the book by Scott. I bought it and it has been fantastic.

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Jason

Just a new guy learning his way

Film: Olympus XA2
Digital: Nikon D3100 w/SB-600: , Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G, Tokina 12-24MM F4 Pro II

My Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkmcdonald/

My Blog: http://jmcdonaldphotography.tumblr.com/

Thanks for the information SiestaKey1.

I was looking at that book and will definitely buy it now. Hopefully that will help me out as much as it did you guys

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Camera: Canon 550D with battery grip
Lenses: Canon 24-105mm f/4L, Canon 50mm f1.4, Canon 18-55mm, Tamron 70-300mm,
Accessories: Manfrotto 055XPROB with 808RC4 head, Canon 430ex II speedlite, Lowepro Nova 180AW and Lowepro Pro Runner 450AW

Oh that is so lame, every hot girl who can aim a camera thinks she’s a photographer -Stewie Griffin

Sweet! Glad I could help!

Joe

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Nikon D7000, SB-600, Nikon 70-200mm 2.8, Nikon 17-55mm 2.8, Nikon 35mm 1.8, Tokina 11-16 2.8.

I recommend watching Lightroom Killer Tips with Matt Kloskowski.

He co-host most of the Kelby TV show with Scott Kelby. You can also check out their other shows like PhotoshopUserTV, LayersTV, etc.

This should be good starting point. After that you can buy the books or even sign up @ Kelbytraining.com for more in depth lessons.

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Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f2.8G, Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f2.8G, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f2.8G VRII, Tokina 100mm f2.8D Macro and Nikon AF 50mm f1.8D.
Nikon SB-700, Nikon SB-600

Thanks! I used to watch D-town tv with the two of them but didn't realise they did lightroom 3 videos! Will definitely check them out.

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Camera: Canon 550D with battery grip
Lenses: Canon 24-105mm f/4L, Canon 50mm f1.4, Canon 18-55mm, Tamron 70-300mm,
Accessories: Manfrotto 055XPROB with 808RC4 head, Canon 430ex II speedlite, Lowepro Nova 180AW and Lowepro Pro Runner 450AW

Oh that is so lame, every hot girl who can aim a camera thinks she’s a photographer -Stewie Griffin

They also have another series on LR3 at the NAPP Learning center for free

http://www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom3

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Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f2.8G, Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f2.8G, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f2.8G VRII, Tokina 100mm f2.8D Macro and Nikon AF 50mm f1.8D.
Nikon SB-700, Nikon SB-600

Thanks for your help better start watching as many episodes as I can!

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Camera: Canon 550D with battery grip
Lenses: Canon 24-105mm f/4L, Canon 50mm f1.4, Canon 18-55mm, Tamron 70-300mm,
Accessories: Manfrotto 055XPROB with 808RC4 head, Canon 430ex II speedlite, Lowepro Nova 180AW and Lowepro Pro Runner 450AW

Oh that is so lame, every hot girl who can aim a camera thinks she’s a photographer -Stewie Griffin