Scribd
Upload
8 views

What is Lightroom

Lightroom is a photo organization and post-processing software that allows users to sort, edit, and export photos. It provides features for organizing images through ratings and collections, editing capabilities for brightness and color adjustments, and exporting options to resize images for various uses. The software is designed to be the main tool for photo editing, offering a user-friendly interface with various modules and tools for efficient photo management.

Uploaded by

Darrel S.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
8 views

What is Lightroom

Lightroom is a photo organization and post-processing software that allows users to sort, edit, and export photos. It provides features for organizing images through ratings and collections, editing capabilities for brightness and color adjustments, and exporting options to resize images for various uses. The software is designed to be the main tool for photo editing, offering a user-friendly interface with various modules and tools for efficient photo management.

Uploaded by

Darrel S.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 20

What is Lightroom?

Lightroom is a post-processing and photo organization


software. It lets you sort your photos, edit them, and
export them at whatever size you need. Let’s dive into
each of these three main functions:
Organizing Your Photos
The most obvious thing that
Lightroom does is help you sort and
organize your photos.

Each time you import images into


Lightroom, you’re also seeing where
they’re located on your computer
(i.e., the file structure). This appears
on the left-hand side of your screen.
So, you might see something like
this:
The photos that are already on your computer don’t automatically show up in
Lightroom. If you want to add some of your photos to Lightroom, or you want to add
an entire folder of photos, you’ll need to import them. I’ll cover more about the
Import Dialogue later; it’s not something you need to know in detail yet.

Beyond simply telling you where your photos are located, though, Lightroom has
many other ways to sort and organize your photos.

What if, for example, you take a photo that you particularly like, and you want to find
it again in the future? Is there some way to mark it that makes it easy to locate later?

Of course! There are countless ways to do so. You could give it a five-star rating, you
could flag it, you could add it to a “Best Photos” collection, and many more. Later on,
I’ll go into detail about these different options, and how you can use them to sort
and organize your photos however you want.
Editing Your Photos
Lightroom isn’t all about sorting your photos, though. Most
importantly, it also lets you edit the photos that you take.

Lightroom doesn’t offer the same vast range of post-processing edits


that other software options, such as Photoshop, do. Still, just because
it isn’t as extensive doesn’t mean it’s not extensive enough. Many
photographers can get by seamlessly with Lightroom’s post-processing
features; personally, although I do own Photoshop, I use it more for
graphic design work than photo editing.
Lightroom’s post-processing options cover all the main bases:
brightness, contrast, color, sharpness, and many more adjustments.
This also includes the ability to apply local edits — i.e., adjusting
certain parts of the photo selectively, while leaving the rest
untouched.

In short, Lightroom was designed to edit your photos. This isn’t simply
a side feature that you can use from time to time rather than editing
the photo in Photoshop; it’s intended to be the main tool you use for
post-processing.
Exporting Your Photos
Most likely, you’re already somewhat familiar with the idea of
exporting your photos.

Say, for example, that you’re trying to email a set of several photos
to one of your friends. Since Gmail and other email services tend
to have a file size limit — something like 25 megabytes — you may
not be able to send full-resolution photos. One way around that is
to shrink the file size of the photos that you send. Rather than
4000-pixel photos at 0% compression, you could send 1000-pixel
photos at 20% compression instead.
That’s one of the things Lightroom does well. If you need to resize a
photo for email (or anything else), it is easy to export a photo at
whatever settings you want.

Exporting doesn’t delete the original copy of your photos. If you export a
500-pixel copy of a photo, it’s just that — a copy. It will have a different
file name (or file type) from your original photo, and you can
delete/modify/send it however you want without affecting the real
version.

(In fact, if you try to export a photo in Lightroom without changing its
name, location, or file type — something that normally would override
the original — Lightroom won’t even let you.)
I export photos all the time: When I enter photo contests, text
photos to people, upload images to my website, and so on. I just
right-click on the photo in Lightroom, go to Export > Export, and
pick all the settings I want for my final photo.

This isn’t the most well-known thing that Lightroom does, but, in
the long run, you’ll end up exporting your photos all the time.
Tutorial Video
Tutorial Video
The Adobe Lightroom Interface:

The Lightroom Classic workspace in the Grid view


A. Library Filter barB. Image display area C. Identity plate D. Panels for working with source
photos E. Filmstrip F. Module Picker G. Panels for working with metadata, keywords, and adjusting images H. Toolbar
The Filmstrip, located at the bottom of the workspace in every module, displays
thumbnails of the contents of the folder, collection, keyword set, or metadata criteria
that is currently selected in the Library module. Each module uses the contents of the
Filmstrip as the source for the tasks performed in it. To change the selection in the
Filmstrip, go to the Library module and select different photos.

Filmstrip: The Filmstrip displays the photos you are working on as you move between
modules. It contains photos from the currently selected Library folder, collection, or
keyword set. Move between photos in the Filmstrip using the Left and Right Arrow
keys, or by choosing a different source from the Filmstrip Source Indicator pop-up
menu to the right of the navigation buttons.
The toolbar
You can hide the toolbar or customize it in the Library and Develop modules to
include the needed items.
Show controls in the Library module toolbar
Depending on which view is active in the Library module, the toolbar contains
controls for browsing photos, applying metadata, starting an impromptu slide
show, rotating photos, and applying ratings, flags, or labels. The toolbar Info box
displays the filename of the selected photo.
•To show controls in the toolbar, choose any of the following from the toolbar
pop-up menu:
• View Modes
•Lets you select Grid View, Loupe View, Compare View, or Survey View.
• Painter
•(Grid view only) Lets you apply keywords and other attributes quickly by
dragging the Painter tool across photos.
• Sorting
•(not available in Compare view) Specifies the sort direction or sorting criteria for
displaying the photo thumbnails.
• Flagging
•Assigns, removes, and displays a Pick or Rejected flag for selected photos.
• Rating
•Assigns, removes, and displays rating stars for selected photos.
• Color Label
•Assigns, removes, and displays color labels for selected photos.
• Rotate
•Rotates selected photos clockwise or counterclockwise.
• Navigate
•Selects the previous or next image.
• Slideshow
•Plays an impromptu slide show of the photos.
• Thumbnail Size
•(Grid view only) Sets the size of the photo thumbnails.
• Zoom
•(Loupe view only) Zooms the view in or out.
• Info
•Displays the filename of the selected photo.
• Compare
•(Compare view only) Displays options for zooming, swapping, and selecting
compared photos.
• Label
•(Survey view only) Displays Survey view label.
•(Optional) Choose a selected item in the toolbar pop-up menu to remove
the control from the toolbar.

You might also like