Getting started with Lightroom

mik0m

mik0m

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mick
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I realise this is old ground but I am finding it a struggle just trying to comprehend how to start from scratch with Lightroom4.

I am thinking of upgrading to serious pp softwear and have put lightroom 4 under consideration. Troube is most of the guides / tutorials I have seen leave me more confused than ever. For example how do I go about keywording all the images that I have stored on my HD in any kind of logical fashion. from afar it seems that this would take up all my time alone never mind the editing and publishing ( I have a lot of images)

Anyone else had a recent experience of starting from base with this particular softwear package If so any advice, pointers links etc would be greatfully welcome.
 
You need a book. I don't think anyone can ever get 100% from Lightroom without one.

By Scott Kelby, Martin Evening, Mat Coalson, etc. Think I prefer Kelby.
 
Download LR4 from the Adobe site and make use of the 30 day free trial.......

Watch a guide and try out what you've learnt to see if it makes sense.

It really is a simple enough program to use.

Personally I would import all of your existing images en-mass, that could get complicated. Instead import one or two collections at a time, add key words and maybe edit a few to get the hang of things.

I started using LR at the end of 2010 and haven't imported much from before then but everything I've done since is in there :)
 
I would recommend the book by Kelby as well. I couldn't understand the whole LR process until reading it.
 
Keywording your photos will indeed take a long time but once it's done, you will be able to find any photos so much easier.

I agree with starting small.

Hopefully you already have your folders under date and subject.

Select a folder to import, type in a few keywords relating to that subject and import them.

Have a wee look and change or add keywords as needed.

It will certainly keep you out of trouble over the winter :lol:
 
thank you all for that especially the book recommendation and the starting small advice.

i will try the free trial first i think see how i get on

once agin thanks for taking the time
 
Scott kelby's latest Lightroom book is really simple to read and he wrote the book to go from start to finish as you do your editing, it really is simple after a while.
 
Agreed buy the Scott Kelby book and follow it from front to back with no skipping of bits that you dont find interesting them hopefully it will all fall into place :D
 
Definitely Kelby - a few years ago when I downloaded a trial of Lightroom I got nowhere and didn't really understand what it was capable of.

I got fed up with organising my photos manually and either having limited adjustment options in Canon's own software or having to go to Photoshop Elements.

I bought Lightroom and Kelby book - after couple of hours with it I fell in love and have used it since!

Phil
 
mik0m, let me know how you get on with Scott Kelby's Lightroom book. I am also relatively new to Lightroom and have this book on order!
 
i also am a little stump by LR4 so thought get Scott Kelby's book on order wh smith online £30 that shoild do it lol we'll see
 
LR really is a hugely useful and powerful program. Use a mixture of file renaming on import, collections, collection sets and keywording and you can find any photo you've ever imported. Even things like "all shots taken at ISO 6400 with a D700 using the 70-200 at 100mm in Yorkshire of wifey" can be found. Personally, I do 95% of my post-processing in LR too.

Kelby's suggested workflow is a good place to start and you can tweak his system to suit your own needs. Using Kelby's workflow certainly helps to get your head around what LR is all about in regards to "digital asset management". I've used other authors' guides for different photo software (e.g Martin Evening for PhotoShop) but find Kelby's style and approach more suits a thickie like me.

Aperture and other digital asset management programs do much the same but none are as well supported as LR, IMHO.
 
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Adobe have a series of tutorials on their website that take you through each module, the idea behind them and how best to use the workflow. They are about ten minutes long so easily bite size.
 
I found some tutorial videos on LR 2, was hoping for some on version 4, but sound like the book is a better option.
 
I am also in the same predicament. But after watching the tutorials on Adobe TV and using the free trial version I am going for LR4. Great tool
 
I'll make a bold statement - Don't bother keywording every individual image

Take a shoot - Say Bob's 40th birthday bash.

Select image 1. Give it some keywords like Bob, birthday, Accrington Bowling Club

Now select all the images and sync the metadata you have just applied across all the images from that shoot. Same for a wedding

Now if you want to find birthday shoot images you can use birthdays as your keyword or it might be studio or bowling or anything

By doing it in shoots it means it should not take thatr long and if you need to you can select other batches.

You don't even need to keyword anything (I do it a little) and I never have any difficulty finding my images as they are ordered in a way that I know.

It's strength is not just in the searching though, for me it's the speed I can edit 1000+ images from a shot.
 
ukpbz said:
Anyone ever imported from aperture into LR 4?

Is it even possible?
Click to expand...

Not sure how but supposed to be easier than from iPhoto, as a lot of the guides I've looked at suggest getting the aperture trial (which is no longer available) .
 
EOS_JD said:
I'll make a bold statement - Don't bother keywording every individual image

Take a shoot - Say Bob's 40th birthday bash.

Select image 1. Give it some keywords like Bob, birthday, Accrington Bowling Club

Now select all the images and sync the metadata you have just applied across all the images from that shoot. Same for a wedding

Now if you want to find birthday shoot images you can use birthdays as your keyword or it might be studio or bowling or anything

By doing it in shoots it means it should not take thatr long and if you need to you can select other batches.

You don't even need to keyword anything (I do it a little) and I never have any difficulty finding my images as they are ordered in a way that I know.

It's strength is not just in the searching though, for me it's the speed I can edit 1000+ images from a shot.
Click to expand...

Easier to keyword on import. I only keyword individual shots later if I need to additional words.
 
Byker28i said:
Easier to keyword on import. I only keyword individual shots later if I need to additional words.
Click to expand...

You're right.

I was meaning for the OP to take (import) one of his existing shoots (as the OP already has a large number of images to import) and keyword those. Sorry for causing confusion.
 
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