Looking for the best Lightroom Classic training progam

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Andrew Lamberson

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I have a love...mostly HATE relationship with Lightroom, and I really need to get over it! I just signed up for a year of Photoshop Classic (I figured the pain would motivate me!) and I am looking for a really good training program/lesson for Lightroom Classic 2021. I don't plan on using it for the organization, more for the developing tools.

Any suggestions??
 
Ben Willmore is the best. But if you are only going to use the development module type tools stick with Photoshop. Adobe camera RAW uses the same engine as LrC so all sliders and local adjustment tools do the same thing with the same results. They're just organised differently in the interface.
 
You might look at Matt Kloskowski's courses. I have not used his Lightroom courses (since I do not use Lightroom at this point), but I used his Photoshop course to learn Photoshop. I have also used a number of his other courses, including ones on Luminosity Masking and Editing Landscapes. I like his teaching approach. I also find it useful to go back to his videos from time to time to refresh my memory of techniques I do not frequently use.
 
On-line training courses may be OK.

But I like dedicated books. They're professionally written, organized and edited, well illustrated, and many times come with sample exercises, etc, and go in-depth. And I'll have them on-hand to refer to when needed.

For Lightroom Martin Evening's books are highly regarded.
For Photoshop the old "Photoshop Artistry" text books by Hayes/Crumpler/Duggan are dated but classics.

No doubt there are numerous others.
 
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Lightroom is a program with a steep learning curve, but once you figure it out it is awesome. If you a want a book, I recommend Scott Kelbys Lightroom Classic CC book for Digital Photographers. Kelby doesn’t overwhelm you by trying to explain every button and setting (Martin Evening’s books do this if that is what you like). Kelby explains how he does things. From this it is easy to apply his techniques to other situations. He can be a bit corny, but I truly learned LR from his book at the beginning.

if you prefer to learn by video, then I recommend Laura Shoe’s video series on LR. laurashoe.com. She explains and demonstrates things clearly and simply.
 
There were some fairly major changes in the 2021 update, so make sure any book or resources reflect the most current 2021 changes. The bones are basically the same but there will be some parts where your screen doesn't match the tutorial.
 
I’d go with Ray Hennessy. He is a wizard at LR/PS for wildlife specifically. I like that he teaches the workflow between LR and PS, not both separately. He also offers mentoring one on one (video) and workshops which are excellent. As soon as this pandemic lets off I am signing up for a couple days with him in Florida.
 
Lightroom Classic (LrC) is a multi-faceted application with seven modules, so more like seven programs in one! The heart of the application is the Library Module, this module allows you to keyword, mark, export/import (although you can do the export/import from other models, too), see your computer's organization of your folders, and find images by any one of several filters, including metadata. You will be using this module to import (think "link") your images into LrC to process. Learning how the import panel works is key to understanding where you decide to place your images. Reading about the Library Module in the Adobe Help manual, found on the Adobe website, is a good place to start. Martin Evening, as someone else has said, has a very good book on LrC and he was part of the group that wrote the program. If you only want to process one image at a time and do nothing else with it, then learning PS would be the way to go for you. I've used LrC for 8 years and it makes my organization and processing so very easy: I can go from LrC to PS and other software with an image and then place it back into LrC to access as I need it. I think if you were to learn about LrC and what you can do with the software you might be a convert to using all of its functions.
 
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