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Yes, I’ve titled a post called Lightroom for beginners even though I still very much feel like a beginner myself but I’ve found that I know enough to share what I know and how it can make your life easier.
I’ll admit when I started using Lightroom I was intimidated by the number of options and what it can do to your photos. I’m including the main ones I use in this post but I’m planning a few follow up posts about Lightroom too. I’ve also previously posted about all the secrets of my blog photography and here I am letting you in on some more.
What is Lightroom & why should I use it?
Lightroom is a photo editing software made by Adobe. You can use it for free or you can pay a monthly subscription and get access to more features. I’ll admit that I don’t pay for it as I don’t need any of the additional features but that may change as I get more confident with my photo editing. Lightroom is basically used for making the original photo you’ve taken better rather than making a creative edit of a photo like my white rabbit in London!
Although I used Lightroom to edit the original image, I used Photoshop Mix to add the rabbit to the picture.
Take your photos from dark to light!
Most of the time I use Lightroom to make my photos brighter and make the colours stand out. Using the Light option and changing it to curve you can brighten your photos but not change the colours that are there. Some photo editing apps make your pictures brighter but they also change the tone and hue of the colours.
You can also edit each option (Exposure, Contrast etc.) individually which is also a good way to make your photos look amazing. It depends what end result you are aiming for. Sometimes honestly playing around with the app and seeing what it can do is the best way to learn.
Crop your photos!
I pretty much always crop my photos. This is either because I’ve taken the photo in a ratio of 16:9 and want to use a square image on my blog or because there’s too much dead space around my images.
As you can see in the picture above, I’m editing out the lantern that I’d added in the background. It looked great when I took the shot but one the lightness was increased I realised it didn’t need to be there. By cropping the image I’ve kept the focus on the book and bookmark without having too much dead space around it.
I set the sizing on the bottom left to 1:1 which means I’ll end up with a square image. The one thing I love about Lightroom is when you crop an image it keeps it the way it was shot. Some apps I’ve found tend to crop the image but then it doesn’t appear the way it was shot. This is especially important for images of books where I want you to be able to see the title and in the case of this book you need to be able to see the flamingos too!
Use presets to make your photos pop!
I love Lightroom Presets but they never take the place of actual editing. I always edit my photos and then apply a preset to make it perfect. They are a combination of free presets, ones I’ve bought and ones I’ve created for myself. Yes there will be a full blog post on how to create your own Lightroom Presets too.
I find presets can do a magnitude of things and can change your photos in numerous ways. I have some to make my photos lighter and brighter. Some that are the best for travel shots and just make them clearer. Then there are those that are a bit of fun and just give me ideas for my photos.
Pin this for later!
While there will be a lot more that Lightroom can do I wanted to stick the absolute basics for this post. I may do more posts as my experience increases. Also if you have any ideas for future blog posts of this type then just get in touch.
