5 Free Lightroom Resources all Photographers Should Know About

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No matter your skill level or interest level in photography, there are scores of camera choices available to choose from; whether DSLR or mirrorless; Fujifilm, Sony, Samsung, or Nikon; film or digital; APS-C or full frame. Good post processing software is almost as important to photographers is the camera itself, and while there is certainly a viable number of software options available, most photographers gravitate toward Adobe’s Lightroom. With Apple abandoning Aperture in favor of the easy-to-use but ultimately disappointing Apple Photos, Lightroom’s popularity will only continue to surge. Lightroom isn’t just post processing software, though; this stand-alone app allows you to organize, refine, share, and print your images with relative ease. It’s accessible enough for casual users and powerful enough for pros.

Lightroom isn’t as complex as Photoshop (it doesn’t need to be), but there is still a considerable learning curve involved in getting the most out of the software. Trial and error will get you only so far; if your goal is to unearth all the most useful tricks and establish an efficient workflow, it might be in your best interest to turn to an expert for guidance.

Below you will find 5 free Lightroom tutorials that cover a range of useful topics aimed at getting you up to speed with what will likely be your go-to photo app for the foreseeable future.

Getting Started with Lightroom 5

Produced by Train Simple, an Adobe Authorized Training Center, this course is designed for novice users. Over the course of 13 lessons you will learn about cataloging, importing images, interface options, and many other essentials.

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Learn Lightroom CC

Adobe’s own help pages feature plenty of short, useful Lightroom tutorials. From how to setup Lightroom to more advanced topics such as printing and creating web galleries, these video tutorial typically range from 3 to 12 minutes and are sourced from various experts around the web. The tutorials found here essentially take the most salient parts of longer videos, providing viewers with something of a crash course on any given Lightroom topic.

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Tuts+

Tuts+ offers well over 100 Lightroom tutorials, so whatever you specific need may be, you’re likely to find the help you need. You can learn how to use Lightroom’s radial filter, how to integrate Photoshop into your Lightroom workflow, how to create panoramas using Lightroom…you get the idea. All of Tuts+’s tutorials are comprehensive and coherent and they include images, graphs, and other visual accompaniment to help you follow along.

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Digital Camera World

Have you ever wanted to learn how to create your own Lightroom presets or how to add a watermark to your photos? You can learn these skills and more, in addition to learning about some of Lightroom’s more obscure features via the excellent tutorials provided by Digital Camera World.

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Julieanne Kost’s Blog

Saving the best for last, you’d be hard pressed to find a more exhaustive collection of Lightroom tutorials than the goldmine that is Julieanne Kost’s blog. Her page is smartly organized and contains virtually every imaginable topic that a Lightroom user — both beginner and advanced — might want to learn more about. Click a link and you’ll end up at a Youtube video where you will be treated to clear, concise, enjoyable tutorials.

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There are many more Lightroom resources across the web — these are just a drop in the bucket, but are more than enough to round out your Lightroom education. If you know of worthwhile Lightroom tutorials, feel free to share.

About Author

Jason Little is a photographer, author and stock shooter. You can see Jason’s photography on his Website or his Instagram feed.

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