Mastering Lightroom Classic

Explore the Lightroom catalog structure, including jpeg previews, one-to-one previews, and the link between catalogs, preview data, and negatives. Learn to back up catalogs and keep file paths intact.

Explore how to import images from your computer into Lightroom Classic, choose add to catalog, create standard previews, and apply metadata and keywords like Morocco and Africa.

Learn how to import from camera into Lightroom, copy to computer as dng, apply metadata keywords Japan and Asia, and organize into a Japan 17 folder, then fix date-based imports.

Learn how to import video into Lightroom Classic, view and capture frames, set poster frames, trim start and end, apply quick develop adjustments and presets, and export the clip.

Learn to shoot tethered in Lightroom Classic, connecting your camera to the computer for direct import into a studio session folder, with presets and instant develop tweaks.

Learn how to work with multiple Lightroom catalogs, set startup preferences to prompt for a catalog, and organize studio, travel, and personal projects across separate catalogs.

Mastering Lightroom Classic teaches splitting a single catalog into separate catalogs, merging catalogs, and exporting or importing catalogs while managing negatives, previews, and multiple hard drives.

Discover Lightroom smart previews let you edit offline when originals reside on an external drive. Build smart previews for star images, then export high-quality images up to 2000 pixels wide.

Learn how to back up Lightroom catalogs and large negatives, using weekly catalog backups, Time Machine, a backups folder, and multiple drives to create three copies and guard against corruption.

Learn how Lightroom saves adjustments as XMP metadata, the difference from legacy sidecar files, and how automatically writing changes to XMP preserves edits with your images.

Learn to install and manage Lightroom plugins via the plugin manager, import from aperture or eye photo libraries, and create a storyboard with the story border plugin.

Mastering Lightroom Classic helps you import photos by pulling entire folders, preserving subfolder structures, applying a default import preset, and navigating the compact import dialog for metadata and keywords.

Explore the develop module in Lightroom Classic, reviewing image adjustments, history, snapshots, presets, and navigation tools to compare before and after states and manage edits efficiently.

Adjust white balance in Lightroom Classic using presets, manual sliders, and a white balance tool to achieve a neutral tone, with a side-by-side before/after and final polish.

Master the basic tab in Lightroom Classic by using the histogram and tonal sliders to balance exposure, highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks, then apply snapshots to compare before and after.

Adjust exposure and tonal ranges using the histogram to reveal face and shirt detail. Refine midtones, blacks, highlights, shadows, and color with clarity and vibrance in Lightroom Classic.

Master tonal control in Lightroom Classic by lifting shadows, reducing highlights, and using the tone curve (parametric or point) to extract sky detail, then fine-tune color temperature and saturation.

Explore fine-tuning blue skies with hue saturation and luminance in Lightroom, using hue, saturation, and luminance controls, the targeted adjustment tool, and the previous button for before and after workflows.

Master Lightroom Classic's adjustment brush for localized dodging and burning with exposure, highlights, and shadows. Use brushes, masks, feather, flow, and auto mask for precise, layered edits.

Use the graduated filter to brighten the foreground and darken the sky, adjusting exposure, white balance, shadows, and temperature for a warmer, balanced image.

Master the radial filter in Lightroom 5 to create a soft, non central vignette, adjust exposure, contrast, and clarity, and refine masks with the brush and pin.

Explore both manual and profile-based lens corrections in Lightroom Classic to fix distortion and vignette, remove chromatic aberration, and refine exposure, shadows, highlights, and color vibrance.

Explore the transform tab in Lightroom classic, using upright, level, and vertical tools to correct perspective distortion. Compare auto, full, and guided modes for natural results.

Learn how high ISO and underexposure increase shadow noise, and use Lightroom's detail panel with luminous and color noise reduction, plus detail and contrast controls, to balance noise and detail.

Crop with the lock to preserve the image’s shape, adjust highlights, shadows, contrast, clarity, and vibrance for detail, then patch imperfections with the spot removal tool.

Learn to merge multiple portrait frames into a panorama in Lightroom Classic, choosing spherical, cylindrical, or perspective options, with crop and boundary warp controls, producing a raw panorama.

Learn how to merge bracketed exposures into a single hdr image in Lightroom Classic, apply auto tone and alignment, remove ghosting, and fine-tune in the develop module.

Explore the effects panel in Lightroom Classic, focusing on post crop vignette, grain, and dehaze, and learn how vignettes follow crops, control highlights, and interact with graduated filters.

Explore camera calibration in Lightroom to simulate camera profiles on raw files, compare Adobe standard with camera portrait, landscape, neutral, and vivid, and decide how to apply or skip calibration.

Mastering Lightroom Classic teaches creating virtual copies to test multiple edits, compare before and after side by side, and preserve the original while exploring color and black-and-white split-toning variations.

Explore how sharpening works in Photoshop and Lightroom, including capture and output sharpening, presets for faces and scenery, and creative sharpening with the adjustment brush.

Learn batch processing in Lightroom Classic by using a gray card for white balance, syncing settings across many images, and creating or applying presets with the painter tool.

Discover how to integrate Photoshop with a Lightroom workflow to perform image surgery when needed, using external editing in TIFF, ProPhoto RGB, 16-bit, and seamless back-and-forth saving.

Master soft proofing in Lightroom to simulate printer output with calibrated monitors and paper profiles; calibrate with X-Rite i1 or Datacolor Spyder and compare perceptual and relative rendering intents.

Learn how to export edited Lightroom photos using the export dialog, presets, and options for renaming, resizing to 800 px, sRGB JPEG, metadata, watermark, and post export actions.

Master export workflows in Lightroom classic by building print presets, choosing JPEG or TIFF, and selecting color spaces like sRGB, Adobe RGB, or ProPhoto RGB for 300 ppi print.

Learn to use the cropping tool to preserve the original 3:2 camera ratio while exploring common crops like 1:1, 4:5, and 16:9.

Configure publish services in Lightroom Classic to export images to hard drive or publish to Facebook, Flickr, and Instagram, with configurable quality, resizing, color space, and metadata options.

Master Lightroom Classic's book module guides you to assemble a 60-image collection into a print-ready photo book with templates, auto layout, and easy export to blurb.

Arrange and customize a Lightroom Classic slideshow by selecting, ordering, and alternating landscape and portrait images, applying templates, adding captions, dates, and exposure, and exporting as video or pdf.

Explore Lightroom Classic's print module to create and manage templates, layouts, contact sheets, and print settings, control color management and output options, and print to paper or JPEG.

Create and customize Lightroom web galleries using templates like grid, classic, square, and track; adjust appearance, borders, and overlays, export the gallery, and publish to a web server via FTP.