Welcome to my free course,
30 Days of Lightroom!
Many new photographers are either intimidated by Adobe Lightroom or don’t even know where to start. In this free masterclass, I’ll be teaching you everything you need to know to edit like a pro in not time at all! Follow along with me as I edit real-world photoshoots, and give you tons of handy time-saving tips and tricks along the way.
Welcome to 30 Days of Lightroom!
What are you waiting for? Let’s get started!
01. Introduction to the Lightroom Interface
Welcome to my 30 Days of Lightroom tutorial series! We’re getting introductions out of the way, and getting familiar with Lightroom Classic’s user interface. While this is a beginner Lightroom tutorial series, knowing the basics in Lightroom are critical, whether you’re just starting out or you’re a hobbyist. Even a seasoned photographer may pick up a couple lightroom tips and tricks — everyone has room to improve their skill set.
02. Importing Your Photos into Lightroom
While the importing process can be a bit complicated, it’s important to understand all of your import options, from tags to file handling. While this is a beginner Lightroom tutorial, good Lightroom workflow habits are critical, whether you’re just starting, or an expert in the field.
03. Smart Previews
Let’s learn about how to build smart previews, and the benefits of using smart previews. This is an awesome way to view and edit images that aren’t on or connected to your editing computer.
04. Filters: Flags, Ratings, Color Labels
It’s time to learn Lightroom’s organizational tools: Flags, Star Ratings and Color Labels. Each is a great method of culling your images down to your top shot. Once your photos are rated or labeled, you can filter them in multiple ways to better organize your shots. Which ever organizational tool you use, is up to you!
05. Organizing Your Photos
In this lesson we’re tackling the basics of organizing your photos within Lightroom. We’ll breakdown the difference between Collections, Collection Sets and Smart Collections… and which organizational tool is best for you.
06. Cropping and Composition
It’s time to go in-depth with the Crop Tool and all of its secrets! The composition of your photo is what grabs and holds your viewers attention, or pushes them away. You can utilize the crop tool to create well composed photographs that will complement your subjects and captivate your audience.
07. Basic Photo Toning
Let’s start toning your photos in Lightroom. The toning process, known to some as “editing,” is critical to creating a great photo. It’s essential to understand the pros and cons of each slider — when you should or shouldn’t use them.
08. How to Read Your Histogram
We’re going to deep dive into what a histogram is and how to read your histogram. Your histogram is critical, not only while editing your photo, but also while shooting. ALWAYS refer to the histogram on your camera to get a properly exposed image, even when shooting RAW.
09. Lightroom Profiles
Today, we’re getting introduced to Lightroom Profiles. There are two types of Profiles in Lightroom: Creative Profiles and Camera Profiles. We’re discussing What are Profiles, How to use Profiles, and How to Import Custom Profiles.
Be sure to visit my Official Run N Gun Shop for custom color grading Lightroom profiles.
10. Presence: Texture, Clarity, Dehaze
We’ve made it to the Presence Tab. The Presence Tab consists of the Texture, Clarity and Dehaze tools. Utilizing the Presence toolset is a great way to make contrast and detail adjustments to your photos. It’s also critical to know how far you can push the tools like clarity, dehaze or texture, and to recognize when you’ve over processed your edit.
11. Vibrance vs. Saturation
What’s the difference between Vibrance and Saturation? Often confused, the Vibrance and Saturation tools in Lightroom work very differently, and it’s important to know the pros and cons of using each slider.
12. Mastering Tone Curve
Next on our list is the Tone Curves tool. Utilizing Curves is a great way to make minor contrast adjustments or uniquely stylize your photo. It’s also critical to know how far you can push the RGB or Color Channel Curves, to recognize when you’ve over processed your edit
13. Hue, Saturation, Luminance (HSL)
Utilizing the Hue, Saturation and Luminance sliders is a great way to make minor adjustments or stylize your photo. HSL is powerful, so use it wisely!
14. Split Toning
In this tutorial, we’re exploring the Split Toning tool, and how to add a stylized color grade to our photo. Split Toning, unlike White Balance or HSL, gives up the ability to colorize our Highlights and Shadows independently.
15. Detail: Sharpening & Noise Reduction
Let’s scroll down to the Detail Tab and explore both Sharpening and Noise Reduction. Every photo needs Sharpending — it’s as simple as that. Even with great ISO performance, your photos will probably require some Noise Reduction as well. We’ll be learning what each slider does, and just how far you can take each tool.
16. Lens Corrections
How do we remove distortion, vignetting, chromatic aberration and fringing from our photos? Wider lenses, zoom lenses and cheaper lenses can leave your images with undesirable defects. We’ll remove them in seconds with Lightroom’s Lens Correction tools!
17. Transform Tool
Crooked Horizon? No Problem! Leaning Architecture? Not anymore! Lightroom’s Transform Tool allows you to straighten those vertical and horizontal lines and perfect your photograph. You can even correct distortion from your wide angle lenses!
18. Effects: Vignette and Grain
Let’s open the Effects Tab within our Develop Module. Effects contains two tools: Post-Crop Vignetting and Grain. Both grain and vignette can be great for subtle changes, or adding a stylized look to your edit.
19. Calibration Panel
Most Lightroom users have never touched the calibration tab, whether out of fear or lack of understanding. I’ll be showing you how to Calibrate your photos and Color Grade using the Calibration Panel.
20. Black & White Photo Editing
Color or Black & White? Here are the basics of post-processing your Black and White Photos. We’ll cover how to convert color photos to black and white, tools to edit black and white photos and when you should consider converting your photos to Black & White.
21. 10 Essential Lightroom Shortcuts
We all love Shortcuts! Here are my top Lightroom keyboard shortcuts that I use every day. Seconds add up to Minutes, which add up to Hours… so every second counts when you’re post processing your photos.
22. Photo Merge: Panorama
We’re Photo Merge tool to stitch together a super high resolution panoramic photograph. Panoramic Photography is a great way to create highly detailed photos, even if you don’t have a large megapixel camera.
23. HDR Photo Merge
In this lesson, we’re merging multiple exposures into a single High Dynamic Range (HDR) photograph. HDR Photography takes practice, but you’ll be ready to create amazing images after this Lightroom HDR tutorial.
24. Adjustment Brush, Graduated & Radial Filters
These are some of my favorite Lightroom tools that few photographs know about. Introducing the Adjustment Brush as well as the Graduated Filter and Radial Filter. These are powerful targeted tools for post processing your images, and work quite similarly.
25. Spot Removal: Clone & Heal
Be the master of your compositions with the powerful Spot Removal Tool. While this tool is great for removing dust spots from your photos, you can do so much more! We’ll learn how to remove dust, people and even Fighter Jets from your photos!
26. How to Create a Virtual Copy
This is one of my favorite Lightroom Classic features: Create Virtual Copy. It’s truly an under appreciated and powerful tool that you should be utilizing in all of your editing sessions — I certainly do!
27. Batch Editing
Like saving time? Let’s Batch Edit our photos to save hours and hours of editing! Post processing, or editing your photos can take two or three times as long as your actual photoshoot. Let’s learn some Lightroom Tips and Tricks to save HOURS editing your photos.
28. Lightroom Presets
Everyone loves presets! They’re a great way to save edits and apply them to future photoshoots. Let’s learn how to create and apply presets in Lightroom.
29. Exporting Your Photos
While the exporting process can be a bit complicated, it’s important to understand all of your export options, from file naming conventions to file metadata.
30. Watermark Your Photos
Utilizing the Watermarking Editor in the Export window is a great way to protect your images from being stolen and brand your photos. Many photographers, like myself, have strong feelings on whether or not to watermark their photographs, but this Lightroom Watermark tutorial is dedicated to showing you how, should you choose to.
Congratulation! You've successfully completed my 30 Days of Lightroom Course!
I truly hope you enjoyed 30 Days of Lightroom course, and that you’re much more confident processing your photos!
Most people take years to scratch the surface of any editing app, but your persistence paid off.
If you enjoyed this free 30 Days of Lightroom masterclass, I hope that you would subscribe below for more Tutorials and Masterclasses in the future! And don’t forget to check out the Run N Gun Photography Youtube Channel for more photo tips and tricks!