Lightroom is a program developed by Adobe that allows one to organize and edit photos with ease. The best way to describe lightroom is that it is like photoshop built with keeping in mind the necessities of a photographer.
To ace at using Lightroom, let’s get the lightroom basics to make the photos come alive. Lightroom basics can be easily understood by breaking down its layout into different sections.
1. MENU BAR
The menu is broken down into the library, develop, map, book, slideshow, print, and web. The library module is where one spends most of the time calling through the images from the photoshoots using a grid system.
With a grid system, one can mark or flag images for later use. Develop helps in editing the photos and where most of the features within the lightroom come into play.
By clicking on the develop module, all the panels change to more intuitive tools. In developing module one can quickly adjust sliders to change the look of the image, for example, white balance, exposure, sharpening, etc.
The next module is a map that allows us to manually geotag each of the images depending on where it was taken. Book modules help in the quick making of albums by dragging and dropping images to each page and adjust the layout of a book on the right-hand side.
It also gives easy access to send books to different vendors for printing. The slideshow dialogue works similarly to the book module which allows us to quickly create slideshows for presentation by simply adding the images and playing it in full screen.
A print module as the name itself suggests that it allows preparing photos for printing assuring that their size, color, space, resolution, and all other settings are correct. The web module allows us to quickly create galleries to present the images on the web using a variety of templates and can be downloaded online.
2. CONTENT AREA
The content area dominates the majority and the central. The most convenient way to use this is to enable the grid mode. To enable the same G has to be pressed. The toolbar is present below the content area. The area will fit in the view or 1:1 scale size if on develop module.
However, if on the map module, one can arrange images according to their locations as it displays a world map. Preview of images that are going to be exported from the lightroom is shown in the remaining modules i.e. book, slideshow, print, and web modules.
3. FILM STRIP
The film strip consists of all the photos present in the library. It enables a user to switch between pictures when on different modes easily. Lightroom basics lay a foundation for creating impeccable results!
4. LEFT PANEL
It lets one apply default presets available in the lightroom. Presets can also be saved which makes it handy. To enable the left panel Tab has to be pressed to make both the panel i.e. is both right and left if for some reason they go invisible.
5. RIGHT PANEL
The right panel shows all the information regarding the image namely exposure, aperture, etc. To open a specific panel, hold down on Ctrl/Cmd and then press 1,2,3,4, etc. Use P to flag an image and U to remove the same.
Lightroom basics are very crucial in order to achieve the desired results. It has an extensive list of tools and features but sometimes might get terribly complicated if one’s not familiar with lightroom basics such as menus and software, but becomes easy with these basics and experimentation.
