Become an Adobe Lightroom Power User in Two Easy Days.

If you are looking for photography tutoring, how to use your camera and the artistic side of photography, go here for information about learning photography from Skippy.

Time and Dates:

• Sunday, 20 May 2012, 1000 to 1900.
• Monday, 21 May 2012, 1000 to 1900.

Lightroom teaching is also available in the individual tutoring format.  Contact me and inquire.

By request I’m going to take a shot at providing my Lightroom classes in two days.  The goal will be to enhance your understanding of Lightroom with the following two purposes in mind:

1. Creating a workflow which fits your exact needs.  I can tell you from personal experience that once you get serious about photography you have got to have this.  It will make your life much easier.

2. Examining the workings, tricks and capabilities of Lightroom (LR) in depth.  In LR there are multiple ways of doing different things.  There are many tools and features which are not obvious.  There are ways to use LR in ways it wasn’t necessarily intended.  These are the things I’ll be teaching you.

If you don’t know anything about LR do not fear.  I’ll be doing my best not leave you behind, but keep in mind that these classes are best attended by people who are familiar with Lightroom.  After that we dive in and get right to the good stuff.  You will complete these classes as an apprentice power user not as a shell-shocked noob.

If you have a laptop with LR on it this is ideal as you will be able to do actual hands on application as we go along.  These classes are not designed to be me talking for 8 hours.  These classes are designed for you to be doing things with your photographs in LR, customizing your Lightroom installation and asking me questions specific to your circumstances.  I’ll do some lecture but we will be doing hands on practical applications and learning from each other as well.

Bring photos to work on – and not just the good ones.  Bring the over/under exposed, the ones with bad white balance, the ones where the skin tones are wrong and we will learn how to fix these things.  This class will have some theory, but my intention is to focus more on practical application.

What will this series of classes not be about?

This will not be about critiquing your photographs or your post processing from an artistic point of view.  This is about how to use the tools, not what the final product looks like.  The final image is your vision, I want to help you use the tools.

These classes are also not about me throwing a bunch of stuff at you that you will not remember.  I want to provide lots of information but I want you to understand the information and know how to apply it and not forget it two days later.  Ask questions.

Syllabus

Classes are approximately 8 hours in total length, broken into sessions of 2 hour-ish each. We will take breaks and stop for lunch.  You don’t have to cross your legs or starve to death.  Plus you can bring food if you like.  Times are flexible, to include when we take lunch break.

Location:

Location:  The Cohere conference room.
Directions: http://coherecommunity.com/space/directions

Time and Dates:

Sunday, 20 May 2012, 1000 to 1900.
Monday, 21 May 2012, 1000 to 1900.

Registration, cost and payment:

$170 per day.
Registration and payment must be made at least 48 hours in advance.
How to make payment – contact me to register and I will provide payment information.

Refunds offered if:

• the class is cancelled
• the class is rescheduled
• you can cancel at least 2 day(s) before the class

Additional notes: ** Cancellation within 48 hours of the event will not be refunded. ** “No-Shows” will not be refunded.

The Classes:

Please arrive a bit early so you can get situated, start your computer, all that sorts of stuff.  I like to start on time so people who need to leave on time can get the full benefit of the session and not be late for anything they have planned after the class.

A quick breakdown of the sessions:

1. Overview of Lightroom, what is where, what does what in general, moving from LR3 to LR4 if anyone needs help with that.
2. Library module, collections, smart collections, using LR to organize your photos, DNG format.
3. Develop module,
4. Slideshow module,
5. Print module,
6. Web module,
7. Book module,
8. Map module, plugins, assorted other tips and tricks.
9. Creating a work flow, more tips and tricks, anything I forgot or that we didn’t get to, anything you have questions about.

1.  Where do I find that again?  Lightroom Overview.

Sunday, 27 May, 1000 to 1200

The first session will be an overview of Lightroom.  What things are in general and where they are.
Shortcut keys.
Configuring Lightroom.
Optimizing Lightroom to run faster.
Customizing the interface to suit you.
More moving from Lightroom 3 to Lightroom 4 if anyone needs help with that.
Go thru the preference settings for LR, catalogue settings, identity plate and watermark setup.
Talk about getting your photos into DNG format and why you should do this (or not do this).
Basic importing of your photos.

2.  Importing and Organizing or Where The Heck Is That Picture I’m Looking For.  Library Module.

Sunday, 27 May, 1200 to 1300, 1300 lunch break, 1400 to 1500.

Set up LR and get your photos in there.  LR doesn’t “open” photos, it imports them.  It doesn’t “save” them either.  It exports them.  This confused me to no end when I first started using it.  In the first session we will cover topics like:

One catalogue or multiple catalogues.
Keywording (another thing I never used until I discovered how badly I needed it).
Importing and exporting catalogues and why you might do this.
Backing up your catalogues.
How to organize your images on your hard drive.
Moving photos in LR and directory management.
Collections.
How to export the photograph after you have post processed it.
How to export a photograph to Photoshop or GIMP or other image processing software.
How to send your photographs to Facebook, SmugMug and other such websites from LR.
Star and colour ratings – using them effectively.
An over-view of my workflow process to get you thinking about what yours should look like.
Comparing photographs to pick the best of a series.
Using filters to view your photographs.

3.  Developing Without Chemicals.  Develop Module.

Sunday, 27 May, 1500 to 1700

Specifically to include:
The tools and functions – what they do and how to use them effectively.
Sharpening
Noise reduction.
Converting to B&W.
Lens Corrections.
Everything else in the develop module.
Virtual copies and snapshots, why they are great.
Syncing your edits across multiple photographs.
Making and using presets.
And more!  There is always more in the develop module.

4.  Your pictures should be in the movies.  Slideshow Module.

Sunday, 27 May, 1700 to 1900

I’ll show you a few problems with the slideshow module and how to avoid them, then we will go over how to create slideshows with and without music or other sound.

Customizing slideshows.
Adding background images.
Resolutions for exporting, which to use for what.
Limitations of the slideshow module.
Collections and how they integrate with the slideshow module.
Set up a slideshow on your computer and always be able to play it back.
Create your own slideshow templates.

5. It’s not just for printing any more.  Print Module.

Monday, 28 May, 1000 to 1200

The print module.  When I first got LR I thought the print module was nothing special.  It prints.  So what.  In fact you can do some pretty delicious stuff with the print module.

Setting up your own custom templates.
Using print module to prep your images to be used on merchandise.
Print module in conjunction with print-on-demand services like Zazzle and Lulu.
Collections and how they integrate with the print module.
Create your own print templets.
Prints with background images.

 

6.  Putting it out there for everyone to see.  Web Module.

Monday, 28 May, 1200 to 1300, 1300 lunch break, 1400 to 1500.

Different types of pages and galleries you can create with the web module.
Advantages and limitations of each.
Customizing and creating templates.
How collections integrate with the web module.

7.  Publishing on paper (and PDF).  Book Module.

Monday, 28 May, 1500 to 1600

Overview of what the book module can and can not do.
Assorted tips and tricks.
Customizing.
How collections integrate with the book module.

8.  You too can have stalkers.  Map Module.

Monday, 28 May, 1600 to 1700

Getting GPS data from your photos.
Adding GPS data to you photos.

9.  Put it all together.  Create your work-flow.

Monday, 28 May, 1700 to 1900

Adding presets from other sources.
Backing up your Lightroom settings and presets.
Moving Lightroom settings and presets from one computer to another.

For the final session we will review anything you want to review.  We will create your work-flow process.  I will also toss out all the hints and tips and warnings (I know a few things you shouldn’t do as well) I forgot to tell you in the previous classes.

About Skippy

Skippy (that’s me) is a guy who takes too many photographs and tries to avoid writing about himself in the third person.

I am On The Fly Photography and Time/Place Photography.  You can see an extensive collection of my photography by visiting my SmugMug account at http://onthefly.smugmug.com/ to determine if I am worthy of teaching you.

I also do wedding photography on a contractor basis with All Digital Photo and Video (http://www.alldigitalphotoandvideo.com/) where I learned how to quickly take 2400 images from three photographers and turn them into a final cohesive edit of 1200 photographs in 12 hours.

Questions you should answer to help me help you.

I will send these to you in an email when you register so you can send them back to me with answers.

Do you currently have Lightroom installed?
On a laptop you can bring to class?
Which version of LR do you have?
If you do not have LR have you previously installed the trial version?

Do you shoot in raw or jpg?
Do you currently have an established work-flow process?
What would make your photography work flow easier, faster and better for you?

Do you have any specific question about LR that you already want to ask?
What is it you want Lightroom to do for you?

What can you tell me about your shooting style?  Ambient light, flash, strobes, auto mode, manual mode, colour, black and white, high volume, low volume, so forth.
What subjects do you primarily photograph?

Bonus: Free Lightroom Sessions!

Held in the Cohere conference room.

• None are currently scheduled.

Please RSVP for more information by sending an email to me via the address or form on the contact Skippy page.