Lightroom Prerequisites

Whether you plan to work with digital photography professionally or you just want to improve the quality of the photographs posted to your Instagram account, learning Adobe Lightroom can be a valuable skill. However, learning a new skill can be intimidating, especially one associated with professional photography. You might worry that Lightroom will be too hard to learn. This guide will help you understand the best methods for learning Lightroom and what you should study first to make the learning process easier. This way, you’ll be successful however you choose to apply your new skills.

What is Lightroom?

Adobe Lightroom is compact photo organizing and editing software that allows users to catalog and edit photographs from any device using the Adobe Creative Cloud. Using Lightroom, users can examine and edit photographs on the fly immediately after taking them without having to leave the site. This makes Lightroom ideal for photographers who want to create perfect photographs for advertising, social media, or personal printing, as Lightroom lets them take a photo and immediately start the process of editing. Lightroom provides tools for color correction, altering contrasts, modifying brightness, and basic editing functions such as correcting red-eye or blurring/sharpening an image. Since Lightroom is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, it is also optimized for photo sharing, letting users work with the same photo across multiple devices and including tools to help users prepare their photos for publication.

Adobe Lightroom is closely related to Adobe Photoshop. The major difference between the two programs is that Lightroom is optimized for mobile devices and on-the-fly photo editing, whereas Photoshop is optimized for desktop use and has more precise and granular editing tools. Lightroom is best suited for users who want to take a photograph and immediately begin editing it to suit their needs, particularly photographers working on-site, away from their desktop computers. Lightroom also lets users create and import preset filters and settings to help them quickly edit their photos.

Read more about what Lightroom is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with Lightroom?

Adobe Lightroom is a powerful photo editing tool with a number of features that make it useful for both professional and hobbyist photographers. Whether a photographer is taking photos of models for a series of print advertisements or just taking vacation photos for their own personal social media account, the ability to edit photos quickly and efficiently will greatly improve the quality of their output. This versatility makes Lightroom an ideal choice to learn for anyone who is regularly taking photos as a part of their day-to-day life.

Lightroom lets users make on-the-fly edits to photographs, altering colors, shade, contrast, and other digital details with only a few clicks. Owing to its easy-to-use sliders and built-in/customizable presets, users can begin editing their photos within seconds, easily letting them identify the issues that need to be changed to get a perfect shot. Recent updates to Adobe Lightroom allow users to build and edit rudimentary video animations, opening a whole new world of possibilities for creative photographers.

Lightroom is also a powerful tool for archiving and publishing photos. Linked to the Adobe Creative Cloud, Lightroom lets users easily share their photos across multiple devices and programs. Users can take a picture, edit the basics of the color and contrast in Lightroom, then import that photo into Photoshop to perform more detailed photo editing. Then, they can import the newly edited photos into a program like Adobe XD in preparation for publication on a website or digital advertisement.

Is Lightroom Easy to Learn?

Lightroom is similar to other Adobe Creative Cloud programs in that it is accessible and beginner-friendly if you are only interested in learning the basics of the program. However, it is also a deep enough program that users who want to regularly use Lightroom professionally will need more intensive training. The general consensus suggests that new users can load up Lightroom for the first time and edit photos in only a few hours. This makes Lightroom an ideal choice for users who want to ease themselves into the program before deciding whether or not they will want more advanced training.

One way to ease into learning a new skill like Lightroom is through guided training. Noble Desktop offers an introductory Adobe Lightroom Classic course that will teach students the basics of editing photographs in Lightroom and storing those photos to be published or shared. This course offers live instruction in using the program and is an ideal place for new students to start learning Lightroom.

What to Know Before Learning Lightroom

There aren’t any formal prerequisites for learning Lightroom. Students with no prior experience using any creative software can jump right in and start editing their photographs. However, there are a few suggested prerequisites that will help students learn how to optimize their use of Lightroom.

Your Device and the Adobe Creative Cloud

One of the advantages of the newest version of Lightroom is the breadth of devices upon which it runs. Lightroom runs on Windows, Mac, and Unix PCs, and it is built to function on both iOS and Android mobile devices as well as Apple TVs. This means that users of almost any platform can utilize Lightroom, but users should be aware of the basics of the platform they are using before learning Lightroom. Users can learn basic computer skills at the same time, but it is not recommended.

Additionally, knowledge of the Adobe Creative Cloud and its functionalities is a useful prerequisite to brush up on before diving into Lightroom. After a user’s free Lightroom trial has expired, they will need to purchase a subscription with an attached monthly fee to use the program. This fee will vary depending on how many programs a user wants to access and how much storage space they need, so new users should explore the pricing plans to pick the right system for them.

Digital Photography

Since Lightroom is a program for editing digital photographs, new users would benefit from learning the principles of digital photography. Lightroom is helpful for improving photographs, but it can’t replace a good eye for visual design. Also, just as students should familiarize themselves with the basics of their chosen platform, they should also familiarize themselves with the features and functions of the digital camera they will use to take their photos.

For students who are aiming to use Lightroom professionally but still need to strengthen their background in digital photography, Noble offers a Photo Retouching Certificate program that provides students with live, hands-on experience in both how to take digital photos and how to edit and organize them using Photoshop and Lightroom. This is a great way to develop the complete skill set expected of professional Lightroom users.

Key Insights

• Adobe Lightroom is a relatively accessible application for storing and editing digital photographs. It is easy for beginners to pick up and experiment with, but it is deep enough for professionals to use regularly.
• There are no formal prerequisites to learning Adobe Lightroom. However, users should be familiar with the device on which they will run the application and with Adobe Creative Cloud’s subscription model before purchasing the program.
• While not necessary for novices, many professional Lightroom users will also be taking the photographs they are editing, which means that they will benefit greatly from instruction in digital photography as a medium since every camera is different and many have specialized functions and uses.

Learn Lightroom with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers a wide range of Lightroom courses designed to fit the practical and professional needs of all students. Participants can take these courses both at Noble’s Manhattan location in-person, or they are available through live, online instruction. Even if taken online, these courses boast small classes taught by experienced instructors who can respond to student needs in real-time. Taking a class online through Noble provides students with the same high-quality instruction and professional skills training as the in-person courses, with the advantage of being available to students from all over the country. Noble’s courses offer a free retake option within one year, allowing students to hone their skills at no cost.

Noble’s Adobe Lightroom Classic course gives students hands-on experience using Lightroom to edit, share, and publish photographs. Students will practice manipulating photos and learn strategies to optimize these photos for different purposes, such as social media advertising, web design, and physical printing. Students will also learn how to utilize the Adobe Creative Cloud integration to share, publish, and archive their photos safely and effectively. This course will provide students with the experience they need to use Lightroom Classic for professional and personal purposes.

Noble also offers Lightroom instruction as part of its Photo Retouching Certificate program. This training program teaches students the skills that they need to take and edit their own high-quality digital photos for professional use. Students will learn the best ways to take a digital photo and then be taught how to edit those photos using both Lightroom and Photoshop. Students will learn how to optimize their photographs by taking advantage of Lightroom’s editing and sharing capabilities alongside learning how to make more advanced and complex manipulations in Photoshop. Completing the course provides students with an industry recognized certificate of completion, and participants are also eligible for a free retake within one year to continue honing their retouching skills.