Lightroom and why I love it!

No matter how good you are with a camera, you’ll always be editing something about it in post-production. Sometimes your perfect shot will have some unwanted shadows in it, or something needs to be removed from the image. Or maybe you want to completely change the color of an object in your image. Regardless of what you want to be done, I can promise you that your Instagram photo editor can’t even do half of what professional editing software can do. Yes, these things cost money but are your work worth it?

Like you, I also started out not having a single clue on what my image needed. While looking at other people’s work and then comparing it to mine, I would always wonder my work never popped. Or why it never seemed as perfect as other photographers’ work was. You may even start to think that your camera just isn’t as good as theirs. Let me start off by saying that the price tag of your camera doesn’t determine the quality of your work. In photography, everything plays a huge role. Such as the lens you are using, the lighting, your subject, and of course, your exposure triangle. (If you are unsure about what an exposure triangle is then don’t worry because there will be a blog on this coming up very soon). There is a very important part that a lot of people don’t outright say and that is that the photos are edited.

There are so many different options for editing software. However, none of that compares to the Adobe Creative Suite. The Adobe Creative Suite is a package deal where you can pay monthly for the licensing of Adobes programs. Of course, you don’t have to get the entire Suite, but this all depends on what work you do. If you are just editing photos, then I recommend you get both Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. There are two versions of Adobe Lightroom, one being the classic version. I use the newest version of Lightroom because I think it is the easiest to use and the cleanest looking. The reason I think that you should get both Photoshop and Lightroom is that you can work on a project in both applications and Adobe makes it easy for you to jump back and forth between the two. Photoshop also allows you to do more advanced editing than you could do in Lightroom.

In my personal opinion, Lightroom is the best photo editing software out there.
It is simple and easy to use. Every photographer that I personally know also uses Lightroom. A helpful hint for when editing your photo in Lightroom or any editing software is to make sure you are taking RAW images. There is a setting on your camera to either take the picture as a JPEG, RAW, or even both. You should always take your photos in RAW format. When taking your photos in RAW format, this means that your file for each image is bigger which also means there is a lot more information about your photo which allows more editing to be done and it turns, your picture will look so much better.

Lightroom is great because you are able to change a lot of the technical aspects of a photo. These things including changing the exposure, the highlights, the lowlights, blacks, shadows, and even the contrast. Along with that, you can change your colors in the color section, the effects, the details and so much more! Lightroom also allows you to save presets so all of your images can look the same. Maybe a photographer you admire has a preset that you like, if you find the preset on the internet or one close to it then you can save it and add it to your own Lightroom preset collection. Another cool feature on Lightroom is that if your image seems crooked or just isn’t straight then you can change that. Lightroom also allows you to heal mistakes! So, the next time your client has a coffee stain on a white shirt then don’t stop shooting. You can fix this!

Lightroom is my favorite software of all time. Editing pictures become so fun when using Lightroom! If you have ever used Lightroom, then comment below and tell me what you think! Are there any tricks you learned and that you like to use? Don’t forget to check out my other blog posts and subscribe. Thank you so much!