Intro to Lightroom & Photoshop

Week 1

Lightroom is a fantastic tool not only for editing your photos but for organizing them as well. We will set up our collections and go over the first basic steps of editing an image. We will demystify all the sliders and settings, and get you comfortable using the program. We will also set our cameras to capture RAW images.

Homework Assignment: Either start a new collection or migrate your existing one to Lightroom Classic. Be prepared to edit at least 3 RAW images from your collection.

Week 2

Learn how to go through and store lots of photos at once using the flag and rating system. We will go over histograms and the tone curve, making sense of both. Learn how to photograph with post-processing in mind and go a little deeper into the sliders and settings of Lightroom.

Homework Assignment: Take a few new photos with post-processing in mind. At least one should have the sky in it.

Week 3

Review homework images. Go in-depth on color and the effects processing tab. Learn about masking and healing. Most of the day will be spent editing using what we’ve learned. I will go around and offer assistance as needed.

Homework Assignment: Edit as many of your photos as you like. Watch at least one YouTube video from a creator discussed in class.

We will finally bring our images into photoshop to finalize our images. Sharpening, Dodge & Burn, and Frequency Separation. We’ll go over how to then bring everything back into Lightroom for the actual finishing touch. From there we can export to anywhere. Briefly go over social media, printing, and adobe stock.

Homework Assignment: Export a high-quality jpeg for internet, Export a high-quality jpeg for printing.

Week 4

Time management. By now you can see how it would be very easy to spend multiple hours on a single image, but that can’t always be the case. We will start off by editing someone else’s photo within a time limit. We will then have a quick on-campus photo shoot, with the goal being that when we return to class we can quickly organize and review the photos, choosing one to finish within the time before class ends.

Homework Assignment: Sign up for another class! :)