In this week’s episode, we are diving into Lightroom Presets - what they are, what they do, and how they can help you speed up your editing process, so you can get more done in less time!

If there is one thing that comes up again and again when we talk about photography, it's EDITING - the steps you take AFTER you have pressed the shutter and uploaded your images.  It's a whole other world of things to learn and master and as such it can be quite overwhelming for new photographers. 

Because it's yet another thing you need to add to your "to learn" list, it can be tempting not to bother doing it, or slap a action / preset on and call it a day.  However, editing your images is an important part of the photography process and one that I believe you should at least start to learn as soon as possible. 

In this post I'm going to share exactly WHY you should edit your images, what programs you can use, and the order in which you should learn everything in. 

Ooooh, that sounds like a lot to get through! Best get started then :) 

As photographers, there are times when we need to change the colour of something, for example, a t-shirt that a subject was wearing, their shoes, lipstick colour, or even take down the redness of the ears in backlit image, or change the colour of a product.

Up until now, this was a job best handled by Photoshop, simply because it had more precise colour controls.

But then good ol’ Lightroom went and added a hue slider to the local adjustment tools, and (fanfare please) we can do these colour changes within Lightroom!

Watch the video below to see where to find this piece of editing magic, and how to use it. I’ve also used a few different images so you can see the different occasions you might want to use it too!

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on the differences between Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC, going over the BIG difference between the two programs, how the features differ, along with questions to ask yourself when deciding which one was right with you (not read it? Start there and then come back here so this post makes sense!)

This week, I wanted to jump in and tell you the reasons why I personally use and in most cases, recommend, Lightroom Classic CC over Lightroom CC. I know for myself that I love hearing the “why” behind other people’s decisions, as it helps me make my own, so hopefully this is the same for you!

You can either watch a Facebook live I did on this very subject (it’s at the end of the post!) or you can simply read the blog post - whatever works for you :)

So without further ado, let’s go over why I use and love Lightroom Classic CC…

Want to learn how to edit photos in Lightroom? Then you are in the perfect place! In this post, I’m going to teach you how to edit your photos in Lightroom Classic like a pro, step by step.

The right editing is that extra ingredient that lifts your images from being good, decent, run of the mill photographs, and takes them onto next level, awe inspiring images.

It's the final step in creating beautiful photos that look professional and polished, and if you skip that step, or just slap on a preset (hello AUTO for editing!) your images simply aren't going to look half as good as they could.

Being able to look at your photo, see what it needs, and then know which tools to use to help bring your vision to life is such an important skill to learn if you want to take images that go beyond snapshots.

And that’s what we are going to cover today! There are 2 ways to enjoy this post - watch the video, or scroll down for written instructions.

Adobe certainly knew how to confuse the living bejesus out of photographers when they began offering TWO choices for their Lightroom program - Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic.

So, what’s the difference between the two? What does each one do differently? Who are they for? And most importantly, which one should you get?!!

Find out the answers to all these questions below!

Ahhhh, Lightroom presets. One thing that divides many photographers is on the use of presets, and whether you should or shouldn’t use them.

I sit firmly in the middle - I think presets are amazingly wonderful, when they are used the way that they were intended: to speed up your workflow, so you can edit quicker, or share a particular workflow with others. There’s no way I could get as much done is as little time as I do, without the use of presets! I use them all the time, and can’t imagine editing hundreds of photos without them.

Unfortunately, many people see presets as a substitute for learning how to edit, and that is NOT what I believe presets should be used for. I strongly believe that you should learn how to edit FIRST, get to know Lightroom inside out, then use presets as a way of getting more done in less time.

I’ve also bought a few preset packs over the years (when I was first starting out with editing and didn’t really know what I was doing) and some have been great, and others have been awful and a huge waste of money. Spending your money on learning how to edit rather than on yet another set of presets will give you much more bang for your buck, because you’ll then be able to edit any photo, exactly how you want it, without relying on presets.

But let’s take a look at exactly WHY I think you should learn how to edit before using presets!

Wondering how to use presets in Lightroom? In this post we're going to cover EVERYTHING - from where to find your Lightroom presets, how to use them, and most importantly, how to tweak them for best results.

Because whilst Lightroom presets are wonderful for speeding up your editing workflow, most of the time you're going to need to make adjustments to them. (Otherwise your images are going to look a little bit over done and overblown, and we don’t want that!)

Hello there! Today, I'm going to show you how to install Lightroom presets in Lightroom Classic CC.

And the good news is it's never been easier to install Lightroom presets!

We’ll cover three different ways to do this, depending on whether you have the latest XMP style of presets, or the older, legacy presets - and whether you just want to install one or two presets or a whole bunch!

Today I'm going to show you the exact Lightroom Export Settings for Instagram!

If you've been finding that your images look fantastic in Lightroom, but then when you upload them to Instagram, they look crunchy or pixelated, or they've just got this really weird color vibe going on, then this is definitely the video for you!

I'm going to walk you through step by step setting by setting exactly what you need to do to export your images for Instagram.

Cropping your images in Lightroom is so important in order to make your images look more polished, more professional, and of course more engaging and dynamic through better composition.

So that is exactly what I'm going to show you in this video!

I'm going to show you how the crop tool works, and we’re going to talk about aspect ratio, changing orientation with a really in depth like at the crop tool.

Do you make sure that you watch right until the end because I'm also shading a sneaky little bonus tip for changing the crop overlay so you can get more dynamic composition. That's really important to make sure that you don't miss that!

We’ve all done it - taken a picture where we’ve overexposed the sky, either by accident or to try to ensure our subject is correctly exposed. But, fret not, as you can quickly and easily fix an overexposed sky in Lightroom - and in just three (or even two!) simple steps….

And that’s exactly what I’m going to show you how to do today!

Lightroom is definitely the must-use photo editing software for both professional and hobbyist photographers, simply because it has absolutely everything you need to mange, edit and share your images in one place (and in waaaay less time than other software) .

Because it can do SO much, you can easily find yourself a little overwhelmed at first. But, as with everything else in photography, you can start by learning a few simple tools. And that’s what I what to cover here today!

When I first started learning how to edit my photos, I followed a few different tutorials online, patched them together, and studiously applied them to each and every photo.

The result?

Eye blindingly bright, overly contrasty and saturated images, that looked like they had been edited by 10 different people.

(My eyes hurt just THINKING about those early edits 😎😵)

But you don’t have to make those mistakes too, because you’ve got me, and I’m not gonna let that happen!

So without further ado, here’s 7 deadly photo editing sins - and most importantly, how you can avoid them.

Have you ever found yourself wondering exactly WHERE an image that you’ve taken is?

Why you seem to have about 5 different copies of the same file kicking about?

Or you’ve been sat looking at your image for the last ten minutes wondering exactly what adjustments you should be making? Whether you’ve done enough?

If that’s you, then a) you are not alone and b) the chances are you’re missing something incredibly crucial - a Lightroom workflow.