Once you switch from shooting in JPEG over to the RAW file format, you will notice that your images look a little flat and dull straight out of camera in comparison to how they used to look! 

That's simply because when you shoot in JPEG, your camera applies contrast, saturation and contrast, but the RAW file has none of that applied, which is why you need to add in some "pop" to images yourself! (You can read some more reasons why you should be editing your photos here - read it, then come back!) 

So, let's look at some really simply adjustments you can make to give your RAW images a bit of a lift! 

Hey fellow Lightroom users!

As you are no doubt already aware, in order to use a photo for something we can't do from within Lightroom, such as sending to your favourite print lab, or maybe making a copy to post on your blog, we need to EXPORT it from Lightroom. 

Although it's pretty darn quick to export photos from Lightroom anyway, we can speed up this process even more by creating our own export presets, and that's what I'm going to show you how to do today! 

The headline says it all! Today, I wanted to show you 12 Lightroom before and after examples of images that have been edited exclusively with LIghtroom.

Why?

Because one common  misconception about Lightroom is that it is mainly for image management, or for making simple editing adjustments like exposure and white balance, but that you really need something like Photoshop to edit your images creatively.

Nothing could be further from the truth! 

Once you get to know what can be done in Lightroom. you will be amazed at just how much you can do in this program. So, yes image management is a HUGE benefit to using Lightroom, but don't make the mistake of thinking that is ALL it can do. 

I know that for many of you, your number one enemy in your photography journey is not having enough time!  I can totally relate to that, as I sometimes feel like I am trying to cram 50 hours worth of chores into one day.   I have spoken before about how I try to manage the time I do have for photography more effectively, so today I'm going to tell you about how Lightroom has also been a key part of helping me get more done, in less time. 

We all know that learning a new piece of software can be daunting - this is especially true when we're talking about Lightroom, which has so many modules, panels, buttons and options that you might not even know where to start! 

It has taken me quite a few years to figure out Lightroom, and right at the beginning I really wish I had someone leading me through the process step by step - it would have saved me so much time and allowed me to concentrate on getting good  images, rather than sorting out my mess! 

If you are reading this then you have probably come to the realisation that the taking of the image is just ONE part of the photography process.

The OTHER  part is post processing your images in an editing program such as Lightroom or Photoshop.

Most photographers will edit their images, even just a bit, because no matter how good a shot is straight out of camera, it can be made to look even better in editing :) 

When you start out, it can be hard to know which photography editing program or software you should be using. There is a wide array of programs on the market, but I am going to keep it super simple here and tell you about two - Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.  

Lightroom is an incredible tool for photographers, as it allows you to manage your images, edit them beautifully, and share them with the world, all in one place. The downside is it can also be a little overwhelming at first simply because it can do so much! If you are new to Lightroom and not sure what it can do, check out this post on 8 Reasons to Love Lightroom even as a Hobbyist.  (Then get back here - I'll wait for you to catch up 😄) 

Today, we're diving into just a few of the biggest mistakes that new Lightroom users make when they first start using the program.  Honestly, these are the same mistakes that I have seen so many people make, and of course I've made them all myself!  

Ready to get crackin'? Great! Here are five mistakes people make when trying to use Lightroom - and what you can do instead. 

Editing an image is an important part of the photography process, but if you are anything like me, you really don't have a lot of time to spend at your computer playing with your photos.  Using Lightroom is relatively quick and easy anyway, but there is a way you can save even MORE time by using helpers such as presets. 

A preset is simply an edit that has been "recorded" so that you can apply the same steps to any image you wish, with just one click of your mouse. This can save you a lot of time processing your images, as all you need to do is click on the preset and leave Lightroom to to do rest of the work moving all the sliders etc for you.  Kinda like having an editing servant 😄

I have to say, it took me a looonnnng time to wake up to the benefits of using LIghtroom, but now it's an integral part of my workflow and I freakin' love it.  It is one of those programs that you don't really appreciate until you have been using it for a while and get to know all of the features, but once you do, you are golden! 

I know many people think of Lightroom as only being useful for professional photographers, but I can tell you that it is just as useful for a hobbyist.  Today we are going to have a little chat about the eight reasons to love Lightroom, even if you only take pictures for yourself.  

Oh, and you can also snag yourself a free Lightroom editing checklist! 

Today I thought I'd so something a bit different and give you a first-hand, "behind the scenes" look at just one image, from start to finish. I will show you how the image looked straight out of camera, the lens used, which settings I chose and why, and even how I edited it!  Hopefully by looking at some "real life" examples of images you'll be able to see some of the things that go into making an image - and also the mistakes too! This is not a perfect image - there are many things I could have / should have done differently, and I'll talk about them too.  

How much do you all know about Colour Space? It’s something we tend not to pay too much attention to until we start to notice that our prints aren’t coming back from the print shop the way we thought they would, or we post our images on Facebook and they look all washed out and with weird colors!

Getting your colour space right is one of the secrets to having your images look beautiful, so it pays to take a few minutes to get this right - and that is exactly what we are going to look at today! 

The Curves Tool must be one of the most versatile tools in Photoshop, and you can do so much with it! It's also looks seriously scary with all those grids, lines, and points - so much so that many people shy away from using it. That is all going to change today my friend! You and I are going for a little walk through the curves tool, and finding out some of the things we can do with it. 

Today, we are talking specifically about how to rate, delete and keyword your images in Lightroom.  You'll need to do this to keep on top of your ever expanding library of images, so we are going to dig deep into how you can do this! 

If you are following along with our Learn Lightroom series, you'll now have some images files imported into Lightroom, which means we can now get stuck into creating a great organization system for your images!

One of the best features of Lightroom, in my humble opinion, is the ability to create Collections with your images, so that's what we going to look at today. 

Before you can start to use Lightroom, you need to import some images into the application so that you can see, rate and edit them!  So, this will be the very first step in your editing workflow. 

For this tutorial, I'm going to show you how you can import images into Lightroom directly from your memory card. This way, you are adding the photos to your hard drive and letting Lightroom know about them in one easy step.  Here's how to do it!