You know the feeling.

You look at your images, and just can't help but notice that they are missing something.

That special "x" factor, or "oomph" that other peoples photos have, but you can't quite seem to get on your own images.

The chances are what they are missing is quality EDITING.

Check out this week's video where I talk about WHY editing your photos is so darn important, plus the different ways you can use editing to lift your images up onto next level fancy pants status ❤️

If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that I am a HUGE Lightroom fan. Not only it is a fantastic photo editor, but it saves me so much time each week!

I want YOU to love Lightroom too, so that’s why in this week’s post, I’m going to go over 5 Lightroom tricks and tools that are worth their virtual weight in gold, so that you can experience them too.

So you’ve beautifully edited your images in Lightroom, and you’re ready to share your fabulous images with the world…….

But when you upload your image to Facebook, it looks either too soft, too crunchy, or simply a pixelated mess, and nothing like the gorgeous image you saw in Lightroom!

The problem’s not you (or at least not only you) as Facebook and Instagram will compress our images when we upload them if we make them too big, simply to reduce the file size, and save on their bandwidth space.

We want to do all we can to avoid that happening, so in this post I’m going to go over step by step how you can export your images from Lightroom to make sure your images look fab on all social media platforms!

Learning how to mirror the background in Photoshop is a great way to quickly and easily remove large distractions from an image, and otherwise tidy up the frame and make a neater image. And the best news? It's super quick and easy to do! It's definitely waaay easier than cloning or patching out distractions, so it's another great trick to  have in your editing back pocket.

Time is without a doubt our most precious resource - because no matter how much we might want or need it, we can't fit more than 24 hours into our day!

And I for one don't have time to spend a couple of those precious hours sitting at my computer desk trying to manage, edit, and otherwise keep on top on my images.

So if you feel like you are drowning trying to get everything done, have a quick read of these 5 simple tips that will have you spending less time at your computer desk editing AND creating better images as well. 

Hola!

For any images you want to put online, you are probably going to want to add a watermark to your images. The good news is you can easily create a watermark in Photoshop, and just in a matter of minutes, and that’s what I’m going to show you today!

A watermark helps protect your images, to make it difficult for anyone to use them without your permission (and also so that everyone knows who took that gorgeous photograph!) so it’s worth taking the time to do it if you post your images publicly.

(And If you are in business, a watermark can also be a great way to help market your business for free!)

Read on for your step by step guide on how to create a watermark in Photoshop...

One thing that is guaranteed to cause some confusion to most emerging photographers is calibrating their monitors.

Calibrating your monitor is simply a way of making sure what you see on your screen matches what you see in print. If you have ever had images come back from the printer bearing little resemblance to what you see on screen, an uncalibrated screen is one reason why! 

The big downside to calibrating your monitor is that it is yet ANOTHER expense, as you will need to purchase a tool to do it, and let’s face it, photography can be an expensive enough hobby :-)

However, you do have several options when it comes to calibration tools.  The one I use is the X Rite Color Munki, which seems to strike a good balance between features and price, so for many hobbyists since is what I would recommend.

For this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to calibrate your monitor using my own tool, the X-Rite Color Munki,  but the process is very similar with other brands, so this should at least give you some idea of what goes into calibrating your monitor!

I can’t tell you how often I hear people giving advice online about Lightroom that makes me just want to yell “wait! no! Don’t listen to that - it’s just not true!"

Things like:

“Well so and so says that you need to use Photoshop if you want to get images that look like the pros”

Or…

“oh well that person said all I need to do is watch You Tube and I can learn how to edit from there."

I don't blame them - because I used to think the exact same things!

That's why today we are diving into a few of the BIGGEST Lightroom myths that will only hold you back from getting the most out of this awesome program.

Ready? Let’s go!

If I asked new photographers to name a piece of editing software, the one that pops into mind most often is probably Photoshop, or even Photoshop Elements. 

Whist Photoshop is (undoubtedly!) an amazing tool for editing, it’s definitely NOT the one I recommend for new photographers.

Why on earth not, I hear you say?

I’m so glad you asked 😀…..

Here are 5 reasons why learning how to edit your images in Lightroom is MORE beneficial to you when starting out - or indeed, at any time!

A few months ago, Adobe released a brand new application into their product suite: Lightroom CC.

If you are wondering what Lightroom CC, what it can do, and whether it is the right application for you, then this is the very article for you.

In this blog post you will learn:

1. What Lightroom CC is

2. How it compares to Lightroom Classic CC

3. Who LIghtroom CC is for

4. Who Lightroom is NOT for

5. Why you might want to use BOTH Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC

Ready? Let’s jump right in.

Tell me, are your photos all over the place when it comes to how you edit them?  Do you like a soft and airy edit one day, and then a dark and moody one the next, and then maybe vintage with a touch of matte?  When you view your images all together does it look as though they have been edited by around 30 people or someone with a serious multiple personality disorder (😁)?

Yes?

Then a) don’t worry about it too much as it happens to us all, and b) this is the blog post for you!

Adobe recently announced that there is now TWO different versions of Lightroom available on its subscription plan, and naturally, that has lead to some confusion about what the differences between the two are, and which one you should use.

These two different versions are called Lightroom CC and LIghtroom Classic, and they are each aimed at entirely different sets of people, so you do want to make sure you are using the best one for your needs.

You might also be wondering what the heck happened to Lightroom 6,  the only version of LIghtroom available as a download version for a one time fee, so we’ll cover that today too!

Phew, that’s a lot to get through - best crack on...

One of the most common questions I hear about Lightroom is "When should I take my images into Photoshop when I've been working in Lightroom?" 

Following closely on it's heels is this question: "I'm not getting the images I want in Lightroom, do I need to learn Photoshop?" 

The good news is I can answer both questions in one blog post!  

So if you are currently using LIghtroom, and are wondering about when and why you should sometimes use Photoshop, OR if you feel like you are not getting the images you want in Lightroom, and are wondering if doing more in Photoshop is the answer to your prayers. then this is the blog post for you :)  

Sound good? Then read on...

Lightroom has a number of options within it's crop tool that can help you make sure you get the absolute best crop for your image.  That way you can make sure you have the used a composition for your photo that gives it the most impact! 

In this post, I'm going to walk you step by step through using the crop tool, and the different options you can choose to help you get the best crop in Lightroom. 

Let's dig in!

Most of us have fallen for a common Lightroom myth or misconception at some point in time - myself included!  For me, it was assuming that Lightroom wasn't for hobbyists and that I really need to use Photoshop if I wanted to get images like the "pros", when nothing could be further from the truth! 

Let's break down 5 Lightroom myths that you might believe that is stopping you from making the most of this amazing program....