Paid for tuition required in Lightroom 3 and Photoshop

[onpole01]

Hi guys,

Just seeing as there are some awesome photographers/graphic designers on this forum that someone might be able to help my wife out.

She is a photographer and has been working with Aperture 3 on a Mac and wants to shift to lightroom 3 and photoshop.

This is what she requires assistance in:

-developing a clear digital workflow sequence from camera to end e.g. managing files. storage etc
-working with lightroom 3
-working with photoshop
-working with lightroom3 and photoshop together

Not a lot of tutors around for this stuff and we have looked but it's either big group stuff, daytime courses don't work due to day gig commitments or some other reason the planets don't align lol. Of course we would pay for the tuition, cash is king!

If not someone from here maybe you guys could recommend someone.

Thanks heaps :)

[Cam]

Hi onpole!

Can't give any advice on tutors or instructors but hopefully some of the below information might be helpful to your wife.

I started off using Aperture 3 when I bought my DSLR.
It seemed the easiest to learn at first and the most featured (which it was) until I came across Lightroom. At first there was a bit of a learning curve to Lightroom but the results it can produce are fantastic.

In terms of migrating from Aperture to Lightroom it really depends on how your wife has setup her library and current structure in Aperture. So many dependent factors come into play (for example is the structure based on Folders/Directories or rather metadata tagging and ratings etc?) and I think its the case of everyone does it their own way based on how they are comfortable working.

With Lightroom and managing libraries I'm not really sure there is a "best practice" as such...a lot of people have differing opinions. I'm of the opinion that you should create your own custom workflow based on your own needs and what you feel comfortable with....rather than someone elses way. The only way to do this is to jump in and have a go! Even start by setting up a test library with a few albums and just have a play around and a bit of a feel for things. You can always uninstall or delete the library and start from scratch if needed.

Another important thing to factor in is regular backups of your library or albums. To simplify things I much rather have a directory based structure with custom names by year. So this year I have 2011, then any of my VW photos go into folders prefixed with 'VW -' and then other folders such as Night, Storms etc etc. In terms of backing up I just have a scheduled task setup to copy to one of my External backup HDD's, nice and easy way of backing up and if the Lightroom library somehow becomes corrupt I still have an easy way of getting around my directories. The alternative way of backing up is to upload the photos to a web service such as Smugmug or Flickr. Nearly all of my photos that I process end up on either Facebook or Smugmug...which is just another way of having piece of mind knowing they are some place else for safe "off-site" keeping.

For techniques and actually working with Lightroom I have watched a few of the Lynda.com training videos in the past which have been really informative. On the Lynda site they have online video tutorials available (I believe they can also be downloaded) which cover the basics, advanced techniques and a whole range of other topics. These are also available for Photoshop.
http://www.lynda.com/Adobe-training-tutorials/105-0.html

http://camerooney.smugmug.com/Other/Random/i-NdtrkL9/0/L/lynda-L.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKsRIsA4328

Working with Photoshop and Lightroom together can probably be accomplished with Adobe Bridge, although I haven't actually used it for those apps before. Only Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 - Photoshop and Adobe Encore for a wedding video I edited. In any case, there is so much info available on the net about working with these apps. Its actually a bit of an information overload! I'd encourage your wife to have a browse through these links which might give her more of an idea and help her along the way.

http://tv.adobe.com/product/lightroom/
http://www.lynda.com/Photoshop-Lightroom-3-tutorials/Up-and-Running-with/79820-2.html
http://pindelski.org/Photography/2008/02/24/migrating-to-lightroom-from-aperture/

Best of luck!

Cheers,
Cam

[onpole01]

Cam you are a champ and a true gentleman!

Thank you so much for your detailed response, it was extremely helpful to my wife and she wants to say thank you thank you thank you!

I have no idea about this stuff but it made sense to her lol.

Thanks again Cam, really appreciate it :)

[Cam]

No worries at all! Glad to help
:)

[Tinto]

Lynda.com is well worth the subscription $.

[onpole01]

Lynda.com is well worth the subscription $.

Thanks Tinto! she's all over Lynda now thanks to Cam's tip... figuratively speaking :) she is also hooking up with a pro wedding photographer who's gonna help out so she should be sorted now