Why Lightroom is the Best choices for Beginner Photographers

GIMP, Bridge, Photoshop, Lightroom. The list could go on. All of these software programs will allow you to “post process” and also organize your photos on your computer. All of them do it slightly differently then another. Here is why Lightroom is probably the best choices for a beginner photographer.

Post Processing Choices If you’re a beginner photographer you’ve likely heard other photographers mention that they use these programs to manage and edit their images on their computer. You probably have heard it people talk about “Photoshopping” an image. Adobe has a pretty good thing going for them when the name of their software package becomes a generic verb. When you’re just barely starting out, you may think you don't need to do any post processing of your images on the computer. Or if you have realized that post processing is a fairly important step in photography workflows which will take a really short time i assure you then the options can seem overwhelming. So what should a beginner use? there are some of most common options such as :

• GIMP – It stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a free program suited for both Mac and Windows. There’s often a steep learning curve for beginner photographers, particularly those who have little experience with Photoshop.

• Bridge –  Offers organizing tools, but lacks any tools by which to process your photos.

• Camera RAW – Great for editing your images, but does not have an organization component.

• Photoshop – Powerful program used by professionals such as designers, painters, and videographers. There are so many tools within Photoshop that photographers often find the software to be quite daunting. (I personally use photoshop mostly for painting)

• Lightroom – Also made by Adobe, is a robust program that was developed specifically for photographers. Beginner, hobbyist, and professional photographers use Lightroom to organize and edit their images quickly and effectively.

• Aperture – A product from Apple that was discontinued in late 2014 in favor of the “Photos” app, was a strong competitor to Lightroom available to Mac users.  Apple mostly neglected this software program for several years before finally making an official announcement of it being discontinued permanently, which means nobody should be starting out on it today.  In fact, there are tools available from Adobe to convert Aperture libraries into Lightroom libraries.

Lightroom provide seven modules: Library, Develop, Map, Book, Slideshow, Print, Web. Since this article was written with beginner photographers in mind, we will focus on the two main problems that are likely to run into first on their photography journey as far as software goes: organization and editing

Organization So why would a beginner need help organizing their photos? When someone gets started in this huge industry and world of photography it may be hard to imagine ever having trouble remembering where it is your images may be especially if you're typically a 'tidy' person, or finding a specific image you remember shooting. But it never takes long before this becomes a real problem. If you are going to stick with photography, even as a hobby, you will be overwhelmed by the photos you have really quickly if you don't use some kind of software to help. Hopefully you are already convinced you need something to organize your photos because my files are messy af, so then why Lightroom? Well it is nearly the only product available that meets this need. Apple did offer a product called Aperture that competed extremely well in this space. In fact, many photographers would argue that Aperture offered superior organization capabilities. But after years of not making any major updates and no one surprised about it because it is Apple, Apple announced in 2014 that they were officially killing Aperture, making it no longer a viable choice for anyone, especially not a beginner. You could also look to some of the other free tools from Microsoft, Google, and Apple. All of them offer a decent enough organization capabilities. Google's Picasa product even offers some facial recognition so that you can search for photos containing a specific person. But you get what you pay for, and there is always a reason all of these tools are free. They don't deal well with RAW images, if at all, and the editing capabilities are VERY very limited. If you can't afford Lightroom, then one of these free options wouldn't be a terrible way to start out getting familiar with organizing your photos and doing some of the minor tweaks that they allow. But you should keep in the back of your mind that Lightroom is where you need to be. Images in the Lightroom catalog are organized into folders, generally labeled by date, unless you specify otherwise. Once your images are imported into Lightroom (File>Import Photos and Video or Ctrl Shift + I), you can view them easily–there’s no need to open each photo like in Photoshop—in the Library module. From there, you can decide which photos to keep and which to delete or culled. Some Lightroom users rate their images using a star system; others, simply flag each photo with a P (to keep it) or an X (to reject it). In addition, in the Library module, you can add metadata information, including keywords, to describe the content of your images. While adding this information may seem time-consuming at first, it will prove invaluable later on as you search for specific photos within your Lightroom catalog.

Editing Once you’ve organized your images files and added metadata in the Library module, it’s time to edit the hell out of those pics and get this BREADDD. This is where Lightroom really shines over the competition, especially the free tools. Lightroom has a Develop module where you can do quite a lot. You can make simple edits like cropping and sharpening, as well as use more advanced tools such as the adjustment brush, lens correction , and curves THE CURVES. This is where shooting in RAW format becomes key factor. If you shoot in RAW, every time you depress the shutter release button, your camera saves a file containing ALL of the data recorded by the sensor to the memory card. Alternatively, with a JPEG image, the camera converts the image from raw to JPEG, meaning that some of the data gets compressed and is therefore, lost. Can you edit a JPEG image in Lightroom? Yes, but with a JPEG image, the camera has, to a certain degree, determined settings like sharpness, white balance, and contrast—making it more difficult to adjust in post-processing. Also, with any format but TIF (which is as close to RAW without being RAW as possible) you essentially lose all the benefits to shooting RAW images if you convert them before bringing them into your software on the computer for editing. Lightroom is a MUCH better way to do basic photo edits, along with some slightly more advanced edits. What about just using Photoshop? Photoshop is the clear winner when it comes to photo editing application this app is just so damn good. It is amazing what photographers, graphic artists, and many other content creators can do with Photoshop. It is also intimidating. As a beginner, without any training, good luck trying to figure out how to do even basic edits using Photoshop. And remember, organization is an important aspect here and Photoshop doesn't offer anything toward organization.

Conclusion

We recommend using lightroom if you're just starting out, but if you've been into photography long, what are you doing all these time if you're not using photoshop?