An Introduction to Adobe Lightroom

Written by: SparkKD • Edited by: Rhonda Callow
Published Nov 26, 2009 • Related Guides: Adobe | Adobe Lightroom | Photoshop

This article series is a beginner's guide to Adobe Lightroom and shows what can be accomplished using the various modules within Adobe Lightroom. The first article discusses the Adobe Lightroom software interface. The subsequent articles cover each of the individual modules within Adobe Lightroom.

Introduction

Adobe Lightroom is a software for photographers which provides an integrated image management database + a post processing application. It is not a replacement for image browsers (such as IrfanView) or graphic editors (such as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP).

Lightroom provides the user with a system to seamlessly manage the entire digital photography process, from importing images to editing and post-processing eventually leading to printing and online publishing.

Lightroom provides the user with a database for organizing and storing the images, presets to perform frequent edits, additional editing tools in the develop module, a facility to prepare a slideshow for presentations, the ability to print images and also publishing on the web.

For further details, check this detailed review of Adobe Lightroom

Various Modules within Adobe Lightroom

The various modules within Adobe Lightroom are listed below

Library Module
Develop Module
Slideshow Module
Print Module
Web Module

Software Interface

The Adobe Lightroom software interface is shown below.

click to enlarge

Keyboard Shortcuts within Adobe Lightroom

Some of the shortcuts for the commonly used functions within Lightroom are

F5 - Toggles the visibility of the Top Panel (Nameplate & Module Selector)
F6 - Toggles the visibility of the Bottom Panel (Film Strip & Filters)
F7 - Toggles the visibility of the Left Panel
F8 - Toggles the visibility of the Right Panel
Tab - Toggles the visibility of the Side Panels
Shift + Tab - Toggles the visibility of all Panels
L - Dims the brightness level (Used to view the pictures)
G - Shows the images in Grid Mode
E - Shows the selected image in Loupe Mode

There are many other module specific shortcuts available within Lightroom. However, providing an extensive list in this introductory guide will be of little use.

For those who are interested, the module specific shortcuts can be viewed under Help --> (Library) Module Shortcuts

Alternatives to Lightroom

Some alternatives to Adobe Lightroom are

Aperture by Apple
Bibble from Bibble Labs
IMatch from photools.com

However, as per a 2009 survey by InfoTrends, Adobe Lightroom is the most extensively used digital image management software tools, and has the largest user base both amongst Windows and MAC users (in spite of the presence of Aperture). Linux users can read this review of various image viewing and image editing softwares for Linux.

Adobe offers a trial version of Adobe Lightroom over here.

SparkKD Jan 18, 2010 5:04 AM

RAW to JPEG Conversion

Hello Allan,

A RAW to JPEG Conversion can be performed very easily using Adobe Lightroom. The steps required are as follows

1) Place all the RAW Files into a folder.
2) Import them all into Lightroom using the Import Button under the Library Module.
3) Edit them as required using the Develop Module
4) Export them using the Export Button from the Library Module. Select FileType as JPEG during Export to save as JPEG.
5) Voila! Your done. Then you can go ahead and upload them to photobucket as you normally do.

Let me know if you face any issues while doing this.

Allan Bailey Jan 16, 2010 9:31 AM

converting from raw to jpeg

Hi! I'm trialing lightroom2 at present and need to convert modified raw to jpeg prior to uploading to photo bucket (or similar).
Catch is I can't find a way to do that.
Could you advise what the process is.
Regards Allan