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How to use Lightroom’s new features

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Today I want to bring you some short and highly pertinent advice about my favourite library and processing system – Lightroom.

Adobe have just added some new masking features to Lightroom and, as I know a lot of you use this system, I wanted to explain how to use these new tools.

I get a lot of questions about processing. In this age of digital – processing really is the other half of photography – so even if you are reluctant, it’s good to get familiar with the tools that can really make your workflow quicker and easier.

So I say – let’s get good at this and let’s all feel confident in making our images look just the way we want!

I am going to start making more videos over the next few months, to give you quick and effective tips to help you get the most out of Lightroom.

If you have specific questions you’d like me to answer in my video series about Lightroom – then please let me know by posting in the comments below.

If you want to do some more in depth learning with me on Lightroom I’m teaching two live online classes in the new year – one Beginners Lightroom in Feb and one Intermediate/Advanced Lightroom in May.

There is also the chance to join my 4 week online Live Art of Photography workshop starting Nov 19th. An intensive class in a small group, where I teach you my essential skills for great photos. I’ll also give you lots of personal feedback on your images to help you develop your photography.

Have a great week,

Anthony and Diana

2 Comments

  1. Richard Towse
    15/11/2017 @ 7:58 PM

    Hello Anthony. I am getting back onto photography having been much delayed by a hip replacement. (shortly after your London at Dawn in early 2016 I went up Snowdon. Brilliant sunshine, deep snow at the top, nasty damage to the hip… finally operated in September. Mending, not complaining…. I read ALL your emails…
    I want to get on with Lightroom, I took on Creative Cloud in August, have done a fair amount of tinkering with earlier photos, but have hit upon Lightroom’s only real limitation, it does not allow access to the image library from multiple desktop/laptop computers. Most people tend to use LR on one desktop, so when I try to work away from home on a laptop I can only access a small portion. Is there an answer to this? Will your tutorials be at a venue where I would need the laptop or on the web?

    • Epes
      16/11/2017 @ 11:33 AM

      Hi Richard

      Glad to hear you are on the mend!
      Here’s the deal with Lightroom. You are correct? The desktop version does not have the ability to share catalog data. But Adobe has now created a solution, though it is just in… what I would call, Beta phase. They split Lightroom into Lightroom Clasic CC (your desktop version) and Lightroom CC, the cloud version that you can connect to from any device. Thing is, Lightroom CC (cloud version) is still LR lite – it does not have near the capabilities as Lightroom Classic. I haven’t even tried it yet – it has limited image processing modules so is of no interest to me at this time. I would try it if you think it may help your workflow, but! – it is also based on storing all your images in Adobe’s cloud, which you pay for according to how much space you need and you will need a good internet connection to access your files. To me it feels like something that may be good a year or so from now, but at the present time it is a weak solution.

      Regarding my classes. I am doing many online now, Art of Photography, Advanced Photography, and two levels of Lightroom classes. You can see them here

      I don’t have any location based classes other than my international workshops at the moment.
      Really good to hear from you.