Lightroom Classic Tutoring to Organize and Edit Your Photos with Confidence

Many photographers come home from a shoot with hundreds of files and no clear plan for sorting through them. Lightroom Classic tutoring gives you a workflow you can repeat after every shoot, so your photo library stays organized instead of piling up. This session, part of our Adobe Lightroom classes in DC, covers the two modules photographers rely on most: the Library, to find and group your photos and Develop, to edit them effectively.

The class will be held via Zoom. Participants may connect from their own homes.

Adobe Lightroom Classic is now the most important software for organizing and editing images. It is appropriate for all photographers – amateur or professional – and is very easy to use. It is equally adept with RAW or JPEG files and can manage other files types as well. Lightroom Classic uses a catalog approach, keeping track of the folder locations on your computer or external hard drive and annotating the files with metadata that tracks changes. This means that your files always remain in their original form.

The Library module is where you organize your photos. You can import files, delete those you don’t want and rank the remaining files for quality. You can sort by rank and attach keywords to make retrieval very easy no matter the number of files.

In the Develop module, you process your files to improve their tone, color, sharpness and fine detail. The process is basically visual, but there are histograms to help you evaluate your choices. Eliot will provide a clear step-by-step workflow; detailed notes are provided.

Most people will find this class more than sufficient to use Lightroom Classic effectively. We will work hands-on using participants’ laptops and creating your catalog. Eliot will discuss logical ways to organize your folders, which Lightroom will recognize. And we’ll set up a checklist of tasks to be performed as files are imported and managed. Extensive, detailed notes outlining the interface, keyboard shortcuts, and step by step procedures are provided.

We will work in Lightroom Classic, which should be installed on your computer prior to class. Launch the software to be sure it is functional, but there is no need to import anything beforehand. Adobe offers a free trial on their website if you want to try before you buy.

The class is limited to 7 participants. With screen sharing, everyone gets personal attention.  

Click here for a class schedule and to register.

Who Benefits Most from This Class

This class works well whether you have never opened Lightroom Classic or have prior experience but no real system for file management. Event photographers often arrive with thousands of unsorted files and leave with a folder structure and keyword routine that actually holds up reliably. People who shoot travel or family photos tend to get significant value from the rating and filtering tools, since those make it simple to find the handful of strong images buried inside a large folder.

If your editing needs go beyond Lightroom Classic, our Photoshop for Lightroom Users class picks up where this one leaves off, covering retouching, layers, and selections in more depth.

How the Class Is Taught

Eliot keeps the class size small so every participant gets real feedback on their own files rather than generic advice. Screen sharing lets him walk through your actual catalog, not just a demo file, which is part of why this format works for Adobe Lightroom classes in DC held entirely online. 

If you have been using Lightroom Classic, but have problems with your catalog structure, or if you would rather work one-on-one at your own pace, private one-on-one instruction is also available.

Once you are comfortable organizing and editing in Lightroom Classic, many students move on to our Digital Photography Next Steps class to build further on composition and camera technique.

Frequently Asked Questions