Quick And Easy Lightroom Tricks Every User Should Know

Adobe set a new standard for image manipulation and organization software when they released Lightroom in 2007. Even Lightroom is under the same company with Photoshop, its’ functionalities are not that broad – organize, edit and view large numbers of images.

The editing function only includes improvement of tone, lighting, color balance, cropping, correct red-eye effect and so on. Nothing harmful, unlike Photoshop, that you can alter, add and remove certain details in the image.

If you’re a photographer or designer you probably heard, or better yet, use Lightroom. But if you’re just starting up, reading some tricks would help a lot. This will avoid overwhelming yourself with tons of instructions from its’ manual.

If you’re starting today, you’re in luck because we will discuss 7 quick and easy Lightroom tricks every user should know!

7 Quick and Easy Lightroom Tricks Every User Should Know

 

1. Eliminate unnecessary clipping

Clipping happens when a certain part of a photo has no information – lose its highlights and shadow details. This usually a cause of over- or under-exposure of an image during a photo shoot. So, ensure that your camera’s shutter speed is correct (depending on the light condition of the surrounding) whenever you’re shooting.

You can immediately see the clippings because Lightroom designates a specific color for each type of clippings: the red is for the parts where the highlights are clipped; while the blue is for the parts where the shadows are clipped.

Note: If you haven’t seen it, you can tap the “J” key and it will both turn on (and off).

There are 2 ways to fix the clippings:
• The simplest way is by adjusting Highlights and Shadow slider located in the Basic Panel or the curve in the Tone Curve Panel.
• Or, use Lightroom presets such as The Pretty Presets Workflow Collection that helps the user to edit an image and solve problematic areas such as exposure issues, sharpening, and white balance. Or, the Clean and Creative Advanced Workflow that helps users to create their own style.

2. Add your logo, text or image, to Lightroom

Add fun to work by adding Identity Plate on Lightroom. Identity plate is where you’ll type your company’s name or logo.You can find the Identity Plate Setup from Lightroom’s Edit Menu.

For text, select Use a Styled Text Identity Plate; while for an image, select Use a Graphical Identity Plate.

Note: If you choose an image make sure it has a transparent background and in PNG format.

3. Use the lights out mode to focus on your images

Distraction is designers’ worse enemy. To avoid that, you can use the lights out mode. When this mode is enabled, everything from your workspace will be darkened except for your image. Press the L key to enable.

4. Make Lightroom go faster

Boost Lightroom’s response speed by doing a regular maintenance of the application. You can do this by going to Preference menu and follow one as the next step:

• Select the Performance tab then put a check on the “Use Graphics Processor”. Do this if you own an older computer.
• Go to the File Handling tab and choose from the options to increase the size of your Raw Cache. You can choose from 30GB or higher

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5. Get imaginative while cropping

For some, they may think that cropping is a boring task. But the truth is, cropping is a creative way to hide the dull part of your image. To enable the crop in Lightroom, just press the R key.

There are 7 crop tools that you can use. Explore it all first to determine which of those works to your satisfaction.

6. Make your own Lightroom presets

A time saver tip: Organizing your presets. In Lightroom, you can do this by clicking the + button in the upper right corner of the Presets workspace. A dialogue box named New Develop Preset will open and check all the presets you like to add. Once done, click Create.

Don’t forget to name it, so, you can easily determine its purpose.

7. Adding JPEGmini to your export dialogue

One of the reasons a computer or application slow its’ response speed is because the files are big and consuming all the space. To avoid this in Lightroom, you can use plugins such as JPEGmini.

JPEGmini’s Lightroom plugin can reduce your images file size without sacrificing its quality. They support high-resolution photos of up to 128-Megapixels; and handling-wise, it’s easy to use as it has a drag-drop-and-done design.