Teaching Lightroom

When I’m teaching my Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it tour, I use Lightroom quite a bit during the day, and in one city one of the attendees came up and told me they had just bought Lightroom, and wanted my recommendations on where to go to learn Lightroom.

Of course, I told him that we actually do a ton of Lightroom training, and he was like, “Really? I thought you guys just taught Photoshop.” I told him that Lightroom’s full name is “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom” and that Lightroom was part of the Photoshop family, and that we probably teach more about Lightroom than anyone on the planet.

I gave him some ideas of what we do, but it really got me to thinking: If this guy at my live seminar doesn’t realize how much Lightroom training we actually offer, I wonder how many other people don’t realize all the Lightroom training we have available. I’ll bet it’s more than I ever realized, so I thought today I’d give him (and everybody here) a quick list of what we’re teaching in Lightroom, and where to find it. So, here’s what we do:

(1) Our Lightroom magazine within a magazine! In every issue of Photoshop User magazine (the how-to print magazine that is published ten times a year for NAPP members), we have an entire section of the magazine (kind of magazine within a magazine) that focuses just on Lightroom, with features, articles, and tutorials just on Lightroom. Here’s the link for info on NAPP (you get a Photoshop User magazine subscription as part of your membership)

(2) We produce the free “Lightroom Killer Tips,” podcast hosted by Matt Kloskowski. You can watch it on our site (here’s the link) or subscribe to it on iTunes.

(3) The Lightroom Killer Tips Blog. Matt also pens the incredibly popular “Lightroom Killer Tips” blog for us, where he posts three days a week various tips, techniques, topics, and loads of his free Lightroom Presets (that’s right—awesome free presets. In fact, some of the presets that Matt created are actually included by Adobe in the Lightroom presets that come preinstalled in Lightroom 3).

(4) The Lightroom 3 Tour Live! At Kelby Training we produce the nationwide that Matt and I both teach in cities across the country. We’re getting ready to announce another round of tour dates shortly—keep your eye here on the blog for the tour dates.

(5) I’ve written the #1 bestselling book on the topic, “The Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers.” I just looked on Amazon.com, and even though it came out back out in July of 2010, it’s still the #1 bestselling book of all books in both the Photoshop and Digital Photography categories (and right now it ranks at #208 of . ALL books sold on Amazon.com. Sweet!). Here’s the link.

(6) I teach Lightroom all day during the tour that started this post: My Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It tour. My next stop is in New York City on June 2nd. Come out and you’ll learn Lightroom stuff all day long. Here’s where to sign up (after new York, I’m coming to Canada, then Germany, Holland, and then all over the USA)

(7) We teach Lightroom on D-Town TV. We produce this wildly popular, free weekly show for DSLR shooters (hosted by RC Concepcion and Larry Becker), and since it’s a show for DSLR shooters, we cover some post production, too, so we include tutorials on Lightroom every chance we get (It’s in it’s 5th season now. You can watch back episodes free, and you’ll see lots of Lightroom when Matt and I used to host the show). Here’s that link.

(8) The Lightroom Conference at Photoshop World. That’s right—we have a special Lightroom training track all unto itself at the Photoshop World Conference & Expo that runs the entire conference, with sessions taught by the leading experts on Lightroom, every day–all day (we joke that you can go to Photoshop World, do the Lightroom conference tracks, and never take a single Photoshop class. That’s awesome!). Join us in September in Vegas for this three-day Lightroom love fest (Here’s a link to check out the Lightroom classes offered).

(9) Our Free Lightroom Learning Centers. When a new version of Lightroom comes out, we launch an extensive free online Learning Center, with individual videos on all the new features, along with video interviews with Adobe’s Lightroom product managers, and loads more information on the new release than you’ll find anywhere. You can still visit our Lightroom 3 Learning Center right here.

(10) Our Lightroom Online Classes at KelbyTraining.com. We have literally hours of Lightroom training available to subscribers to our online training segment, with classes on everything from how to properly back-up your Lightroom catalog and images, to classes on Sharpening in Lightroom, and Lightroom for the Web, plus our three-part “Lightroom In Depth” classes from Matt. Here’s the link.

(11) Lightroom Training DVDs. Not everybody likes to learn live, or online, which is why we offer Lightroom training DVDs, and they’re still incredibly popular (especially titles like our “Lightroom 3 Power Session” which is designed to bring people who upgrade from earlier versions of Lightroom up to speed fast on Lightroom 3).

(12) Lightroom Tutorials on Photoshop User TV. In just about every free weekly episode of Photoshop User TV, we feature either a Lightroom tip, or a full feature tutorial during the show, because like I said earlier, it’s actually called “Photoshop” Lightroom. It’s free. Every week. Here’s the link.

(13) Our upcoming Lightroom Training App. We’re about to release a new way of learning Lightroom, as this training was created expressly for learning on the iPad, and it’s hosted by Matt Kloskowski (I have to admit, it’s awesome having one of the absolutely world’s best Lightroom trainers working for us), and I can’t wait to shout about it (but we’re waiting for that Kelby Training App to come out first!).

(14) Lightroom Training on the NAPP Member Site. Another place where we do a lot of Lightroom training is on the NAPP Member home page. We have both videos and written tutorials, and within the next 30-day we’ll be launching a whole new NAPP member Web experience with more video training than ever, and you can be sure a bunch of it will be on Lightroom. Plus, we have a Lightroom Help Desk where you can get your questions answered directly, one-on-one. Here’s the link with info on joining NAPP.

Whew!!! That’s a bunch of stuff, and probably the first time I’ve ever written it all out like that.

I hope some of you find that helpful, and that maybe you found out about some other ways we’re supporting the education of Lightroom in the community. I am such of fan of Lightroom, and the direction where Adobe is taking it, and as soon as I get the final OK, we’ll be releasing the 15th way we’re teaching Lightroom, which is a series of 100 individual videos (recorded by Matt and I) called (and I’m not making this up): 100 Ways Lightroom Kicks The Bridge and Camera Raw’s A$%!!!! (I’ll let you know when it goes live! It will surprise a lot of people when you see this side-by-side comparison, because there is no comparison).

That’s it gang. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to share all this with you. I hope you guys have a truly cool and kick butt Monday! (CAKB!). I might have another shoot with a pro athlete Tuesday morning (keeping my fingers crossed). :)