Learning Lightroom: Basic and Essential

Preamble
I learnt Lightroom (or any other program) intuitively i.e. by trial-and-error: trying out the software, do one thing and see what happens, then do another and again watch what happens. Then repeating the process over and over again until I'm comfortable with the software to start using it productively. Many of us do that, don't we? Because who reads operating manuals nowadays? *grin*

When I hit a brick wall I would turn to the Net for answers and how-to's. Where would we be without the Net today? *grin*

Sometimes the info is available on forums or articles. But more often than not I quickly found they provide information that is not entirely related to my search query. I also found there are some basic info that shortened my learning curve. Which were not immediately apparent or self-evident. Such as "What is the purpose of a Lightroom Collection?" Or "How does one set up a Target Collection under the Develop Module?"

As someone who has gone through the learning process I hope to make it less of a hassle or pain for learning Lightroom by providing answers here on questions that confound the first-time user. However, instead of rehashing info that might already be available on the Net, I decided to save time and locate well-written and clearly articulated articles that provide real information. I will write only when I could not locate such info on the Net. I will also not talk about basic basics e.g. importance of backups of your photos, etc. Hence for some users they might not find answers to their questions here. My hope is that many will find the basic essential knowledge provided useful to them.

Preliminaries
Before you import your photos into Lightroom, you should organize your photo collection(s) on your PC hard disk. For instance, I organize my photos as follows:

From Camera -> PC Hard Disk -> Directory -> Folder: Photos -> Sub-folder: Client or Personal (i.e. main subject e.g. client: Shane-Alyssa -> not by date or camera or lens etc as such info are already captured in the photo EXIF metadata. Sub-folders under "Personal" could be Personal i.e. immediate family, Family (siblings and relatives), Friends, Birthday (temporary) and so on. Temporary folders allow me to have in one folder all the photos taken during an event. Weeks after the event, when relatives and friends have seen the photos

My file structure
Spend some time thinking through the filing system and structure, especially the name of the main subject folder. Having an organized file system helps to search and locate photos later. When deciding the name of the main subject, other possibilities came to mind: Date, Camera Name, Places, Cities, Landscapes, Pets, Macro, etc. Since these words could be keyword'ed or entered in metadata during the import into Lightroom, I dropped those in favor of "Client" and "Personal" as these 2 subjects are usually my main interests.

Basic Lessons
Following are the basic lessons I went through on learning Lightroom 4-beta. Bear that in mind as the informational videos below precede LR4 and some things have changed in LR4.

Why create a Collection?
Difference between a Regular and Smart Collection
Basic considerations: Importing photos into Lightroom 3
Watermark Your Photos: Quick, Simple, Easy!
Creating Import Presets

Spot Removal in Lightroom

..to be Continued

Basic Masking in CS5


Animated Image


Burst of Light




Crop to Fixed Ratio in PS

Quick Easy Workflow in LR - A Starting Point

Seim's Historam Lesson