How do you learn?

I am a self-taught photographer. Photography is something I have dabbled in as a hobby while trying to do my 'day job'. I learned photography by reading books, participating in online forums and through trial and error. It’s been a long hard road but it’s been well worthwhile.

I learned most of my post-processing by watching YouTube videos. Serge Ramelli in particular. It has become one of my favorite ways to learn. There’s some inspirational stuff available that you can use to teach yourself all kinds of different skills. It’s a lot of fun, and the benefit of learning in this way is that you can go at your pace.

This type of learning is perfect for my lifestyle, and I’m sure for many of you the same factors apply. It always amazes me what we can teach ourselves when we put our minds to it.

Now that we are on the path to self-directed learning I would like to share with you three Lightroom shortcuts, hacks, tricks, or whatever you want to call them.

1 – The Alt key
 
In the Develop module, the Alt key is very useful when setting black and white points in your images. Hold down the Alt key while hovering your cursor over the Blacks slider. The image will go completely white and as you move the slider from side to side (move it left to darken or add black) you will be able to see when the blacks begin to clip in your image.
 
2 – Navigator Window
 The Navigator window is very useful when you need to zoom in. This is probably really obvious and silly to those who have formal Lightroom training. Before discovering this little trick, I would zoom in and out applying the adjustment brush to small sections of the image. It was very tedious.
Then one day I discovered that if I click the 1:1 button on the Navigator (preview) window and then slide the square around on the screen, I could apply the adjustment brush without the tedium of closing the adjustment brush and moving out to the full-screen view. 
3 – Lights Out in the Library
 When you press the letter L on your keyboard, it dims the surrounding panels so that you can focus more on the image at hand (press L again for total black around your image, and once more to return to normal). This same tool works well in the library module. I now use the “Lights Out” feature to isolate specific images. Simply select the images you wish highlight then hit the “L” button.

This same tool works well in the library module. I now use the Lights Out feature to isolate specific images. Simply select the images you wish highlight then hit the “L” button. 

We live in an age when we are lucky to have so many resources available to us. The internet is a true cornucopia of opportunity. Don’t be afraid to try different things. You really can’t break the program.!