Lightroom Crash Course

Capturing your images is just the first step. Learning how to store, edit, develop, share, and protect our valuable image libraries is an integral part of the digital photography process. In this Lightroom Crash Course, you'll learn from experienced photographer and digital professional Scott Rouse everything you need to get started with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3. Lightroom, as it's commonly called, is the most popular application for managing image libraries and producing final projects from those images for both amateurs and professionals alike. Whether your images' final destinations are the Web, a print, a slideshow, or some combination of those, Lightroom can help.

This two and half day intensive course will cover all five Lightroom Modules:

• Library
• Develop
• Print
• Slideshow
• Web

We'll place particular emphasis on the importance of organization: Keywords, Collections, Labels and Ratings, and the like.

When and Where:

The workshop will start Friday evening at 5:00pm for introductions and orientation. Plan for a very full day on Saturday. We'll officially end at about 2:00pm on Sunday so those who need to can try to catch a late flight home. I'll stick around until about 4:00 for an optional open lab session where I'll be available to help with any questions that may arise.

We'll be meeting at the Inn at Willow Pond in beautiful Manchester, VT. You can book a room there to be right where the action is...well, as much action as there can be in this historic, sleepy New England town. More information on the Inn at Willow Pond is available at http://www.innatwillowpond.com. There are a number of other motels and inns in the area which are fine, as well.

The Albany International Airport (ALB) in Albany, NY is the closest major airport at about an hour and half away from the Inn. Rental cars are available in Albany.

The Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport (RUT) is a tiny airfield located less than an hour from the Inn. They do offer rental cars but require advance registration. Cape Air offers daily flights from Boston to Rutland.

Don't want to fly? Take this opportunity for a gorgeous New England Fall drive. Your whole family will love it. The Inn is about 160 miles from Boston and around 200 miles from Manhattan or Syracuse.

What to Bring:

• Laptop computer — Computers will not be provided, and you'll definitely want your computer so you can follow along. If you're interested in purchasing a laptop, and you're not sure what to get, feel free to email me for some advice.
• All necessary cables for your computer — No matter how good your laptop's battery is, I assure you it won't make it through the weekend. :-)
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 — You'll want to have the latest version of Lightroom installed on your computer ready to go (if you haven't already done so). If you don't have Lightroom yet, you can find more information on where to get it here.
• Some of your images — I'll provide sample images to work with in class, but it's nice to have some of your own. Bring them on your computer's hard drive or an external drive.
• External Drive(s) (optional) — We'll talk about backup routines and best practices for storage. If you have one or more external drives you regularly work with, feel free to bring them to the class. Just make sure you keep a backup of all of your images at home or in another safe location. This article talks about using external hard drives with Lightroom.

This is a practical lab-based class meaning that we won't be outside shooting. If you want a chance to capture some of the great Vermont Fall color, check out the next section:

Make it a Week:

If you're ready for a full week of photography, you should consider combining this workshop with David Middleton's Fall Colors in Vermont photo workshop. That workshop will be held October 12-16 in the exact same location. Click here for info on David's Fall Colors in Vermont workshop.

Questions:

If you have questions about the class, please contact Scott at scott@thelightroomlab.com.