There are many apps and programs available for photography creatives. These apps and programs vary with different settings and capabilities. After doing research on which program or app is the best to use for photo editing, Lightroom was at the top of the list for each recommendation. Photography is one of my passions and I came across Lightroom through Youtube videos. I follow this niche of videos on YouTube where the creative goes for a walk around the city and all they do is take photos and afterwards they come into their studio and edit and share their captures. It is so relaxing and gets my creative juices flowing all the time!
Lightroom is a photo editing and managing application that is able to be used cross- platforms. Lightroom is available as an application for Android and Apple mobile devices and desktops through the App Store or online at www.adobe.com. The mobile and desktop applications sync together through the Adobe Cloud so if you begin to edit your photos on your mobile device you can then continue editing that same photo on your computer later on. Lightroom comes with the basics such as exposure, contrast, and shadow adjustments but it includes even more depending if you have subscribed to their service. Adobe has options for you with monthly plans starting at $9.99 and ranging all the way up to $52.99. There are two plans that begin at $9.99, the first is Lightroom with 1TB of Adobe Cloud Storage which the storage allows you to save and edit your photos online without using your device storage. The second $9.99 plan includes Lightroom and Photoshop with 20GB of storage which is called the Photography Plan. This Photography Plan might the best one to get because you do not only get Lightroom but you also get Photoshop which is already an industry standard for photo editing. The other plans that are higher in price either give you more Adobe Cloud Storage or they also include other programs such as Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, etc.
I first learned Lightroom through my own curiosity for the application. I downloaded the free mobile application through the App Store on my iPhone and uploaded my own photo which then I began to edit my photo with the free adjustments. The process of using Lightroom as a beginner is easy, what helps out the most is the short tutorial you get when you first download the app. When you open the application for the first time you get a short tutorial showing you how you can edit your photos and also where to export, post, and sign-in and out of the application. The instructions are clear and I believe that anyone else will also be able to learn how to use it in minutes. Once you get more accustomed and want to unlock the extra features such as the Selective or Healing tool, you will have to subscribe to the service. Then once subscribing to the service you get access to so many new tools and that is when Youtube tutorials come in handy.
Lightroom will be a great program to use in the classroom, specifically a digital photography class. The tools are pretty standard as other applications, you edit with sliders, slide to the right you add more of the filter, slide to the left you get less. I think Lightroom is a great tool to be able to learn how to properly edit a photo and to teach how to properly adjust highlights, shadows, and exposure. Lightroom is great for high school students and maybe even advanced middle school students. Some problems that might come with this program is the actual paid service. Schools are able to purchase a license to have this program on school computers but $9.99 monthly can be a lot to ask for from students. What I see that a teacher can possibly do is have students download the free application and use the free adjustments and then in class teach and have lessons on the advanced features of the paid Lightroom service. Living in a world that is now social media heavy, Lightroom is a great tool to edit and create photo content. Using Lightroom comes with great advantages such as, students will be able to properly edit a photo, students will learn how certain adjustments can create different stories/moods within the photos, and students will be able to learn and explore this creative area which can help them out in the future if they wish to pursue a creative career. Students will learn photo editing skills, and these skills can also be applied to video editing and other creative digital areas. The editing opportunities with Lightroom are endless, but you can also make money off of Lightroom. You can make money by creating and selling your own compilation of “presets” which all this means is that you can save all of your edits, export them, and have other people apply those same edits to their photo to get the same look as yours. This preset idea is a tool that a lot of artists use to have a cohesive theme or look to their photographs. Which makes it awesome because if there is a certain look that you like from another artist you can use their preset and achieve that same look on your own photos. There are many other applications for photo editing but I do feel that Lightroom is the best way to go since it is a part of the Adobe Cloud and it is an application that is used in the photo industry already.