Introduction to Lightroom 5

Perfect and manage your digital photos in a lot less time. This course will show you how to effectively edit and organize photos using Lightroom 5 with hands-on, easy-to-follow exercises that will help you enhance your digital photo collections.

Details
Syllabus
Requirements
Instructor
Reviews

Enrollment Options

$119.00 USD

Select a start date for the course below:

Instructor-Moderated

6 Weeks Access

Study online with Instructor moderated discussion boards.

April 15, 2026

May 13, 2026

June 17, 2026

July 15, 2026

Select a Start Date

$119.00 USD

Instructor-Moderated

Select a Start Date

Details

Do you have a lot of images to manage? Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 is a fantastic tool for any digital photographer who needs to edit and sort images quickly. Whether you're a busy parent shooting lots of pictures or a professional photographer with many clients, Lightroom 5 will help you get the results you want in a lot less time.

In this course, you'll see how Lightroom 5 can help you prepare, edit, and organize your photos quickly and effectively. Using Lightroom 5's non-destructive editing, you'll be able to control how you edit your images and make additional alterations later. You'll learn to apply changes to multiple images while developing an efficient image processing workflow. You'll also see how to organize, tag, and make collections with Lightroom's powerful organization tools; create customized slideshows and presentations; and fine-tune the overall color and lighting of your images. You can use Lightroom 5 as a companion to Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or other digital photo editors, and you can export or print your work in exactly the size or format you need.

So put some polish on your photos, save time, impress clients, and stay organized as you unlock the mysteries of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5. The hands-on, easy-to-follow exercises in this course will help you perfect your collections of digital photos!

Syllabus

Lesson 1 - Meet Lightroom 5!

In our first lesson, we'll take some time to be sure you're comfortable with the way the online classroom works, downloading images for class, and where things are in Lightroom 5. You'll learn how to create an organizational system that works with Lightroom and keeps your images easily available to you. With Lightroom's import tools, you'll be able to add keywords to images and add personalized metadata for easy searches and Internet security.

Lesson 2 - Learn About Libraries

As we continue our discussion about libraries and importing images to Lightroom, you'll be pleased to see how many options you have! In this lesson, we'll discuss shortcuts for photographers working with Lightroom and several different ways to speed up the import process. We'll also explore a variety of methods to add keywords and metadata and use them to search and sort your images. By the end of this lesson, you'll have all the tools you need to import, sort, and export images for a clean start to managing your images.

Lesson 3 - Quick Fixes

Today we'll explore how Lightroom works behind the scenes—something you'll want to know as we move into developing or making changes to your images with Lightroom. With an understanding of how the Library module works for importing, organizing, and exporting images, you're ready to work with Lightroom's Quick Develop tools. In this lesson, you'll see how to make quick changes, not just to one image, but to groups and large batches of images. This is just the beginning of our journey through Lightroom's Develop tools. You'll also learn how to work with multiple images and make virtual copies—all part of Lightroom's quick and easy developing tools.

Lesson 4 - Shapes and Sizes

Today, we'll begin our exploration of the Develop module and the many tools for editing and adjusting images. You'll have lots of hands-on practice with tools for straightening, rotating, and cropping images. It may seem like a straightforward subject, but Lightroom has many variations, so you can perfect both the shape and the size of your image. You may prefer to straighten based on a horizon in the image, or by fine-tuning the alignment against a grid. You can crop to a variety of different preset shapes, create your own custom shape, or crop by hand. You'll be pleased with the results!

Lesson 5 - The Right Light

Color is an integral part of the perfect print, and it's important to see how Lightroom helps you adjust your overall color tone and lighting with several sophisticated tools. In today's lesson, you'll see how to pick the best white balance for your images, use a histogram to adjust the light, and find and correct problem areas with exposure clippings. These changes may be simple, but the right color and lighting bring your pictures to life, and you'll want to start the development process with these adjustments!

Lesson 6 - The Right Color

With today's lesson, we'll complete our study of the Basic panel, and you'll have quite a collection of tools at your disposal from the Develop module. We'll focus on color today, and you'll see how a subtle adjustment can clear away muted tones. We'll work with contrast, shadows, highlights, saturation, vibrance, and more. We'll also use the new Radial Filter tool. You may not know exactly what each of these does as we begin, but you'll find it's easy to experiment until you like what you see—and before you know it, you'll master the tools!

Lesson 7 - Sharp and Clear!

Next in our study of Lightroom, you'll have fun seeing the difference when you sharpen an image. Photographers work hard to shoot crisp images, but at times . . . things don't go as planned, and you'll be able to put the snap back into your images with Lightroom's tools. We'll work with sharpening and noise reduction tools today, and then you'll see how to apply any of the editing options to batches of images, bringing Lightroom's two best features together. It just gets better and better!

Lesson 8 - To Sync or Not to Sync?

We'll continue our discussion on synchronizing or copying changes from one image to many in this lesson. But not all changes are meant to be copied, and you'll work with several tools like Red Eye Correction, Spot Removal, and the Adjustment Brush so that you can see how Lightroom corrects subtle issues in selected areas. This lesson will wrap up our study of the editing tools in Lightroom, and you won't be disappointed!

Lesson 9 - Exporting

We've taken the first few weeks to see how to import images to Lightroom and develop them with an amazing array of tools. Now it's time to see what we can do with these images outside of Lightroom. Today's lesson is on exporting Lightroom's images, and you'll see that there are many options for size, shape, and further editing. Whether you're working with raw or JPEG, Lightroom will efficiently process your images, save your changes, and provide you images you can upload to printers, create scrapbooks with, or use with Adobe's companion products: Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

Lesson 10 - Printing

In today's lesson, you'll see how to use Lightroom's Print module to create a variety of output options. Whether you print at home or send your images out to print, Lightroom has a number of menus you'll want to be familiar with. You'll see how to print single images, create contact sheets, and customize layouts for many purposes. Once you've mastered the Print module, you'll be ready to print with all the advantages of using Lightroom.

Lesson 11 - Rating and Collecting

Lightroom has fans in two different areas: developing and organization. Today we'll go back to the organizational side and see how to rate images with star ratings and color labels, and we'll also look at how to create collections. With all these tools, you'll be able to categorize and find things with very little effort. It makes Lightroom a fast tool for locating images and moving forward in your workflow. You can work simply with Quick Collection and Target Collection, or you can create a sophisticated network of your own collections!

Lesson 12 - Slideshows

In our last lesson, we'll show off a bit with Lightroom's slideshow and identity plates. You'll see how to create both a PDF presentation and an MP4 Slideshow with music and special effects from your Lightroom collections. You'll also build an Identity Plate that you can use both in printing and presentations. With all the things you've learned in Lightroom, this is a great way to share your images with friends, family, and clients!

Requirements

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 or an updated version of 5 (for example: 5.3). (Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.)

Windows

Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor
2GB of RAM (4GB recommended)
2GB of available hard-disk space
1024x768 display
DVD-ROM drive (if installing from DVD)

Mac OS

Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
2GB of RAM (4GB recommended)
2GB of available hard-disk space
1024x768 display
DVD-ROM drive (if installing from DVD)

Microsoft® Windows Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 or Windows 8 or 8.1; Mac OS X 10.7 or 10.8.

Note: Students will need to download zip files and extract images for use in class. We provide basic directions for this, but students should be comfortable with downloading files, saving them on their computers, and locating them for use. Both Macintosh and Windows users are welcome, but Mac users should be aware that the course is written using Windows. Mac-Windows differences are minimal and students with Macs will only need to make a few standard Windows-to-Mac conversions, and we include notes when those need to be made. Instructors have Mac computers and software available to answer questions. The software runs nearly the same on both.

Instructor

Beverly Richards Schulz is a graduate of the New York Institute of Photography and an award-winning photographer. She has been teaching photography for more than 15 years. Since her first class with ed2go in 2000, she has written more than 30 online classes in digital photography and digital editing, and she's had the privilege of working with more than 70,000 students. She has a BA in Legal Studies from UC Berkeley, and a master's degree in Adult and Continuing Education. She and Eric Johnson are authors of the book Photoshop Elements 14—What's New?

An avid digital film photographer, she was an early adopter of digital technology and now teaches digital editing and photography skills to students from around the world. For the last 10 years, she has enjoyed being an adjunct faculty member with the University of San Francisco, teaching history and visual arts, as well as displaying and selling her work through galleries, and she has continued to expand her experience in travel photography and cross-cultural studies. In addition to teaching and photographic work, Beverly and her staff provide consulting services for digital photographers and clients.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Reviews

I am very satisfied with the course and instruction. The course is full of well chosen examples supported with relevant screenshots and videos. I enjoyed learning the Lightroom program. Each lesson contains the small details needed to use Lightroom...I am very glad to have taken this course and will recommend it to others.

I had downloaded Lightroom 5 and struggled for weeks trying to figure it out and watching internet help videos which were not helpful. This course was presented in a concise layout and was very easy to follow. I feel like I learned so much in this course that would have otherwise taken me months if not years to figure out. Thank you!

I didn't realize that Lightroom was going to be a little gem. I can't believe organizing is such fun.

It was a very enjoyable course with lots of information. The classes were easy to follow and allowed me to see what was going on. I'll be taking another class soon.

I enjoyed this course. The course explained the program in simple terms, and took you step-by-step. I just need to keep using the program and various options, so I do not forget, and maybe turn out some better pictures. I thank you all for the support when I ran into trouble.

I came away with a huge amount of information. I'm feeling I will need a lot of time to absorb it all and a good amount of practice so that I can use it as a hobbyist. I can see the beauty of this tool and appreciate the amount of work to put this course together. Thank you!

This course was fun and interesting. I think I have a good grasp of Lightroom fundamentals and can now build on that. The course was very comprehensive. Thank you for all your help.

Great class! This is my second course with this instructor and I've enjoyed both. Thanks for having these photography related offerings.

I've used Lightroom for years and I still learned new tips and tricks. Great course!

Thank you so much for offering this course. I recently purchased Lightroom 5 and had been looking for a course to learn how to use it. This one came along at the right time and I found it to be very helpful. I will definitely look into other course offerings and into continuing to develop my skills in Lightroom 5.