Who’s ready to learn a thing or two about photo editing for beginners (you don’t have to be a pro!) ??

I love being able to tweak my photos after I’m done taking them.  It’s one of my favorite parts about photography.  It’s like being able to paint, or color.  It’s the other creative part of photographing for me, and it takes some of my favorite images from “eh..” to “wow”!

8+ years ago, when I picked up my first DSLR, I didn’t use any editing software at all.  I remember wondering how photographers I admired managed to get their images looking so different than mine.

Eventually, I figured out their secret was a little post editing (after knowing how to shoot in manual mode).  Since then, I have fallen in love with adobe lightroom.  With a little bit of know how, lightroom is insanely powerful, and so user-friendly which pretty much makes it the best photo editing for beginners.

***Wanna know what I am using to take pictures of my family?   You can see everything I keep in my camera bag here!***

What is lightroom exactly?  Lightroom is this amazing program that allows you to upload your images, organize them, edit them, and work in RAW.  It does not have all of the capabilities adobe photoshop has, but i have found that there is very little I use photoshop for anymore.

(side note…the clone tool is not quite as powerful in lightroom as photoshop, and there are reasons I take photos into photoshop).

I love the ability to batch edit and use presets, which are these sweet little premade settings that you can easily apply to your images, without having to adjust every setting individually.  Although, it is rare to apply a preset without making any adjustments on your own, they’re a good starting point when you find a style that you like for a particular image.

Here is a list of 10 resources that offer free lightroom presets, make sure you grab it!