In the recent past I spent quite a bit of time scanning old photos, much of them from negatives and slides plus, of course, since about 2004 I have been using digital cameras which vastly increased the number of pictures I was taking. Sadly, a lot of the older images from negatives need a lot of work to clean them up – really sad how bad some of them are, and not all of them can be repaired even with the best efforts.
I started using Adobe Lightroom a few years ago and had played around with Photoshop a bit. Fortunately, when I got started with Lightroom I was using what is now called Lightroom Classic which is somewhat different from Lightroom Creative Cloud. I think Lightroom Classic is a superior product, but it does require you work on a computer rather than on an iPad or iPhone etc. It is possible to use the two versions compatibly, but it can become confusing! I think I’ve got it straightened out, but I had to take quite a few notes to keep that all straight!
One of the "problems" with Lightroom is that all edits are stored in a Lightroom ‘catalog’. Multiple versions of a given image can be seen very easily… within light room. Of course, you can export the edited images which is what I normally do as well. But it is possible to end up being completely dependent on light from to see your edited images if you’re not careful. So if someday you want to stop using Lightroom, make sure you export your favorite edited images. On the plus side light room does not create additional files that must accompany the image (as happens with some other editors). All light room edits are stored in the "light room catalog".
Although Lightroom is now my go to tool for editing photos for 90% of what is needed, I had played around with Photoshop a bit but had always found it VERY difficult to learn, and very hard to remember. Light room is certainly much more intuitive. However Photoshop has some tricks that you can’t do in light room… Especially things related to using masks, merging photos etc. and other more sophisticated editing tools and tricks. Earlier I had used some other editing programs from both from Nikon and Paint Shop Pro that worked quite well (and are cheaper), but Lightroom is my only tool now, except for now relearning (learning) Photoshop.
I was fortunate to find that I have, via my employer, free access to what is now called "LinkedIn learning" which used to be Linda.com. It has lots of courses that you can take including those related to photography and photo editing. Although I had already been using Lightroom, I took a couple of Lightroom courses there, and now am following some for Photoshop. The ones I am following quite good. My favorites are presented by Julieanne Kost: Photoshop 2022 essential training, Lightroom classic essential training. Those by Theresa Jackson are also good: learning the light room ecosystem, and light room classic essential training are some of hers that I took.
Another set of videos, on YouTube, are those by Anthony Morganti. His are pretty low-key and easy to follow unlike some others that go a bit too fast for me. I followed his light room videos. His Photoshop for photographers series is quite good as well.
Another extremely useful and rather amusing source for all kinds of Photoshop information, pointers, and tips are the videos by Unmesh Dinda on his site called PiXimperfect. He really knows his stuff, and I’ve learned a lot of useful information from him, plus he is very amusing. Mostly less like an organized course and more like "how to do X" with a lot of little extras thrown in. Once I finish my current LinkedIn learning courses I will probably go back to watching some of his lessons – always amusing, hyper enthusiastic and engaging!
On a completely different note, what should one use for organizing photos/images? I was lucky quite a few years back when I started using something called iMatch from photools.com. I think I must’ve started using it shortly after it was created in 1998.
iMatch is extremely useful in organizing photos and it plays well with Lightroom and Photoshop and other editors. It does have a somewhat steep learning curve, but the basics are relatively easy. It’s reasonably priced and is extremely versatile… which makes it a bit geeky if you want to get into all the possibilities, including making modifications appropriate for your own special interests and requirements. I have never gone beyond the basics for the most part, but I can find that that photo of my brother from 1952 in about three seconds! The photools.com website gives a good rundown of the key features.
Anyway I thought I would share this info with you just in case any of it might be useful.