17 mistakes to avoid in Lightroom

13 September 2018

With the majority of photographers using Adobe's Lightroom as their cataloguing and editing software of choice, it's more important than ever that you set the program up correctly to ensure you get the best out of your images.

In this great video, Tim Grey at the B&H Photo Event Space shares his thoughts on how to get the very best out of Lightroom as well as showing some of the pitfalls to avoid.

It's a long video at an hour and 30 minutes, but Grey's tips are worth the watch, especially so when it comes to the good habits that all photographers should really be implementing into their digital workflows. Although subjects like keywording, multiple catalogues, folder strategies and metadata are certainly not the things that get many of us excited about photography, they are important.

Here is a running order of the topics discussed in the video:

3:57: Not Understanding Lightroom
9:08: Choosing the Wrong Lightroom
14:31: Using Multiple Catalogs
16:28: Not Making the Most of Import
28:08: Having a Confused Folder Strategy
32:24: Being Careless With Date-Based Folders
34:13: Starting Anything Outside of Lightroom
37:57: Ignoring Keywords
41:12: Forgetting "Fake" Keywords
42:38: Not Preserving Metadata
46:33: Neglecting Backups
54:02: Getting Lost on the Map
58:25: Ignoring Presets
1:03:11: Forgetting About Search Options
1:14:07: Leveraging Photoshop Improperly
1:19:30: Inconsistency
1:25:25: Not Planning Beyond Lightroom