How to Use Lightroom CC: Quick Guide for Beginners

Need a quick, simple guide to using Adobe Lightroom CC? We’ve got you. One of Adobe’s most popular applications, Lightroom CC is the first comprehensive photo service created expressly for photography professionals and enthusiasts. What’s more, it’s cloud-based, so you can access it —and your images—on all your devices: desktop, mobile, and web.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn what Lightroom CC is, who and what it’s for, and why you might choose Lightroom CC over Lightroom Classic. Check out how easy it is to download, store, and organize photographs, correct and retouch your images, make a stylized edit, and export photos by reading the steps that follow.

How to Use Lightroom CC: Guide for Beginners

The Basics

Lightroom CC is a cloud-based app that allows you to work seamlessly across desktop, mobile, and web. Because it’s cloud-based, it allows you to retain your edits across your devices, share photos easily with others, and enjoy the peace of mind of automatic back-ups. It also syncs the folders, keywords, and other features that let you search and find images within the Lightroom ecosystem with ease.

Creative Cloud plans and pricing for individuals vary from $9.99/month to $19.99/month and come packaged with other perks, apps, and GBs of cloud storage. (Businesses, students & teachers, and schools & universities are offered other plans and pricing.) You can also try it out by activating a free seven-day trial.

Adobe also offers Lightroom Classic for desktop-focused workflows. Check out the differences between Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC here, and why you might choose the latter over Lightroom Classic:

Lightroom CC vs. Lightroom Classic CC: Which is Right for You?

How to Use Lightroom to Correct and Retouch Photos

One of the most powerful tools in Lightroom CC is the ability to edit your images. You can brighten photos, alter the color saturation, crop and rotate them, and so much more: How to Edit Photos Manually in Lightroom CC

How to Make a Stylized Edit

If you want to take editing one step further, the options are aplenty! Lightroom CC provides presets, or visual aesthetics, that give your images a special effect beyond just adjusting any one editing tool: How to Use Edit Presets in Lightroom CC

How to Organize Images

Learn how to organize your images by creating folders, stacking photos, assigning keywords to images, and rating and flagging them in this short but sweet tutorial: How to Organize Photos in Lightroom CC

How to Export and Save Photos

Lightroom CC allows you to export images in the format of your choice to a folder on your computer or an external hard drive.

1. Select the Images to Export

To select multiple photos, hold the Shift key or the Command and Control keys while you select them.

2. Select the File Type

Click the Share icon in the upper right corner. Then select the file type from the drop down menu under Export.

3. Export It

Select the location where you want your image to be saved. Then click Export.

Discover the Power of Lightroom CC

Not every photography app is created equal. Lightroom CC provides you with editing tools that can be accessed on any device (desktop, mobile, and web), and—even better—syncs them across your devices so you always have the most up-to-date version of your image. Discover the options and take your photography to the next level using this basic guide.

Keep Learning About Lightroom and Photography

Here are a few more free tutorials and resources to help you study up on Lightroom: