Failure to Edit (as in Lightroom Tutorials)

[deboraht88227554]

Hi!

Hope you can help a total newbie. I subscribed monthly to Photoshop/Lightroom CC recently and had hoped to do the bulk of my basic editing using Lightroom to begin with. I studied the Lightroom online tutorials and they looked pretty good and doable even for me! Trouble is, when I open Lightroom, what I get on my computer screen bears no relation to the tutorial I watched. The Quick Develop editing tools are beyond basic. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I'm obviously opening a wrong program but this is all I can find on my computer after the Adobe download. The Ps download seems OK but I don't really want to even look at that yet until I understand the basics with Lightroom. I attach a screen shot of what I get when I try to bring up Lightroom. Thank you for any pointers in the right direction. Sorry to sound so dim!

Regards, Deborah

[Jim Wilde · Accepted solution]

The tutorials you watched were probably using the Develop module, which has the much more extensive range of develop tools, but which also includes the "Basic" panel which is probably what you saw. The problem is that you're showing the Library module, so to get to the Develop module you can simply select an image and press the "D" key on your keyboard. But for subsequent changing between the various Lightroom modules, without having to learn all the keyboard shortcuts, you would be better to have the "Module Picker" showing. To expose that, click on the downward-pointing arrow in the top-centre immediately above the Library Filter bar.

[deboraht88227554]

Thank you so much Jim! I'm off to work it all out! Merry Xmas!

[deboraht88227554]

I just pressed D, and yes, I'm where I want to be! But surely there should be an obvious route (even for thickos like me) to follow. I shouldn't have to be asking on a forum hoping for lovely people like Jim, to answer my basic questions! I wouldn't, in a million years, have worked out that I needed to press D. Now it seems so obvious!

[john beardsworth]

"But surely there should be an obvious route (even for thickos like me) to follow. "

Hit the F5 key - it's the shortcut to hide/reveal the top panel. There's also a little arrow you can click that does the same thing.

[Jim Wilde]

Lightroom is too complex to learn without some start-up help, such as a good book. This one is free, not too daunting, and will get you started in the right way: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/quickstart/