Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a photo management and editing software, it’s used by photographers worldwide to manage a huge number of digital images and doing post production work, it combines photo management and editing in one interface. Photographers use it as an image management application database which helps in viewing, editing, and managing digital photo.

One of the major competitors to Lightroom is Apple Aperture, there’s also a free alternative to Lightroom which is LightZone. If you’re a professional photographer or willing to enter the photography then understating and even mastering Lightroom is a must for you and that’s what this post is all about.

This post is a road map for anyone willing to start learning Lightroom online for free from scratch, the post will present and compare between the best online sources where beginners can start from and follow along, the sources stated in this post is for full structured courses so you won’t find a link to a single video or a group of unrelated tutorials.

If you just want the bottom line (the road map to learn Lightroom) and you don’t wish to read the entire article then go to the “Bottom Line” section at the end of the article.

Start Learning Lightroom for Free from Scratch

Adobe TV

Adobe TV is the first free online source where beginners can learn Lightroom. You don’t need to register to have access to the course, just go to the website and you’re ready to go. The course covers beginner, intermediate and advanced topics.

Structure: the course is divided into 12 sections; each section is divided into video lessons, each lesson covers a certain topics in Lightroom.

Interface: The interface is very simple as seen below, the lessons are listed under each other, you click on the lesson you’re interested in and you’re ready to go. Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Free.
2. The course is well-structured for beginners.
3. The course covers beginners, intermediate and advanced topics.

Cons

1. The course isn’t well organized.

Verdict: This is the best place for any beginner to start learning Lightroom, though the course isn’t well organized.

Udemy

Udemy is the second free source where beginners can learn Lightroom through video tutorials; you can learn literally anything on Udemy for free or for a fee (depending on the course provider). To join Udemy just register using your email. Go to the search bar and type what you want to learn (Lightroom in our case); of course you should choose the free courses and at the time of writing this post the following were present:

You can choose one of these courses and start it. Each course is divided into lessons (depending on the instructor); the course entitled “Photoshop & Lightroom for Photographers” covers more topics than the other courses.

Structure: The “Photoshop & Lightroom for Photographers” course is divided into 7 sections and each section is divided into lessons (58 lessons in total), each lesson covers certain topics in Lightroom.

Interface: The interface is quite simple just click on the lesson you want and the video tutorial will start.

Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Free.
2. The course is well-structured and organized for beginners.

Cons

1. The course covers both Photoshop and Lightroom which might be a problem for those who’re interested in Lightroom only.

Verdict: The course is a good source for beginners, and it covers both Photoshop and Lightroom for photographers.

The Lightroom Lab (Update: David Marx)

David Marx is the third free online outlet where beginners can start learning Lightroom, you don’t need to register in order to have access to the tutorial just go the website and you’re ready to go.

Structure: The course is divided into 10 sections, each section is divided into topics, and each topic is divided into lessons and each lesson covers a certain topic in Lightroom. The course is well-structured for beginners, part of the course is video and the other part is text-based.

Interface: As seen below, just click on the topic you’re interested in and you’ll be directed to the window of the topic where the lessons resides, you click on the lesson you want and you’ll be directed to it.

Now, the pros and cons

Pros

1. Free.
2. The course is well-structured and organized for beginners.

Cons

1. The course is well organized and might be confusing for many beginners.

Verdict: Though this outlet is a good source for beginners, but the organization might be confusing for many beginners.

Bottom Line

The recipe for learning Lightroom for free

1. If you prefer video tutorials then Adobe TV is the best place to start from.
2. If you prefer books then the two free books Lightroom 5 Quick Start Guide and Lightroom Bitesize are the best way to go.

Remember that the first step is always the toughest step, and the aim of this post is to provide you with resources that will help you take your first step in Adobe Lightroom.