lightroom 3

I just got lightroom 3 (my first photo editing software), I was wondering what quick tips/ favorite things in light room are to do and how to do it. I got it last night and I feel so lost and don't know where to start lol. I figured everyone could discuss LR3 and share tips and tricks in here. Post away!

One of my favorite features is "virtual copy" You just press and hold ctrl and ' at the same time and you get a copy of the image right next to the original in the develop module.

By the way, there are tons of free videos on line to help you understand lightroom or you can go to Kelyby Training or Lynda.com for monthly or yearly subscriptions to their training.

Ya I've been watching a bunch on YouTube. I just wanted to see what people on here have to say. Thanks for your comment

People here will be glad to answer specific questions, but a general a vague request for tips isn't going to get a lot of response. Read the web tuts and/or get a book, try your hand at it and when you hit a snag or don't understand something ask a targeted question.

Wow, there is a lot of ground to cover!

I'll echo Elie -- one of the great "features" of Lightroom is that it was designed to give an integrated interface to do so much of our "stuff" and so it can be documented quite thoroughly. And it is! For example, there are three accomplished authors who are experts in the software and have each produced great books that can walk you step-by-step through every aspect of the software. I'd suggest getting not just one, but in time each of the offerings by Victoria Bampton (a frequenter of this forum and also a moderater on the Lightroom Users Forum), Scott Kelby and Marting Evening -- Amazon.com will show their books. Working through any on of those books will have you coming out saying "Wow! I know some stuff!" and, when a newbie pops up with a question, you can help provide an answer!

Also, Lightroom Help has been very well put together. I'd suggest not just the "normal" Help tool (it uses online resources) but also downloading the Help .pdf file -- it's actually a bit more "organized" than the online tool, at least it seems that way to me! Read the Help all the way through, although you may just want to "breeze through" some topics (I've never used the Web page portion, for example).

So, get started -- read up, use the software, and, as has been mentioned, pop up with specific questions! As to specific tips, well, gosh, umm, one early-on thing I did was to develop a metadata preset with contact and copyright info that gets applied as I import. I update it year to year...and, I made sure to set up an Import template for naming photos the way I want so that a few changes for each shoot and I'm ready to go.

Here is an excellent newbie's general survey of Lightroom strewn with personal tips; a webinar by Seth Resnick:
http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=ctTV3O9rCqA

Wow thanks a lot guys! and Tzalman I definitly get what you are saying about the specific questions. So I sat on Lightroom last night for a solid 4 hours and I figured out all the general stuff and now I am just working on using the brush to cover up and fix spots, it's tricky but I'm starting to get it lol.

I used these tutorials. Lightroom 3 is an amazing piece of software and is pretty much all i use now.

Here's a sticky (from the top of the page) that was begun back in the "early days" of Lightroom (in '07) but has been updated, and much of the core of Lightroom is the same so the basics can still be learned:

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=315590