Something in Lightroom isn’t working, or you can’t figure out how to do something and your deadline is approaching. You have googled the issue, to no avail.   Who can you turn to for free troubleshooting help?

I highly recommend lightroomforums.net — when Lightroom has me stumped, this is where I go.  The moderators are excellent and have seen just about everything, questions get answered very quickly, participation from other users is high, and everyone is very helpful and generous with their time.

Though I don’t have as much experience with it, I also wouldn’t hesitate to turn to Adobe’s Lightroom forum.  There are great experts on there as well, and lots of participation.

You can speed up the troubleshooting process by being as specific as possible when you post a question or issue.  For example, rather than write  “my photos look terrible on the web”, write “My photos that I exported as jpegs with color space set to Adobe RGB and quality 70 look washed out and less colorful on the web”. Rather than “My adjustment brush isn’t working anymore”,  write  “When I set the adjustment brush to +50 brightness and paint, there is no visible change to my image.” If in doubt, include more information rather than less.  Also mention your Lightroom version, and if you have any type of performance issue, be sure to mention your operating system and whatever you can about your computer specs.

My last tip may be obvious, but I’ll mention it anyway: remember that everyone out there on the forums is volunteering their time because they want to help you.  Set your frustration with Lightroom aside in your communications, and consider following up with those who helped you with a simple thank you … speaking from experience, this really does make a difference to those who help you.

Of course if you are one of the hundreds of satisfied customers who have learned from my Lightroom Fundamentals and Beyond Workshop on DVD video series, you are finding that you don’t need nearly as much help anymore, but it’s still nice to know where to turn in a crisis.  (Another option in a crisis is to have a private session with me online, but that, alas, is not free.)

Ok, enough of the plugs. Have a great weekend!