Howdy,
Many on this forum felt the same way (overwhelmed) when we started with LR and PS; and I have three advanced degrees in Physics. The programs are used by graphic artists, artists, illustrators, photographers, caligraphers, etc. such that there is a wide and diverse variety of functionality to deal with. The sub-set for photography is smaller than the sum of the whole. Even for photographes, though, there are many tools that apply to a very narrow segment of the field depending on whether you are into fashion, product, landscape, weddings, portraits, retouching, boudoir, pets, etc. and also whether you print your own images or send them to a camera shop or a printing service (they are different in their requirements). However, there can be ultimate success but it will take some perseverance on your part to figure out what parts of LR/PS you need and how best to use them in your workflow. A little thought and structure on your part will "narrow the field of view" so to speak. I might add another complicating fact is that LR/PS, and PS in particular, allows a user to accomplish the same task in several different ways; menus, shortcuts, a myriad of filters and tools with differences that barely rise to distinctions, etc. For example, the sliders in the Develop module of LR are virtually the same as the sliders in Adobe Camera Raw in PS which is to allow customers to use one of these programs without necessarily using the other. In making them flexible, they necessarily made them more complex. Seems the designers also keep adding new capability and there seems to be a tendency to never eliminate anything even if it is overwhemlingly similar to a new capability; just keep piling on. I guess the rationale is that Adobe does not want to "force" anyone to change workflows unless they personally decide to and so they seem to keep the old stuff even as the new stuff arrives. Case in point are all of the color tools which overlap endlessly.
Anyway, I have found the CreativeLive website to be a treasure trove of useful LR and PS instruction. You can watch the classes live for free but will need to purchase the clases to be able to syudy them on your own until you truly understand the tools and processes; they can get very detailed and almost impossible to retain all of the clicks and processes. I particularly enjoy the classes from Ben Willmore (LR, PS, color and tone management), Jared Platt (LR workflow, hardware setup, file structure, backup, etc.) and Lindsay Adler (retouching, lighting, posing, etc.) to name a few. I also belong to Kelby1 which has hundreds of classes available for one annual fee; there are many others but these are my favorites.
That said, it just takes significant, dedicated time to learn the software. So, get started and it will get better.
Cheers,
Mel
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