Saving lightroom imports.

Phil Young

Phil Young

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Name
Phil
Edit My Images
Yes
Running lightroom 4.4

A little help appreciated folks...

Despite using lightroom for a year or so, I've never learnt how to save my imports along with the settings I haven't adjusted for the images in the import.

It's not often I batch edit but understand the importance of knowing the above.

How does one go about this??

Cheers,
Phil.
 
Phil Young said:
Running lightroom 4.4

A little help appreciated folks...

Despite using lightroom for a year or so, I've never learnt how to save my imports along with the settings I haven't adjusted for the images in the import.

It's not often I batch edit but understand the importance of knowing the above.

How does one go about this??

Cheers,
Phil.
Click to expand...
A bit confusing - how can you save something when you haven't adjusted anything?

In the develop module in the left panel there is a history state that you can go back and forth to where you adjusted it from - it even dates the process adjustment.
 
Are you wanting to apply a setting on import?
 
Imagine this Tom...

I've edited a collection of 150 photos in LR.

I would like to be able to now work on another import but not lose all the changes I've made to the previous import (maybe I want to come back to them in future).
 
I've edited a collection of 150 photos in LR.

I would like to be able to now work on another import but not lose all the changes I've made to the previous import (maybe I want to come back to them in future).
Click to expand...

I'm still not clear on your question.

As you process any image it's new parameters are stored in the LR database (and XMP Sidecar if that's your choice). You don't lose anything and there is no equivalent of a Save except that you can write the processing parameters (metadata) out to an XMP sidecar file if you wish.

Colin
 
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LR keeps the settings of a file as you left them.
 
Any image you process in LR at anytime will always have its processing applied to it and kept.

So, if you process an image in a folder or collection you can come back at any later time and the processing is still applied.

There would be no point in processing an image in LR and having the edits lost when you close the program or import more images.

LR doesn't actually make any changes to a RAW file but records the new processing parameters you used i.e increased brightness, seperately. When you come back to the image the processing parameters are reapplied so you always see what you've done previoulsy.

Colin
 
Spuriousfish said:
Any image you process in LR at anytime will always have its processing applied to it and kept.

So, if you process an image in a folder or collection you can come back at any later time and the processing is still applied.

There would be no point in processing an image in LR and having the edits lost when you close the program or import more images.

LR doesn't actually make any changes to a RAW file but records the new processing parameters you used i.e increased brightness, seperately. When you come back to the image the processing parameters are reapplied so you always see what you've done previoulsy.

Colin
Click to expand...

So I don't have to save any catalogs or anything, I simply re-import the same image if I want to work on it again?
 
I assume you are using LR to download the images from your camera/memory card and if so this will use the Import Module.

In which case the images get stored on your hard drive according to how you define the import to be e.g into folders by year/month/date etc .

LR adds them to its Catalog - NOTE: LR does not store the images internally, they are just on your hard drive. All LR does is maintain a database of pointers to where the images are. You don't need to save the Catalog, in fact you can't. LR just updates it each time you use it and make changes.

When you are in the Library Module and select an image to Develop, LR pulls the actual image file from the hard drive to work on. So, what you see in the Library Module are just thumbnails.

Once you've finished with the development all the processing changes are stored in the LR database. The original image is still on your hard drive, so you don't need to re-import it, just find it in the Library Module and work on it again.

This is where Keywording and Collections are useful since they will allow you to locate images more quickly. A search function is also included in LR.

Hope this helps.

Colin
 
Not sure whether I fully understand what your asking, but I assume you mean that when you edit a photo in lightroom it appears to have edited the actual photo, but it hasnt, as people have said peviously, it is just writen to the database.

If you open a catalog with images in which you have edited, then go to Develop a photo, you will notice in the bottom right hand corner of lightroom there are two buttons - Reset and Previous. The Reset button will take the image back to its original state.

The only time an image is "saved" in lightroom, is when you export it to jpg or whatever.
 
You want to create a virtual copy of you edited image, then reset the original back to its unedited state and re-edit it from there, if you want to make a 3rd or 4th edit, just make a new virtual copy and reset the original.
LR doesnt actually change your .cr2 .nef .dng or .jpg file, it just saves a list of your adjustments, which are applied before it gets displayed on the screen or saved as an export.

This doesn't actually make a duplicate file, if you are worried about eating up HDD space, just a few more Kb to the xmp file or embedded data.
 
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Lol oh jeeez.

I didn't realise this was so complicated time understand... I still don't think I have my answer but here it is again...

I import John and Maria's wedding into LR.

I edit all their shots over 8hrs.

I give them to the couple.

I then work on another job so have imported that, Maria and John's photos are no longer in the collection.

Get a phone call from John, he's lost all his images and want the same copies again.

Stupidly, I delete the edited files jpgs from my HDD.

So.... re-imort and edit again??

As it stands now, I import, I develope, I export and then the process starts again on another job with import.

There must be a way of saving a catalogue in LR which saves date of the original file location and the work applied to it surely?
 
There must be a way of saving a catalogue in LR which saves date of the original file location and the work applied to it surely?
Click to expand...

As explained before, you don't need to save a catalog. Backup it, yes, but not save.

All the images you import into LR are placed on the hard drive. Unless you've deleted them, they are still there. If you've deleted them then they are gone. Don't forget LR does not store your images, so backing up the catalog doesn't help if you've deleted them.

In the Library Module there is a folders view where you can navigate to the folder to where you imported them.

If you're on Windows try a program called Recuvva - it can bring back seemingly deleted files. First though you could look in your recycle bin folder.

There are also various search/filter tools for finding images. These can sometimes cause you to think images are missing because it's been left on and is filtering out what you're looking for.

What sort of collection did you create for the shoot? Is the actual collection title still there?

Colin
 
Spuriousfish said:
As explained before, you don't need to save a catalog. Backup it, yes, but not save.

All the images you import into LR are placed on the hard drive. Unless you've deleted them, they are still there. If you've deleted them then they are gone. Don't forget LR does not store your images, so backing up the catalog doesn't help if you've deleted them.

In the Library Module there is a folders view where you can navigate to the folder to where you imported them.

If you're on Windows try a program called Recuvva - it can bring back seemingly deleted files. First though you could look in your recycle bin folder.

There are also various search/filter tools for finding images. These can sometimes cause you to think images are missing because it's been left on and is filtering out what you're looking for.

What sort of collection did you create for the shoot? Is the actual collection title still there?

Colin
Click to expand...

Collection is gone Colin but in future...backup after each change to the collection??
 
If the collection is gone it doesn't mean your original images have gone.

Collections are just a convenient way of grouping together images. If you delete the Collection all that happens is that the grouping is lost, not the images, they will still be in the folder where they were imported.

Did you keyword the images? Do you know the date the images where taken. If so you can use these two factors to locate the originals.

Colin
 
Don't worry about the original files, all I'm concerned about is being able to save a data file in LR that saves all the work done on a particular import.

For example.

I'm not going to be doing a lot of stuff for kickboxing and if I deliver a load of edits and they would like those edits tweaked a bit, I want to be able to do that without redoing the entire edit again.

Does lightroom save the pathway to the raw file along with the editing information that has been placed on them in developed phase?
 
Don't worry about the original files, all I'm concerned about is being able to save a data file in LR that saves all the work done on a particular import.
Click to expand...

Well, you need to be concerned about your originals because without these LR can't apply the work you've done in processing them.

The whole concept of LR is called non-destructive editing. Your originals are kept intact. LR stores the process adjustments seperately and when you call up your image again it replays these adjustments. So you see the state of how you last worked on the image. No original means LR can't do anything.


Does lightroom save the pathway to the raw file along with the editing information that has been placed on them in developed phase?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is the vary essence of LR. It knows where your images are stored and it knows what processing you've done to those images but as mentioned previously, these are two different things.

There are two possibilities. LR can store the processing and keywords etc in its Catalog (but not the image) and you also have the option to create an XMP Sidecar file which is external to LR and also contains the processing instructions etc. This is useful if you want to use another program that can read XMP files e.g Photoshop. Then the processing is carried over to the other program.

Now, what may be different for you is that when you export an image as a JPEG for example, the processing is baked into that file. But LR will not keep a copy of the export in it's catalog unless you check the option to Add to Catalog in the Export Dialog. The JPEGs will be on whatever media you used.

Just to re-state. LR doesn't store your images but it does store the processing adjustments.

Colin
 
In the normal way lightroom leaves the files from where ever you imported them, and saves the location and amendments to its own data base.

When you enter lightroom again you will find the files in the same location and the amendments will be reapplied.

If you were to go to the location directly, and not through lightroom, you would find them as they were originally and with no amendments.
Light room is a "database" that links files, locations, amendments. It is fully reversible.
Unlike alterations in Photoshop which are permanent.

However Lightroom can save "versions" of a file, altered in photoshop, alongside the the original; it can show this new version in the lightroom catalogue.

You should never move the original file from where it was when imported into lightroom. or the catalogue will lose the link to it.

If you want a "copy" of the file with the amendments attached, you should export it.


Post crossed with Colin's above.... same difference.
 
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"new catalog" - save that catalog to wherever...done. All changes made in lightroom are saved to the catalog.
Click to expand...

Yes, but you've now created another new catalog and you don't need to do this. All the changes made in Lightroom are written to the catalog as you go along; on the fly; live etc. No need to save or create a new one every time.

Colin
 
I'm still not sure what your objective is or that you understand the principle behind the catalogs.

As explained before all your images are imported using LR to the hard drive and the references to the actual location stored in the catalog. As you process the images all the processing changes automatically get stored in the catalog. No need to save, it's automatic.

You should use the Library Module to organise your shots. Use either keywords or collections and apply these to the images. Then when you want to work on a particular set of images you can select them either by the keyword or by the collection. There is no need to 'load' them - they are already there.

If you create a new catalog each time you want to import some new images from a shoot, then that's your choice. However, Catalogs are independent of each other and you can only work with one Catalog at a time. So, if there are images in another catalog that you want to access, you'll have to close the current one and open the other.

Personally I think that's counter productive.

Colin
 
Spuriousfish said:
I'm still not sure what your objective is or that you understand the principle behind the catalogs.

As explained before all your images are imported using LR to the hard drive and the references to the actual location stored in the catalog. As you process the images all the processing changes automatically get stored in the catalog. No need to save, it's automatic.

You should use the Library Module to organise your shots. Use either keywords or collections and apply these to the images. Then when you want to work on a particular set of images you can select them either by the keyword or by the collection. There is no need to 'load' them - they are already there.

If you create a new catalog each time you want to import some new images from a shoot, then that's your choice. However, Catalogs are independent of each other and you can only work with one Catalog at a time. So, if there are images in another catalog that you want to access, you'll have to close the current one and open the other.

Personally I think that's counter productive.

Colin
Click to expand...

Re-loading in??

By saving a catalogue it saves everything you do in that particular import and any edits made in LR.
No need to rename and use keywords, I simply create a new catalogue, import "kickboxing june" into it from the same name folder on my HDD and then off I go.

July kickboxing will be a new catalogue.

Jeremy and Julia's wedding will be another, saving the catalogue to their folder on my HDD.

I don't want a library of thousands of images, this for me is a good way to manage my import's and collections.
 
Phil

You've sort of hit it on the head. A collection is just the actions you've taken to edit the images. In fact you can have a collection that contains images from other collections. They are stored as a new collection with all the edits, but are still available in their original collections. Don't mess around with different catalogues simply store the collection you've made within the collection's pane in the library module. This is what I do and create collection groups based on the year. It only takes up a few bytes of room on the hard drive and make finding easy.

John C
 
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Chappers said:
Phil

You've sort of hit it on the head. A collection is just the actions you've taken to edit the images. In fact you can have a collection that contains images from other collections. They are stored as a new collection with all the edits, but are still available in their original collections. Don't mess around with different catalogues simply store the collection you've made within the collection's pane in the library module. This is what I do and create collection groups based on the year. It only takes up a few bytes of room on the hard drive and make finding easy.

John C
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Colin. I appreciate it but I don't know enough about lightroom to not be baffled by all of the above lol.

If you have a you tube link to what you're trying to say, that might make it easier...
 
Hi.


I'm probably being very dense it a related question about LR 4.

Got a new iMac and managed to I import all my pics but its just the RAWs. How do I import all the edits?

Thank you clever people for forthcoming advice!

Cheers

S
 
Phil you’re on the right track now, some say they prefer to have a catalogue created based on each project/shoot. (Thou your catalogue and RAW files might not be in the same location)

So for instance you might have a Catalogue for each client or just under a Studio Catalogue.
All you edits are saved to the Catalogue reference which needs to be backed up as well as you RAW images. So in an event of failure you have the catalogue (edits) and the original files to restore.

Some just run one catalogue and store it all in one location all down to personnel preference and if you have thought of the bigger the catalogue the slow it could become..
 
Danzaroonie said:
Phil you’re on the right track now, some say they prefer to have a catalogue created based on each project/shoot. (Thou your catalogue and RAW files might not be in the same location)

So for instance you might have a Catalogue for each client or just under a Studio Catalogue.
All you edits are saved to the Catalogue reference which needs to be backed up as well as you RAW images. So in an event of failure you have the catalogue (edits) and the original files to restore.

Some just run one catalogue and store it all in one location all down to personnel preference and if you have thought of the bigger the catalogue the slow it could become..
Click to expand...

Yeah this sounds like a really good way to manage it for me.

I simply save the catalogue file to the appropriate shoot location folder and everything related to that shoot is in that location.

Very good for me.
 
This seems like a very strange way to go about it, but if it works for you then that's all that matters.

Personally, I would just keyword all of the photos 'June, Kickboxing' on import and then when you want to edit them, filter your library by keywords 'June, Kickboxing'. Seems the most straight forward way to me.
 
theurbanclown said:
This seems like a very strange way to go about it, but if it works for you then that's all that matters.

Personally, I would just keyword all of the photos 'June, Kickboxing' on import and then when you want to edit them, filter your library by keywords 'June, Kickboxing'. Seems the most straight forward way to me.
Click to expand...

But...then the files in LR wouldn't match the actual file names. That has more problems for me than the above, which I can't see any problems with so far...
 
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