Lightroom exporting

[Gunflint Trail]

In Lightroom, when you are finished editing photos, do you export a copy as TIFF to lock the edits in place, so to speak? You'd obviously need to do this if you wanted to take the edited photo out of Lightroom, but I just mean generally when you're working with photos is this a common practice?

 

[smoke665]

No.......Why would you want to circumvent all the advantages of a parametric editor?

 

[Gunflint Trail]

No.......Why would you want to circumvent all the advantages of a parametric editor?

I had a problem with moving files around one, and losing the sync between the light room catalog file and the files. It couldn't be recovered and I had to redo all the edits.

 

[smoke665]

I had a problem with moving files around one, and losing the sync between the light room catalog file and the files. It couldn't be recovered and I had to redo all the edits.

Lr doesn't give a hoot where you store your images so long as it knows where they are. I know this is hard for many to understand, but Lr doesn't do anything on your original image file, once you import it creates a smart preview in your catalog., all your edits are reflected on this preview and all edits are stored in the catalog. You can save your edits in a sidecar but doing so will slow Lr to a crawl, and is only recommended if you do it on a final image you want to archive. To save edits in a xmp-file which is a small file that (normally) sits besides the image file. You do this saving to xmp-file either in the Library Module by going >Metadata > Save Metadata to file (or shortcut Ctrl./Cmd. + letter "S"), or in the Develop Module by going >Photo >Save Metadata to file - or again Ctr. + S. With DNGs it's a bit different; with DNGs Lr writes the edits into the header of the file. But the procedure is the same. I also believe you can do it as a batch by selecting multiple images

Just because you move your original image with something other than LR or Bridge, doesn't mean you lost your edits....they're still in the Catalog. To point it back to the image you first need to know where you put them....Lr can't help you there. If you know that then follow the directions here. Lightroom thinks my photos are missing—how do I fix it? | The Lightroom Queen

 

[Gunflint Trail]

Lr doesn't give a hoot where you store your images so long as it knows where they are. I know this is hard for many to understand, but Lr doesn't do anything on your original image file, once you import it creates a smart preview in your catalog., all your edits are reflected on this preview and all edits are stored in the catalog. You can save your edits in a sidecar but doing so will slow Lr to a crawl, and is only recommended if you do it on a final image you want to archive. To save edits in a xmp-file which is a small file that (normally) sits besides the image file. You do this saving to xmp-file either in the Library Module by going >Metadata > Save Metadata to file (or shortcut Ctrl./Cmd. + letter "S"), or in the Develop Module by going >Photo >Save Metadata to file - or again Ctr. + S. With DNGs it's a bit different; with DNGs Lr writes the edits into the header of the file. But the procedure is the same. I also believe you can do it as a batch by selecting multiple images

Just because you move your original image with something other than LR or Bridge, doesn't mean you lost your edits....they're still in the Catalog. To point it back to the image you first need to know where you put them....Lr can't help you there. If you know that then follow the directions here. Lightroom thinks my photos are missing—how do I fix it? | The Lightroom Queen

You're not understanding the problem.

 

[AlanKlein]

I had a problem with moving files around one, and losing the sync between the light room catalog file and the files. It couldn't be recovered and I had to redo all the edits.

Then back them us as tiffs. It's just memory. Also, back them up before you discontinue leasing LR.

 

[smoke665]

Then back them us as tiffs. It's just memory. Also, back them up before you discontinue leasing LR.

Lightroom does not write changes back to the original whether RAW, TIFF or JPEG. That is why it is considered a non destructive editor or PIE (Parameterized Image Editor). You can follow the instructions I gave above for saving the edits in an XMP sidecar, and the edits will be available in LR again, or possibly in some other parametric editor of the future that can read them. or take it to Ps then save as a tiff, but all editing in Lr up to that point will then be irreversible.

 

[smoke665]

You're not understanding the problem

In your post above you moved the original image file, i assume outside of Lr. is the problem different from that?

 

[AlanKlein]

Lightroom does not write changes back to the original whether RAW, TIFF or JPEG. That is why it is considered a non destructive editor or PIE (Parameterized Image Editor). You can follow the instructions I gave above for saving the edits in an XMP sidecar, and the edits will be available in LR again, or possibly in some other parametric editor of the future that can read them. or take it to Ps then save as a tiff, but all editing in Lr up to that point will then be irreversible.

The OP was concerned about redoing all the edits which is what he;d have to do if he lost the LR edit parameters (PIE) somehow. So with the final tiff, he'd would at least have that version to use without starting over editing everything. Saving the final tiffs is a simple and inexpensive way to do it.

 

[smoke665]

e OP was concerned about redoing all the edits which is what he;d have to do if he lost the LR edit parameters (PIE

He didn't say he'd lost his catalog, he said in post #3, "had a problem with moving files around one, and losing the sync between the light room catalog file and the files". Unless I'm totally misreading this, he moved an image file outside of Lightroom or Bridge. If that's the case, it's a relatively simple process to relink the image with LR. The edits are in the catalog.

I currently have somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000 image files (and growing) on 2 drives being managed by one catalog. Using a top down file system as recommended by Adobe I can quickly drill down to find specific images, and re-edit at will. As with any system, the key is backup, backup, backup.

My editing starts in Lr with limited basic edits, most of whch are cookie cutter adjustments . From there I go to Ps, for final editing. As to TIFF vs other formats, I know some use it but I've found it better to go to a PSD especially as the interchangeable capabilities and AI functionality of Adobe editors has improved.

 

[AlanKlein]

He didn't say he'd lost his catalog, he said in post #3, "had a problem with moving files around one, and losing the sync between the light room catalog file and the files". Unless I'm totally misreading this, he moved an image file outside of Lightroom or Bridge. If that's the case, it's a relatively simple process to relink the image with LR. The edits are in the catalog.

I currently have somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000 image files (and growing) on 2 drives being managed by one catalog. Using a top down file system as recommended by Adobe I can quickly drill down to find specific images, and re-edit at will. As with any system, the key is backup, backup, backup.

My editing starts in Lr with limited basic edits, most of whch are cookie cutter adjustments . From there I go to Ps, for final editing. As to TIFF vs other formats, I know some use it but I've found it better to go to a PSD especially as the interchangeable capabilities and AI functionality of Adobe editors has improved.

Your ideas are fine. But, Tiff is an easy form of backup if you're concerned other measures might get screwed up and leave you starting over from scratch.

 

[wobe]

Your ideas are fine. But, Tiff is an easy form of backup if you're concerned other measures might get screwed up and leave you starting over from scratch.

This is what I do (export as TIFF) if moving Lr edited files to another machine for editing in another package (Eg Darktable:Rawtherapee) or for Cloud backups (original RAW and (film scan) TIFFs added as well of course).

 

[smoke665]

Your ideas are fine. But, Tiff is an easy form of backup if you're concerned other measures might get screwed up and leave you starting over from scratch.

I guess we'll agree to disagree. Saving a TIFF is an unecessary exercise, plus , layered tiff files have a greater chance of becoming corrupt. If a file is in danger of corrupting and an OS attempts to save the file, the first thing that rescue will do is dump all the non-standard format code - i.e. the layers and transparency in a tiff. You could just as easy export a high resolution JPEG, consume less storage space and keep your original intact, create multiple virtual copies with multiple editing effects, or bypass Lr and use ACR on clone stamp layer in Ps.

Finally it's been a bit since I tried a TIFF in Ps but the last time I did it wasn't playing nice with the advanced features. I'm not sure it will even work now with the expanded AI and Neural Filters.

 

[smoke665]

This is what I do (export as TIFF) if moving Lr edited files to another machine for editing in another package (Eg Darktable:Rawtherapee) or for Cloud backups (original RAW and (film scan) TIFFs added as well of course).

If I were to move an image to another application that wouldn't open a PSD then TIFF would be the alternative. I've also found I get marginally better results on Pixel Shift images by first opening in the Pentax Utlity then converting to TIFF for Lr. However over the years I've found that the less back and forth between software the better when you're processing a large number of files. 5 mins per image on 50 images is 4+ hrs saved.

 

[wobe]

If I were to move an image to another application that wouldn't open a PSD then TIFF would be the alternative. I've also found I get marginally better results on Pixel Shift images by first opening in the Pentax Utlity then converting to TIFF for Lr. However over the years I've found that the less back and forth between software the better when you're processing a large number of files. 5 mins per image on 50 images is 4+ hrs saved.

Thanks for this, interesting note on the Pentax utility giving better export results, I heard the same about the Olympus utility (my digital is Olympus) but have not tried it yet - your comment reminds me to do so.