Lightroom Help JPEG/RAW

[jewleeanne]

So I have a few questions about Adobe Lightroom...

Before I became really interested in photography, I was shooting in JPEG, of course, I saved over the original images, not thinking I will ever need it. I'm pretty sure there is no way to retrieve all your original images back. I am currently using Photoshop Elements 12 (trial version), but I've heard people saying Lightroom is much faster to edit multiple photos, and you can do more to the photo, especially when you shoot in RAW. I want to try out Lightroom, but I don't know what to do about my old images shot in JPEG. I want to start saving the edited image as a JPEG, and keeping the original RAW image.

I have OCD when it comes to organizing, and if I save some edited JPEG photos + RAW originals, and some just the edited JPEG version, it really gets to me, and I have no idea why. I don't know anything about the Lightroom organizer, or how it works.

This probably seems like the dumbest thread ever, but for some reason this is really bothering me. I only have about 200 photos shot in JPEG, and no originals were saved. I have roughly another 100 photos shot in RAW, with no originals. Is there a way I can use Lightroom without the photo viewer/organizer? What is my best option? I don't really have an exact question, but if you have any advice on what to do... please reply below. All of this was kinda mumble jumble...

Also, when I save a photo from Elements, what is the EXIF file saved along with it?

 

[The_Traveler]

First the easy thing.
For jpegs the exif is embeded in the file.

LR will help with organizing.
You can import both raw and jpegs into LR.
Edits made in LR are never destructive, they are saved in a sidecar file that is applied to the original file when you view it in LR.
When you export a file, the edits are applied so they can be viewed in anything that allows visualization of files.

If you have a file in LR and you export it to PS or PSE, LR saves and catalogs it as an additional file.
You can 'stack' the files so you only see the latest version.

Most people who use LR and an additional more complex editor import everything into LR, add keyword, etc and do basic edits there, then export to another program if more detailed bit-level edits are needed.
LR manages everything very well.

 

[ajandali]

Hi Jewleeanne, Lightroom is the best way to be organized in the way you deal with your images, it is the most powerful software from this aspect. I have this tutorial that will give you an idea on what Lightroom will help you achieve just from the initial part, the importing and the selection of images.