Overwrite option in Lightroom

[baturn]

When exporting a re-edited photo in Lightroom I am given the option of exporting with a new name or over-writing the previous edit. Is there a disadvantage in either option? In most cases I would have no reason to keep both files.

 

[The_Traveler]

When exporting a re-edited photo in Lightroom I am given the option of exporting with a new name or over-writing the previous edit. Is there a disadvantage in either option? In most cases I would have no reason to keep both files.

You've answered your own question.

 

[baturn]

No. I haven't. I still want to know if there is a advantage to one method or the other. But thanks.

 

[KmH]

Some short questions cannot be answered in a 5 second sound bite, and often require additional information from the questioner.
The 5 second bite answer is - It depends. How organized do you want to be?

I don't discard original image files that didn't get culled because I was never going to edit them.
I always rename the edited files so I can easily distinguish them from the original file.

Invest in some good reference books that relate to photography, image editing, and digital asset management.
The DAM Book
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

 

[astroNikon]

I was perplexed by the original question so I skipped it.

But in lightroom the Original File that you are editing is wholly separate from the Export file(s) that you are creating.

So, keeping in mind that your original RAW/JPEG /etc file in Lightroom is wholly separate

The export feature allows you to save the JPEG, etc file anywhere with any name that you want.
So you could Export MyPic01.jpg, MyPic02.jpg etc

Then excluding and wholly outside of Lightroom, you could then select the best Exported JPEG

So in Lightroom you have the LIbrary with your RAW picture file

and then you have your exported directory with your multiple JPEGs


That's the way I read the answer to the question .. unless I'm confused :scratch:

 

[baturn]

I'll rephrase. Does overwriting degrade the final saved product in any way? And thank you all for your responses. They cleared up some other issues/ questions.

 

[astroNikon]

No. overwriting the file with with the same image with the same parameters in Lightroom of the Original RAW file should not degrade the exported JPEG, even if you overwrite over and over again.

Of course exporting a RAW file into a JPEG file will degrade the image a bit if I understand all things about JPEG compression, etc. One of the reasons you shoot in RAW for best image quality and control.

But .. repeated EXports of a JPEG .. ie, save a JPEG, open that JPEG, export it, open the new JPEG, export it, over and over again supposedly does degrade the image per the article below. Basically, always go back to your original to export a new version for best quality.

http://www.digi-graphics.com/pmain/howto/work_with_jpeg.html

I read an article online which showed pics of a bird before and after various JPEG exports. You could see a degradation (when up close) of the bird from RAW to JPEG .. but I can't find that one article right now

 

[baturn]

Thanks again. That's what I was looking for.