Drag and drop

[mrslodger]

I am reasonably new to lightroom, can you drag images from the library straight onto a thumb drive to get printed at a photo lab or do you need to get them from some where else such as my picture folder ect.
Thanks

 

[Brad Snyder]

mrslodger, welcome to the forums.

No, you can't just drag them, either from Lr or from where they're stored and imported from, say My Pictures, as you suggest.

You'll have to Export the images first, to a separate temporary folder. From the Library, select the images you want to print, and choose Export. A separate dialog will open. In general, just work your way down the dialog box from top to bottom. In the File settings, you'll probably want to choose JPG, sRGB, Quality 1''. Leave image sizing alone. Choose sharpening for the paper you're going to use, and start with Standard Amount. Minimize embedded Metadata.

Once the files are exported, they can be put on a thumb-drive etc, for printing. Then you can delete the temporary files.

If this sounds complex, it is. But there are good reasons that it works this way. We'd be happy to explain if you're interested, just ask.

 

[mrslodger]

Ahh, Thanks, so any editing you do in lightroom is more or less just for viewing the edited photos on lightroom, then you need to save them to somewhere else so they stay permantly edited, I have a sony and shoot raw and jpeg. I have the sony programme installed on my comp but prefer the look of lightroom, if i edited the photos in the the sony programme, then do they stay the edited photo for reprinting ect.
Thanks.

 

[Mark Sirota]

[quote author=Brad Snyder link=topic=9691.msg65557#msg65557 date=1272416228]
Leave image sizing alone. Choose sharpening for the paper you're going to use, and start with Standard Amount.[/quote]

I realize that we're trying to keep it simple for this particular question, but for the sake of future readers:

You will get marginally better results if you resize to the anticipated print size and resolution. To do this, you need to know what resolution your lab prints at (in pixels per inch) -- if you don't know, ask your lab (and if they answer in DPI or Dots Per Inch rather than PPI or Pixels Per Inch, choose another lab). Set that value in the Image Sizing section, then constrain to the paper dimensions (e.g. 4" x 6").

The reason this will be better is twofold:
(1) Lightroom can do a better job resizing, because it has access to the raw data and can resize in linear space while the printer would have to resize using a (lightly) compressed JPEG that has already been gamma-corrected.

(2) The export sharpening algorithms are most effective if they are operating at the final dimensions (that is, after the final resizing). If you don't resize on export, then the print lab will resize an already-sharpened JPEG, which will reduce the effectiveness of the sharpening.

All that said, whether the difference is noticeable to the naked eye in moderately-sized prints is certainly open to debate.

 

[Brad Snyder]

To correct a possible misconception: Once you edit the images in Lr, they 'stay edited'. There's nothing at all that you need to do to 'save' them somehow. It's automatic. But to use the edited images somewhere else, then you need to export them.

This is how all programs work with raw images, so the Sony program would be similar, if not exactly the same. Doesn't matter anyway, most print labs wouldn't know what to do with a raw format image.