New to Lighroom - Don't understand file concept yet

[Ken Nielsen]

I've been working with Photoshop for 2' years and have good habits formed for keeping track of files. Now, with Lightroom, I'm basically lost. I'm very new, like 2 days, at this, so bear with me:

I modified an image using Edit using Photoshop from Lightroom. When I had finished the edits I saved the file and returned to Lightroom - lo and behold I now had two image, version 1 or 2 and version 2 of 2. What is this? Why did it just not keep the image as a new modified image? I didn't want a second image or copy, or I would have used 'save as' in Photoshop.

I need to stop using Lightroom until I understand what it is doing with files that are modified in Photoshop. I do lots of edits and may go back to a single image several times over several days of work. I don't want an new version saved every time I go back to edit a file.

Can I get Lightroom to stop replicating every time I save? I feel like it could turn me into the Sorcerer's Apprentice if it keeps multiplying my files.

Can someone educate me on the what and why of Lightroom file handling?

TIA,


Ken

 

[Denis de Gannes]

Have a look at the video at this site.
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/photoshoplightroom/

"Finding your pictures in the Lightroom Catalog"
and lots of other stuff to bring you up to speed in using LR. Enjoy.

 

[dj_paige]

Lightroom makes you think about file management in an extremely different way than anything you would have thought about before.

So here's some extreme advice. It's helpful if you can set aside those 2' years of file management, and let Lightroom manage your files as much as possible. Yes, you can still over-ride Lightroom's decisions. And do not use Windows to rename, move or delete your photos or folders.

Some of the reasons that Lightroom is so different in this area are:

• Lightroom edits your photos non-destructively, so in general your originals are never modified (sometimes the metadata is edited, but never the photographic information). Thus, by default, Lightroom always points to (and displays a thumbnail of) your original in its Library module (even when you edit in Photoshop).
• Lightroom was designed to streamline your workflow, to make the workflow as painless as possible. No more moving files or folders around in Windows. Of course, there are many workflows that work well within Lightroom; there are also some workflows in which Lightroom will "fight" with you every step of the way.

 

[Ken Nielsen]

Lightroom is going to knock me out in the first round I'm afraid.

I'll take your experienced advice Paige and give in and let Lightroom handle things the way it wants to and then I'll see how it goes. If I wind up with too many files from multiple edits of a single file, I'm guessing I can always delete the 'in-process' versions and not lose anything important since they are all copies of the original and I only want to keep the most up-to-date edited version.

It will keep me on my toes I'm sure until I get used to how it works.

Ken

 

[Ken Nielsen]

Have a look at the video at this site.

Thank You for that link.

It's late here, but I played the first part of it and will view it in its entirety tomorrow. It's very good instruction for the question I asked here.

Ken

PS: Any other links that would be good for a beginner to grasp the concepts of Lightroom would be appreciated. Subjects I am wrestling with beside file handling, include metadata techniques and explanations.

 

[dj_paige]

Lightroom is going to knock me out in the first round I'm afraid.

I'll take your experienced advice Paige and give in and let Lightroom handle things the way it wants to and then I'll see how it goes. If I wind up with too many files from multiple edits of a single file, I'm guessing I can always delete the 'in-process' versions and not lose anything important since they are all copies of the original and I only want to keep the most up-to-date edited version.

It will keep me on my toes I'm sure until I get used to how it works.

Ken

Sure, you can get rid of the intermediates if you feel you don't need them.

In Lightroom, you can stack the edited version (from Photoshop) with the Original so that only 1 of the two files show in your grid view. Under the Photo menu, select Stacking, and then Collapse Stack (or Expand Stack or whatever else you feel is appropriate)

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Ken, if I am reading you correctly you are most concerned with having several files that are edited in PS and have the suffix "-edit"??
If that is the case and you want to further edit the edit (in a PSD or TIFF) you can do that without creating a new file IF you Edit Original as that will send the PSD to PS although you won't see the any LR adjustments mad to the PSD. I don't find this too much of an issue generally. But have a play as it will depend on what you are wanting to do in PS.

 

[pauljg]

Hi Ken: what you should remember that everything Lightroom does is non-destructive and all edits are only written to the metadata of the picture and in the database. However, the edits in Photoshop are destructive once the picture has been saved. So Lightroom is set up in such a way that the original picture, with all its Lightroom edits, is kept available and the PS-edited file is saved separately. In this way you can always go back to the original picture when you find that you have made changes that you after all don't like or if you want to make a new version with all sorts of different edits. In fact if I delete anything it is the PS-edited version but I always keep the original!