Which are important to save.....

[johnnycorcoran]

Hi I know what 'New Catalog ' does and also know what "save metadata" does
BUT the question are Which are the most important to do when I want to come back in the next 5years to change the colours,etc??????

Hope those make sense!

Johnny

 

[dj_paige]

Any time you edit a photo in Lightroom, the edits are automatically saved in the Lightroom catalog. You don't have to do anything to turn this on. So, I believe the direct answer is: you don't specifically have to do any saves.

However, it is very good (some would say mandatory) to make backups. Make a copy of your catalog file on different physical media. Same is true for the original photos, and any derivative photos (like those that were edited in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements).

New Catalog (if you're a beginner, you probably only want one catalog) and Save metadata aren't really related to the question you asked about.

 

[johnnycorcoran]

Thanks for the reply...
So I would better off save Metadate (that will make a new file of ".XMP files" so i can go back to this in five years time and the colours i change will be there...

The Catalog would be better every time I have a RAW files coming in, make new Catalog and it will come back the same things as I did the Metadata?

No different, doesn't it?

 

[dj_paige]

First of all, in most cases you need one catalog. Do not make new catalogs each time you import photos into Lightroom.

Save Metadata is completely optional, and should only be used if the metadata (title, captions, keywords, etc) in Lightroom differs from the file contents on your hard disk. Save metadata is not the same as catalog operations.

You do not have to do any saving of any kind to "go back to this in five years time and the colours i change will be there". You don't have to tell Lightroom to do any saving. You take no action. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Lightroom automatically saves the proper information for you; you don't have to tell it to do so. It just happens.

Please take a few minutes and read:
The Starter Kit

and especially read
How to use Lightroom, or "Where's The Save Button?""