Help needed saving LR completed files?

[Your Old Dog]

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When I message a photo in CS4, when I'm done I flatten it and then do a "Save As".

 

What do I do in LightRoom 3.2? I have worked my way through the software almost completely in one evening. It appears to be very easy to learn except for saving what you do?

 

I expect this has been answered before but I've been unable to locate the thread. I know a lot of people are afraid to ask a question for fear it may have been addressed in the past. I'm of the mindset that 'EVERY POSSIBLE TOPIC" has been addressed in the past but that you might have some new answers from some new folks as time marches on if you have the patience to read the repeating threads.

 

I have finally, with the aide of LightRoom, been able to get exactly the results I've been looking for in color to B&W conversions. I can't wait to get them to my printer! I'm able to do in 2-3 minutes what took hours in CS3 and I still didn't like the results. Now, just to figure out what I have to do to save the results.

 

I'm running the 64 bit version of LR 3.2 on Windows Home Premium. I have opened LR up directly and not through CS3 (if that's even possible?)

[stunsworth]

I save my finished photos to a new folder - I have a rather pretentiously named folder called 'Photo masters'. Within that I have a series of sub-folders called 'Vol 1', Vol 2' etc. When a folder has 100 photographs in it I create a new folder.

 

'Photo masters' is included in my Lightroom catalogue so I can get at them as and when required.

 

Why do you flatten your photos in Photoshop before saying them?

[Shootist]

Although I don't work with LR much I'm think you need to Export those images to actually save them. But you need to export them as either TIFF, JPG or native PSD files.

In any event those images with the corrections you have made are saved inside LR. You just can't see them outside of LR.

 

To my knowledge LR has a printing feature so why not try that to print your images.

 

Not sure why you are finding so hard to get good B&W images for PS CS3. LR really doesn't include any more options for B&W conversion then PS does. But then the newest LR does have a much better RAW processor then CS3. CS3 uses ACR 4 where LR 3 uses ACR 6.

[stunsworth]

Sorry, I misunderstood the OP, I though he was finishing the photos in Photoshop and wanted to then display them in LR.

 

The answer is you don't need to save them anywhere in LR itself. LR doesn't update the files themselves, it just saves the instructions regarding how they've been processed, you can rollback any changes at any time.

 

If you want to process a file in different ways you can create a virtual copy of the file and work on that. Again, the file itself is unchanged, you just have two or more different sets of instructions.

[k-hawinkler]

I have seen the phrase "flatten an image" before but don't know what it means. Also, how would one do that in LR3 or CS5?

 

Thanks, K-H.

[MPerson]

Ray - as Pete said but if you want to save a physical copy of the finished/processed file, for web display etc., then you need:

 

File \ Export

 

You can then tweak size/Mb etc. You can even save them as named presets to save keep repeating yourself.

[chuckw]

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I have seen the phrase "flatten an image" before but don't know what it means. Also, how would one do that in LR3 or CS5?

 

Thanks, K-H.

 

To flatten an image in CS5 (and in earlier versions) means to combine all layers created during image editing into one layer. The menu item to do this is on the Layers menu almost at the very bottom. There are also other ways to do this like, for example, right clicking in the layers pallet and selecting the appropriate action in that menu.

 

In LM3 I don't think that there is any comparable action in that in LM one does not create new layers in the image editing process.

[Shootist]

I have seen the phrase "flatten an image" before but don't know what it means. Also, how would one do that in LR3 or CS5?

 

Thanks, K-H.

 

To my knowledge there are no layers in LR3. So in LR3 you can't and don't flatten images.

I CS5, or any version of Photoshop, if you created different layers, IE made adjustments on another layer other then the Background layer,, then you can flatten the image back into the background layer.

[Your Old Dog]

Thanks everyone for your help. If I have it right, LR leaves your image in it's native format BUT attaches some LR instructions to it so that when it is exported to another folder it is all combined upon arrival at the other folder. I'll work on that premise and see what happens

 

As for why flattening in CS3. I rarely worked in raw format but mostly JPEG. In JPEG format if you massage an image it ends up as several different layers (think sheets of glass) and must be reduced to one layer before given the option in the save command of which format you choose. If you choose to leave the results in PSD format then there is no need to "flatten" the image. Those were my Nikon years.

 

Now that I am shooting Leica and Canon I am forcing myself to shoot only in RAW format as I now have a high-end printer (Epson 4900) and hope to get more quality out of my images. Finally got the beastly printer located in my man-cave! It took some doing but I now look forward to seeing some nice large B&W prints come out of it. Sooo much to learn, so little wine!

[hoppyman]

Lightroom will save those instructions rather than actually alter your files for other formats (eg PSD, TIFF, JPEG) as well. When developing a files in LR, you can edit in Photoshop and when you finish, LR will make a new file in the original format for you, incorportaing the Ps edits and put it beside your original in your catalog.

 

One primary purpose of LR by design is that you can export (copies of) files as a different format should you want. But give the print module a try in LR too. No need to work from a different format. Direct from your edited DNG works perfectly.

 

May I suggest that investing a good book, for example Martin Evening's LR3 book is very much worthwhile.

[Jeff S]

The Scott Kelby LR3 book also will tell you all you need, along with jokes best ignored. It will address things you didn't think about, but will be happy to know.

 

Jeff

[d2mini]

You can also set up Lightroom to automatically re-import your photoshop file when you click "save" in photoshop. It will automatically show up in Lightroom right next to the one you exported.

But as someone else said, there is no reason to "save" anything in LR. It saves all your adjustment information automatically.

[wda]

When I message a photo in CS4, when I'm done I flatten it and then do a "Save As".

 

What do I do in LightRoom 3.2? I have worked my way through the software almost completely in one evening. It appears to be very easy to learn except for saving what you do?

As Steve has said, LR automatically saves changes you make. However, it is often a good idea to save a Virtual Copy before you start cropping and making serious adjustments. Work on the copy. In effect, you are saving two different sets of processing instructions without affecting the original image. Very neat!

[AbbeyPhoto]

There's no need to save your files out of Lightroom until you need them, and if you're printing your own (as I do on my Epson) then you can print from within Lightroom and get the best quality.

 

This does raise another point, which is backups. All your Lightroom adjustments are stored in the catalog, which is just a large database - if it gets corrupted you risk losing a lot of work (not the original images, but the post-processing). It is essential that you have a good backup routine - use the Lightroom functionality to make regular backups of your catalog, and then store copies of those backups on another drive. Using Time Machine or similar to backup your catalog is not enough, as if the backup program runs while you are working on the catalog then the catalog will not be backed up.