Lightroom Help

[Betty LaRue]

Yes, MDM, I am not a technophobe and some things confuse me.

My workflow is this.

Download my card to a named folder on my desktop. These are raws.

Open photoshop, then LR.

Import photos from folder to LR.

Do this, that and whatever to each, then open that photo into Photoshop for finishing.

 

Always, when I opened into PS, the file number says untitled1200 or whatever number. When I finish with it, I hit save as. That's when I have to click on my folder name to get the image to save back into my desktop folder. A copy also saves or appears in LR.

 

A month ago, out of the blue, the settings changed without my realizing I had done anything.

When I opened into PS, the file now read like it had been only developed in PS. No more "untitled" before the number. And when I hit "save as", I no longer had to choose the desktop folder, it automatically was chosen.

I loved that! So I happily went about my business.

Then I created a entry preset in LR and used it for the first time. Everything reverted to the old settings. Yuk.

I've looked and looked in LR settings to try and figure out how to get rid of "untitled" and just have my normal file number. And have it automatically choose my Mac desktop folder for saving.

Nope. Can't figure it out. I went back this last upload to not using the preset, and it didn't change.

What am I missing?

Betty

[MDM]

I don't see how it could have anything to do with an Import Preset. That has to be just coincidence.

 

This is almost certainly a setting in the Lightroom Preferences - External Editing tab. Right at the bottom of the tab, you have Edit Externally File Naming. If you set that to Filename, it should do what you want and it should save into the same folder as the raw file.

 

Incidentally, Lightroom does not create copies of the files you import, it is pointing to the originals. I'm now referring to something I've seen you post before here. Lightroom is not using up disk space apart from the tiny amount for the preview image. I have a collection of over 60,000 landscape and plant images in a single catalog which makes it very easy to find images at any time. Removing the images from Lightroom does not save any significant disk space. Just sayin'.

[Betty LaRue]

I don't see how it could have anything to do with an Import Preset. That has to be just coincidence.

 

This is almost certainly a setting in the Lightroom Preferences - External Editing tab. Right at the bottom of the tab, you have Edit Externally File Naming. If you set that to Filename, it should do what you want and it should save into the same folder as the raw file.

 

Incidentally, Lightroom does not create copies of the files you import, it is pointing to the originals. I'm now referring to something I've seen you post before here. Lightroom is not using up disk space apart from the tiny amount for the preview image. I have a collection of over 60,000 landscape and plant images in a single catalog which makes it very easy to find images at any time. Removing the images from Lightroom does not save any significant disk space. Just sayin'.

Yout just sayin' is perfect.

I know how to develop an image in LR and that's pretty much my understanding of it. I need to watch more videos. I'm on my iPad, can't wait to change the setting you mention on my Mac. Thank you, thank you.

The things about LR that blow my mind is that I never go into a Preferences and change anything. It will behave the same for several uploads, then it won't.

One time, after choosing upload files and videos, I'll see a list of all my desktop folders to choose from. Then maybe the next time, that list won't be there, and I have to hunt around here there and yonder to find them. Yet I changed nothing.

I'm wondering if that happens because of updates.

What's frustrating is that PS stays stable, everything works the same always. But LR delights in sending me around the bend. Sometimes I've had to resort to only developing in PS because I couldn't find my desktop folder in LR.

Again, I appreciate your help. I thought I'd investigated everything in Preferences to figure out my basic question, but I guess I didn't understand what I was seeing. What else is new, lol.

Bless you.

[MDM]

Hi Betty - really glad that helped. Lightroom is not difficult once you get your head around a few basic concepts. I don't know about you but I get the most from structured learning (i.e rather than just dipping, something that works up from simple to more complex). I've always been a book person (nowadays electronic for convenience, price and storage). Scott Kelby has a few tutorial style books which you might find useful for example.