A problem saving photos in Lightroom: This may be a dumb question but after I do my adjustments to my photos in Lightroom, then close the program and come back later, all my changes...

Ted Liette Loc: Greenville, Ohio

This may be a dumb question but after I do my adjustments to my photos in Lightroom, then close the program and come back later, all my changes have reverted back as they where before. Is there some way to save my work or am I doing something wrong? I shoot all my photos in RAW, so I have something to adjust.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Ted Liette wrote:

This may be a dumb question but after I do my adjustments to my photos in Lightroom, then close the program and come back later, all my changes have reverted back as they where before. Is there some way to save my work or am I doing something wrong? I shoot all my photos in RAW, so I have something to adjust.

What version of Lightroom are you using? Are you shooting raw or jpeg. Is this a new problem for you or were the changes saved previously? Just to be sure we're on the same page you open Lightroom edit an image, previously imported. in the Develop module and then close Lightroom. When you reopen Lightroom and look at the image you edited in the Develop module the edits are no longer there? Is that correct? This happens every time you go into Lightroom? Are you using your computer's hard drive or an external drive? Unless you are using a DNG file or a sidecar file all edits are kept in the catalog. Perhaps your catalog is corrupted. We'll need a bit more detailed info regarding the circumstances. There is no save feature. Edits are automatically saved as instruction overlays to the image. If you view the a LR edited images in another program you will not see the edits. To apply the edits to a copy of an image permanently you must export the image. However, edits to the original will always be visible within LR.

Ted Liette Loc: Greenville, Ohio

mwsilvers wrote:

What version of Lightroom are you using? Are you s... (show quote)

I'm using Lightroom version 5.7 ad I do shoot in RAW. I'm a beginner with Lightroom and I'm trying to figure out why this is happening. I don't know about DNG files or side car files but you are correct when you state "when you reopen Lightroom and look at the image you edited in the Develop module the edits are no longer there?" I'm importing my files from my computer's hard drive. Are you saying that whenever I finish working on my photos, I should export the finished product to another area on my hard drive? I have exported files one at a time but can I export a group of files at one time? I'm sorry but I guess I'm full of questions, and thank you for taking the time to help me out.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Ted Liette wrote:

This may be a dumb question but after I do my adjustments to my photos in Lightroom, then close the program and come back later, all my changes have reverted back as they where before. Is there some way to save my work or am I doing something wrong? I shoot all my photos in RAW, so I have something to adjust.

There is no "save" in LR, per se. But you can save xmp sidecar files in addition to saving them in the preview file.

You can delete your preview file, and purge the smart preview cache. Which could be happening at the OS level, by accident or during a backup sync, if you have not set your sync settings correctly.

There is nothing within LR that will do what you are describing.

You need to provide details about your import settings - especially regarding saving a duplicate.

You need to provide Library information - where the folders of the files you are editing are.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Ted- you should get a book on Lightroom or spend today or sometime soon watching utube videos on LR. Lightroom is a different approach to editing than other software. It's easy to use, but only so when you understand the software's fundamental differences based on a catalog of changes stored within the LR software rather than against the original image. You can batch export to create the finished product. Just select multiple images before pressing the 'export' button. But, the options on export are a chapter of learning by themselves where if you google 'lightroom export training utube', you'll quickly get 167,000 options to investigate. Once you've watched a couple, you'll see who does a good job of explaining and you can check that person's 'channel' for more topics.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

Ted Liette wrote:

This may be a dumb question but after I do my adjustments to my photos in Lightroom, then close the program and come back later, all my changes have reverted back as they where before. Is there some way to save my work or am I doing something wrong? I shoot all my photos in RAW, so I have something to adjust.

This sounds as simple as you are looking at the wrong folder, especially if you imported from your hard drive. However you have not provided enough information on your workflow. LR has no save option as changes are saved automatically and the original RAW file is never altered.

Please provide a detailed step by step of you import, editing workflow.

Mr PC Loc: Austin, TX

You just need to "Export" your photo when you are happy with it. Lightroom never alters the original (of course, RAW files can't be changed anyway, but JPGs can). The exported file will be a separate file and LR will remember the changes you made to the original as well. It stores those changes in its catalog (database) but never makes those changes to the original. My advice is to spend $10 on Tony Northrup's Kindle book on Lightroom. It has over 20 hours of video instruction in addition to being a very good step by step book to get you up and running in a logical order. A little study on your part is what's called for. Many here will be happy to help you once you put the time in to get a basic understanding of LR. Good luck!

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

Mr PC wrote:

You just need to "Export" your photo whe... (show quote)

I know this sounds confusing to the OP, but actually you don't even need to export. Unless that is you want to transfer to some other media like Facebook, or to send to a print shop etc.

Exporting should be a temporary thing because this makes copies of the file on your hard drive twice. many get confused by this and it can cause lots of issues if you don't completely understand LR. As an example I use a MAC and always export to the same folder. I use a program called Hazel to monitor those folders and delete files older than 2 weeks in case I forget to remove them manually.

Bottom line is as others have said, take a Lynda course, get a book on LR. It is a terrific program, but it does have a learning curve to fully understand it.

tsilva Loc: Arizona

You don't save anything in lr. You don't need to use dng or xmp (sidecar) files. All metadata (adjustments, keywords etc) are written to the catalog.

Don't waste money on Lynda.com or books. Start here -
http://youtu.be/QSwkDC3q7uk. Then find his other free videos
And
Adobetv.com

All free and the best sources to get you out of trouble.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

tsilva wrote:

You don't save anything in lr. You don't need to use dng or xmp (sidecar) files. All metadata (adjustments, keywords etc) are written to the catalog.

Don't waste money on Lynda.com or books. Start here -
http://youtu.be/QSwkDC3q7uk. Then find his other free videos
And
Adobetv.com

All free and the best sources to get you out of trouble.

Lynda or books are not a waste of money, and your link does not work because you added it incorrectly, probably copied and pasted then added a period. Remove the period for it to work.

Bottom line is there are a ton of resources, some free and some are not. many youtube are very poor videos and provide incorrect information, remember anybody can paste there. This B&H is probably a good video,but I'm not going to watch it to tell for sure. IMHO it's better to take a structured course that starts and ends in a logical progression, something you don't get on youtube. I think this is important especially if you are a beginner.

suum cuique

BigJim Loc: East TN Oak Ridge Area

The posted link don't work.

tsilva wrote:

You don't save anything in lr. You don't need to use dng or xmp (sidecar) files. All metadata (adjustments, keywords etc) are written to the catalog.

Don't waste money on Lynda.com or books. Start here -
http://youtu.be/QSwkDC3q7uk. Then find his other free videos
And
Adobetv.com

All free and the best sources to get you out of trouble.

Ted Liette Loc: Greenville, Ohio

Thank you everyone for your replies and comments. Bottom line is I believe I have a lot of learning to do and I suppose winter time is the best time to do that.

Gibar

BigJim wrote:

The posted link don't work.

This should fix the link that was posted.

http://youtu.be/QSwkDC3q7uk

blackest Loc: Ireland

Gibar wrote:

This should fix the link that was posted.

http://youtu.be/QSwkDC3q7uk

or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSwkDC3q7uk

you beat me to it:)

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Ted Liette wrote:

I'm using Lightroom version 5.7 ad I do shoot in R... (show quote)

Where are you importing the photos to when you import from your hard drive