calla Loc: California

Two questions (for now anyway!)
I read somewhere recently....(maybe here?) that if you edit in LR using 'Sharpening' and 'Masking', that it will make your photo more grainy/noisy.....is this true?
Also, once I've brought photos into LR and edited them, should I be 'deleting' them somehow out of LR? I keep getting messages my Creative Cloud is "full" and I really don't want to upgrade at this point and pay more than I am now. Very confused.....
I'm new to LR & PS and finding it overwhelming....trying to learn as much as possible. I've been watching lots of videos and have also purchased a few books. Still, a lot to learn.
Love this blog btw....and the vast knowledge that you all have! Thank you!!

sandiegosteve Loc: San Diego, CA

There are some good videos out there on managing your LR catalogue.

Second question first - no, don't delete. But, you probably don't want them on the cloud storage.
LR stores your images on your local hard drives and then creates a database index. If you delete the file from your computer... it is gone and LR will just have the metadata about it. The files live unaltered on your hard drive.
You may be syncing all of your files to the cloud. That enables things like mobile apps and sharing. I think this is done with collections and you can be more selective about that.


First question - yes, boosting things in LR will introduce some noise. Boosting shadows adds more noise there. Sharpening will add some, but you can increase the mask to only sharpen areas you want. Noise reduction will help bring that down. Kind of an art to it, but it isn't too bad.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

"I read somewhere recently....(maybe here?) that if you edit in LR using 'Sharpening' and 'Masking', that it will make your photo more grainy/noisy.....is this true?"
Not if you use the sharpening feature correctly in LR. There are a lot of Youtube videos that show how to use it.

"Also, once I've brought photos into LR and edited them, should I be 'deleting' them?"
No, never delete images that you have in LR after editing them. The images that you edit are the keepers. The only images that I delete from LR are shortly after importing them, I cull through them and delete the many duplicates, crappy, blurry, not composed correctly, not exposed properly etc. I delete them almost right away. Then I process the ones that I like and make sure to give them key word names, and rate them.

"I keep getting messages my Creative Cloud is "full" and I really don't want to upgrade at this point and pay more than I am now."
What it's telling you is that the free online storage that you get with your CC account is full and they want you to pay more to give you more "CLOUD" space. This has nothing to do with the images that are on your computer. Your computer has however much space you have on your hard drive and or external USB drives and this has nothing to do with "cloud" storage space. Cloud space is a place that many companies provide free so that you can have a backup copy and access to images while you are away from your computer via any WiFi device. I'm sure you've seen that Apple give people iCloud storage, Samsung gives cloud storage if you have a Samsung device, etc. Adobe is no different. They give you a small amount of cloud storage for you to do with as you please. But the default setting for Adobe and most others is to backup every picture you have. All you need to do is log into Adobe and go to your cloud service and change the parameters so that it isn't backing up everything, but instead only what you tell it to backup. Or, if you want every picture backed up, pay them more money and they will give you more space.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Is the cloud storage all you are using? Or do you also have your photos on your hard drive?
If all you have is the cloud, well, I believe in Murphy's Law - Whatever Can Go Wrong Will. And have at least one backup set, I use Acronis software and backup my whole computer on an external drive on a regular basis.
When the cloud storage thing first came on the scene I considered it - no more bigger hard drives to buy. But then in one of the photography magazines I read an article by a Pro who worked for Nat Geo, Smithsonian etc a lot. He was on a long term assignment doing a photo essay of the life of the Nomads of Western China. He had 6 weeks of images, many edited etc. He came back to one of the Eastern Cities to contact his editor and get supplies etc. He loaded his images onto what at the time was a leading cloud storage service and headed back to the remote region for 6 more weeks. One week or so after he went back the cloud storage service announced they were going bankrupt and users had 1 month to recover their files. When he got back to civilization he found he had missed recovering his images by one week. Six weeks work gone. He was able to put together the essay for the magazine from his second 6 weeks of shooting, but he had lost a lot of images that would have been used instead.
Now you probably won't have that happen, but, what about something like a fire at the cloud server facility and you don't have copies on your own hard drives?
Multiple copies in backups is the way to go for important images and files.

calla Loc: California

Thank you....ok....I understand re the adobe cloud file saving. Still have a question re 'keeping everything' on LR....say I've edited photos and then saved them to a folder on my hard drive temporarily, and also saved them to an external drive.....the images that I've saved are the images I last edited in LR correct? So if I want to print an edited image, I can print from the saved folder on hard drive or external drive, and I will get the edited LR copy?
Bottom line, though, is I should not delete any images for LR unless they are photos to be discarded entirely.

calla Loc: California

yes, I'm saving edited images initially to my hard drive, but also to an external drive.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I load all my raw images to an external hard drive and really important raw images to two external hard drives. I save my finished images first to DropBox and then to an external drive. I save very few to my computer's hard drive. DropBox has been a life saver when I am away and need access to files (of any sort). With several years of use I have never had an issue with DropBox Pro. I have used it in Europe, Asia, and South America. When in the home, I use it daily. I use it to share files with clients and friends. I have other cloud services but I just haven't used them. Sharpening can induce grain if not used properly. It's not a huge problem and can usually be handled quite easily. Learning Lightroom and Photoshop is a process that is learned primarily from practice … just like photography. KelbyOne and Lynda.dot.com are terrific subscription sites that offer full courses in basics, intermediate and advanced processing. Good luck.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

When you work from within the LR program everything then needs to be done from that program unless you use the export function. You don't "save" LR photos (although that can be done but won't get into it) since all of the edits you make are simply metadata that is saved in the LR catalog, a metadata file that is part of the Adobe application and is opened when you use LR, which is why we say that we are using an LR catalog. Each catalog is specific to a certain use and is named when created. Once you make a change to a photo from within the application, your catalog, it is automatically saved to that specific catalog. When you import your photos (think LINK) using the LR application you can choose to back them up at the same time. Whatever other backups you have in place will then back up the catalog and the photos; the photos are not kept in the catalog, they are kept on your hard drive somewhere, where ever you placed them. When LR does the backup of the photos upon import it is only backing up the RAW or JPEG photo coming directly from the camera card, none of the LR changes will show on the backup files. You should always have a backup of the LR catalog as well, which is what happens when you close the program; the backup system is set by you. Do not ever delete photos from your catalog unless you do not want them; having said that, however, it is possible to unlink photos from the catalog so that they remain on your hard drive. I keep everything linked to LR since I want access to it all and I would simply forget folders that are not linked to the program so don't normally do that. You can print directly from LR and all of the edits will be on that print. You can export using the export feature, as long as you don't export the original, and all of the edits will be on that export, you could then use that export photo in whatever way you wanted. I would recommend that you do not do duplicate files and that you simply work from within the program, make sure your catalog is backed up, and make sure your original files are backed up. Never work from the hard drive folders, as none of the LR changes will be included.

calla Loc: California

Thank you. So if I'm understanding correctly, the edited photos that I have exported from LR to a folder on my hard drive and also an external drive and also a thumb drive, are all the edited LR images. (I've been printing from the edited folder that I exported from LR).
Whew!!! Sorry....just trying to grasp it all! I am going to go back to some of my LR tutorials, etc. to do some more reviewing.
Thank you for details above.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Anything you export using the LR export function, unless you check export original, will have the edits made within LR. The way I work is I do all of my edits from within the program and I keep no duplicates of anything anywhere else, except for the backup files. I print directly from LR. Some people do seem to have duplicate files kept all over the place but I cannot think of any reason to do this; when I need to share an image I export it in the file type as needed, send it where it needs to go, then delete if from my hard drive. Or, I share via email directly through LR. This is a "clean" and simple way for me to work and I never have to worry about getting confused on what is and what is not. I can get any photo in an instant from LR if needed. I make sure that all RAW files are backed up and that I have two catalog backups located on different drives. One time I did export about 4000 files to a second drive to keep offsite; these were my finished files (I think in TIF) and that little drive right now sits by my door in case of a forest fire, although I hopefully will be able to pick up my computer drives before I run in case of a fire! How you choose to use your cloud storage has nothing to do with LR, that is a decision that you make independent of how you use LR. You can check out my LR website, www.viathelens.net and pick up, you can get it as a digital file, the Martin Evening book on LR.

calla Loc: California

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
I will also definitely check out your web site right away!

calla Loc: California

Thanks to everyone for all your replies to my questions. All of you were very helpful.
I'm sure I'll have more as I continue learning.
Again, love this site and all the knowledge that you all bring to it. Thank you.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Click on "quote reply" so we know which post you are replying to.

One other bit of advice. Never move files except from within LR, not File Explorer or another program. LR will lose track of where they are. And correcting it can be a pain.
Your original image is left alone by LR, it loads a copy, makes all your edits, including ones done in other apps like PS and saved back to LR then creates a folder of the edits that is separate. When you go to LR and click on the thumbnail of your edited image LR pulls up another copy of the image from the original file, applies the edits and shows it, ready for more editing or printing. If you move that original image then all LR has is the very low rez thumbnail showing the edited results. Then you have to find the original and tell LR where it is. If you are lucky LR can find it on its own >Library>Find All Missing Photos and click, it will search and maybe find them on its own. If not you have to find the images where ever you moved them and tell LR where to find them.

calla Loc: California

Thank you for the tip re replies on this site. Thanks also for the addt'l advice re not moving files except from within LR.
I think I now need to 'clean up' my files in LR Library to make sure they are all labeled appropriately. Luckily, I don't have very many diff files in there right now and they all are labeled with at least a date i.e. 2017-07-27 etc. Wow! Lots to learn.
Thanks again.

calla Loc: California

I checked out your website last night and thank you again for the great info you have on it!!! I plan to get back on it today to continue. Again, thank you for sharing.