zohart Loc: Virginia

I have Lightroom, Photoshop Elements 14, and Photoshop. I'm very confused when editing and processing my work. I will edit, save and when I'm ready to send photos off for printing half the time I can't get them to open for download. Some of them will open others will only show the Photoshop icon. It has become so frustrating I don't want to download anymore photos until I have this figured out. I don't know where some of my photos are. Some of the photos I've spent time editing I can't download to the company I want to print. Can anyone help me?

Twardlow Loc: Arkansas

In Photoshop, are you browsing in Bridge?

I use Photoshop CC and find I have to open images in Bridge (I don't know why).

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

6 and 7th October http://www.creativelive.com. 0900 hrs. PDT. Photo Shop Elements 14

zohart Loc: Virginia

I haven't used bridge much. Is that what I need to do in order to edit then save so I can find them later to print?

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

What format are you saving as for transmission to the print site? I have a preset in Lightroom that converts DNGs to JPGs wihthout any metadata or watermark and drops the file in a folder titled Print Services.

Twardlow's question is great, but illustrate your workflow for us.

zohart Loc: Virginia

I think this is my problem. I'm not certain of the workflow I should take. If I use Lightroom to do all editing I can save to a folder on my desktop named "To Print". But if I use Elements or Photoshop and save to that same folder I can't seem to either find the photos or open them for printing. Here is where my light of understanding comes in. Maybe I should ditch Photoshop and use only Elements with Lightroom if that's even possible???? I feel I have so many programs going on and I don't know how to use them. Lightroom is easy but I'm getting lost with the others.

zohart Loc: Virginia

P.S. I understand you have to have one of the photoshop programs for Lightroom to operate.

zohart Loc: Virginia

I pay the 9.99 subscription fee monthly for Photoshop with the Bridge/CC. I'm wondering if I need this and if I don't use them will I lose the ability to open photos I've edited in that program?

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

First, I would suggest eliminating Photoshop Elements 14.
It doesn't add anything that you can't do with LR and PS.
When you say you edit in LR and 'save' to a folder, do you mean you are exporting JPEGs (or TIFFs)? There is no 'save'' in LR.
For my workflow, mainly editing in LR and going into PS for watermarking and the occasional removal of an unwanted element in an image, I use the 'edit in Adobe Photoshop...'
option to transfer the image to PS and when when saved in PS (not 'save as') the PS edited file is returned to LR. I do all exporting of JPEGs from LR.

Twardlow Loc: Arkansas

If you open the image in Photoshop, that is in Adobe Camera Raw (which is also in Lightroom, I think) instead of clicking open,' hold down the Alt Key and the same button says 'open as copy.' Otherwise your fixed image will be saved back on your card instead of your original.

At least that has been my experience.

zohart Loc: Virginia

Thank you for these suggestions. I will uninstall Elements 14 to minimize some of the confusion. I shoot in RAW but notice everything saves in JPG as these were auto settings in the PS program. When I get home this evening I will remove Elements 14 and try again with some of my photos. I think with just a little steering in the right direction I can get this figured out. I feel like I'm in overload trying to learn so many new things with my camera, photography, and editing programs. Even though there is a world of information out there it's difficult to know where to begin. Take the picture....in what A, S, ISO, WB.....edit in what program....how????? You know what I mean? So much to learn so little time.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

There's many ways to go, but I'd suggest looking at this flow and see how it matches or differs from yours:

1. Off load images from camera to computer hard drive.
2. Open Lightroom and import.
3. Within Lightroom, make raw adjustments.
4. Within Lightroom, complete editing.
5. Optional, used Photoshop as a plug-in editor to LR for complex edits. Personally, this is rare / never for me as I don't spend a lot of effort on an image that requires editing beyond what LR can do for me. I don't add text; I don't mask and replace; I don't get into complex cloning; and finally, I used DeNoise (another company's plugin) for complex Noise reduction without creating layers to selectively apply noise-reduction.
6. Use the LR Export process to 'save' the results as a JPEG or TIFF for printing or other purposes.
7. If not done earlier during steps 2 thru 4, add keywords and organize the images into 1 or more catalogs within LR.
8. Back-up RAW images and full-size JPEG exports to external hard-drive.

The process above I've developed over 4-years of increasingly heavy Lightroom usage. There's lots of sub-steps that increase and / or simplify the complexity of the 8 highlevel above. For example, I have LR presets for my camera type and ISO setting and general image type that I select and apply to a sorted list of RAW images organized by ISO. Also, I've skipped the culling process that happens outside of LR between steps 1 and 2 and uses another software product. Another area for simplify is to create export presets. So, based on the purpose of an image, I create large or small versions of the image file into specific folders and intended use. I just select the export preset from a list of settings and <press> export.

I've benefited from online training, particularly where someone via video demonstrates their process. More times than I can count, I pause the video and say to myself: Oh, I don't know that ...

cmoroney Loc: Pasadena, California

When you open Photoshop or Elements, are you calling it from Lightroom (right-click, "edit-in") or are you starting PS/PSE indecently without going through LR? I'm not sure of your exact problem, but I'm wondering if the edits are not getting back into LR because LR doesn't know that you're editing the photo to begin with. My advice is to do *everything* through LR. Open up LR, call PS/PSE from LR, and then the edits will automatically get saved back to LR. Apologies if I've totally misunderstood your problem!

I'm using PSE 14 and LR 5.7 and sometimes have difficulties with edited files from PSE not opening up in LR because LR thinks the file is corrupt. In that case, I go back to PSE, and save the file again and that usually fixes the problem. I never close a file in PS/PSE until I'm sure it got back to LR correctly.

Catherine

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

No. JPG, TIFFs, PSD, and DNGs are all universal file formats. You will be able to open them in a wide variety of applications.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Not true. You don't "save" anything in Lightroom (Ctrl-S in PC world). Lighroom keeps the original imported image alone, all your changes are part of the Lightroom catalog. The LR Develop module has a Reset button that allows you to go back to your original imported image. It's the universal get out of jail free feature.

To add to the discussion, one think I have learned about LR is that it has to be in control of your images.