jaycoffman wrote:
...This is how I understand it where it is technically true or not. You download pictures from your camera (memory chip) to your computer. Then you may or may not change the names in you computer. Then you download to LR and it defaults back to the original name...
Not quite.
You download your pictures to the computer. You change the names of the files.
If you then download your pictures through LR you do get the original name because you are downloading from the card (although LR allows you to change the name on download). At that point you have downloaded your pictures twice and have two copies on your computer. The first download and name change are ignored by LR because LR was not involved in the download and name change.
Note that when you "download" through LR you are not downloading the pictures INTO LR. You are downloading them into your computer. The terminology is important here. LR does not hold your pictures, it only holds the location of the pictures you IMPORT (not download) into LR. LR takes the file from the card, changes the name if that is selected, and the downloaded files go into your computer and the location of the files goes into the LR catalog (not into the LR program).
jaycoffman wrote:
... You make your changes (improvements we hope) to the image in LR.... When you are done LR stores the modified image in LR and the unmodified image stays in your computer or wherever you originally stored it. Yet your computer and LR retain a link between the two images...
Almost.
When you are done with your edits, LR stores the
steps you took to edit the image in the LR catalog. It does not store the modified image until you export it.
As you say, the unmodified original image stays where you originally stored it. LR got the location of the image when you imported it, and that link does not change.
jaycoffman wrote:
...Your (and my) issue comes up when you want to do something with the image in LR. If you have deleted the image from your computer for any reason you will get the message “Folder could not be found." I think the same thing happens when you decide to MOVE your computer images to your external hard drive--the link between the LR image and the computer image is severed and you the the could not be found message because LR can't find the image where it expects it to be
jaycoffman wrote:
(I don't think it effectively searches everything attached to your computer.) So I think if both of us look at the like provide above we may be able to figure out how to connect the LR image with the images moved to your external hard drive as long as you haven't otherwise deleted them..."
The part marked in red shows where a lot of people have a problem with LR. LR does NOT search for the image. It relies on the link formed at import. It is possible to modify that link if you move the image by telling LR where it is now. But you have to do the searching, LR does not.