I think that your preference pre-sets have been corrupted and the cure is to rebuild.

If you have created loads of pre-sets, this rebuild can be a bit of a nuisance, but if you are working without pre-sets, it is not so much of a problem.

Here is a link to the instructions which also tells about the ramifications of the rebuild. Read it carefully, and follow it without taking shortcuts.

http://www.lightroomforums.net/showthread.php?14226-Resetting-(or-Trashing-)-the-Lightroom-Preferences-file

If you decide against the rebuild there is another way, that is to create a new pre-set for the Edit in . . . If you would rather try this and don't know how, let me know and I will take you through it.

I'm crushed as all of my photos, which were stored on my external hard drive, sea gate, may be lost. My sea gate stopped working, so my hubby brought it to a computer repair shop to see if the data can be obtained. Yes, I had all of my photos stored on it, and if it can't be gotten, then I've lost them all. :-( My question is "what would you recommend me putting my photos on as a back up"? I will get another external hard drive, but would like to also store my photos elsewhere. (Oh, I don't store them on my computer's hard drive as it would take up too much space.) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they can be retrieved. I welcome all input.

I have been looking at a lot of photographs trying to study what people think are good photos, and why they like them. I have seen some (not necessarily on here), that people seem to like and leave favorable comments on, that to me look so over PP'd that they look unnatural and kind of fake for lack of a better definition. I can see doing some work to brighten and add contrast to make the photo look more like the actual scene. What do you think, is it better to take a photo of what you see, or take a photo for what you can turn it into? Should it look like a photo, or a processed image.