Yes I guess I meant a back up drive. (External drive to store photos so they don't have to go on my computer.)

I understand the on Macs everything wants to go into iPhoto (which I hate). I love Photoshop for my edits. I think I have that part disabled. It too took me a long time to understand what was happening.

I can download my new photos to a back up drive with no problem. At that point it does not put them on my computer. But when I choose the photo folder I want to import into Lightroom, that's when it copies the images to buy computer and changes them to a digital negative. I want to change them to digital negatives, but want the files I am importing to light room from the back up drive to be the photos that get changed. They don't change, the system, the way I have it set up changes those photos to digital negatives. leaves the original files I want changed unchanged and copies the digital negatives on my computer, where i don't want them.

And no I just shoot in RAW. And I don't want to brag but no one is even close to being as dumb on a computer as I am!

I tried lightroom but can't understand that screen on the right.

Thanks for all the help. But I need more and in easier terms. I have a hard time even spelling what i am. A real dummy! Ha Ha Again thanks for any and all help.

I do a lot of my own printing on an Epson Stylus Pro 3880. I love the printer, and generally, most prints look good.

However, I also do a lot of post processing, using Lightroom, Photoshop, and Topaz mostly. Post processed, these images look great on screen. When I "soft proof", however, using the correct paper profile, I notice that many images look flat. I understand that many papers don't have the color gamut to capture the bright colors I like. This being the case, what is the point of post processing (using HDR effects, or Topaz Glow, or Topaz Impressions, etc.) if the processed image cannot be reproduced on paper. (I use quality Epson papers, such as Premium Photo Paper Luster, Velvet Fine Art Paper, and Hot Press Bright.)

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Steve

thanks. But i didn't find this link helped to describe the difference raw and tiff....here is what it said

A TIFF image is an uncompressed image showing the full detail of the image with no quality loss. TIFF images are very large and can take large amounts of storage space and can take a long time to save to the memory card.

When a TIFF image is created in the camera, the camera takes the RAW image from the camera's sensor and converts it into the TIFF format using the settings in the camera's menus." We all know a raw image is also not compressed and that we cannot print a raw image but can a tiff image, so is that the difference between raw and tiff?