Like someone else said....by page four latecomers to the forum jump in and just take shots at each other. As the OP, I can reliably say that my question has been answered and thanks to those that provided sincere, intelligent, knowlegable answers to my questions. While other discussion on this topic is certainly invited, please to try to stay on topic and courteous. Thanks!

It is hardly a "workflow." This particular file was a download of an online image of a hotel where we will be having a reunion. I needed it for a newsletter I'm building in InDesign. It needed a tweak or two.

One problem I've always had with this forum (and others) is that contributors, while their intentions are good, do not make an effort to read previous posts. This causes further posts that answer the question with the same answer multiple times...and some, like this one, that anticipate an answer from the OP when the issue is pretty much already closed or accomplished.

Please at least scan a few previous posts to see the current status of the OP's question. Further related discussion of the general topic is, or course, always welcome.

Ha! I knew if I waited long enough I'd get a sarcastic, unhelpful answer like this. And if you had taken the time to read the previous posts - to perhaps see if you answer was still relavent - you would have seen it was not. Thanks anyway.

I sense tounge-in-cheek in your question.

My answer is that when doing a batch of images (like 40 for a real estate shoot) the time required is not laborious and is acceptable. It is when I want to adjust only one or two that it is a problem for me. One of the suggested solutions above (which you may not have read) has mitigated the problem enough that it is no longer that big a deal.

Thanks again to that contributer.

PERFECT!!! This is exactly what I needed to know! This trick alone knocks off half the wasted time. Thanks to all of you!!! Bill

Yesterday I had a single photo image sitting on my desktop that needed an adjustment to shadows/highlights before I pulled it into Adobe InDesign. To accomplish this relatively minor task in Lightroom 6, I had to:

1. Open up Lightroom 6
2. Select Library module
3. Select Import
4. Navigate to the Desktop (PC)
5. Find the photo in question - Open it
6. Switch back Develop module
7. Apply Highlights/Shadows adjustments
8. Click Export
10. Fill out Export instructions form
11. Click Export again
12. Navigate to the new folder Lightroom created for the finished and exported file....then move file to Adobe InDesign.

I've been fighting this clumsy way of making minor adjustments to a few files for years and finally decided to ask if there is a better/easier/faster/simpler way. I'd use Photoshop for this task but Lightroom is way better for this particular adjustment. I think I understand why Lightroom operates this way - professional workflow - but I'd like to be able to make a single adjustment like this simply, without taking so much time and without having to create a new image file (when I do not mind changing the original image file). Anybody figured out a shortcut?

Yeah....I don't get this either. Sounds like with his lack of time for and dedication to the art of photography, he should stick with the D7200 and learn photography and post processing before he takes the leap to full frame. The D7200 already sounds like the perfect camera for him at his level. A D850 won't allow him to take better pictures (much less sell them) until he spends time learning - there are no short cuts - - as most of us know.

I think a cropped lens (vice full frame) would perfect for the OP. Canon and Nikon still make them. If they are not for the OP then who are they for?

First of all, know this: Cameras do not take good pictures, people do.

Before you spend a lot of money on a new DSLR you might stop using after the first 90 days, go back about five years and buy a good quality Nikon or Canon "cropped" sensor body and a couple inexpensive lenses. Learn it, play with it, experiment with it...learn it some more. Then if you like what you are doing and are getting good results that make you happy, buy something better. Closets around the world are full of dusty treadmills and DSLR cameras.

Unfortunately, with the "semi-pro-level" cameras from Nikon (D200/D300 series/D500/D800 series and the D700) you are only allowed 1 stop between exposures. So to get an HDR image that is based on normal exposure + or - 2EV, you must shoot five exposures. This (lack of a) feature has been a pain in my butt for many years.

After spending decades with "full frame" film cameras, I switched to digital cropped sensors (Nikon DX) about 12 years ago. One thing I hated was having to do the lens conversion. When I switched to all digital full frame about six years ago, that particular problem went away. Thank goodness!!

The cropped sensor "issue," for me, was something almost impossible to explain to someone without a pencil and something to draw on. Here is how it makes sense for me and how I explain it:

On any (FX or DX) camera, an FX lens sends a "circle of light" through to lens to the plane where the camera's sensor rests. That circle of light is the same size (same diameter) at the sensor plane on both FX or DX cameras.

An FX lens is DESIGNED so that the circle of light is large enough to fully encompass the larger FX sensor. A 50mm lens will look like a 50mm lens through the viewfinder and in the photo.

On a DX camera, the FX lens projected "circle of light" will be the same size at the sensor plane but the smaller DX sensor only picks up a smaller center portion of the "circle of light." So in the view finder and in the photo, the image will "appear" to be larger or zoomed in to 75mm instead of 50mm.

DX lenses are specifically designed to provide a smaller circle of light that will fully encompasses the smaller DX sensor. That's why DX lenses don't work (normally) on an FX camera.

That said, I'm still not sure why lens manufacturers didn't label DX lenses for what they appear (in the view finder) to be...e.g 28mm-82mm instead of 18mm-55mm. Seems like that would have been a less confusing option. Thoughts?

Must be a really slow day in graybeard land. Fortunately, I'm busy enough that two sentences is all I can dedicate to this spell-binding discussion.

Good inputs from all of you....thanks!! My Samsung EVO 500GB SSD will be a Birthday gift t be opened on December 4th. Hope to have the clean Win 10 install and all Adobe/Microsoft Office/Misc apps re-installed that week.

Like Maverick said: "I feel a NEED for SPEED!!"

I thought we did get it. Now that women are eligible to do everything a man can do in the military (and almost all other occupations except football) seems like carrying around a three or four lb DSLR and lens should be a piece of cake.