LR - Trying to save a FREAKING PICTURE!

Moab Man

Senior Member
Frustration is boiling over. Using LR is so much like using a Mac... not simple, logical, or straight to the point - reinventing the wheel for some reason!

I am trying to save an image that I have played with in LR because Don encouraged me to give LR another try. All I want it to do is save the image as a Tiff, but there is no freaking SAVE or SAVE AS. How do I simply save the image as a Tiff - that's all I want to do? I looked at the export window, but that looks like it is trying to downsize it to a resolution of 240. I just want it to simply save it AS IS.

Help please. I am trying to give it another go with LR, but the frustration is boiling over. So here I sit with an edited picture in LR and I can't save it and will wait for help.
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
You have to export to save it as a tiff as far as I know.
You can of course create a "virtual copy" in LR and have two identical images to work on.
It should save it at a higher resolution than 240 - type in 320
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
Thank you Lawrence. There are some features in LR I am liking, but the unnecessary complication is frustrating.

I changed the resolution to 300.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
You typically don't Save files in LR because you're always(should be) working on a RAW file. The RAW file doesn't get changed...the catalogue saves what are called side-car structures in the catalogue associated with the RAW file. Apple knows when you make changes, and saves those changes automatically... If you create a file different than the RAW file, you tell LR what all those parameters are by Exporting the RAW file as something different... In your case, TIFF... Once you define those parameters LR/Apple remembers those settings, unless you subsequently change them...
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
Thank you Fred. I wish it had direct simplicity. If it weren't for a couple functions that I have found that I really like... I would never open LR again. Thank you again.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
... If it weren't for a couple functions that I have found that I really like... I would never open LR again. Thank you again.
I'll just add that I feel your pain...

I've tried to love LR, I really, really have. That being said, I just can't do it. Photoshop just works for me so that's where I stay.
...
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
Everything is so complicated. Trying to open a photo the logical step would be to OPEN. To save a photo the logical step would be to SAVE. I'm getting category errors, I haven't figured out how to close the picture I'm working on after I saved... ooops, that would be export. It has some great stuff, but like an Apple where you don't get a Backspace and a Delete, I can't simply Save or Open. I haven't given up yet, thrown a few things in frustration, but haven't given up yet.
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
[MENTION=11881]Moab Man[/MENTION]

Right click on the image, click 'export" then tell it where to, what and how..

Untitled.jpg


Untitled1.jpg
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
This may help. Think of Lightroom as a "file browser" for your NEF files. You can adjust how they appear in the Develop module. The adjustments stay within the "file browser" and never change your NEF files. The adjustments are permanently applied when you export the image to a new file. Lightroom stores the "file browser" settings and previews in the catalog.

Excuse the CR2 reference in this image, but it is a very good visual.

Hopefully this isn't too basic but not sure how much you've dug into it yet.

image5.png
 
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BackdoorArts

Senior Member
You've gotten the information you need, but simply to condense it, and explain LR to anyone following, LR is simply ACR saving adjustments in the Catalog instead of a sidecar file. Export is the only way you can actually save (i.e. create) an actual file. Blacktop's screen shots are the basis of what you need. I use the Export facility to do one of two things - export finished JPEGs for publication (I do final sharpening of them in PS), and resizing before editing. Whether tiff or psd (same amount of information) and whether your "enlargement" is 1:1 or bigger, it's the same deal. I have a video somewhere here that talks about enlarging a cropped RAW file for processing.

After a lot of playing around, I've found that it's better to crop up front in LR, enlarge if you think you'll need the resolution, and then process. ACR is as good or better than most other resize utilities in my book.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
This is the video I'm talking about regarding resizing. The basic steps here, if you disregard the changing of number of pixels and change PSD to TIFF, is what you need.

 

eagerbilt

New member
I feel your pain. I use LR minimally for a few quick and easy functions, but for most edits I use Photoshop. I can't understand why LR was developed to import and export when it's so much simpler and makes more sense to just Open and Save As. I am capable of saving my file without copying over my original...I don't need software like LR to make sure I don't.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
From the beginning, "Lightroom" was designed to be a form of digital darkroom, hence the name (get it?!). That in mind, think of film and the darkroom. You didn't produce copies of negatives with adjustments, you made prints from them. Lightroom's catalog allows you to save those print settings from your negative, including multiple virtual copies with different treatments. A RAW file is simply a digital negative that you can print a million times in a million different ways - but the negative never changes. Print settings are saved in the catalog until you're ready to actually print it - either using the thing you stick paper in, or digitally for sharing as a file. Digital printing is simply an Export. Around LR 4 it had gained enough functionality and industry acceptance that it began to replace Bridge as the preferred tool for Adobe loyalists, particular for its catalog maintenance functionality.

It's not intuitive to the computer user and never was designed to be - it was supposed to be intuitive to the photographer moving from film to digital. If you want to look at it as preventing you from overwriting your file then you're looking at it all wrong.

It's a great tool if you bother to take the time to learn it. If all you've ever used was a hammer then everything looks like a nail.

And for those who are reading this and thinking, "Sh*t, I don't want a tool that's backwards and makes me use export instead of save...", that's not what it does unless it's the only tool you're using. If you used Photoshop, choose Edit In and it opens the file with your develop settings applied in Photoshop as a Tiff, PSD or JPEG - whatever you have specified in the settings, and it will automatically save the resulting file into your catalog when you're done with the edits. You can even apply additional develop settings.
 

Zerobeat

Senior Member
This may help. Think of Lightroom as a "file browser" for your NEF files. You can adjust how they appear in the Develop module. The adjustments stay within the "file browser" and never change your NEF files until you export them. Lightroom stores the "file browser" settings and previews in the catalog.



Hopefully this isn't too basic but not sure how much you've dug into it yet.
May I ask for a clarification? I was under the impression that the .NEF file was never altered, the process of exporting simply created a new file. (IE: the whole process was non-destructive) Am I mistaken in this? You seem to indicate that the .NEF file IS changed at the export step.

Thanks!
 
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