Adobe Community: Pre-purchase questions

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1. JimHess,

May 31, 2012 8:56 PM in reply to StanWelks

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1. Lightroom is not a drag-and-drag program. The most common method is to import a folder of images. Those images are added to the Lightroom catalog, and are then available to be modified using Lightroom.

2. If the images are already on your hard drive they will simply be added to the Lightroom catalog which will make them available to be adjusted using Lightroom. They are not copied from their original location, and an additional copy is not created. All of the changes that you make in Lightroom are stored in the catalog, and the original image remains unchanged and in its original location.

3. I am working with three different hard drives on my computer. But I use Windows 7. Since I am not familiar with Mac computers at any level, perhaps someone else will answer your question about swapping out additional hard drives.

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2. StanWelks,

May 31, 2012 9:28 PM in reply to JimHess

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1. Is it correct that no changes are ever made to the original file and you can always revert back to the original image after any changes you make? If so, is this the same for any changes to videos?

2. Is there a single file or folder of files that I can back up to save my catalog and all the tags, metadata, changes to images, videos, etc.?

3. Can I really import thousands of videos of various formats, sizes, resolutions, frame rates, file sizes (some many gigs) and have them available through LightRoom? Are there stability issues when doing this?

Thanks!

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3. John Blaustein,

Jun 1, 2012 6:59 AM in reply to StanWelks

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Stan,

Since you are new to LR, you might find the following to be very useful:

http://tv.adobe.com/product/lightroom/

http://tv.adobe.com/show/getting-started-with-adobe-photoshop-lightroo m-4/

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/getting-started-with-adobe-photoshop-lightro om-4/lightroom-4-importing-and-organizing-your-images/

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/getting-started-with-adobe-photoshop-lightro om-3/be-organized/

Julieanne Kost does an excellent job explaining how LR works and how to get the most out of using it. Generally, the videos apply equally to LR3 and LR4, although there are of course new features in LR4.

John

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4. dj_paige,

Jun 1, 2012 7:22 AM in reply to StanWelks

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StanWelks wrote:

1. Is it correct that no changes are ever made to the original file and you can always revert back to the original image after any changes you make? If so, is this the same for any changes to videos?
2. Is there a single file or folder of files that I can back up to save my catalog and all the tags, metadata, changes to images, videos, etc.?
3. Can I really import thousands of videos of various formats, sizes, resolutions, frame rates, file sizes (some many gigs) and have them available through LightRoom? Are there stability issues when doing this?

1. This is correct. Photos and videos are handled the same, the original file is never changed.

2. Yes, Lightroom provides a mechanism that allows you to backup your catalog file. You must make backups of your photos using some other program.

3. Yes, you can do this, that is what Lightroom was designed for.

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5. JimHess,

Jun 1, 2012 9:19 AM in reply to dj_paige

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To the OP: there are a lot of "it depends" type of answers to your questions. Everything you want to do CAN be done using Lightroom. However, there are set up options that can change the behavior of Lightroom. So, as has been suggested, it would be a good idea for you to watch some videos, even subscribe to Lynda.com for a month and take one of the extended courses available there. Answering your questions in detail here is kind of an exercise in futility considering the excellent resources that are available from Adobe.tv, YouTube, Lynda.com, etc. Most of the mentioned resources are free.

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6. trshaner,

Jun 1, 2012 10:18 AM in reply to StanWelks

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StanWelks wrote:

1a. Is it correct that no changes are ever made to the original file?

1b.Can you always revert back to the original image after any changes you make?

1a. That is correct only for raw image files. For JPEG, TIFF, PSD, and DNG file formats if you choose 'Save Metadata to file' or select the catalog option 'Automatically write changes to XMP' LR writes the data inside the original file. For raw image files LR creates a small separate sidecar XMP file. The consequence of this primarily impacts your image backup overhead time. If you have a large number of non-raw files in your 40,000 image collection you may not want to write metadata to the "original file." Instead make sure you backup the LR catalog file, which contains all of LR's adjustment settings and metadata entires. It's easily done when you exit LR.

1b. YES- LR never modifies raw image files and only writes metadata to non-raw files. The file's original image bit map is never modified by LR.

Sorry for being verbose, but this is often misunderstood.

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Pre-purchase questions

May 31, 2012 8:21 PM

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