FLYBOYSOPWITH wrote:

 

Do you know how I can synchronize an existing folder of images (already used in an extensive InDesign Project) as a Lightroom Published folder so that it will work the way you described?

I'm not sure what would happen if you simply set up a new Publish to disk service pointing at that folder, but it is worth a try (suitably backed up). The file naming specification would need to be precisely the same, for the updated images to overwrite and then link correctly. If the Publish service refuses to set up for an initially non-empty folder (which I have some vague recolleciton about) then you could temporarily empty that to somewhere else. InDesign will only care about the stored path and filename that it knows about; it won't realise when the files concerned have been switched, AFAIK.

Wouldn't it be nice to just have Drag-and-Drop plus "update image" or overwrite between lightroom and the other Adobe software.

As a less automated alternative to the Publish method, you can get somewhat close to what you mention by setting up a dedicated export preset - which points to that particular folder and is pre-set for the right naming and other image properties. This preset can then be directly called from the LR menu, on demand, for any and all highlighted images, without any need to interact with the Export dialog each time.

FLYBOYSOPWITH wrote:

 

Could I persuade you to give me a set up walk thru for the "less automated alternative"? I am missing the boat on some of the set up parameters.

I am assuming you are dealing here, with a single folder on disk where your pictures are saved that you want to use in the InDesign publication. Also that this export preset is designed just to help with this particular set of images.

Firstly, when the images were originally saved there, did you use (or systematically alter) the naming, or name / rename them manually? If the latter, there is no easy way to cause LR to automatically overwrite the correct file, unless your master image can be renamed suitably so as to make that happen in some simple method. If the naming can be made to coincide automatically, so much the better.

Secondly, I am assuming that you are not substantially re-cropping the images - but are instead doing so inside the ID layout as needed. If you alter the LR crop and re-export then the linked image will likely change inside ID to reflect that, which may not be what you want.

Thirdly, I am assuming that you originally exported at full resolution and plan to do so again - or else, that you can achieve the same kind of appropriate resizing as before.

So: in LR you would highlight a sample image (ideally, one that is not among the images linked into InDesign) then open the Export dialog from the File menu or Ctrl+Shift+E.

From the top, you might select

• Export to: Hard drive.
• Export Location: Specific folder, click Choose to navigate to the right place - uncheck "put in subfolder - uncheck Add to This Catalog - Existing Files: your choice, you can be prompted for overwriting or you can set it to overwrite with no warning.
• File naming: as above, you need to get the names automatically the same as the existing images, if you want to update them in a way that will be linked the same. If this is impossible, you can instead export under new systematic names which you know LR will be able to repeat exactly whenever the process is repeated - then you would need to re-link your placed images onto these new names as a one-off task, using the Links Manager (or whatever it is called these days) inside ID.
• File Settings: you need to use the same filetype as previously, in order to retain the links (though if re-linking anyway, you have a chance to reconsider that) and the other image settings need to be equally suitable (or the same).
• Image Sizing: to suit, as before
• Output sharpening: whatever you did before
• Metadata: this doesn't greatly matter to ID so far as I know
• Watermarking, postprocessing: probably nothing here.

Once you have everything set up, try it out using just this one currently selected trial image, and check that the right thing happens with that. Rinse and repeat with adiustments if not - the last used setup is remembered.

Assuming that is OK, re-open the Export dialog - and on the top left is a list of the current export Presets. Below this is an Add button. Click this to capture your current settings in the entire Export dialog, and enter a descriptive name for the new user preset they are to be saved into.

Close the export dialog. To use the preset, highlight one or more images in either the filmstrip or else in Grid view. Right-click on any of these images, and in the context menu which opens you will see Export with all the presets, including your new user preset, in a flyout subsection. Selecting the preset name carries out the operations you have defined, on each image in your current selection.

regards, RP

Richard,

Again,  thank you for your detailed explanations.

Part of this opinion I have is due to my frustration in securing a positive, time effecient workflow. Instructions from Lightroom are not very informative or clear about interfacing with other Adobe Programs. Frankly, I love lightroom and the virtual environment but, I believe, there ahould be a far more simple path to saving (updating) a hard image on disk.  The publication I am working on has over 600 images spanning over 100 years of  photography. Most of the images are originals from my digital cameras. Some are from color scans of negatives and prints and some are from scans and digital photos of old photographs. An adjustment that may look good in Lightroom for numerous other applications may not look good in a finished, custom, InDesign book and may need some occaisional tweeking. In the end, I need to keep the files for the book as seperate hard files to upload for publication so I selected in LR and exported the images to 5 distinct project folders. Some were adjusted in LR and some were not before the export.

Ideally, (and, stupidly, this is what I expected) I would work my publication layout with virtual files in InDesign and color edit them as needed in a Lightroom collection. Once I am ready to go, I would export the collection to a folder to be sent to the publisher. Shazaam.

I feel like the Publish path will be somewhat closer to to what I would like but in my test I found there still is not a direct link between LR and ID where you can right-click an image and use the "Edit With" command. For all the image files I have been working with since before your Publish suggestion, I at least have to locate the image using the ID Links Panel which will then show the image in Bridge. Then, using the Bridge file location info, I manually locate the image in LR and perform my edit. I then export a copy to the same project folder as the original. I drag and drop the new version of the image onto the old version that I have placed in InDesign. Finally, I go back to Bridge and delete the original file in that folder. This is part of the reason I jump to Bridge from the ID Links Panel as the new version lands next to the old. Note: These are not the true original files, but a copies made just for use in the publication and placed in a project folder.  This process, so far, is the fastest and most reliable that I have come up with. It is still faster that using Photoshop for the image mods, but it is still painfully slower and more convoluted than it should be.

Oh my freakin goodness. This just answered the question for me. I know that the idea behind the system is to reduce destruction as much as possible and for a photographer or professional graphic designer I understand that is essential. But I'm using pics for social sites, web design, and graphic design, in situations that don't ever call for me to be 100ppi better looking than some other developer. I don't really know if that's a term but do some noob translation. I too want to overwrite the original file for the same reasons as all these other blokes. It never heffin occured to me to export, upload or print, and dump! And since LR keeps my catalogue of edits... with history by the way HAAALELUJA, I keep one file on the hd or on two externals and put the export files wherever the hell I want temporarily so they're organized in the big pile AND in the outgoing pile and then off my hd but not lost forever. This makes me happier than my new laser printer. Sweet cheebus you guys on this forum just saved me hours of sorting and re-linking and re-editing.