Exported Photos show in explorer but not in LR

[DarrellB]

I import photos from my card and export them to a pre-existing specific folder, I have used this process for a long time, however, I now find that the photos show up in the relevant folder in explorer but not in the same folder when viewed in LR

[F. McLion]

I'm not sure I understand your issue. To be able to export from LR in the first place you must see the photos in LR and select them for the export. Can you describe in more details what exactly you are missing?

[DarrellB]

so i can see the photos in explorer or in google photos but if i try to look at them in the LR application in the folder they were exported to they are not visible

[F. McLion]

This is by design.

LR only shows you the folders from which you have imported photos.

However, why would you need the folder where you have exported these photo to look at them - you don't need it because you already have them in LR as originals in its original location and you definitely do not want them doubled.

[DarrellB]

Im sorry but youre clearly not understanding what seems to be straight forward

[F. McLion]

It would maybe help if you try to explain your workflow and what you are trying to achieve.

[richardplondon]

With Lightroom you won't see any digital images that are on your computer, nor on anything connected to it, unless you import them.

LR runs a picture library, and a given image file within your computer might belong to this library, or it might not.

Analogy: your local University will have an extensive library of books and publications, but not literally every book and publication which may physically exist on its premises, for example which a visitor happens to have left on a table, can be found in the catalog index. There's some kind of 'accession' paperwork process whereby each new book's details get recorded, what shelf it is to be found on, etc - and only THEN does it become a member of the collection - only then does the library officially "have" this book.

Lightroom's Folders panel, in Library, is not like a physical inventory of the whole building - including that book left on a table by the visitor. It is a listing of all the collection, sorted and classified according to the different "shelves" which they live on, or - better - are officially supposed to live on. Or you can instead see a batch listing of all the collection items that were last imported, or whatever.

It is the default that exported photos are NOT re-imported. In that case they won't appear anywhere in LR (except, if you use Import to go and see what files you might like to add into Lightroom). Just like, if you use the University's photocopier to make a duplicate of one of its books, that photocopy won't be found in the central index; only the actual book which is part of the collection. It is the nature of photocopies that there may be any number of different physical instances, for all kinds of purposes, mostly disposable or informal... generally, you want to do something with it that you could not have done with the official library book. But aside from that special purpose, generally speaking it will be the official library book that people will look for. And they won't want to get that potentially mixed up in the index, with some photocopy (which may not even show all the pages), and which might well have been discarded meanwhile, in any case.

And all the same applies for Exports.

This said, if you DO want to add an Export to the LR Catalog you don't need to go and import that separately. There is a checkbox option to do this, right in the Export dialog. However, the utility and sensibleness of using this checkbox, needs a bit of careful thought.

[F. McLion]

Very detailed explanation ... thanks a lot.

richardplondon  schrieb

... There is a checkbox option to do this, right in the Export dialog. However, the utility and sensibleness of using this checkbox, needs a bit of careful thought.

Before using this checkbox I strongly suggest to think about the workflow. At least to my understanding, importing developed copies makes no sense at all.

[richardplondon]

Yes: to me, exports are inherently disposable; like a couple of photocopied pages from a book, you have some momentary need which they serve but you wouldn't want to catalog, file and keep those forever.

In any case, exports are inherently less suited to be managed or worked on in LR; as compared with the original LR image which they were based on and which is being managed actively. It is all about the latter - the physical basis of which is the Raw, or the camera JPG, or any Photoshop (etc) working file derived from that.

[DarrellB]

Sadly it seems everyone has comments but no one has a solution.................thats the problem with internet forums everyone's their own expert

[F. McLion]

There is no solution except the ones posted already: Put a check-mark to the option to add exports back to the catalog during export or import them later.

[richardplondon]

DarrelB: I appreciate my first post was a long one, but the solution is in the final paragraph (and quoted in a response).

I expect that previously, your Export settings were set to automatically import all exported images to the Catalog, and now they are not set to do that. If you want future exports to appear, you will need to use that option at export time. For the images you have exported in the meanwhile, those can be imported separately.

BUT: the explanations of why it might not be necessary or even beneficial to see your exported images from within LR, are logically sound and also grounded in experience. IMO they deserve consideration.

[DarrellB]

i dont keep my RAW images i edit and convert to jpeg and discard the RAW files.

i am assuming you keep all your images in RAW which is perhaps why you dont understand my situation. I have never previously added any pics to the catalog. All the pics on my hard drive have always been visible in LR because i export them to folders on the hard drive, I still dont think anyone understands the situation because it is different to your own situations

[Just Shoot Me]

DarrellB  wrote

i dont keep my RAW images i edit and convert to jpeg and discard the RAW files.

i am assuming you keep all your images in RAW which is perhaps why you dont understand my situation. I have never previously added any pics to the catalog. All the pics on my hard drive have always been visible in LR because i export them to folders on the hard drive, I still dont think anyone understands the situation because it is different to your own situations

Everyone understands your situation. Your problem is the option to included, IE Re-Import, exported images in the catalog somehow got Un-Checked.

The only way to get any image into the LR catalog is to Import them. Checking that option in the Export dialog will do that automatically for all exported images

[DarrellB]

So if you guys are not adding them to your catalog what application do you use to view previously edited pictures on your hard drive

[AxelMatt]

Hi,

I don't use any other application to view my editings. You see all of your editings in Lightroom.

The next thing I don't understand why do you delete your RAW files? You delete your original photos. So you have no chance to change you editing for a picture.

As far as I see you don't have understand the exact functionality of Lightroom. All editing settings that you will do to a RAW picture are entered only in the catalog and will applied to the picture until you exported this to a jpeg. You can change your editings every time you want. If you delete the RAW file you'll never can rolled back to the original photo or changed any settings.

Axel

[F. McLion]

I can only speak for myself: I keep the RAW originals and use LR.

Exports to JPG are made for a certain purpose only and discarded after that use because they can be recreated easily if needed again.

IMHO, your workflow somehow defeats part of the basic idea of Lightroom.

[Per Berntsen]

So if you guys are not adding them to your catalog what application do you use to view previously edited pictures on your hard drive

Since we don't delete our raw files, we use Lightroom to view previously edited pictures. This also allows us to continue to edit them, if we wish. I would strongly recommend that you change your workflow, and stop deleting the raw files.

The raw files contain all the information from the camera sensor, whereas exported jpgs only contain a fraction of that information.

Deleting the raw files is like throwing away the negatives from an analog camera after you have had prints made.

For viewing exported images, I use ACDSee. You could also use Bridge or the free Irfanview. All these are color managed.

In addidtion, there are probably plenty of free image viewers, but most are not color managed.

I've written some articles that you may find helpful to get a better understanding of how Lightroom and digital images work.

What is a digital image?

File formats

Lightroom basics

[DarrellB]

can you recommend any articles on a well-regarded workflow

I can see your point of view but i also feel that unless photography is your lively hood then i think many of us who want quality images take time to edit them but then move on to taking more pictures and once we have done our best with the edit then its finished.

I convert from RAW to jpeg so it takes less room and i can email my images to whoever not needing to care if they have an adobe aware program on their computer.

sometimes i think LR is more complex than many people need, lets face we all have other aspects of life to deal with aside from photos

I always thought Picasa was a wonderfully simple piece of software to use and navigate but of course, it needed to have the great editing features of LR and RAW capability which then would have made it been an excellent solution in my opinion

[Per Berntsen]

I describe my own workflow in the article I linked to previously - Lightroom basics

In short, I never export anything unless I need to, i.e. for a particular purpose. If I just want to look at the pictures, I do that in Lightroom. When the exported file has served its purpose, I usually delete it. It's easy enough to export again if needed.

I convert from RAW to jpeg so it takes less room

Storage is very cheap these days - I suggest that you buy an extra hard drive (internal or external), and keep your raw files.

sometimes i think LR is more complex than many people need, lets face we all have other aspects of life to deal with aside from photos

I don't find it complex at all. If you change to a workflow where there is no need to export, re-import and then delete, (which sounds like a lot of work), things should be very simple.

[F. McLion]

This pretty much reflects my workflow as well and is exactly what I recommend in classes.

[Todd Shaner · Accepted solution]

DarrellB  wrote

can you recommend any articles on a well-regarded workflow

This pretty much covers it all for novice through professional photographers. It's titled Lightroom 5, but is fully applicable to LR 6 and CC 2015:

Organizing Your Photos with Lightroom 5 - The DAM Book

DarrellB  wrote

I can see your point of view but i also feel that unless photography is your lively hood then i think many of us who want quality images take time to edit them but then move on to taking more pictures and once we have done our best with the edit then its finished.

I've been using LR since version 1.0 and often go back to re-edit images using the latest Process Version (PV 2003> PV 2010> PV2012> PV 20??) and feature updates. Unlike some commenting here I keep all my raw and exported image files inside LR. Most of the exported images are used for projects in applications external to LR, such as InDesign, Premiere Pro, ProShow, and Web media. This allows me to catalog and keep track of them using LR Keywording, Collections, Ratings, etc. during production and for making changes later. I'm even re-editing and cataloging images in LR that were created before digital cameras existed....because I saved the B&W and Color negatives (i.e. original raw media).

DarrellB  wrote

I convert from RAW to jpeg so it takes less room and i can email my images to whoever not needing to care if they have an adobe aware program on their computer.

As time goes by both the intrinsic and personal "value" of old images increases substantially. Hard Drive storage is dirt cheap when compared to what most of us spend on camera and computer equipment. Why throw the baby out with the bath water! I cull out and delete only raw files that are very over or under exposed, out of focus, or poorly composed. What you can do to "save room" is create Smart Previews and "move" the raw files (from inside LR) to external hard drive storage for future use. More here:

How to use Smart Previews to view and edit photos in Photoshop Lightroom

...and if still unclear this is the option you need to check in the Export module to have output files appear automatically inside LR:

[DarrellB]

ok let me try again, i have been using LR for 5 years and do understand it, my workflow has not changed in this time but the problem I detail here is new so i guess it must be some setting i need to adjust since i reinstalled LR. We all know that all your picture folders and documents folders fo that matter show up in LR

this is the workflow

i go out and take a RAW picture of a building

i put the memory card in my computer and import and edit the picture

I already have a folder on my computer called buildings

i export the edited picture in jpeg format to the buildings folder

I then look at the buildings folder in LR but the new picture isn't there

I then search the picture in windows explorer and sure enough, it shows it in the buildings folder

[Rafael Aviles]

You just need to check the Add to This Catalog option on the Export dialog as shown above. This will apply to all future exports. For the pictures you already exported and are not showing in LR, you need to import them.