Lightroom adjustments

Have not had much time to read up on LR. But if I am shooting in RAW and doing editing in LR, I assume the adjustments I make in LR do not in any way effect or degrade the original RAW files, as long as I export to new file??

canon shooter wrote in post #3153736
Have not had much time to read up on LR. But if I am shooting in RAW and doing editing in LR, I assume the adjustments I make in LR do not in any way effect or degrade the original RAW files, as long as I export to new file??

Any and all RAW edits, through LR or anything else, do not actually modify the original RAW files. RAW editing/conversion programs store the information about what changes you've made in either sidecar files or their own database.

Once you've completed your edits, you can export your changes to a new file in whatever format you like -- PSD, DNG, JPG. . .

You don't have to export any files to maintain the originals - as ibdb noted, they are never edited. LR creates an XMP file for every RAW imported into LR. The LR edits are stored in the XMP file.

If you do all your work in LR (as I do) there is no need to ever convert the RAW to any other format (I use my own printer).

If printing isn't done in LR, or if further processing is to be done in another application, then an export is required. But the original RAW is not touched.

LR can either create an XMP "on the fly" or "on demand." If you're using LR along with something else (ACR in particular), that's something to watch for.