lightroom developing question

Ok, I have a picture. I am in lightroom and in develop. I cropped out a big portion of the file and just have two peoples faces in the picture. Done some editing with color and all the other stuff.

Here is the question. How does lightroom save this. I know that it does not touch the file itself (I mean pixels) Do I have to "save" file somehow, so if I want to view it with some other picture viewer that i can see original and edited file?

I know there is some way to "stack" the files. How would I stack the original file and the edited so i can see both in lightroom?

It saves the instruction to crop it, so whenever you view it you'll see the crop. When you export it, this crop will be applied to the exported image.

LR is 100% undestructive, you're never making any adjustments to the actual file.

as i understand it lightroom auto saves changes as a series of events that are stored as some sort of metadata. hence no need to actually save. Only time a final image is saved is on export.

If you right click the image and create a virtual copy you can then work on one while being able to see the original next to it.

As others have said Lightroom stores the changes in the LR database. There is no need to "save" these chagnes, although you should backup your Library frequently.

Now, if you want to see those changes in other programs you have to "save" those changes to the file (or a sidecar file depending on the format you are using). So tell us where you want to view these files and what format they are in (RAW, TIFF, JPEG, PSD).

In2Photos wrote in post #3403066
As others have said Lightroom stores the changes in the LR database. There is no need to "save" these chagnes, although you should backup your Library frequently.

Now, if you want to see those changes in other programs you have to "save" those changes to the file (or a sidecar file depending on the format you are using). So tell us where you want to view these files and what format they are in (RAW, TIFF, JPEG, PSD).

Thanks for the advice. I have lightroom on my main machine. I have an old cpu on my upstairs tv (lcd) that i view some pictures with the picture viewer that came with the canon camera. (forget teh name of it) I am thinking of installing lightroom on the pc upstairs. but, two problems, I think it is too complicated for my wife to use. and how would i make lightroom see the same database as the computer downstairs.

Is there a way that lightroom can auto save the changes to a jpg? or just export when you get the picture finished.

bphillips330 wrote in post #3403563
Thanks for the advice. I have lightroom on my main machine. I have an old cpu on my upstairs tv (lcd) that i view some pictures with the picture viewer that came with the canon camera. (forget teh name of it) I am thinking of installing lightroom on the pc upstairs. but, two problems, I think it is too complicated for my wife to use. and how would i make lightroom see the same database as the computer downstairs.

Is there a way that lightroom can auto save the changes to a jpg? or just export when you get the picture finished.

You can setup LR to auto write to XMP which will store the instructions in the file itself (unless it is a RAW photo, then it creates a sidecar file). But other software applications might not see these changes. The easiest way is to export the finished picture with the changes made.

As far as having the database on two machines. This can be complicated but supposedly 1.1 is going to address this problem. There are ways to do it though, but your computers must be hooked up via a network.

Now, my wife has learned to use LR fairly quickly. While she doesn't do any major editing or any keywording she does upload, browse, rate, minor edits, and export for our website. She learned this in about a week (about an hour or so each night). I bet if you spend some time showing her how it works then you might be suprised (although I don't know you or your wife ).

In2Photos wrote in post #3403653
You can setup LR to auto write to XMP which will store the instructions in the file itself (unless it is a RAW photo, then it creates a sidecar file). But other software applications might not see these changes. The easiest way is to export the finished picture with the changes made.

As far as having the database on two machines. This can be complicated but supposedly 1.1 is going to address this problem. There are ways to do it though, but your computers must be hooked up via a network.

Now, my wife has learned to use LR fairly quickly. While she doesn't do any major editing or any keywording she does upload, browse, rate, minor edits, and export for our website. She learned this in about a week (about an hour or so each night). I bet if you spend some time showing her how it works then you might be suprised (although I don't know you or your wife ).

I'm presently running LR 1.0 on two machines - on the "main" computer, I have all my images imported into LR. On the second computer, I import whatever pics I have selected for printing.

The changes made on one computer are in the sidecar files (XMP) and when the image is brought up in LR on the other computer, the changes are there.