How Does Lightroom Store Pictures?

I'm a little confused. On my computer, there are two folders - original (I created) and lightroom. Are my pictures being stored in my folder or in the lightroom folder? When I make changes to a photo in Lightroom, are they stored in the folder that I created or in a different folder?

Thanks!

Stacie

when you initially import those photos, if you import them at the current location then the photos stay exactly where they are. What it does is instead of editing the photos directly it keeps a log of changes that are applied to the images and it saves those logs instead of the photos.

The "catalog" in 1.1 must be backed up every so often for this is where LR saves your changes and other specifics of the layout of how you have setup LR. Your pictures are where ever you put them the disc. If you imported them from the card, you had to save them to a folder on the disc. The actual files are not in a lightroom database, but referred to by LR.

So if I wanted to copy one, say to flickr, how would I do that? I couldn't go to my original file, right?
Stacie

There's probably a better way to do this but here is how I do it:
I have a folder set up called "send to smugmug" when I'm done pping with LR I export to that folder. That way I have a saved copy on my HD and can find all my pics that go to SM easily.

Eric

Stacie... I'm assuming you are shooting RAW and exporting JPGs to upload?

If so,it's up to you where export to.

LR is a database which contains:
1. a low res copy of your images - to populate thumbnails in the library
2. record of image manipulations
3. reference to location of the original

Your original pictures should be where you left them unless you asked photoshop to move / copy them on import. Be aware that LR will keep doing the last thing you asked it to do on import.

I think that I got it.

The original raw files stay in my original raw folder. The changes are stored in the lightroom folder. It's not until I export to jpg that I am able to see the "final" file and upload to the web. Does that sound right?

Stacie

Pretty much,

you can always see your changes within LR, but to see a 'finished' file in another App you need to export to JPG or TIFF or whatever....

Does Iphoto handle the files the same way?

.....if you import them into a folder (say on the desktop) does it dup the file in Iphoto when you import it from that original location? Somewhere I was working with a file in IPhoto and noticed it was only 400kb's, so it must create a thumbnail also. But I'm just not clear on it's file system.

So if you import photos from your camera to Lightroom, where are they stored? Or do you need to import them on to your hard drive and then into Lightroom?

You can import them into LR from either their existing location or to a folder of your choice.

staciecd wrote in post #3542889
I think that I got it.

The original raw files stay in my original raw folder. The changes are stored in the lightroom folder. It's not until I export to jpg that I am able to see the "final" file and upload to the web. Does that sound right?

Stacie

Start to change your mindset...

LR enables you to stop thinking about "files" and think about the image and what you are trying to do with it. It is not until you hand off the image to another application, like Photoshop, that you need to think about files. Indeed if you only hand-off to PS, LR will track that image for you as well and automatically record it in your LR database.