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Author Topic: Where did my changes go?  (Read 2314 times)

DHB

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Where did my changes go?
« on: October 02, 2007, 10:01:27 pm »

I'm a LR newbie, and thought I was really getting the hang of it as I taught it to myself processing a big job. I then imported a single picture from another job to work on, and when I when back to look for the pictures from job 1, they were gone. I re-imported them, and now none of my setttings or changes are there- color correction, metadata, ratings, anything. I thought all this stuff was stored somewhere, but I can't find it.

I know I need to get a grip on the whole Library/ Collections/ Folders/ Catalogs thing, which I haven't yet. I'm sitting down to read the manual and try to figure it all out, but if anyone has any suggestions in the meantime for finding my modifications, or any other "Dummies" style pointers, let me know.

Thanks!

David
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Nat Coalson

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Where did my changes go?
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2007, 11:06:43 pm »

David-
The most important thing to understand about Lightroom is that all your changes - and the photos you're able to see and work with - are referenced from within a database file.

Catalog = Database = Library in Lightroom terminology. All the same thing.

The database is a SQLite file that can exist anywhere on your hard drive, but on the initial installation, Lightroom will use the default location for the database:

Mac OS X
/userfolder/Pictures/Lightroom/

Windows
My Documents > My Pictures > Adobe Lightroom

With this in mind, consider that it's possible to have multiple databases, each containing potentially different images with different edits made to them.

It sounds to me like you've launched Lightroom and inadvertently created or opened a new (or otherwise previously unused) database.

It's likely that your previous work remains intact; you just need to find it. If you hold the option/alt key when launching Lightroom, you can choose another database. Or, with Lightroom open, under the file menu, select Open Database.... the challenge will be finding your previous database(s).

Re: Folders - in Lightroom, the Folders list mirrors exactly the contents of the folders that you have imported, including names, locations, files etc. You can right click/control click and choose Synchronize folder if you think that Lightroom isn't showing you the current status of those folders/files.

If you move, rename or delete files and folder from within Lightroom, you these changes are generally also made directly to the contents of your disk drive. In the case of deleting iamge files, Lightroom will ask you if you want to actually move the file to the trash/recycle bin or just remove from the Lightroom database.

Folders that have been moved/renamed/deleted outside Lightroom will show in red. File that Lightroom can't find will have a "?" icon in their thumbnail, and you won't be able to take them into Develop.

The process of working on your files in Lightroom is confusing to many people, because of the whole database issue. If you've only worked with file browsers in the past, it takes some getting used to the idea that files can exist on your hard drive that are not in Lightroom, and managing the relationship between the actual files and the Lightroom Library can be confusing. But don't worry - you'll get it - it's a good system and will serve you well once you get the hang of it.

I want to go into more detail but my reply is already long-winded, it's late and I am tired, maybe someone else can chime in....
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Nathaniel Coalson
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DHB

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Where did my changes go?
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2007, 01:18:02 am »

Thanks for the help, Nat. I really appreciate it.

I finally found my pictures with all their modifications intact by opening the catalogs listed in the recently opened files list.

I'm going to sit down and study all this to try to understand the whole database structure thing.

Thanks, again.

David
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madmanchan

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Where did my changes go?
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2007, 06:45:13 pm »

David, did you move the files on your hard drive after you imported them? This could be a cause of trouble. It leads LR to temporarily not be able to find your stuff.

There is a very nice LR video tutorial offered on this site. Well worth the money IMO. Good way to get started.

Just to be clear, you don't need to understand the internals of how the LR database works in order to make good use of it!   It is certainly helpful to get a handle on the various mechanisms of organization, though, such as collections and keywords.
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Eric Chan

DHB

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Where did my changes go?
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2007, 11:46:16 am »

Thanks for the advice, guys. I didn't move the files, but understand (sort of) how that could have caused things to go out of whack. I think I have that problem solved for the time being.

But now my jpegs are gone! I converted a few hundred files to jpegs to burn to a CD, but they don't show up in LR. They are in the Windows folder, the same one as the raw files, though, so they exist. LR just doesn't see them or show them. Arrrgh!

I'm sure that this, again, is some simple database misunderstanding, but why do they have to make it so darn non-intuitive!

Any ideas apropos this latest headache are appreciated. (I promise I will read the manual, sometime, when I get time!)

David
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madmanchan

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Where did my changes go?
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2007, 07:36:37 am »

David, when you "import" images into LR, they become part of the database. When you "export" them (which is what I assume you mean by "converting" them) then the exported images are not in the database (hence the term 'export'!).

In terms of databases, I guess the official term since version 1.1 is "catalog". With LR you can have multiple catalogs, though usually if you're starting out you just have one. Make sure you don't accidentally create a new catalog when you import images from a new project. Otherwise this will make it harder for you to access your older images in an existing catalog. For now it sounds like you should have one big catalog (and your images can be organized in many different ways within that single catalog).
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Eric Chan
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