LR Classic Question

[rollsman44]

  When I import my images from a card reader to LR and I make a few adjustments:  Can I just Close out of LR without going through the Export images and have the adjustments saved?

   I am trying to avoid my image size being reduced from my Original size files. EX:  If I make my adjustments in LR and select the images and Export them. How do I keep the file size close to the original size.
  I have 2 Options when I export the images.  Check the Box and put in a resolution size( 5000 v 2000)  or Dont check the file size box.  Thats what I am a little confused on
  Bottom Line: How to Import Raw files and keep the file size as close to the original file size.  Thank you,  I appreciate any suggestions

[Rand47]

“Saved” is the operative word here.  All the adjustments you make in LrC are parametric.  Nothing has happened to your raw file at all.  There’s a database file associated with your image that tells LrC how to “display” on your monitor all the adjustments you’ve made.  The database is a file that LrC maintains in the folder where the program and previews are stored (or as XMP files beside your image file).   There’s nothing that needs to be “saved” as long as you have LrC.   

Exporting is generally for some end use, e.g. emailing a jpeg to Aunt Sally, or posting it to FaceBook, OR generating a full resolution tiff to send for printing at a lab. 

However, if you want to export all your finished images so that the edits are “baked in” you can do so easily in the export module.  I typically save them as 16 bit, uncompressed tiff files, in ProPhoto RGB color space with no added sharpening.  All these settings are readily available in the drop down menus in the Export utility.

To your initial question the answer is “YES” you can just close LrC and don’t need to “save” anything.  Having LrC do its normal back up of the catalog is important, and having a robust backup scheme for your computer, including your image files and the LrC catqlog also go along with this, to my way of thinking.
Rand

[rollsman44]

  Thank you. That was Very helpful

[digitaldog]

Both Lightroom Classic and ACR treat raws as read only. When you edit (parametrically) JPEGs, TIFFs PSDs etc, the edits are saved in the documents themselves but all this is done automatically, you don't have to do anything per se. DNGs can be raw data (as raw as the proprietary raws) and the instructions can also be saved in that container. Again, Adobe treats proprietary raws as read only hence, in ACR, there are sidecar files. You can bounce back and forth between ACR and LR if on version parity. Same engine, the edits are understood by both. With parametric edits, raws or existing rendered images like a JPEG, at some point, the instructions have to be rendered into a new iteration, this is where Export (or Edit in Photoshop for LR) comes into play. If you applied instructions to a JPEG in either, then just opened that JPEG in Photoshop, you'd see no edits. But they do exist. It is necessary for those edits to be rendered from the original JPEG to again, a new iteration which you could save as another JPEG or something else.
In Export, you can set up as many parameters for the rendering as you wish: full size, resampled up or down, bit depth, color space etc. So one raw could end up as a JPEG at 1000x1000 pixels or a TIFF at the full resolution of the raw, in two different bit depths and color spaces.
Outside of all the Adobe tutorials, this is also a great site to examine: https://www.lightroomqueen.com