[Leica] Lightroom & Bridge

[heninger at adobe.com (Wade Heninger)]

The way I use LR is to copy all images to a location and then import them.
The files stay in a folder directory in the locaiton you specify. The DB
will then import them and maintain a cache of them like Bridge.

They are there and available for Bridge to see/edit with ACR and the
settings are shared between the two tools.

That said, it is a database manager and not just a file browser and if you
don't use the import from card feature, you'll have to tell LR about the
files if you use other apps/the finder to move them around.

> * If you move files inside LR folders the same files will also be moved on
> disk.

Never done this.  I import them and then use the collections feature to
manage them.  Not an issue for me.

> * If you move files out of the folders that are mirrored in LR with other
> tools LR will find these image originals missing and allows to re-link 
> them.

True.  It will keep everything it knows about it and then if you ask for the
image it will ask where you put it.  It isn't a magician, but it will update
the rest if you update one.  Pretty painless.

> * If you add files to the original folders from the outside LR won't see 
> them
> unless you import the files.

True.  It will ignore duplicates if you re-import the entire folder.  Pretty
painless.


As to Jim's comments:

> That is the conclusion I came to after trying both LR and Elements 5.0.
> After working on an image in LR, I could not do a "Save As" and put it back
> in the original folder.  I was forced to export it to a special folder. I
> prefer Elements 5.0 in this respect.

I'm not sure why one would want to create another copy next to the original
if you work with Raw properly. With lightroom you can create a "virtual
copy" of the image with different Raw settings.  You can then stack them
together.  Saves disk space and lets you work as you want.

You can also edit in photoshop and ask that it creates a new file alongside
the original (with or without LR settings).  You can also stack this
together.



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w a d e  h e n i n g e r
u s e r  e x p e r i e n c e
a d o b e  s y s t e m s ,  i n c