Lightroom "saving/exporting"

[Flyer]

I've got LR4 today, I originally ordered the disc version from Amazon but they emailed me today to say they could not give me a firm delivery date so I cancelled and downloaded it direct from Adobe online. I've done a fair bit of research and realize that when editing in LR that with RAW files the export has an XMP sidecar file attached but not so with other file types. My question is what do you guys recommend when editing JPGs and saving/exporting them ie what is the most memory efficient way of doing this? I appreciate this has probably been asked before, and also that I am likely to get more than one suggestion .

[Darrell]

Please delete mods - over zealous replying to threads on my behalf and typos

[Darrell]

Hi Brian

If you export to JPEG and start getting an error message note the file is actually exported OK, it is a known error with LR4. I downloaded mine from Adobe and did a bit of searching to find I wasn't the only one with this issue. So ignore the error message, there is supposedly a fix coming out soon.

[Carmen]

Do you mean you're actually editing the jpegs in LR?

I generally edit the RAW - whcih as you say saves an xmp file along with the raw file - basically LR doesn't actually touch the RAW it just writes everyting done to it in the XMP file. I then export to Jpeg once all the editing is done. I usually get LR to create a new folder called Jpgs in the same palce the raw files were on the hard dixk.

If I want to edit in phososhop I generally use the "edit in" function in LR, and export it as a TIFF file with lightroom adjustments(I have to reduce to 8 bit as I only have elements) then when I save that file as a TIFF in elements it then appears in LR as the edited version. I then export it to Jpeg in the same way along with all the other files I didn't edit in PS. Generally I don't use PS at all but on occasion I need to for the extra cloning control etc.

[Flyer]

Thanks for the reply Darrel, early days yet but not had an error message yet, what I'm mainly wondering if I've shot JPEGs in the camera am I better editing and then exporting as jpeg or changing to TIFF PNG etc ? I don't want to be swallowing up unnecessary amounts of memory.

[Carmen]

If it's already a jpeg there doesn't seem to be much point in exporting as a bigger lossless filesize, I suppose the only reason would be to avoid lots of re-saving as jpeg I suppose. Not sure on the answer to that... will be interesting to hear peoples opinions.

[Flyer]

Thanks Carmen, it will be interesting to say what the others have to say, I know what to do with the RAW files but unsure with jpegs as with many of these issues I suspect there to be more than one way of skinning this rabbit.

[Flyer]

Apologies guys, I've found there's a similar thread going elsewhere on here, but I still haven't got a definitive answer. I think that any edits made to a jpeg in LR are simply tagged to your original when you re-import it so you have your original plus the ability to create an edited version (copy), so the way I read it you don't have to duplicate a file and therefore use memory space until you are sure that you want to. If this is not so I'm sure you guys will correct me.