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sandere47957056
Participant
May 24, 2019
Question

Lightroom is automatically adding photo's and folder

  • May 24, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 467 views

Hi,

I have a question. Maybe it's asked before, but I couldn't find it.

I have all my photo's organized by year and then by event. I've imported this structure in LR. This is all in a folder called Originals. I always start editing in LR and then open the photo in PS for further editing. Then I save the edited photo in a folder Edited\year\event\Photoshop Files, keeping my originals original in the Originals folder. So far so good. But every now and then, LR adds the edited version to LR (at least in the view), sometimes in the same folder as the originals, sometimes it creates a folder called Photoshop files. I don't have auto import turned on.

How can I prevent this? I like LR to be the place where I can see all my original photo's, with or without LR adjustments, not a big pile of edited and unedited photo's.

Thanks.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    Just Shoot Me
    Just Shoot Me
    Legend
    May 24, 2019

    How are you sending files to PS?

    Are you sending them from LR, "Edit In" then choose PS?

    Anytime you send an image file to LS from LR and Save it that PS copy is auto imported into LR. Also in the Export dialog do you have Export To: set to Same folder as original photo? That is why you are getting the PS edited image in LR and in the Originals folder.

    GoldingD
    GoldingD
    Legend
    May 24, 2019

    If my previous assumptions are correct, a possible workaround.

    In LR, create your desired folder just as you have. For the images you want to send out to PS, or a third party Plug-in/application, export those images to your desired folder in your desired format, then choose to edit in Photoshop, editing what you now treat as the original. They start out where you want them, the end up where you wanted them, you are in control.

    S
    sandere47957056Author
    Participant
    May 24, 2019

    Hi,

    Thanks for your answers. You state: "But, you are either doing a save as, or a save, but then specifying a different folder, amounts to a save as. Lightroom has no idea that the new image exists, and you probably accomplish a sync (in folder) as to Add it to the catalog (or you have the folder you want it in set up as watched)". You are correct that LR should have no idea the photo exists. That's the whole idea, I want my original folders untouched and un-edited. I don't do a sync and have no folders setup as watched (auto import is switched off).

    The stange thing is that it is random. Sometimes LR does this, the other time it doesn't. Sometimes it adds the photo to the same folder in the catalog, sometimes it creates a new folder called Photoshop files and adds the photo's to that folder, and in other times it just does nothing, like you would expect. The photo itself is not moved on my harddrive, it's still in the place where I saved it, but it messes up my catalog. I like to have my LR catalog to be all original photo's, or, if I add the edited folder as well, that the edited photo's would be in the edited folder in LR and the original photo's in the original photo's folder in the LR catalog, but not mixed up. Then it will be impossible to keep track if it is just one big pile.

    GoldingD
    GoldingD
    Legend
    May 24, 2019

    Well, take the uncertainty out if the equation, export the images to where you want them within LR, then edit those ones, they start out where you want them, they should end where you want them

    When you accomplish the whole from LR to PS and back to LR, LR really really wants them to be in the folder the originals were in just as you selected the edit in photoshop action. So use a sledge hammer, export them then edit, instead of in affect externally edit then import.

    GoldingD
    GoldingD
    Legend
    May 24, 2019

    Also, describe/explain how your LR and PS are setup as to return the file created via PS automatically to a specific folder?    

    S
    sandere47957056Author
    Participant
    May 24, 2019

    It's as described in my first message. I have a folder called Originals, say D:\Originals. Then I copy the pictures for animals I took in a folder called D:\Originals\2019\Animals.

    Once that's completed I synchronize the folder, say 2019 if it already existed in LR, to import the photo's in the animals folder. That all works fine. On the left hand side of LR I can see my folder structure.

    Then I select a photo I want to edit. I make some LR adjustments and then right-click to edit in PS. PS opens with the selected photo and I can make further adjustments. I save the result in D:\Modified\2019\Animals\Photoshop files.

    That's the whole process.

    But when I go back to LR, just switching applications in Windows 10, sometimes the edited photo is shown in LR in the same collection as the unedited photo's, or a folder is created on the left hand side in LR called Photoshop Files, which contain the edited photo's.

    Note, this is not constant behavior, it is completely random. Sometimes this happens, sometimes not.

    PS and LR are setup default, the latest version of CC.

    Note also that I only imported the D:\Originals folder and subfolders in LR, not any other folder.

    GoldingD
    GoldingD
    Legend
    May 24, 2019

    Ok, I think I understand your workflow in this based on a few more words you added in the last comment.

    Problem 1 is that the normal workflow that the code writers at Adobe expected was as follows

    1, In lightroom select edit in Photoshop, Good, check.

    2. In Photoshop, when done, either click on Save and accept the path, or, and this is what they considered normal, click on Close, of course this is typically fir one image.

    What would happen next, is Photoshop would save the raster file (TIFF, PSD, etc, depending on your setup) in the same folder the initial image in Lightroom is. not a different folder, and Lightroom would Add it to the catalog.

    But, you are either doing a save as, or a save, but then specifying a different folder, amounts to a save as. Lightroom has no idea that the new image exists, and you probably accomplish a sync (in folder) as to Add it to the catalog (or you have the folder you want it in set up as watched)

    Sounds like, you occasionally do what Adobe tech assumed, a close, the new image appears upon return to LR, but not where you want it.

    GoldingD
    GoldingD
    Legend
    May 24, 2019

    Please provide us with your workflow step by step starting at the point you want to go from LR to PS,

    Oh, not the parts about doing this and that to edit in PS, more like

    1. Finished my develop module edits in Lightroom

    2. Select the image

    3. Select edit in PS

    4. Opens in PS

    5. Accomplish my various edits in PS

    6. In PS select Close.

    7. I am returned to LR

    etc

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