Can't seem to re edit photos that I have already exported

[staceyh95160203]

I am fairly new to Lightroom.  I have a problem of editing photos, exporting them and then seeing something I woukd like to fix, but not being able to export with the second changes. I have tried to delete the photo and import it again to make changes, but it doesn't seem to help. i am stuck with not being able to export that re edited photo. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Per Berntsen]

Please provide more details.

What happens when you try to export the second time?

If there is an error message, please quote it in full, or provide a screenshot.

[DdeGannes]

Welcome to the forum and to Lightroom, just so you are aware this is a user to user forum so the responses that you will receive here are mostly from users like yourself who are trying to assist.

Lightroom does not make changes to the original files that are imported into the Lightroom Catalog (referred to as non destructive editing). The Catalog file is a data based file that stores information about where the image files are located on your computer HDD or where you have decided to copy or move the image file to.

Once you import image file to the Lightroom application no changes are made to the original file what ever you do within Lightroom is stored in the Lightroom Catalog file. So importing it again is never a solution.

When you use the export function you will create a copy of the original file with the work you have done in Lightroom, that file does not get auto0matically imported into the catalog.

So if you need to export another copy then you need to select the original imported file which should display the file with the earlier edits, you can make changes as you see fit and then export a second copy.

[dj_paige]

staceyh95160203  wrote

I am fairly new to Lightroom.  I have a problem of editing photos, exporting them and then seeing something I woukd like to fix, but not being able to export with the second changes. I have tried to delete the photo and import it again to make changes, but it doesn't seem to help. i am stuck with not being able to export that re edited photo. Thanks in advance for any help.

Don't delete photos from Lightroom! That is the cause of your problem.

Go back into Lightroom, find the edited photo, and perform more edits to it.

[Just Shoot Me]

You need to learn how LR works and how to work with LR.

When you edit an image and then export it you are creating a NEW file and the original still exists in the catalog. If you want to re-edit an image you should do that to the original image and not the one created by the export.

Here are some online tutorial pages for you to look at.

Lightroom Classic tutorials | Learn how to use Lightroom Classic CC

How Lightroom Classic CC catalogs work

Photoshop Lightroom catalog FAQ

Lightroom Tutorials by Julieanne Kost

[JP Hess]

The master photo that you started with is always the image that you should use to create copies. If the copy that you created needs changes then go back to the master image and make the adjustments on the master image and export a new copy because it's the master image that needs to be adjusted, not the copy that you created.