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It happens all the time. I select, say, 5 images to edit. They open up in Photoshop. I edit them and save as PSD files. They automatically get added to my LR library as aditional files, bonded to each of the edited RAW file.
I don't want LR to add any new files in my library. How can I prevent that?
Thanks.
Adding them to the LR catalogue keeps them under control. It's part of LR's role managing your pictures.
If you want to avoid it, then export and set PS as the post processing step. You can also duplicate the document in PS, save the duplicate and dump the other file.
Yeah, thanks. I've been doing "find the missing files" for a while. Then LR would collect all missing (deleted) PSD files for me and I'd delete them in one take.
But I thought there was a command that would prevent adding in the first place. I see now it's by design, so ok.
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Adding them to the LR catalogue keeps them under control. It's part of LR's role managing your pictures.
If you want to avoid it, then export and set PS as the post processing step. You can also duplicate the document in PS, save the duplicate and dump the other file.
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The behaviour you describe is as designed. However, it's fairly simple to remove them from the Library (i.e. select images, right-mouse-click to activate context menu, then choose 'Remove from Lightroom'). Don't choose 'Delete from Disk'
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Yeah, thanks. I've been doing "find the missing files" for a while. Then LR would collect all missing (deleted) PSD files for me and I'd delete them in one take.
But I thought there was a command that would prevent adding in the first place. I see now it's by design, so ok.
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I just tried something and it seemed to solve your problem: if you do a Save As... in PS to some other location on your computer system, after you close the document it does not fall back to LRC.
But as John said, leaving it to fall back to LRC, it's still part of your controlled images. After all, why spend time with the image if you do not plan on keeping it within your collection?
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Thanks everyone for trying to solve this for me.
Well, my workflow is a bit different. I don't keep PSD files. Since I work for a stock agency (GettyImages) I keep editing a PSD file until I'm satisfied with the results. Then I save a JPG that goes to the agency. PSD file gets discarded as soon as the file is accepted by GI.
I keep RAWs in different folders than final JPG images. And PSDs go into another.
I made two Actions - Save as PSD and Save as JPG. Both are done using "Save as" and are still added to LR?
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I believe the issue is that PS and LRC are linked so that the file is automatically saved to its source location. To fix your action, can you create a perminent folder on your (say) Desktop so that all images are saved to this DIFFERENT folder and that should circumvent the image returning to LRC.
And one other option for you is to not use LRC, but rather Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw. That combination doesn't care where the images are located and will not try to return the image to the catalog becuase there is no catalog. The big negative to this is that you do lose all of the DAM capabilities of LRC. Oh, wait, if you do need the DAM features, you can import the images into LRC after processing them in ACR.
All just thoughts...
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For saving the JPEG, use Save for Web (Legacy) as it wouldn't add the JPEG to the LR library.
I'll also repeat my previous point about not using Edit With, but Export instead, and setting Photoshop as the Post Processing Step at the bottom of the Export dialog. This prevents new PSDs appearing in LR, if that's what you really want.
Alternatively, use LR as it is intended. Don't worry if the new PSD appears in LR, generate the JPEGs in LR, and then delete the PSD using LR. I presume there must be a reason why you use LR, and maybe for keywording and metadata entry. By having the PSDs in LR you can continue to add more keywords until the moment when you generate the JPEGs and delete the PSD. And assuming you send Getty more than one image at at time, it's more efficient to generate batches from LR than from PS.
[Edited to add space]
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I'm actually annoyed no end by this too, but I just resigned to the fact that I can't change it. Just adding my vote for an option to turn off whatever script that reimports the PSDs automatically.
I manage a 15+ TB archive at work, and to keep this system workable I have to keep raws and PSD masters separate. The raws are my own and I use Lightroom for the raw files exclusively. The PSDs go to a separate DAM system where they can be accessed by the whole organization. I don't want, or need, them to interfere in the Lightroom catalog.
It's not that they go into the same folder; they don't - but I want to keep them entirely off the catalog. I have other DAM software to manage the PSDs.
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There's already an option, Export.
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Nothing beats the convenience of ctrl+E. I know there are workarounds, like Export, but they all involve moving your whole operation between folders. Sometimes speed and convenience matters.
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Too bad, you just have to pay a small price for not using LR as it's intended.
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I am using Lightroom as it's intended, as my primary raw file processor and organizer.
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If you say so.
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@D Fosse I am curious to know what you mean by this statement-
but they all involve moving your whole operation between folders.
An Export PRESET can 'Save' the PSD file in any pre-defined folder (any connected drive location) before it is edited in Ps, and it does not need to be 'added to the catalog'.
An Export Preset is only two mouse clicks to have a PSD derivative in the defined location. {Right-click > Export/Preset}
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@D Fosse I am curious to know what you mean by this statement
By @Rob_Cullen
Two things: one, I have to go to a folder and fetch the image.
But that's not the biggest nuisance. The biggest nuisance is that I have to go over the Export dialog and make sure I have the right preset. I have a lot of them, because I do use Export for a lot of things. Some of them are just small variations and they may go to different destination folders.
In short: it disrupts my flow. I have to take the eye off the ball. And it could be very simply avoided by just turning off a script. I'm not asking that it shouldn't be possible to auto-reimport, just that I can choose not to. A checkbox in preferences, that's all.
Look, we all tend to judge these things by our own working habits. Yes, I do it too. But every once in a while we are reminded that what's perfectly logical to me is an awkward workaround to you. That doesn't mean you're not using the application "as intended". The application should be flexible enough to accommodate these things. And if I may say so, I think Photoshop is much better at flexibility than Lightroom.
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Not using it as intended is not a crime, and I'm sure we all infringe in our different ways. LR can't have options for everything, and its handling of derivative files does reflect its intended one-stop role managing photos from import to safe keeping. Because it was designed for a narrower typical workflow, the concept was always to offer less flexibility than Photoshop.
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Absolutely.
But all things considered, it's still easier to Find the missing files from time to time in LR than to change the workflow just because of this.
It's a minor annoyance at best. And yes, like you, I'd love to see an option to turn this off.
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There may be one more workaround, but I think it only works on a Mac.
Instead of using the built-in Edit command, drag the files from Lightroom Classic and drop them on the Photoshop application icon anywhere you see it (in a Finder window or desktop, the Dock, Application Switcher, etc.), or drop it on the Photoshop application window. macOS will switch to Photoshop, and the files will open in Camera Raw hosted by Photoshop. Select All, then click Open and the files open as Photoshop documents using the current Camera Raw settings. You then save them wherever you want.
The power user version of that is drag from catalog grid, drop on Photoshop, (Command+A if there are multiple files), then press Enter/Return.
It’s only a little more work than choosing Edit In Photoshop (Command+E), but the big win is that you don’t have to do any cleanup afterwards, because Lightroom Classic doesn’t track images sent to Photoshop this way. At least in my testing, the resulting Photoshop versions don’t appear in the catalog unless you manually add them or sync the folder where you saved them.
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I'm having this same issue and wish I could turn it off!
I use Lightroom to finetune the images I take of my watercolor illustrations. I have a lot more control over the RAW in LR than in the RAW pop-up in Photoshop and it's a heck of a lot easier to do bulk edits, apply my presets, etc...
But there are edits I cannot make in LR but only in PS.... like creating a transparent background. So I finish the workflow in LR and right-click into PS, finish edits, and save into the appropriate folder in the asset library. I don't want or need to see the final, flattened file added into LR.
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The easy way (given in answers above) is to EXPORT the edited raw with options-
-Specify FOLDER for the new file. (Anywhere in your computer. eg. a sub-folder of original)
-Do NOT add to Catalog. (The new file will NOT be in the catalog)
-Choose file type in the Export: PSD TIF JPG
-In the Post-Processing field: Choose [PHOTOSHOP.exe]
Save a PRESET!
So-
1) Export from LrC (WITH the SAVED PRESET),
2) edit in Ps,
3) [SAVE], (NOT 'Save As' because the file has already been created in the Export and you will want to Over-write it with the new Ps edits!)
Done!
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I know that I can do that, it's just more steps that I don't want to mess with.
One more dialog box I have to go through, and then I have to delete the intermediate PSD file anyway (I don't keep those), so I'll just stick with the workflow I have and keep re-deleting the folders from my library.
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" just more steps that I don't want to mess with"
Then I do not think you fully understand the power of Export Presets.
I can do the above (Export an image as PSD to Photoshop) with TWO mouse clicks!
On a selected photo-
1) [Right-click] for the pop-up menu:
(2 [Left-Click] on the appropriate Export Preset.
Could it be any simpler?
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I did the following test on my system macBigSur 11.6.8 and LrC 11.4.1 and PS latest version.
Sellected three raw image files and did edit in PS with the option to save as PSD. The files were opened in PS as expected. I did an edit to each file, then saved as to my Desktop. After doing the save I then sellected close for each image separately. No image was saved to my Catalog and the PSDs were saved to Desktop as expected.
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Agreed with Denis: since "Save As" to another location is something we often coach users not to do, as it breaks the round trip automation, it seems that this is a way to subvert the process - and prevent the images from being re-imported, on purpose, if that is your intent.