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tracey@ktrmanagers.com.au
tracey@ktrmanagers.com.au
Participant
October 23, 2022
Answered

Why won't Lightroom save my edits when I export them?

  • October 23, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 6060 views

Hi,

I am new to Lightroom and am unsure what I am doing wrong.

I am using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom V6, Windows 11 Home

 

I have edited a photo to have a black and white background and colour people using a mask, below.

 

 

When I try to export it reverts to a full colour photo. Am I missing a step?

 

Thank you very much in advance for your help  🙂

 

[moved to the correct forum - Mod.]

    Correct answer JohanElzenga

    @Jim Wilde is correct. If you look at the sliders in your second screenshot, then you'll see that they are all still at zero. That means that you have created the mask, but you haven't made any adjustments to that masked area yet. You are looking at the mask overlay, not at the result. This is a common misunderstanding. Here's what to do: First you need to invert the mask, so the background is masked. Right now the subject is. Then set the Saturation slider to -100. Now the background will really be B&W and stay that way if you export the image.

     

    1 reply

    Jim Wilde
    Community Expert
    Jim WildeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 23, 2022

    How did you turn the background to B&W? Looking at the image in the filmstrip of the masking screenshot, the background is still in colour, which implies that you haven't yet converted the background. Are you by chance using the mask overlay style of "Image on B&W", which is in fact merely a visual overlay aid and not an actual adjustment to the image.

      E
      EDPcorp
      Participating Frequently
      December 6, 2024

      Hi Jim, Im having the same problem, however I am creating the mask, editing the part of the photo that was masked, and then exporting to large jpeg. The edits are not showing in the final exported jpeg. My sliders are NOT at zero as shown in Tracey's screen shots. Please advise if you can - its driving me CRAZY since this only happens on random photos, not all of them. Ive been using LR for a year and have created several edited final products but every now and then this happens.

      E
      EDPcorp
      Participating Frequently
      January 7, 2025

      Image type: DNG


      If you export as DNG (or as Original), then the edits will not be applied to the (raw) pixels, but embedded in the metadata. That means that only other Adobe apps will be able to show the edits. Export in an RGB format (jpg, tiff, psd) if you want to apply the edits to the pixels.

       


      Yes of course. From the beginning of my time with LR Ive always exported as JPEG large. I simply tried the other formats to see if anything would help correct the bug LR seems to have. If you read back in the history of my conversation with Alek you'll see we are trying everything to correct this bug which only shows itself on just a handful of photos for no particular reason. Weird stuff.

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