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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
  • 5969 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
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.

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.

Community Manager
January 13, 2025

So ultimately since this LR bug isnt able to be corrected in LR is it fair to say LR engineers should try to improve this issue sooner than later so we dont have interrupted workflows or products? Any other ideas for a fix? Im all ears 🙂


Hi @EDPcorp! It looks like the DNG file link has expired. Could you upload it again? Also, could you share a screenshot of your usual export settings?

I'm sorry for all the back and forth. It’s been tough to troubleshoot since we can't reproduce the issue, and you've mentioned it doesn't happen all the time.

Thanks for your patience!
Alek

*(If you mention me with an @, like @Aleke, I’ll get a notification and can respond faster.)*