This is a missing feature…I need Lightroom to be able to just work with a one-off photo. No library. Period.
By @BMcKelvey
It’s not really missing, because Adobe offers a way to do no-library editing that is about 20 years old. And recently, they added another way.
The traditional way, since the 2000s, Bridge + Camera Raw:
1. Browse raw images in Adobe Bridge, and select one or more. Bridge is a pure file browser, so it does not import or create a database. It just looks at folders.
2. To edit the selected image(s), choose File > Open in Camera Raw or press its keyboard shortcut. Camera Raw sounds like what you want: It’s like the Lightroom Classic Develop module but without all the database and cataloging stuff around it. (Historically, it happened the other way: Camera Raw came out first, then Lightroom was designed as Camera Raw with organization and workflow features added around it.)
3. When finished editing, export (save) a copy and/or click Done. Camera Raw closes and returns you to Bridge to browse other photos. Because Bridge has no database to store the raw edit metadata, it writes it into a “sidecar” XMP file next to the raw file.
The latest way, Lightroom local mode:
1. Open Lightroom (not Lightroom Classic).
2. Click the new Local tab. This works like Adobe Bridge, it is a pure file browser that does not catalog.
3. Browse images and select one, and edit it in the Detail view (which is what Lightroom calls its raw editing module, its presentation of Adobe Camera Raw controls).
4. As with Bridge, the raw edits are written out to an XMP sidecar file. Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Bridge, and Camera Raw read/write the same XMP sidecar files.
The disadvantage with Lightroom local mode is that because Lightroom is so cloud-based, you always have to make sure that you are working in the Local tab, if you don't want an image to be uploaded to and edited from the cloud.
You might not want to wait for Lightroom Classic to add some no-database file browser because it is not clear when that might ever happen. Still nothing wrong with asking for it, though. But in the meantime you do have those two other no-database raw edit workflows that work right now.
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