Hi, I'm somewhat new to Photoshop 9 and Lightroom3. I upload my photos from my camera to PhotoShop9 and file them as a .tif file and work on them there. After i have finished my work in PhotoShop 9, what is the best method of moving the finished photos into LightRoom 3? I have setup folders in Photoshop and also the same folder name in Lightroom. I have a primary folder setupup for PhotoShop photos and a primary folder setup for the Lightroom photos. I distinguish the subfolders, by PS for PhotoShop, and LR for Lightroom, at the beginning of the subfolder name. Thus far, i have been dragging and dropping a copy of the finished .jpg file to the Lightroom subfolder, from the Photoshop subfolder. Does this effect any changes that i have made to the photo in Photoshop? Is there a better way to transfer photos from Photoshop Premier 9 to LightRoom 3?

Thanks,
Tipmyhattou

you are doing it totally wrong
you make a mess of your disk , plus , you misunderstood the purpose of post-processing

best practice ;
copy your RAWs from camera to a folder on disk , un-converted
import that folder in LR , thats all
now you can PP in LR
if you want to modify / edit your pic's , sent them to PS9 from within LR
the finished pic's automatically come back in LR

Basfit is right. Put them in LR first and open in PS (an option in LR) when necessary.

Listen to Basfit and Pupator.

You can import your files into Lightroom3 from your memory card, and at the same time, copy them to TWO separate hard drives, giving you in one fell swoop, your RAW files to edit and a back up copy all at the same time. Unless you are doing a lot of Smart Object creations with Adobe Camera Raw, you may find you prefer the RAW engine in Lightroom ( it is the same as ACR 6+ under the hood ).

You can also convert your files to dng at the time of import if you prefer not to have to mess with XMP files as well.

When you need to do local editing ( as opposed to global editing ) you can simply click on the external editing link inside Lightroom3 and begin edting in Photoshop, or whatever editing software you prefer.

Like you I began with Photoshop a long time ago, and was reluctant to adapt to Lightroom, but once you do, you will find it is much more convenient than dealing with Adobe Camera Raw. The database image management features in Lightroom are just that much more compelling.

My workflow is to import my RAW image files onto two separate hard drives ( one is a Raid drive ) and convert them to dng files, via Lightroom3. All my editing begins in LR, and I use Photoshop when I need selection tools, and layers, which is maybe 1/2 of the time or less.

When using Lightroom3, what one MUST remember, is that you do not move your files around on your hard drive or outside your computer by using the file tools of your operating system, but instead, always move your files from within Lightroom with its files tools, that way, no matter where you have stashed your image, Lightroom will ALWAYS know where it is , and can find it rapidly for you, via file name, key words, date, or camera or lens settings, or via other collections data. This is a very cool and powerfull tool as you begin to acquire thousands and thousands of images scattered across dozens of hard drives.

One of the great things about Lightroom is that you can have literally hundreds of different edits of a RAW files within Lightroom, and the original files have never been altered in the slightest, and the storage space needed for these hundreds of images is much, much smaller than if you tried to store each and every one of them separately on a drive somewhere.

While I was not a big fan of Lightroom when it first debut'd, I would sorely miss it now if it were to disappear. If I had to choose between PS and LR, Lightroom is more important for most of what I do.

I'm certanly glad i ask, beacuse i am taking up alot of computer space having photos in lightroom and photoshop. I didn't know that you could access Photoshop from lightroom. Before installing lightroom, which came much later after installing Photoshop. I had at least 20 to 30 different sub-folders setup for my photos. I simply imported the contents of each folder into the Photoshop organizer. Now that i have light room 3, should i move all of the photos into a lightroom folder, with the same file name, and delete the Photshop subfolders? This would certainly clear up alot of space on my hard drive. I currently have at least 2 copies of each photo. A .tif & a .jpg of each photo in Photoshop and then i copy my best selected photos into lightroom for futher finishing. At that point if i like the results, i drop it into my Smugmug account for publishing. After installing Lightroom3, I wondered to my self, what was the purpose of having Photoshop. I see that there are a lot more editing tools in photoshop. I didn't know that you could access photoshop from lightroom. Thanks for the explaination. I can now see how it should flow. Adobe should give you a flow chart, showing the proper way to import your photos into lightroom and then if you need to edit the photo, take the photo from lightroom to photoshop. I have scanned a lot of pictures in Photoshop as .tif files. Can you can scan photos in lightroom3. If you can, i just don't know it. After saving the .tif file, i make a .jpg of the picture and then copy it into the Lightrooms Subfolder. At that point, i import the photos into the lightroom workspace. Just to let you know, i have not been working with RAW images. My 30D will certainly handle them. The pictures that i am scanning were taken with a Hasselblad film camera. Should i scan these photos in photoshop and then file them into a Lightroom folder, to be imported into lightroom? Thanks, Tipmyhattou

Tipmyhattou
i give my workflow , maybe it get clear

first i copy my RAWs to a new folder in PC , i dont convert them
in LR i import this folder , now you have a catalog and you can start editing in LR
from there you can export photos that are finished

second
normally PS is selected as default editor in LR
right-click the pic or thumbnail > edit in > there you should see Photoshop
if not , go to menu ; edit >preferences > external editing-tab > in the middle behind application click Choose button
here you select any exe you want

if you do this ,LR will create a TIFF image of your photo , which will be used by PS , or the editor you have chosen
once you save in PS [ not save as , just save ] the new TIFF will be in your LR catalog , next to the original

if you dont shoot RAW , procedure will be the same
however , it is recommended to shoot RAW , because you cannot properly edit compressed files , [thats what JPG and TIFF are ]


it doesnt matter how you scan
just put the images in a new folder
in LR import that folder

if you have placed photos in a folder that already exists in LR
then in LR , right-click the folder and select synchronize


hope it makes a bit sense now

Thanks for the instruction. This should make i easier on me, while saving a lot of disk space.