LR questions

Richard · November 13, 2009

1. Can one import data (IPTC location, keywords) from an external SQL database?
2. Can the data in LR be exported to an external SQL database?
3. Can you open a pic in CS3 from the newest version of LR without saving an intermediary file? CS3 uses ACR 4.6 while LR is on 5.whatever. Is this a problem?

I'm about to pull the trigger on a used G10, but the software implications are starting to sink in. :rolleyes

colourbox · November 13, 2009

I don't know much about SQL, but I've seen people writing and posting about getting into the Lightroom database since it is stored in sqllite. It sounds like people get in there all the time. although it looks like it's more a case of using SQL tools to get data in and out of the database rather than import/export run by Lightroom itself. This plug-in developer seems to know quite a bit about it.

BradfordBenn · November 13, 2009

Richard wrote:

1. Can one import data (IPTC location, keywords) from an external SQL database?
2. Can the data in LR be exported to an external SQL database?
3. Can you open a pic in CS3 from the newest version of LR without saving an intermediary file? CS3 uses ACR 4.6 while LR is on 5.whatever. Is this a problem?

I'm about to pull the trigger on a used G10, but the software implications are starting to sink in.

Hi Richard-

I can answer a few of these questions:

1) I do not know
2) It can be written individually to XMP files, so I guess one could concatenate them
3) With LR2 I can go right to PhotoShopCS3 with no steps in the middle. There are some processes to make sure that one keeps the Metadata (keywords, location) but once that is part of the work flow it is fairly simple.

I am not sure if it is the same on Windows or Mac. I am doing it on the Mac side. I would be happy to send you a sample file if you think it would help.

dmmattix · November 14, 2009

BradfordBenn wrote:

Hi Richard-

I can answer a few of these questions:

1) I do not know
2) It can be written individually to XMP files, so I guess one could concatenate them
3) With LR2 I can go right to PhotoShopCS3 with no steps in the middle. There are some processes to make sure that one keeps the Metadata (keywords, location) but once that is part of the work flow it is fairly simple.

I am not sure if it is the same on Windows or Mac. I am doing it on the Mac side. I would be happy to send you a sample file if you think it would help.

Just one minor expansion on this. You can edit the image in LR2 in Photoshop CS2/3/4 directly but it does automatically save the image in a file (IMG_2777_edit.tif, IMG_2777_edit_edit.tif, etc). You do not have to manually export then go to Photoshop, find the file, edit it, etc as LR2 does it all for you. You can define the type of file you want the intermediate file to be (TIFF, PSD, JPG, etc), you can also tell LR2 to 'stack' the edited file with the original in the library which is handy, and you can tell it to apply any edits you have done in LR2 to the export before opening it in Photoshop. Also you can continue to edit the returned image from Photoshop in LR2 which I find to be very useful.

It really is a cool feature but I just did not want you to have any misconceptions on how this works...

Regards,

Mike

Richard · November 15, 2009

Mike,

I'm a little confused by your post. Are you saying that LR will always save an intermediate TIF file behind the scenes? Or only if you want it to? My current workflow is based on Bridge/ACR/CS3 and when I am done I have the original CR2, an XMP with the ACR settings and metadata, and the final JPG. I don't see any need to add a TIF to the mix, but maybe I'm missing something.

BradfordBenn · November 15, 2009

I am a little confused also. I will try it out this afternoon and possibly do a video capture so that you can see the process. Would that be helpful?

Richard · November 15, 2009

BradfordBenn wrote:

I am a little confused also. I will try it out this afternoon and possibly do a video capture so that you can see the process. Would that be helpful?

Thanks, Brad, but I don't think that's necessary. I think maybe Mike thought that I wanted to save an intermediate file, which is not what I want. Just need to confirm that intermediate files are not required.

dmmattix · November 15, 2009

Richard wrote:

Thanks, Brad, but I don't think that's necessary. I think maybe Mike thought that I wanted to save an intermediate file, which is not what I want. Just need to confirm that intermediate files are not required.

Richard,

Actually no I did not think you wanted to generate an intermediate file.

If you Click 'Photo -> Edit in -> Photoshop CS2/3/4' it will generate an 'Edit' file in the directory your Raw file is in. At least it does on my Vista, LR 2.5, and Photoshop CS4 system. Now if there is another way to edit the image in Photoshop from Lightroom that I don't know of then that process might not create an intermediate file. I also have no idea how it works on a Mac.

Due to Lightroom being a non-destructive editing program and Photoshop being (for the want of a better term) destructive editing program I am unsure how this could work otherwise.

Of course if that is not what you are attempting to do then I apologize for the mis-interpretation.

Mike

Richard · November 15, 2009

dmmattix wrote:

Richard,

Actually no I did not think you wanted to generate an intermediate file.

If you Click 'Photo -> Edit in -> Photoshop CS4' it will generate an 'Edit' file in the directory your Raw file is in. At least it does on my Vista, LR 2.5, and Photoshop CS4 system. Now if there is another way to edit the image in Photoshop from Lightroom that I don't know of then that process might not create an intermediate file. I also have no idea how it works on a Mac.

Due to Lightroom being a non-destructive editing program and Photoshop being (for the want of a better term) destructive editing program I am unsure how this could work otherwise.

Of course if that is not what you are attempting to do then I apologize for the mis-interpretation.

Mike

OK, so here's the way it works in my current workflow. I use Bridge to cull pics, then when I have selected the keepers, I cycle through them in Bridge opening them in ACR and doing all the RAW stuff. That gives me XMP files with the ACR 4.6 settings. Then I go through the set again in Bridge opening the CR2 files in CS3. CS3 opens them in ACR, and I just click Open Image and I'm in Photoshop. From there, I save the final versions as I please.

My concern is that if I get a new version of LR, the RAW work will be done in a newer version of the conversion engine than is integrated with CS3, so I don't know what will happen when I go to open it in Photoshop.

dmmattix · November 15, 2009

Richard wrote:

OK, so here's the way it works in my current workflow. I use Bridge to cull pics, then when I have selected the keepers, I cycle through them in Bridge opening them in ACR and doing all the RAW stuff. That gives me XMP files with the ACR 4.6 settings. Then I go through the set again in Bridge opening the CR2 files in CS3. CS3 opens them in ACR, and I just click Open Image and I'm in Photoshop. From there, I save the final versions as I please.

My concern is that if I get a new version of LR, the RAW work will be done in a newer version of the conversion engine than is integrated with CS3, so I don't know what will happen when I go to open it in Photoshop.

Actually, that's easy since I just upgraded from CS3 to CS4. The Edit In fuction (which is really the export) gives you the option of rendering the output image that Photoshop works on from LR since the LR Raw processor is newer than the Photoshop one. So it all works, but it DOES create a file for Photoshop to work on...

I actually like that since I can have LR stack that image with the original Raw image.

Scott_Quier · November 16, 2009

I use LR 2.5 and CS3...

I do the culling and RAW edits in LR.

The "Edit In" function displays a dialog that allows you to select between editing an image with your LR (RAW) edits or an image without your LR edits. There may be other choices, I don't remember.

The first seems to always creates either a TIF or PSD file (your choice) that is then opened by CS3. When you return to LR, the edited files is stacked with (and on top of) the "original".

I don't know what happens when taking the other fork in the road.

Richard · November 16, 2009

Scott_Quier wrote:

I use LR 2.5 and CS3...

I do the culling and RAW edits in LR.

The "Edit In" function displays a dialog that allows you to select between editing an image with your LR (RAW) edits or an image without your LR edits. There may be other choices, I don't remember.

The first seems to always creates either a TIF or PSD file (your choice) that is then opened by CS3. When you return to LR, the edited files is stacked with (and on top of) the "original".

I don't know what happens when taking the other fork in the road.

Interesting. I'm guessing that if you aren't interested in keeping the PSD/TIF once you are finished, you have to delete them manually in LR. Right?

dmmattix · November 16, 2009

Richard wrote:

Interesting. I'm guessing that if you aren't interested in keeping the PSD/TIF once you are finished, you have to delete them manually in LR. Right?

That's what I do...

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