Lightroom 3 question

leftPCbehind209 said:

Sorry if I'm not supposed to post this in the Mac Pro forum. I posted here because the Mac Pro users seem to be the ones that use this program professionally and I thought I'd get the best response here.

I'm currently using LR3 on a trial basis and am down to my last day tomorrow. I made changes to a folder of pics while on trial. AFAIK, LR3 does not make the changes to the actual DNG files in that folder (it's nondestructive).

However, I would like to know how to apply changes to the original DNG files as I have no use for them in their native format (non retouched, cropped, etc). Or, am I just supposed to output the retouched files as DNG and call it a day?

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think of the DNG as a XMP and Raw in one file so the raw is in their with instructions on what you changed !

if you want your changes to SHOW meaning you want that final image I say export them as JPG or TIF or ? your choice so you output to the final file you want !

some like to keep the DNG or Raw around in case they want to change their mind or do something else etc ??

think of it as keeping a negative around in film days

the idea is you edit what you want and can at any time go back and change things and you export to what you need ? so a set for the web and choose final output sharpening etc.. or output for print etc...

if you reout the DNG you will just have the same thing ?

leftPCbehind209 said:

Okay, I get it. Thanks.

The trial was on my iMac but I just got a new Hex Mac Pro and am going to install LR3 onto it. Is there a way to save the changes I made in LR3 and export those changes to the newly installed LR3 on my Mac Pro?

Or, should I just export the files as tif and then use those to edit from on the Mac Pro? I would rather not since my understanding is that if I edit in DNG, it is lossless.

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I thought you were done with the trial and when I said export keep them that is why since you like it going to use it just move everything over catalog and DNG

so
the settings are in the DNG
it might not hurt to write to file
metadata.write to file just to be sure also if you dont have write to XMP or the DNG settings are in the catalog which I hate cause catalog corruption has been a issue ?

so that is the beauty of raw and XMP or DNG the settings move with those files
so when you bring them in you will see them ? if not you just go up to the menu and choose
Metadata>read from file

and you will see them ?

the other way is to not convert to DNG but keep in your native raw format and then use XMP and from the catalog setting under LIGHTROOM menu choose write to XMP

also in the system preferences 4th tab you can choose where your cache is for LR

the cache is what helps speed up LR
1:1 on import is used in library and Loupe mode
standard is what is used in Develop module

moving this cache to a SSD can increase the speed of LR by about %50 ? so a preview in develop mode to get the white sliders goes from about 1 second to half a second ? and when working on 1000 images it ads up