Thanks Mike. I'll give that a try.

Patti

One way I use is the export... option. You can set up most of the options as you see fit. But to burn to raw, under file settings, use original if the file is already raw. Also the last option, called post processing, set that to burn the exported images to a disk. Note that this will burn the original raw files as you shot them. not burn your images with any changes you may have made. For example if you cropped a bunch of shots and changed color settings those changes will not be moved, since lightroom does not actually alter your photos the export option is the only way ive found to create a file that contains your changes. If you have any more questions let me know, im new to lightroom myself but its pretty much all I use lately for tweaking photos.

 As far as burning before developing. I dont shoot in raw myself, but I only really burn photos if giving them to somebody. My backup is a secondary hard drive that everything gets copied to . Burning the photos before developing backs them up, but would be the same as exporting raw after the fact I think.

 

Well, I'm getting the hang of using LR. The export to email is really great. Now, where do I find the 'burning to disc' for NEF files? I've found the 'burn full jpeg' but not how to burn the raw files. I'm sure I'm looking right at it and just not seeing it.

P.S. do you immediately burn the raw files before developing them at all or do you do it later?

Thanks again for all the great help.

Patti

I have been using Lightroom for a while. the burning works great. The program is nice because it can be used in a non-destructive fashion, meaning your original image doesnt get altered, all changes withing the program are stroed in lightrooms internal database. This means you can crop a picture, export it, six months later realize you didnt like it cropped like that (or the person you crop out is in the good books again?) and revert it back to your origial, without having to store several copies. burning allows you to either apply your changes to new jpegs and burn them, or burn the original files without changes.

DNG = Digital Negative -I think- is adobe's attempt to create a lasting RAW standard.  The fear is that over time versions of Raw from the different manufactures will become obsolete meaning that your backups of raw images will not be able to be opened.  I personally don't see how this can happen but if an old version of Raw is no longer supported by a version of Adobe I am sure people will figure out how to convert and rearchive their images.

Thanks Bob. What is 'DNG'? That's a term I'm not familiar with.
Patti

Hi Patti

I checked my Lightroom and it does give you the ability to burn images to a disc as full sized JPEGs. I haven't actually tried it but judging by the rest of the program it should work fairly efficiently. You can also burn the file as a DNG if that is of interest.

 Bob

I'm not sure about CD burning from Lightroom. I'll look into that and let you know. I tend to backup all my images to external hard drives rather than CD/DVD since my file sizes tend to be quite large (ie 19 meg/RAW image). I do all my CD burning using Roxio.

I'll try and see if I can burn a CD from Lightroom and let you know

Bob 

Great info Bob, thanks. Can you burn cds of photos through Lightroom as well?

The resizing thing on Elements drives me crazy. That's the one thing I like about iPhoto. You can specify what demension you want. This makes resizing for the specific posting requirements of different sites so easy to accomodate. For instance, one site I frequent requires files no larger than 649x 865. I've found in Elements that to resize for web, a set size is applied that often remains too big for some forums I belong to, like the example I gave. Frustrating!

Patti

Hi Patti

I've been using Lightroom for the past year and really like it. It is an excellent adjunct to Photoshop and Elements and allows you to do a number of global changes to your images both individually and in batches. The other nice thing is it allows cataloguing of keywords and provided you do it regularly and consistently is excellent in doing searches for you images based on these keywords. The keywording can be attached to the image right at import so that you can do batches of images with similar keywords. For pixel editing you still need to use photoshop or elements. Lightroom also has a module for printing out the image which works really well as well as a module for posting to your own web site. I must caution you that the email file size is very tiny ie 50 kb for each image which works well for emailing but not so well for displaying in galleries.

Bob 

 

 

That would be wonderful James!

Patti, you have the software and it's in Elements for Mac, and you mentioned in your post, Bridge.  This is a great program for sorting and organizing your files, you can even convert your RAW images.  I would take some time to look at it, we have several videos on bridge and I would be more than happy to show you how to set it up and get working with it.  James

I'm not experienced with photo software and need some input. I've got a Mac and have used iPhoto to download from my cameras in the past year but don't like it much. It downloads all photos not just selected. I know this is fixed with iLife 08 but frankly I don't want to buy the whole thing.I've tried the image capture on my Mac. I haven't loaded the Nikon software that came with my dslr. I recently bought Elements 4 for Mac but have yet to figure it out beyond 'duplicate' and 'crop' so I haven't tried Bridge yet. LOL.
What do you use? What do you like? Anyone able to comment on the Nikon software? All guidance greatly appreciated.
Patti