Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 for Dummies®

Chapter 10. Exporting Photos

In This Chapter

• Understanding the export concept

• Getting to know the export dialog box

• Using an export workflow

• Saving time with presets

• Extending export options

Those in the know about Lightroom will tell you that your photos are never actually inside Lightroom. (I'm in the know, and I make that exact same point in Chapter 4.) Such a We're-So-Lightroom-Hip-We-Can-Make-Seemingly-Off-The-Wall-Claims kind of statement does beg the question that if the photos are never in Lightroom, why does exporting sound an awful lot like you're getting them out? Good question!"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is ..."

Oops, sorry about that — wrong question. Nevertheless, it does depend on how you define"export." In Lightroom, the export process could be called"creating copies of your photos while applying your Lightroom adjustments" but it doesn't quite roll off the tongue the same way as"exporting" does. However, that is what's really happening here. If you're familiar with Photoshop or Elements, then you can think of exporting as a Save As command on steroids. No matter how you think about it, the essential point you need to keep in mind is that this is how you apply your Lightroom edits to copies of your source files.

You export images for many reasons, and here are a few of the most common:

• You want to e-mail photos to someone.

• You want to burn a group of images ...