Today’s Question: I often edit from Lightroom by invoking “Edit In” to send the image to another application for a particular editing function. Once the image is returned to Lightroom Classic the file name is changed, adding “Edit” to the original name. Is there some process available to identify the application used or actions taken during the external editing?
Tim’s Quick Answer: I recommend simply renaming the edited photo to reflect the application that was used, so you can reference that filename should you need to edit the image again or simply want to know which other software had been used.
More Detail: The name appended to the existing filename when you send a photo from Lightroom Classic to an external editor is determined in the Preferences within Lightroom Classic. The default is to have “-Edit” added to the filename when a derivative image is created, but you can change this to anything you’d like.
Within the Preferences dialog you can go to the External Editing tab, and at the bottom you’ll find the Template popup, where you can select a file renaming template to use. You can also choose Edit from the popup to bring up the Filename Template Editor, where you can define your own structure for renaming the derivative image being created.
You might therefore be tempted to use a template that includes the name of the external editor you use most often, such as Photoshop. However, this does not provide a good solution if you use more than one application for editing photos from Lightroom Classic.
Therefore, I recommend simply renaming the filename after you have created a derivative image by sending a photo from Lightroom Classic to an external editor. This can be done by simply changing the filename in the File Name field available in the Metadata section of the right panel in the Library module in Lightroom Classic. Simply click into the field and make any desired changes to the filename for the image, such as adding “Photoshop” to the end of the filename if you had sent the image to Photoshop for additional editing.
If you don’t see the File Name field in the Metadata section of the right panel you can change to a different metadata view preset using the popup to the left of the Metadata heading on the right panel. For example, the “EXIF” and “EXIF and IPTC” presets include the File Name field.