How to avert a crisis.
I recently finished in the top 5 in a challenge. Minimal Ruleset required a JPG image capture. As is the DPC policy, my image was subject to validation by SC. I thought, "No Problem!", as I had captured JPG and RAW. I had actually presubmitted what I thought was an original file because of expected time conflicts at the end of the voting phase.
To my surprise and horror, a message came back from a kind SC member telling me my submitted "original" was not valid and had been modified by Lightroom. A second request for submission of original was presented to me, as we were in the 48 hour window for validation. Panic ensued.
I am writing this to help fellow members find their valid originals, especially when using Lightroom CC to import images via card reader from your compact flash card. Lightroom doesn’t actually store your photos anywhere. True story. Don’t worry though, your photos are still on your computer, you just need to know where to look.
By default, upon import, LightroomCC stores originals in your default Pictures Folder. (MacOS) My default Pictures Folder was on my computer's main hard drive. (That hard drive is backed up to my Backblaze account, so I actually had another copy of original files in cloud storage, in case the hard drive failed.)
So, the confusion (by me) occurred when I exported an "original" JPG file from within the LightroomCC application. That is not a valid original by DPC standards. Upon Lightroom export, Lightroom changes some exif data. It became imperative that I find the original imported file to submit for validation in a DPC challenge. It was there on my main hard drive in the Pictures Folder, in a folder labeled by date. Crisis averted.
A helpful video describing where your photos are stored by Lightroom.
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