Duplicate of the original when exiting Camera Raw.

Forum|Forum|28 days ago
June 10, 2026
3 replies
104 views

When I open a RAW file in Camera Raw, I proceed directly to develop the photograph. In my workflow I immediately create a duplicate of the layer to work on, thereby preserving the original. It would be useful if the preferences offered an option — a checkbox — to automatically create that duplicate of the original when exiting Camera Raw.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

I would normally mention the Script Events Manager, however, from memory, the Open event is not triggered from ACR (I’ll need to check).

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2021/10/photoshop-script-events-manager.html?m=1

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

@Fran55 , have you considered @D Fosse ’s recommendation of opening the RAW as a Smart Object?

Which edits are you likely to perform on the copied Layer – touch-up, color edits, …?

Fran55Author

Known Participant

Thanks for answer!. I’ll try!, indeed!

D Fosse

Community Expert

I’m not sure I understand what you’re trying to achieve.

When you open a raw file into Photoshop, you’re crossing a one-way boundary line. The monochrome linear raw file, the original, has now been rebuilt into a three-channel, gamma-encoded RGB file. The original raw file is still on disk, unchanged.

If the Photoshop processing gets off on a wrong track, the simplest way to start fresh is to open the raw file once more and start again. Duplicating the processed RGB file in Photoshop doesn’t really serve any useful purpose.

There is a way to integrate this whole process so you manage both from one single file: Open as smart object. This embeds a copy of the original raw file into the RGB file you have open in Photoshop. This embedded copy is separate from the original raw file.

This way you can go back to the raw data directly from Photoshop, without needing to reopen the original raw file.

Fran55Author

Known Participant

I don't think I used the right words and terms. After opening a RAW file with Camera Raw, the file opens, and after I click OK it lets me work with the program itself. The first — and so far the only — layer that appears is called "Background." I NORMALLY duplicate that background and start working on the new layer, which the program names "Layer 1." My request was to add an option in Preferences so that, when going from Camera Raw to Photoshop, "Layer 1" appears automatically instead of me having to create it manually. Naturally, with the ability to enable or disable this behavior from Preferences. I hope I was clear!

D Fosse

Community Expert

I would recommend you make a simple action and assign an F-key shortcut to it. One keystroke, and your Background layer has a Layer 1 copy sitting on top. Someone here can probably even help you with a script that can perform the whole sequence automatically whenever a file is opened.

I’m really sorry to be dense ;-) , but I still don’t understand why this is special to a raw file opened through Camera Raw? Once the file is opened into Photoshop, it’s no longer a raw file, it’s an RGB file no different from any other file opened from any other source.

In other words, what you’re asking is a function that automatically duplicates the Background layer whenever a file is opened - and to be honest, that would probably not be very popular.

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