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EIMO34043688pfdi
Inspiring
October 20, 2026
Answered

Focus Stacking from Lightroom Classic performed in Photoshop Causes Photoshop to Crash.

I’m using the latest versions of Lightroom Classic (15.6) and Photoshop on Windows 11 Professional. When I transfer Canon RAW photos (CR3) from Lightroom to Photoshop for focus stacking (via “Open as Layers…”), Photoshop regularly freezes and becomes unresponsive. It can only be terminated via Task Manager. Only in rare cases does it work as usual. The problem also occurred in previous versions, but more sporadically. In my old version, which was still running on Windows 10 (until July), this problem never occurred.
It appears to be a scripting issue that will hopefully be resolved in LR16. In the long run, to avoid such problems, it would make sense to perform focus stacking directly in LR anyway. 

System:

Prozessor    Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 9 285K, 3700 MHz, 24 Kern(e), 24 logische(r) Prozessor(en)

BaseBoard-Produkt    ProArt Z890-CREATOR WIFI

Adapterbeschreibung    NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

Memory 64GB
 

    EIMO34043688pfdiCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    October 21, 2026

    The number of RAW files is actually irrelevant; this happens starting with just two photos. 

    However, I’ve since taken my findings a step further. I had been focusing on a single series of shots the whole time. A counter-test using older photos worked. I checked for differences (lens, camera, etc.) and for different settings. I gradually undid all the adjustments I’d made in Lightroom or combined them differently.

    It turned out that I had applied the “Adaptive Color” profile to the current photo series. As soon as this setting is removed, focus stacking works again. Apparently, there are issues when transferring photos to which adaptive profiles have been applied.

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    2 replies

    Happy Cranker
    Participating Frequently
    October 21, 2026

    Can you please let us know how many focus staked shots are you typically sending over to PS, as this could be a memmory issue?

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    EIMO34043688pfdiAuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    October 21, 2026

    The number of RAW files is actually irrelevant; this happens starting with just two photos. 

    However, I’ve since taken my findings a step further. I had been focusing on a single series of shots the whole time. A counter-test using older photos worked. I checked for differences (lens, camera, etc.) and for different settings. I gradually undid all the adjustments I’d made in Lightroom or combined them differently.

    It turned out that I had applied the “Adaptive Color” profile to the current photo series. As soon as this setting is removed, focus stacking works again. Apparently, there are issues when transferring photos to which adaptive profiles have been applied.

    Translate
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