Skip to main content
K
kikio35479867
Participant
June 22, 2017
Question

how to 'flatten' your edits as a base for subsequent changes.

  • June 22, 2017
  • 5 replies
  • 3833 views

Hi,

I'm currently using presets to edit the look of my photos. The navigator is a great tool to preview the look before choosing it. However, it previews the look on the original photo. I've changed my white balance, exposure, etc etc to a clean edit and want to preview the preset on the CLEAN EDIT version of my photo. however, it keeps using the preset on the original 'flawed' photo. Is there a way to 'flatten' the image and apply my changes to the photo? This way the preset would be applied after the small tweaks. Right now i am round tripping to photoshop and back just for the basic edits to become 'permanent' so i can see what the presets look like on a corrected photo. Not only is this extremely time consuming, its very redundant just to be able to apply a preset and decide whether or to it will work well with the corrected photo. The other method I've been doing is applying every single preset and then switching the white balance. shadows, etc AFTER the preset has been applied just to see what the finished photo would look like! then i have to undo it all and choose a different preset, tweek the basic adjustments again, and see if i like the look. then continue this trying to recall what all the other presets looked like on the clean edit because i can't toggle between them on the navigator because it uses the photo PRE-edit!

Thanks in advance!

Kiki

      This topic has been closed for replies.

      5 replies

      J
      joshua26424292kr2j
      Participant
      October 4, 2022

      I totally understand. You want to create a baseline image that the preset will work well with. Essentially "zeroing" all the adjustments, then applying the presets to a clean and technically, "no adjustments made" image. The issue with this is that the RAW data is held into the file. The only go around I can see has been mentioned, which is loading into PS and editing the tiff. Another option that you may look into is reset an image, then apply the preset and find out what is affected. Then right click said preset and update preset and uncheck any items that are not affected, or that you do not want affected. Best of luck, I am going through the same thing you are.

      E
      embyorg
      Participant
      October 2, 2021

      Just adding that I also have this problem. It seems like a basic request. Sorry the previous answers don't get what you are trying to do. Did you ever find a solution? Thanks.

        A
        Alessandra5EE9
        Participant
        September 23, 2020

        Kiki, I just wanted to say this request/desire is so very reasonable and I, too, am frustrated by the inability to apply a preset over my initial adjustments. Sigh. I've ended up batch-exporting everything out and re-importing in order to do so.

          S
          SimonReichelACF
          Participating Frequently
          January 21, 2021

          Same here! Also, the answer marked as 'right answer' is not the right answer and not very helpful to the original problem.

            Ian Lyons
            Community Expert
            Ian LyonsCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            January 21, 2021

            If you have a feature request, then submit at https://feedback.photoshop.com/topics/lightroom-classic/5f5f2093785c1f1e6cc40872

            Rob_Cullen
            Community Expert
            Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            June 22, 2017

            I think Virtual Copies are the answer to your editing methods.

            You can create as many VCs as you need, pressing  Ctrl/' (Ctrl+apostrophe).

            You can 'Reset' a VC to 'original'. You can choose any step in the editing history of any preview and make a VC that looks like that step, then edit it further with presets, etc.

            No need to be going out to Photoshop at all until you get the look you want.

            eg. Make 10 VCs (press Ctrl/' ten times), edit each with different WB, presets, B&W, etc.

            Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
              K
              kikio35479867Author
              Participant
              June 23, 2017

              Thanks for your suggestion!

              I attempted to make a VC of my 'clean edit' and applying the preset to the VC. Unfortunately, for some reason, the preset is STILL applying the effect to the original version of the VC! I haven't found a way to make my changes STAY PUT on my photo without the preset undoing them all.

              The only route is round-tripping to photoshop (doing ZERO editing in PS) and saving the image to open back up in LR - SUPER frustrating! I wish I could just flatten the LR image!

              I'm really not interested in correcting my photo POST preset just to see if its the look I want. ARG!!

              johnrellis
              johnrellis
              Legend
              June 23, 2017

              It's not clear yet which develop settings your presets adjust and what settings you've changed in your "clean" edits.  However, LR won't let you "flatten" these settings.  To get clarity, it helps to be very specific with details:

              For example, suppose in your "clean" edit you've changed Exposure to be +1.5.  Then if you apply a preset that sets Exposure to be +0.5, the final settings of Exposure will be +0.5.   Making a virtual copy doesn't change this behavior, since the virtual copy acts just like a copy of the original, with the develop settings copied as well (as you can see from the sliders in the Develop panel).

              Continuing this example, people sometimes want the Exposure setting of the preset (+0.5) to be added to the already applied Exposure setting (+1.5), yielding a total effective Exposure setting of +2.0.  They call this ability "relative presets"; LR doesn't provide any mechanism to do relative presets, though you can find at least one plugin that does it.

              One subtlety that often trips up people: A preset sometimes has setting values that are 0, and it can be hard to tell that it does. For example, suppose a preset contains Exposure = +0.5 and Contrast = 0.   When you apply this preset, Contrast will always be "reset" back to 0.  It's not clear from your description whether you're encountering this or not.

              Note that containing a setting equal to 0 is different than not containing the setting at all. In the latter case, the preset will never change that setting. The easiest way to determine the settings changed by a preset are to right-click it in the Develop Presets panel, select Show In Finder/Explorer or select Export, and then open the .lrtemplate file in a text editor (e.g. Notepad or Textpad).

              If this doesn't help you understand what's going on, then please provide details about which settings you're changing in the "clean" edit, and upload one of the presets to Dropbox or similar so we can examine its settings.

                Per Berntsen
                Community Expert
                Per BerntsenCommunity Expert
                Community Expert
                June 22, 2017

                Why don't you just apply the preset after you've done the initial editing, and if you don't like it, press Ctrl+Z (or click the previous editing step in the History panel), and then try a different preset?

                Editing in Photoshop when you don't really have to is not a good solution, because the edits will be baked into the file and impossible to undo. (unlike edits you do in Lightroom, which are non-destructive, and never change the original file)

                  K
                  kikio35479867Author
                  Participant
                  June 23, 2017

                  Thanks for your suggestion! The goal is to do the basic edits and then apply the preset. however, the preset seems to be ignoring the fact that i tweaked the exposure controls etc. and applying its effect to the original photo. I end up losing all the work i did to create a clean edit first. Because of this 'flaw', i have to adjust the controls AFTER the preset (which is a bummer because I end up spending way to much time 're-doing' all my tweaks after each preset and then might not even like the look it gave). The only way i can have my basic edits stay put is by round-tripping to photoshop (doing ZERO editing in PS) and saving the image to open back up in LR - SUPER frustrating! I wish I could just flatten the LR image!

                  DdeGannes
                  Community Expert
                  DdeGannesCommunity Expert
                  Community Expert
                  October 2, 2021

                  Quote, “The only way i can have my basic edits stay put is by round-tripping to photoshop (doing ZERO editing in PS) and saving the image to open back up in LR - SUPER frustrating! I wish I could just flatten the LR image!”

                  Why go to PS to make no edits, simply export the original with the LrC edits and great a tiff, select to save the the same folder location and select to save to the Catalog. The new image with “flattened” with the edits and you move forward with tiff image.

                  See the screen capture.

                   

                  My only other thought would be to do " open as a smart object in Photoshop " I believe you can use a smart object in Camera Raw to do other edits to the raw data. I have never used the feature so maybe other users can comment if this is an option.

                   

                   

                  Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5,; Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.
                  Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
                  Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices