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victorlinphoto
Known Participant
September 29, 2018
Question

Lightroom edits disappear after editing the original file in Photoshop.

  • September 29, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 5486 views

This is for Lightroom Classic CC.

Say that I import a photo and apply a develop preset.

I then notice something I need to clone out so I right-click it and edit the original in Photoshop.

After I edit and save in Photoshop, the photo that's in Lightroom no longer has all my presets applied. I have to re-apply the preset or click on the effect history panel to re-apply the preset.

In previous versions of Lightroom the presets would continue to be applied after editing and saving the original file in Photoshop. How do I get this functionality back in LR Classic CC?

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    3 replies

    V
    victorlinphotoAuthor
    Known Participant
    October 1, 2018

    I made a video of the behavior:

    elie_dinur
    elie_dinur
    Participating Frequently
    October 1, 2018

    Work-around suggestion:

    1 Edit jpg in LR.

    2 "Edit in ..." > "Open as Smart Object", image opens in PS with LR edits, but only held in memory, no new file written.

    3 Rasterize and edit.

    4 Save As jpg and overwrite original jpg.

    5 LR will reload Develop preview with both sets of edits. To hurry it along zoom to 1:1.

    V
    victorlinphotoAuthor
    Known Participant
    October 1, 2018

    Any idea why my LR is doing this in the first place though? Seems like other people on 7.5 aren't having the same issues? A previous (but still somewhat recent version) of Lightroom Classic CC also seemed to do this, but I didn't note the version number at the time.

    JoeKostoss
    Community Expert
    JoeKostossCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 29, 2018

    After the PS file returns to Lightroom, try looking at the History Panel in the Develop Module.  Some previous versions of Lightroom would not return to the latest History state.  Click on the latest history state (Top of the History list) to see if this corrects the problem.  Latest version of Lightroom is 7,5.  Do you have this latest version?

    V
    victorlinphotoAuthor
    Known Participant
    September 29, 2018

    Yes, I have 7.5 and I've been using LR for 15-some years.

    The history panel shows the edits and effects presets that I've already made. After I edit the original in Photoshop, I have to click on the latest history state to re-apply all my edits. This is annoying and is exactly opposite of what previous versions of LR has done, which is to keep all my LR edits.

    So for example:

    I import 100 JPGs

    I immediately apply various develop presets to all 100 JPGs

    I have to clone out things in 8 images, so I edit the originals in PS and save them.

    If I then export all my images in LR, I notice that all 8 of my clone-edited images no longer have the develop presets applied.

    So I have to go back, find the ones that I cloned, and individually click on the most recent history state in LR to apply their presets. Previous versions of LR never required this. When the originals changed the develop presets were still applied, so you could edit the original in PS and then immediately go back to LR and export. You never had to go back and manually re-apply your most recent history state.

    JoeKostoss
    Community Expert
    JoeKostossCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 30, 2018

    What you are remembering is how LR works with raw files:

    Import raw file

    apply Lightroom edits

    open in PS to clone The file opens without a dialog either as a psd or tif depending on how you have it set up.

    Save.

    Apply new Lightroom edits.

    open in PS again.  This time the dialog appears.  Select original and edit in PS.

    Save.

    Image now returns to LR with new LR edits still in the History.

    With a jpg, the photo returns from PS as a psd or tif.  By selecting original, no LR presets will be there.  If you choose copy with LR Adjustments, then the Original LR edits will be built into the new psd or tif created for PS but not show in History as explained by elie_di in post No. 1.

    elie_dinur
    elie_dinur
    Participating Frequently
    September 29, 2018

    You haven't said whether the photo imported to Lightroom is a Raw or an RGB image (jpg, tiff), so that's two different scenarios:

    Raw - Because PS itself cannot handle a Raw, only an RGB, the Raw needs to be converted first. If you have parallel versions of LR Classic and PSCC + its Raw converter plugin Adobe Camera Raw (for instance LR 7.5 and ACR 10.5), LR sends editing instructions to PS and the actual edit and conversion will be done by ACR. The RGB image (at this point it exists only in memory) opens in PS and can be cloned or whatever. When you finish the PS editing that image needs to be saved to disc as a tiff or psd in the original folder by doing Save and it will be auto-imported back to LR.

              If you do not have matching versions of LR and PS, LR does the conversion itself, placing a tiff or psd in the original folder and notifies PS to open it. after editing you have to replace that file with the PS-edited version by doing Save.

              Either way you have two files, a Raw that will show only proposed LR edits and an RGB that will have both LR edits and PS edits baked in and in LR will open with a zeroed Develop Basic panel.

    RGB - If the original is already an RGB and you edit, when you click "Edit in PS..." you will be given a choice; "Edit a Copy with LR Adjustments" or "Edit Original". But at this point the LR edits, even though you see them on screen, haven't been applied to the RGB file. They are only proposed edits to be applied to a new file because LR will never overwrite the original. So if you select "Edit Original" that means exactly what it says - the original without LR adjustments.

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