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A
Allan_Sutherland
Participant
November 12, 2019
Question

Lightroom adjustments in photoshop

  • November 12, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 289 views

After making adjustments in a photograph in Lightroom, editing it in Photoshop with layers, and saving the image in photoshop I find that when I reopen the file again the Lightroom adjustments are missing. If I open the file via Lightroom, the layers no longer appear in Photoshop. When Photoshop saves the photo, does it not also incorporate the Lightroom adjustments?

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    2 replies

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 12, 2019

    What do you mean exactly with 'the file'? The original raw file? A tiff/psd file? Please describe step by step what you did. As I explained, sending a layered tiff/psd form Lightroom to Photoshop will create a flattened copy, unless you use 'Edit Original'. If you use 'Export' rather than 'Edit in', then you will always lose the layers. Lightroom cannot export a layered file.

     

    If you use 'Edit Original' however, then you will not see any of the Lightroom edits you made on this file in Photoshop (because Lightroom edits are non-destructive and are stored in the catalog, not applied to the image). But when the file returns from Photoshop, you should see the Lightroom edits again.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 12, 2019

    When you send a raw file from Lightroom to Photoshop, you will get a PSD or TIFF file with the Lightroom edits 'baked in'. That is what you further edit in Photoshop. When this file comes back into Lightroom, you will not see any edits (all the sliders will be at zero) but the effect of the edits is baked into the file.

     

    When you send this file again to Photoshop and you want to preserve the layers, you need to choose the 'Edit Original' option, not one of the other two options. The other two options cause Lightroom to create a new copy, and because Lightroom does not support layers this will be a flattened copy.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
      A
      Allan_SutherlandAuthor
      Participant
      November 12, 2019

      Perhaps I was not clear enough. I have edited the file in Lightroom Classic 9, e.g., adjusting exposure, contrast, blacks, clarity, texture, etc. Then I exported with edits to Photoshop, where I saved the file, and added a duplicate layer, essentially to remove dust from the original, cropped the layer, and saved. This morning when I opened the file with Photoshop, I noticed that the image did not have the same darkness of the original; the Lightroom adjustments were missing. Then if I export the new file from Lightroom, the Lightroom adjustments are there, but the second layer is missing.

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