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andrewh09
andrewh09
Participant
October 4, 2018
Question

Photoshop Question Regarding Layers and Workflow

  • October 4, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 320 views

Hi All!

I know my way around Photoshop a bit and use it primarily for my retouching. I do all my color/exposure correction in Lightroom.

What I'll usually do is finish my Lightroom edits, import into Photoshop, do my skin retouching and then save it as the finished product. I assume there is a way to accomplish what I'm looking for while retaining the feel of my preset from Lightroom via Layers.

A little Background: What I've done in the past is taken my light/color corrected photo from Lightroom into Photoshop and edited the blemishes, smoothed skin, etc. The result however is an imaged which has these spots where you can see that the skin looks completely "different" from the rest of the photo due to the retouching. For instance I'll add grain to the photo, but when I smooth the skin, you can see that all of the grain ( which was applied in Lightroom) has been removed from the skin due to the smoothing and everything looks off. It honestly looks like a silhouette of a person cut out of my photo where you can see the skin smoothing applied. What I want to accomplish is a finished photo that retains the uniform color/look from Lightroom, but incorporates the skin retouching from Photoshop.

Again, forgive my half understanding of how Photoshop Layers work... but how do I get the skin edit layer to show up on my Lightroom edit layer without ruining it? Basically I want to get rid of my skin in the Lightroom layer and use the skin edits from my retouching layer. Pretty much as if I were to lay the Lightroom layer on top of the Skin edits and have the Lightroom layer over the entire image WHILE retaining the retouching I've done and eliminating the problem I ran into before. Hope I'm conveying what it is I'm trying to accomplish here in a way that's understandable.

I assume that I could create a separate layer, do my retouching there and then combine the two together. The problem is I don't know enough about layers and how they work to make it so that I get my skin retouching to show, yet retain the color/grain/light edits from Lightroom. Would I use Opacity here in this case to bring the bottom layer skin retouching through? Thanks!

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2 replies

Ussnorway7605025
Ussnorway7605025
Legend
October 4, 2018

Lightroom works in Raw files so whatever change you make is able to be undone. the [Photoshop | Lightroom...they both use the same] Raw-editor does a good job on colour but is hopless at crops

Photoshop is not for touching up Raw images so changes stay on the image and its not a good work flow to bring that back into Lightroom

JJMack
Community Expert
JJMackCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 4, 2018

I did not read all of what you wrote and I do not use Lightroom. What I think your after is:   Lightroom does not support layers. If you save and thing you do in Photoshop in layered Psd Files with the maximum Compatibility option.  Photoshop will save a full size composite layer in the file of the  document's visible layers. Lightroom will use that layers like it was a flat file.   Photoshop will use your Lighroom edits.

JJMack
andrewh09
andrewh09Author
Participant
October 4, 2018

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, Lightroom does not use layers, correct. I'm exporting my color/light edits from Lightroom INTO Photoshop and doing my skin retouching there.

What I'm looking to accomplish is retaining my Lightroom edits, which have been exported into Photoshop, while applying my skin retouching, which is done in Photoshop. The problem I've had in the past is that my skin retouching seems to be on the same layer as my Lightroom edits. Again, I don't fully understand how layers work, but I assume there is a way for me to do the skin retouching on a different layer and put my Lightroom edits (which would be in their own separate layer) ON TOP of it. The problem I'm running into is I don't know how to maintain the look of my Lightroom preset (which again, would now be in a layer, in Photoshop) while doing my skin retouching.

Would I use opacity to only show the skin retouching? Would the layer order play into this as well? Right here is where my layer knowledge really breaks down.

If I'm looking at this visually it's like I want to lay my Lightroom edit layer on top of my skin edit layer but only have my skin retouching visible UNDER my Lightroom edit layer. Does that help clarify things a bit?

Ussnorway7605025
Ussnorway7605025
Legend
October 4, 2018

are we talking png files by this stage i.e, Lightroom edits the Raw first then you bring that into Photoshop as a Png?

layers = the top layer covers all under it [or just one under it] [or all under it in the same group]

Opacity = everything on the layer

Full = only the used pixels... useful for adding strokes with out needing to have the middle

Photoshop does not do before | after like Lightroom does... in Photoshop you turn layers on or off to show the effects but another option is to make a screenshot layer, press [ctrl]+[shift]+[alt]+ to merge all of the layers into a new single layer you can see all edits in

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