ADOBE... IDEA FOR ACR

[ParhamPBaker]

I use ACR virtually always.  I click on my raw file and bingo, it's up in ACR.

Then I mess, adjust, linger... and open in Photoshop.  But now by base image has been adjusted.  

How about an option that would leave the basic raw image in as background once you've entered Photoshop editing, and what you messed with as the first layer.  Then you would always have the base, unedited, to refer to, or dupe for some reason.  Just would be nice to have the option to keep that base image in as the, well, base image. 

[John T Smith]

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[elie_dinur]

I'm afraid you don't understand how ACR works, or the nature of Raw files for that matter. ACR never changes a Raw file; instead, when Open Image is clicked it creates a new edited version of the image which is stored temporarily in memory and simultaneously creates a sidebar xmp file in which all the editing you have requested is listed for future reference. The image in memory is opened in PS as your Background layer. Once you have finished with it in PS you make it permanent by saving it to disc as a new image file in the graphic format of your choice while the original Raw remains untouched, waiting for further or new editing.

 However, in ACR click on the link at the bottom center to open the Workflow Options dialog and select Open as Smart Object. The Open Image button changes to Open Object and when you click on it the base layer in PS will have the name of the Raw file. Any time you double-click on its thumbnail you will be taken back to ACR. You can change the Raw editing, click OK and return to PS.

[ssprengel]

I believe all the OP is asking for is when you open an image into Photoshop from ACR, two layers are produced, the first or lower layer the image with ACR defaults, and the second or top is the layer with the current ACR settings.  

The way it works, now, is one layer, with the current settings, is available when you open into PS.  

There might be a way to use a smart object, as you describe, to accomplish the OP's dual-layer situation:

Open a raw image in ACR, then without changing anything,

Press Shift / Open Object to open the image with default ACR settings as a smart object into PS, then
Ctrl-Shift-Alt (or Cmd / Shift / Opt on Mac) N E.  The creates a new blank layer and rasterizes the lower layer into it.

Drag the rasterized layer below the smart object layer in the layer pallet.

Now to adjust in ACR, double-click the smart-object's thumbnail to open in ACR and make the adjustments.

One note is that you cannot just duplicate the smart object layer because each will point back to the same raw file and the same XMP file with adjustments rather than be independent layers with their own adjustments.

Besides just creating a default-settings layer below the smart-object layer, you could click into the smart-object, click Auto tone, then exit out, then Ctrl-Shift-Alt N E the auto-settings into another raster layer, drag it below, then click back into the smart-object, and reset it back to defaults or leave it at Auto and do more adjustments.

I think if I was doing this, i.e. opening the default and an adjusted image into PS as layers, I start with Lightroom, which has the same settings as ACR, make some adjustments, and if I wanted to have the original settings as a layer, make a virtual copy, reset it's settings so it'd have the ACR-default settings, then select both the original and virtual copy and choose Open as Layers into PS, or whatever the right-click option is called.  Neither layer would be an adjustable-raw, anymore, just a rasterized image, but this is the same as the OP's scenario.

[Chuck Uebele]

You can open a Raw file as an object, then right click click to duplicate via copy. This will produce two smart object t layers that can be edited differently in ACR and retain the different edits. If you want the base original, just reset the ACR defaults in that smart object. And editing the duplicated smart object will not change the main edits to you Raw file that you see in Bridge. I do that all the time.