How to edit as layers in PS then reimport to LR

Question

Hi everyone, I have about 50 photos I want to align for a timelapse. They're taken of my (then) pregnant wife and capture the progression of her pregnancy. The photos were taken in different locations and slightly different focal lengths and compostions but they're basically within the window of being realigned.

I sought assistance on another forum and it was suggested to export from LR by selecting the "Edit as Layers in Photoshop" option, then use PS to align the photos to one reference photo by adjusting opacity, scale and position. This worked well, however it was the reimporting to LR where I have found problems. Firstly, I made the batch too large and the resultant TIFF was too large and couldn't be saved. So I cut down the first batch to 10 photos, which saved but then when I went back to LR they appear as a single TIFF, which I presume is stacked. I couldn't figure out how to extract the 10 images from the single file so I tried it again after deselecting the 'Batch with Original' option. However this still produced a single stacked TIFF.

Can anyone explain what I need to do to see my edited photos individually back in LR?

Thanks!

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richardplondon · Answer

Open as Layers is a "script" specifically for combining many images into a single new image.

These layers are still separately present in the TIFF or in the PSD, but LR actually sees a flat image (a compatibility preview). This was built by PS at the moment of save, and included in the file separate from the layers themselves. This preview represents the complete layer stack (as then seen in PS).

So if you bring 5 images into PS this way, and simply leave those opaque, one of these image layers will simply conceal the others behind. But if you've introduced some partial transparency or interaction to those layers, then that is what you will see instead.

If you want to have the PS-aligned photos back in LR as separate images you will need to carry out some additional steps.

For example: in PS, you can use "Export / Layers to Files". Then in LR, you can Sync the folder where the primary starting image is located, and opt to import those newly made image files.

What this will not do, is directly associate each layer derived image, with the respective source image that went into its original creation. However those original filenames should have been reflected as the names of the layers, and those in turn should have been appended to the sequential filenames created by the "Layers as Files" export process. So I suppose you could manually stack them (or whatever) based on that. Or simply regard these new images as independent of their originals.

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