Can you work with layers in LR?

[david k]

I am not at all familar with LIghtroom, and only work in Photoshop and some similar programs. 

In PS I can load multiple layers or images and save them in one Photoshop .PSD file. For example, I could load a photo of a subject and another of texture and then creativity 'mix' the two, masks and different blending modes and opacities - and I can save all of these while keeping the underlying images intact. 

Can you work with multiple laters or images in LR in the same way. 

[Rob_Cullen · Accepted solution]

Photoshop can save your new images (Collage from originals?) as PSD or TIF file types while keeping any layers intact and re-editable.

Lightroom can index these layered files in the catalog, but Lightroom is only aware of the image as one (flattened?) layer and applies any further Lr editing as if it were a single layered file.

The PSD or TIF file can always be re-opened in Photoshop with the layers intact..

(Slightly different answers might be needed depending on which App-  Lightroom or LIghtroom-Classic.)

[david k]

I already said I know I can work in layers in Photoshop. So, you are confirming that LR is useless for the creative task I need it for - which is to work in multiple layers. 

[selondon]

Indeed

[Rob_Cullen]

Not so much "useless", but knowing that any development steps in Lr-Classic are 'Global' to the image. ie. An overall effect (such as would be a single layered file). (Not mentioning Local adjustments in LrC!).

If the file is a TIF or PSD saved from Photoshop with layers, then the layered image can always be re-opened (from LrC) in Photoshop by using [Edit-In ORIGINAL]. 'Original' preserves the layers as they came from Ps, but the image in Ps will  not show any 'recent' LrC develop adjustments.

But consider that you can re-apply the 'recent' LrC develop adjustments from LrC History when the image returns from Ps to the LrC catalog.

Clear as mud?

Summary : Always re-open layered files to Ps using the [Open as Original] option. Upon return to LrC by a [Save] -  re-apply LrC edits from History (if they don't automatically get re-applied).

It's like a house where the foundation, walls, and roof, are the "Layers", and the roof paint is the "LrC edits" on top.

[john beardsworth]

In your example you're really talking about compositing, and that isn't what any version of Lightroom does. After all, Photoshop can do anything whatsoever to a single image, and in your example it can exploit its range of layer options like blending modes. Lightroom can go overall adjustments and in its Masks feature it does approximate to Photoshop's adjustment layers, but Lightroom is more about managing your images and adjusting them (note the use of the plural). It's not a compositing tool.

[david k]

Yes John, I have figured that out. As I said, I was trying to see if a fellow workshop student could do a particular image technique (compositing) we learned in a workshop, because neither I (who does not know or use LT) nor her (who does use LT) knew if what we learned could be applied by her using LR. Now I know, in triplicate.