Legend

Answered

Export to DNG or Edit in Photoshop?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
May 30, 2024
2 replies
1798 views

After I composite images in Lightroom, I export the image to a DNG file, then open it which is done in Camera RAW (I believe), correct the white balance and then open in Photoshop. But I could just right click on the image in Lightroom and choose Edit in Photoshop. What are the advantages or disadvantages of doing it one way or the other? Thanks.

Windows

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer D Fosse

Just Edit in Photoshop!

I don't know what you mean by "compositing" in Lightroom. If you mean merge to panorama, Lightroom creates a merged dng automatically, and saves it along with the original raw files.

Either way, there's no need for another extra file. Once processed in Photoshop, you still have the original plus a separate rendered RGB file coming out of Photoshop, so you already have two files to manage. No need for a third.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

What exactly do you mean by "composite images"?

As Lr has the Develop module which uses the same engine as Adobe Camera Raw, my first question is why are you not performing the edits there, as there is no need to do the same in ACR.

bartonlewAuthor

Legend

Thank you. By composite images I meant Merge to Panorama. The only edit I perform in ACR is to correct White Balance. Then upon opening the file in Photoshop, I do all my remaining edits there.

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

Thanks so much. I had no idea the masking tools in LrC were superior. I use the Quick Selection tool in PS a lot, and do not know if LrC has that functionality, if it does, as just one example of what has been keeping me from editing in LrC. Another is Perspective Warp, which I assume there is no equivalent of in LrC. But I really don't know and will investigate. I suppose a workflow could potentially incorporate both softwares, if needed. I'll try to find videos on youtube dealing with masking in LrC. If you know of good tutorials, please pass that information along. Thanks again.

I perhaps coud have used better words, like- All the editing tools in Lightroom-Classic are also in ACR (and the cloud version of Lightroom). Lr-Classic excels mainly because of its file management tools that allows batch processing of files far easier than ACR. LrC also stores edit history (forever, unless you delete it) something that ACR does not do (XMP- yes, History- no.).

For 'What's New' start with these links-

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/lightroom-classic/help/whats-new.htmlmany

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/whatsnew/classic/

And my goto site for tutorials is-

Julieanne Kost. Lightroom tutorials.

You are correct in saying that Perspective warp is only in Photoshop. Lr-Classic has a simplified 'Transform' tool to correct minor 'perspective' problems.

The main point I was trying to express is - if you use Lightroom-Classic, you rarely need ACR (unless you open images as Smart Objects in Photoshop).

To 'each their own' of course. My comments are suggestions only to take or leave. Regards

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .

D Fosse

Correct answer

Community Expert

Just Edit in Photoshop!

I don't know what you mean by "compositing" in Lightroom. If you mean merge to panorama, Lightroom creates a merged dng automatically, and saves it along with the original raw files.

Either way, there's no need for another extra file. Once processed in Photoshop, you still have the original plus a separate rendered RGB file coming out of Photoshop, so you already have two files to manage. No need for a third.

bartonlewAuthor

Legend

Yes, by compositing I meant Merge to Panorama. Thanks for pointing out that the merged DNG is created by Lightroom, hence no need to Export to DNG. So the remaining question is, if I go to that merged file on my hard drive and right click and choose Open in Adobe Photoshop 2024, it opens it in Camera Raw. If I right click on the file inside Lightroom, it opens it as a DNG inside Photoshop. What are the practical differences of choosing one over the other? Does it come down to whether you want to work in Camera Raw or not? What are your own preferences, and what guides them? Thank you.

D Fosse

Community Expert

You need to keep track of where the raw editing metadata are stored. ACR stores them in the DNG file header, while Lightroom stores them in the Lightroom catalog.

This means that edits in ACR are ignored in Lightroom, and edits in Lightroom are ignored in ACR.

You can instruct Lightroom to "read metadata from file" and "save metadata to file", but this will slow it down and defeats the purpose of the Lightroom catalog (speed and efficiency of high-volume processing).

In other words, you can do either and the results are identical, but then you quickly end up with an incomplete Lightroom catalog and confusion about what edits you have actually done to the file and where they are.

The general advice is to choose one raw processor and stick to it. Either Lightroom or ACR+Bridge.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded