Smart Object not opening with controls

[GauchoPampa]

Hi, can someone explain why if I click on the background layer and choose 'Convert to Smart Object' then when I double click on the Smart Object icon on the recently transformed layer I get a second window with the same image as opposed to the Smart Object adjustments panel? Is it that I can only do it via LR2? (Open as Smart Object). Thanks!

[D Fosse]

Those are two different things. What's important to understand is that once a raw file is opened into Photoshop, it's no longer the same file. The linear, monochrome raw data have now been processed into a gamma-encoded standard RGB color space. 

A smart object embeds the original data inside it. Think of it as an image of an image, so to speak. Of course it's way more complicated, but that's a useful analogy.

When you open from Lightroom or ACR as a smart object, the original raw file is embedded inside it. That means you can reopen that embedded raw file in the raw processor again, and readjust the settings.

When the file has been opened into Photoshop, the raw file is gone. It is now a rendered RGB file. So if you make a smart object of this, that's what you get. The original raw data are no longer available.

[didiermazier]

I would say yes, open as a smart object if you want to keep the settings. And when you open with Camera Raw you can also open as a smart object. But as well explained by Fosse once the file opened, the smart objects you will produce in Photoshop will be a different thing.