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How do I use Lightroom as my external editor for Elements 2024? I looked at the Browse function but did not know which file I should click on in Adobe Lightroom files.
By @mikek6992728
That question was asked many years ago, and unfortunately the answer was that Lightroom can't work as a editor if all your organization (catalog) is not managed in Lightroom. No problem for users who preferred LR to manage their photos and Elements as a pixel editor instead of the full Photoshop.
However, whaLt is special to the Lightroom editing is the parametric editing. where you only store the source file together with your edits. Many pros and advanced users choose the same parametric as Lightroom which is the camera raw editing.
They either use the full photoshop in camera raw mode or Lighroom as asset editor with Photoshop as pixel editor.
The Lightroom plus Photoshop bundle is idea for parametric editing, as it offers the best of both worlds.
You can use a similar but simplified way with ACR in Elements. You use the organizer and you edit in parametric way from your catalog.
Two limitations:
- the ACR version of Elements is limited in features. That means that depending of your own needs, you may not be able to edit more than 80% of your pictures in ACR (much more in LR or Photoshop ACR)
- The organizer has no direct way to decide if you want to edit selected files in ACR if they are not raw files. That's only possible if the non raw +file (jpeg, psd, tiff) has been previously opened in ACR from the Elements pixel editor.
That said I use this process myself. I first select a batch of jpegs and edit them with "auto" parameters in ACR and save them (either button "Done" in ACR) or "Open" plus save in the editor.
Another discussion:
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