Lightroom and Photoshop – Smart Editing

When you make adjustments to your raw files in Lightroom, you have the flexibility and the power of non-destructive edits – and unlimited undo steps. But, when you edit in Photoshop, the changes are written into the pixels and the result is a raster layer, ready for editing. However, Lightroom and Photoshop have another editing path available – one that preserves the raw data during the handoff, and maintains the non-destructive flexibility.

Lightroom and Photoshop are made to work together, and there is more than one way to move files between them. In this video, we will examine the workflow in which a raw file in Lightroom is sent over to Photoshop as a Smart Object.

Smart Objects in Lightroom and Photoshop

Within Photoshop, the raw file itself can be embedded, and then you can re-open the raw data within Camera Raw at any time to make further adjustments. This includes ALL the capabilities of camera raw, including crops, local adjustments, and even camera calibration changes. Lightroom and Photoshop can share and preserve the power of raw editing in this way.

As an added benefit, since Photoshop CC 2014’s latest update includes some new features that aren’t yet available in Lightroom, this is a slick workaround that will allow you to make changes with the new tool, while still preserving a Lightroom centric workflow.