TIFF-raw lr-ps workflow i am confused

[Mircula]

Hello,

I am using lightroom for the majority of my images and recently started to use photoshop to do a couple of things.

What I would like to do is:

Import into lr, do some basic adjustments (basic panel).

Then I would like to open that file in ps to some removing of items or similar, save and then keep working in lr.


I could do that with export as tiff into ps, do my adjustments and then safe the tiff file which is then in my lr library and i can keep working on it as a tiff in lr....

What i dont like about it is, that then all my adjustments i made in the basic panel before exporting are set to 0 again and i cannot see what i did with the sliders.

Is there anyway around that?

Does it make a difference in terms of the quality of the photo if i do these basic adjustments and/or other adjustments on the TIFF file instead of the RAW file?

How do you do it if you use lightroom and ps together?

Cheers,

Mirc

[mynxt]

Good question Mirc. I'm not sure myself as I haven't gone back from photoshop into Bridge (which is the same as Lightroom) but I've noticed some others on here do. :)

[ozwebfx]

make sure when you take the image to PS that you select "edit a copy with Lightroom adjustments" That way your original Raw file will remain in place along with the changes that you've made so far.

[Mircula]

yeah i know that. but that is a different topic :) ! Thank you anyway.....

[ricktas]

Lightroom doesnt alter ANY photo as such. It creates a sidecar file that is attached to the original photo. That sidecar file has a set of instructions in it, that direct lightroom on how you edited your photo. So the sidecar file could look like this:

Saturate :60%
Shadows: 40%
Levels adjustment black 240, mid grey 15, white 250

Etc.

Now as your lightroom adjustments are NOT applied to the photo, of course when you go back to the photo in lightroom, the settings will be zero. That is the way lightroom works. There is a way to force lightroom to save a copy of your photo, with adjustments as well. I am not at my PC at present, so cannot look it up, but it is possible, and the edited version is 'stacked' with the original. You need to investigate how to do that.

[Mircula]

Hello Rick,

thank you for the answer. I knew that it creates a sidecar file as it cannot adjust the raw file itself...but yeah that way it makes sense that the adjustments cannot be in the tiff file coming back from ps.


I was as well thinking about DNG files. As lightroom gives the option to save the metadata to the dng file so it is incorporated in the file. Maybe it is then possible to open that file in ps edit it and save it into the same file.
That way the settings made in lightroom should be still there....

But i dont think i can do that in lr itself as it only allows me to export as tiff to photoshop....

[ricstew]

Doesnt it work like this ( or at least here is how I do it )?
Import to LR
do what needs to be done ( History only shows in the develope module )
Right click to import to ps...( I use paint shop)
import a copy with LR edits ( stack with original )
Do any other edit and then save ( just straight save so it copies over the copy I took into ps )
If I want to check what I had done in lr I then click back to the original image in the develop module in lr.
Once it is exported to an external editor the changes made in lr are permenant..........but you always have the original to go back to....
Is this correct?
cheers
Jan

[Mircula]

hey jan,

yes that is correct, but i am looking for a way to edit my photo in lighrtoom then in ps and then back in lightroom and still see all the changes i made with the first lightroom session....

And i would like to know how other people handle this, if they decide to change their photos further after they come back from ps.

Do you go back to the original change stuff in lr and then export and do all the things you did in ps again on the photo, or do you just edit the tiff in lightroom?

And i still dont really know what disadvantages it has to change wb or other things on a tiff file instead of a raw file.....

[kiwi]

I must be missing the problem

I open file from lr into ps, with lr adjustments, then adjust using ps, then close ps and I'm able then to carry on editing the new file in lr ?

[NikonUser]

That's correct.

1) Import into Lightroom
2) Add keywords etc
3) Adjust Photo in the Develop panel
4) Right click on photo and select edit-in Photoshop - choose 'edit copy with adjustments applied'

Lightroom with then create a TIFF (or whatever you have setup in preferences) file and send that to photoshop.

5) Do your adjustments in Photoshop and save it
6) Close you photoshop file

The photoshop edited TIFF file should now be in your lightroom cataloug along with the original file pre-photoshop adjustments

7) work on the tiff file to your hearts content in Lightroom


That's how I do it anyway.

Paul

[Mircula]

Thanks guys.

That is all good and fine and i know that i can do that.

The thing i am missing is as mentioned in the first post:


What i dont like about it is, that then all my adjustments i made in the basic panel before exporting are set to 0 again and i cannot see what i did with the sliders.

Is there anyway around that?

Does it make a difference in terms of the quality of the photo if i do these basic adjustments and/or other adjustments on the TIFF file instead of the RAW file?


So i can go back to my original file stacked with my tiff copy to see what i changed, but i still cannot see it directly on the tiff and yeah, i will just do some tests to find out what the differences are in editing a tiff or the raw.....

:)

[Mircula]

hey,

anybody an answer to if it makes a difference in terms of the quality of the photo if i do basic adjustments and/or other adjustments on the TIFF file instead of the RAW file

cheers,

Mirc.

[ricktas]

You need to start 'stacking' more than one version of the file to do what you want. You need to save some versions along the way.

In photoshop you can do this by working exclusively on layers and saving the file with the layers intact. You can then open the file in the future and edit one layer (or more) from the past. But as soon as you flatten the layers and save, those adjustments layer are no longer available to you..gone forever.

The only way around this is to create new files along the way, that contain the edits to that point, then continue on.

You cannot:

Edit in lightroom, go to photoshop, do some edits, then go back to lightroom and adjust the original edits using the 1 file, whilst leaving the PS edits in place. You need multiple files, layered to do this, which is outside the scope of working with one single file and moving back and forth between software packages

You can:

Edit in lightroom, save a version, edit on photoshop, save a version. Bring both versions into the one file as layers and then edit the first version (Lightroom) as a layer, leaving the PS version as a layer intact. However this comes with an understanding of layers and how they work, and it is a bit trickier than that, depending on what you are editing on a layer, what layer masks and opacities are set for the layers.

[Mircula]

ok, i got that.

will be complicated though, as you said with the different layer possibility.

Anyway this all goes over the top i guess....

I am just gonna do some tests with changing things on tiff file and raw file and see what the difference is. If there is not much quality loss i will just do the normal workflow as described above...lr-->tiff-->ps-->save back to lightroom.

Thank you again rick!!!!