Where are Lightroom Equivalents in PS CS 5?

[Darkness]

Friends:

I use Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS 5. Since I have these tools in Lightroom I would like to know where they are in Photoshop CS 5:

Clarity
Recovery
Fill Light
Blacks

Thanks amigos,

Migs

[lurch]

They are in Adobe Camera Raw.

[Darkness]

Hi Lurch:

Excellent! Let me ask another question if I may: When in Lightroom, I right click to edit in Photoshop. It skips the Camera Raw transition window. Is there a way to get to it?

Thanks again!

Migs

[FortyOneSixty]

There are two ways to open an image in Camera Raw that I know of.

First, go to File-->Open As...-->

Select Camera Raw in the drop down menu, then select your image.

Second (I prefer this way) is right click an image in Adobe Bridge. Click on Open in Camera Raw.

[Darkness]

Hi 40160:

Thanks for your reply, though I'n not sure either way will work for me:

-File open as means searching through 50,000+ images in my Lightroom hard disk.
-Adobe bridge seems superfluous since I use Lightroom 3 as my catalog. Or am I missing something about Bridge that should be in my workflow?

Migs

[FortyOneSixty]

I misunderstood the question I guess.

I thought you wanted to know how to do use CS5 without Lightroom. Didn't realize you wanted to go into Camera Raw from lightroom.

[Darkness]

I guess I'll come clean. This is what I really want to discover:

I like several of the features in Lightroom:

Clarity
Recovery
Fill Light
Blacks

I would like to know where they are in Photoshop CS 5. It turns out they are not in Photoshop CS 5, but rather in the Camera Raw import. Unfortunately my workflow never sees Camera Raw since I import directly to Lightroom from my camera and then do some global correction in LR and final edits in PS. I wanted to include Camera raw in between Lightroom and Photoshop OR discover the same tools inside Photoshop.

Thanks for educating me!

Migs

[andrewrodney]

The develop module and ACR are using the same processing engine and about 98% of the same controls. But in order to bounce back and forth between the two, both have to be on parity in terms of the version (LR3 and CS4 ain’t going to do this). When you invoke the “Edit in Photoshop” command in LR, its actually ACR that renders the data. If the two are not the same version, LR will pop a dialog telling you.

IF you want to move back and forth, best way is to embed the raw in a smart object in a Photoshop doc, then when you wish to edit the raw, ACR will open (not LR).

[John Wheeler]

Hi Migs

ADDED EDIT: Looks like Andrew posted some of the same info as I was typing so some of this is a repeat.

To be honest, I do not understand why you want to go to ACR since that is the same engine as Lightroom and all those tools are already available to you.

If you are doing a round trip back to Lightroom, it is easy to get tripped up with your proposed workflow so the edits you do in ACR are not saved properly (i.e. the Lightroom catalog will not automatically be updated for the Raw File to see the changes you do in ACR).

The book "Adobe Photoshp LIghtroom the missing FAQ" by Victoria Bampton has an excellent and detailed discussion of all the options including how to get to ACR. If you want to know all the ins and outs I recommend that book.

If you are only going one direction to Photoshop and you do not care about coming back to Lightroom there are a couple easy ways to do this.

A key difference between Lightroom and Photoshop that you need to understand is that in Lightroom, all the changes are kept in the Lightroom Catalog. In Photoshop and Bridge, if you are editing Raw files, all the data is kept in external sidecar XMP files (if you set the Camera Raw Preferences to do so). You should understand these differences to keep yourself out of future trouble.

Note, when you "Edit In" to go to Photoshop with a Raw file, it is rendered in ACR (its the same engine as Lightroom) and then opens up in Photoshop directly. Your preferences in Lightroom determine if is a TIFF or PSD file, what color space and resolution/bit depth. So a TIFF/PSD file is create.

With those warnings here are some ways to get to ACR either while in Photoshop or on the way to Photoshop:

1) Open up the image as a Photoshop Smart Object. In PS, you then double click on the Smart Object in the Layer Stack and it will take you to ACR. Note that when going to Photoshop as Smart Object, a TIFF/PSD file is not created until you do the first File > Save. The changes you make in ACR will not be automatically be reflected back into the Lightroom catalog for the Raw file - this requires manual intervention if desired (see below)

2) An alternate way to get to ACR directly. From within Lightroom, push your edits out to an XMP sidecar file with CMD+S (Ctrl + S on PC). Right click on file and use "Show in Finder". From here, you can right click on file and do an open in Photoshop CS5 and it will open as a RAW file right into ACR. Note, to be consistent with other editors and have the ability to go back to Lightroom you want your camera raw preferences set to save changes in the XMP file and not the camera raw database. From here you jump into Photoshop in the color space, bit depth, etc as set in ACR (not based on the Lightroom Preferences). Also note that while the XMP data will have the changes you do in ACR, Lightroom will not know about those changes unless you go back into Lightroom and manually read the Metadata from the XMP sidecar file to overwrite what is in the Lightroom Catalog.

So, you may now see why you can get tripped up going down this path. I have shown you some ways to do it, yet please be aware of the pitfalls and I suggest you consider alternate workflows to avoid these pitfalls. Hope that helps and good luck.

[Darkness]

"A key difference between Lightroom and Photoshop that you need to understand is that in Lightroom, all the changes are kept in the Lightroom Catalog."

This is an eye opener! I thought even in Lightroom the changes were kept in the XMP sidecar. That sucks.

"Open up the image as a Photoshop Smart Object. In PS, you then double click on the Smart Object in the Layer Stack and it will take you to ACR."

This seems extremely useful. I just have to figure out to open it as an object.

"An alternate way to get to ACR directly. From within Lightroom, push your edits out to an XMP sidecar file with CMD+S (Ctrl + S on PC). Right click on file and use "Show in Finder". From here, you can right click on file and do an open in Photoshop CS5 and it will open as a RAW file right into ACR."

I would have never figured this out. I copied this thread into my Evernote because the solutions you all provide are invaluable! I just have to go in and do each suggested method on my own and see the benefits first hand.

I'm amazed at what powerful tools we are working with. PS and LR. And I thought my Nikon's manuals were comprehensive!

I remain most grateful to you all. I only hope that I can re-tribute to someone else learning this retouching craft. My pics, by the way are at migs.smugmug.com

All the best amigos,

Migs

[John Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Darkness

This seems extremely useful. I just have to figure out to open it as an object.

Hi Migs
You may have already figured this out. To open form LR into PS as an Object, right click and choose the option "Edit In > Open as Smart Object in Photoshop" just a little further down the drop down menu choices.

[Darkness]

Thank you John. I was opening regular, and will do the object way now.

[andrewrodney]

Originally Posted by Darkness

Hi 40160
-Adobe bridge seems superfluous since I use Lightroom 3 as my catalog. Or am I missing something about Bridge that should be in my workflow?

Not at all (unless you deal with files that LR can’t and Bridge can, like InDesign, PDF etc). Otherwise Bridge is pretty much unnecessary.