Today’s Question: When I tell Lightroom Classic to edit a photo in Photoshop, it no longer asks if I want to edit it with Lightroom adjustments or if I want to edit the original file. It just sends the file directly into Photoshop with the edits I’ve already made in Lightroom Classic. Why is that?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You will not be asked what option you want to use when you send a raw capture to Photoshop from Lightroom Classic. Rather, when you send a raw capture to Photoshop the adjustments applied to the image in the Develop module will always be applied, and a derivative image will be created based on the settings on the External Editing tab of the Preferences dialog in Lightroom Classic.
More Detail: If you use the Edit In commend to send a non-raw capture to Photoshop from Lightroom Classic, you’ll be asked how you want the file to be processed. You can make a new copy based on the source image that is flattened if you choose “Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments”. You can create a copy that includes layers and other features from the original by choosing “Edit a Copy”, but the adjustments from Lightroom Classic won’t be visible while you’re working in Photoshop. You can also choose “Edit Original” to open the source file in Photoshop, in which case the adjustments from Lightroom Classic won’t be visible while working in Photoshop.
If you send a raw capture to Photoshop from Lightroom Classic, you aren’t able to edit the original since you can’t save the updated image as a raw capture. Instead, the image will be created as either a TIFF file or a Photoshop document (PSD) file based on the option established on the External Editing tab of the Preferences dialog.
By saving the derivative image as a TIFF or PSD file, you’ll be able to preserve all features you took advantage of in Photoshop, such as adjustment layers, additional image layers, layer masks, and more. Since this is the recommended workflow, and you’re not able to save an updated raw capture file, you aren’t prompted by Lightroom Classic about what to do when you send a raw capture to Photoshop.
