Today’s Question: Maybe we aren’t supposed to see an image open in Camera Raw from Lightroom Classic, but it does so that about 20% of the time for me. Usually if I close it and go back to Lightroom Classic and try again, it opens correctly.
Tim’s Quick Answer: This suggests that about 20% of the time you’re sending a non-raw image (such as a TIFF or JPEG) to Photoshop from Lightroom Classic, and that you have Camera Raw configured to open these other file types.
More Detail: In a previous answer I explained that if you’re sending a raw capture from Lightroom Classic to Photoshop you won’t see the Camera Raw dialog. If you do see the Camera Raw dialog for a raw capture, it indicates that you opened the raw capture directly in Photoshop or via Adobe Bridge.
However, it is possible for the Camera Raw dialog to appear if you have sent a compatible JPEG or TIFF image from Lightroom Classic to Photoshop and you have support for those file formats enabled in Camera Raw.
In this case I recommend disabling support for non-raw formats in Camera Raw, mostly to avoid confusion. You can always use the Camera Raw filter in Photoshop if you want to access some of the Camera Raw features for non-raw images.
To disable support for non-raw files, go to Camera Raw and click the gear icon at the top-right to bring up the Camera Raw Preferences dialog. In Adobe Bridge you can also go to the Edit menu on Windows or the Adobe Bridge menu on Macintosh and choose Camera Raw Preferences to bring up the dialog. In the Camera Raw Preferences dialog go to the File Handling tab, where I recommend setting the popups in the “File Format Handling” section to the “Disable” setting.
With that support for non-raw image types disabled, compatible JPEG or TIFF images (among other formats) will open directly in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic without bringing up the Camera Raw dialog.
