# No edit as smart object in PS - so what?



## ronbastien (Apr 23, 2020)

Hello,

I am new to Photoshop and Lightroom CC. I have however been using LR Classic for the past several years.  I have learned from LR there is no way to open a raw as a smart object for editing in Photoshop.  Every PS tutorial I’ve seen/read says I should be opening my raw as a smart object to avoid quality loss in editing.  Should I really be disappointed about this if I’m striving for maximum image quality / edits?  If so, how is LR so obviously inferior to LR Classic for PS editing? Is there a work around? 

I don't want to go back to LR Classic as I would like to use my tablet for editing away from home but only Lightroom CC allows you to edit raws from the cloud.


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## johnbeardy (Apr 23, 2020)

A 16 bit TIF/PSD and a SO-based file have the same image quality, so you've been misled by those tutorials. The big benefit of the SO here is that you can go back and fine tune the raw conversion, so it's flexibility rather than quality.

From Cloudy LR, can't you export as original? Then open the file as a SO in PS?


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## ronbastien (Apr 23, 2020)

johnbeardy said:


> A 16 bit TIF/PSD and a SO-based file have the same image quality, so you've been misled by those tutorials. The big benefit of the SO here is that you can go back and fine tune the raw conversion, so it's flexibility rather than quality.
> 
> From Cloudy LR, can't you export as original? Then open the file as a SO in PS?



Thank you for your guidance.   I see I can export the "orginal + settings" and open in PS as smart object.   Your prior comment "16 bit TIF/PSD and a SO-based file have the same image quality" suggests this is not necessary.  Unless I want more flexibility in Camera Raw adjustments - but this can be done in LR.  Am I following correctly?


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## johnbeardy (Apr 23, 2020)

Yes, you have got the idea.

When I said "the benefit... _here_" I was only referring to image quality because it is what you mentioned. That flexibility is important, not least as your means to produce the best quality. Say you've edited a picture in PS and then decide that the shadows are just too dark, or maybe the clouds lack any detail. In that case it can be very handy to access the raw data in ACR and fine tune how shadows and highlights are rendered. It's the same with other editing tasks. So with a smart object you are forced to do cloning on layers, which makes it much easier to fine tune your editing and avoids the risk of doing destructive work like cloning directly on the background layer. You can also apply filters to the SO - and fine tune them in later Photoshop sessions - and some PS plugins work this way too. Maybe try the SO workflow a little and then see if these differences are a benefit to you?


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