# Retaining RAW format importing back to Lightroom



## StarkmanAlive (Feb 14, 2015)

Hello all,
I convert all my photographs to .dng upon importing them into Lightroom. I'm now learning Photoshop, but I'm unsure about something when editing images in Photoshop via Lightroom: Is there a way to edit a .dng in Photoshop from Lightroom and retain the file's "raw" format when saving back into Lightroom? or will the image have to be a TIFF or PSD?

If there is no way to retain the raw format, how do most of you handle the extra .tiff or .psd files? do you just have them sit next to the original .dng?
The thing is here is that I don't want to necessarily wait until I'm ready to print or convert to JPEG before I edit in Photoshop. I'd just like to have the flexibility of a raw format after having edited in Photoshop in case I wish to do more editing in Lightroom.

Thanks,

StarkmanAlive


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## clee01l (Feb 14, 2015)

If the ACR versions associated with LR and PSCC are the same (currently LR5.7.1 & ACR 8.7.1), LR will pass the RAW file (it does not have to be a DNG) and the LR adjustments to PSCC.  If you have LR5.7.1, CS6 and ACR8.7.1 You can pass the RAW data too. If you have another version of PS with an older version of ACR, then your only choice is to pass an intermediate TIFF or PSD with LR adjustments applied. When passed as a TIFF/PSD, any changes made in PS are saved in the same intermediate TIFF.  When LR passes the RAW data with LR adjustments, changes made in PSCC are saved to a TIFF or PSD which will be cataloged when control returns to LR.  In either event, you will always have two files in LR - The original RAW and the edited TIFF/PSD with the PS edits applied.


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## StarkmanAlive (Feb 14, 2015)

Well, crap! That's what I was afraid of. I only need PS for compositing, layering, some of this, that and the other, but most all my adjustments are done in LR. So, I guess I'll just have to make sure I'm pretty well done with an image before taking it into LR.

Thanks much.


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## clee01l (Feb 14, 2015)

This is not a bad thing really.  The PS result is always a TIFF or PSD that is cataloged by LR.  It does not matter whether you create the TIFF with LR adjustments to send RAW data to PS with LR adjustments.  The end result coming back for PS is a TIFF with PS adjustments added.  Now if you decide later to make more PS adjustments to the Edited TIFF, you send the Edited TIFF to PS using the same Edit-In function.  Since the source file is not a RAW file, you get new choices.  One is "Edit Original".  if you select this option the TIFF is sent to PS and any additional PS Edits are applied to the same TIFF and when saved the altered TIFF is displayed in LR.  Note that while LR can not handle layers, it does reserve any layers created by the external editor.  

Keep in mind that the sequence is:
Make ALL of your LR adjustments
Call PS and Pass the adjusted image. (you can repeat this steps many times as necessary)
_Make no further LR adjustments
_Export the final version.

While you _can_ make further LR adjustments, it is not recommended to do so.


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## StarkmanAlive (Feb 14, 2015)

Thanks. I guess having two of the same files in different formats is okay—I won't be doing this to a lot of my images—but I was hoping to not have to learn a whole lot about PS other than layer stuff, cloning and maybe HDR. But if I see that there are some extra adjustments (e.g., color) I'd like to do, I don't want to have to try to figure out how to do them in PS (since I won't, or shouldn't, be doing them in LR). 

At any rate, it is what it is.

Thanks again.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 14, 2015)

You *can* still make further adjustments in LR to the Tiff/PSD after it was first created in PS, but the point that Cletus is making is that if you then decide you need to take it back into PS again you'll hit a problem:

1. You can have LR/PS create *another* new copy of the Tiff/PSD which *will* preserve the further LR adjustments, but that would mean any layers made in your first round-trip would be *lost*, i.e. the new file will be flattened.

2. Or to preserve the layers, you can use either of the other two options, both of which would mean *losing* the further LR adjustments that you made.

Neither option sounds good to me, so if you do want to make further LR adjustments, best to make absolutely certain you won't want to go back to PS.


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## StarkmanAlive (Feb 14, 2015)

Jim Wilde said:


> You *can* still make further adjustments in LR to the Tiff/PSD after it was first created in PS, but the point that Cletus is making is that if you then decide you need to take it back into PS again you'll hit a problem:
> 
> 1. You can have LR/PS create *another* new copy of the Tiff/PSD which *will* preserve the further LR adjustments, but that would mean any layers made in your first round-trip would be *lost*, i.e. the new file will be flattened.
> 
> ...




To be honest, I couldn't follow Cletus's posts very well.
I'm not interested in taking images into PS a second time, but I am interested in touching up in LR after having taken the image to PS. That's why I asked if a file sent to PS from LR can be brought back into LR in RAW format, so that I can continue making adjustments to it in LR.

I guess I was thinking that since Adobe created DNG, there would be a way to pass my DNG to PS from LR and get it back in the same format. As I said, though, I'm brand new to PS, and my thinking wasn't correct! And I understand that PS and LR are two entirely different programs, but the constant talk about Camera Raw, for instance, being the same as LR was what led my thinking down that particular path (and no, I don't use Camera Raw).

Well, thanks again.


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## Imagenomad (Mar 6, 2015)

The difference is that LR (& ACR for that matter) is a parametric image "editor" & PhotoShop is a pixel editor.

A parametric "edit" is simply a set of instructions associated with the image file with no change in pixels at all. The actual pixels are changed by Photoshop & this is not translated into a parametric set of instructions and a new non-raw file needs to be rendered.


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## Hoggy (Jun 6, 2015)

Isn't such a thing possible if using the LR 'edit in' as a smart object, then changing it in PS to a linked smart object?
Wouldn't further edits of the DNG in LR show up in PS in that case?


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