Setting up Lightroom and Photoshop for smooth integration
Before you start flinging photos back and forth between Lightroom and Photoshop, there are some settings to adjust in both programs to ensure you’re moving between the two programs at the highest possible quality.
In the next few sections, you’ll learn how to adjust Lightroom’s preferences to control what kind of file it sends to Photoshop. You’ll also adjust Photoshop’s settings so the color space you’re using in Lightroom matches that of Photoshop. Next, you’ll learn how to keep Lightroom and Photoshop’s Camera Raw plug-in in sync, and then you’ll dig into how to send files back and forth between the two programs.
Although these first few sections don’t cover the most exciting topics in this book, this information is crucial for your success in using the programs together. Happily, you have to adjust these settings only once. So let’s dive in and get it done!
Configuring Lightroom’s External Editing preferences
Lightroom’s External Editing preferences determine exactly how files are passed from Lightroom to Photoshop. You can control file format, bit depth, color space—all of which are explained in this section—as well as file naming conventions and how the Photoshop files are displayed back in Lightroom.
And as you’re about to learn, you can set up an additional external editor, which is handy for using different settings for passing files to Photoshop for different uses, or for using an external editing program other than Photoshop.
Setting your primary external editor preferences
Lightroom automatically scours your hard drive for the latest version of Photoshop and picks it as the primary external editor. To control exactly how Lightroom sends files to Photoshop, use these steps:
In Lightroom, choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Lightroom > Preferences (Mac OS), and click the External Editing tab.
The settings in the top section of the resulting dialog determine the properties with which a file opens in Photoshop when you later choose the first menu item in Lightroom’s Photo > Edit In menu. (If you don’t change these settings, their default values are used.)
NOTEAdobe Photoshop Elements is the only other application that you can designate as your primary external editor in Lightroom. Although you can use other programs as external editors, you have to set them up as additional external editors.
Choose PSD from the File Format menu to preserve the quality you’ve got in Lightroom, as well as any layers you add in Photoshop.
TIPTIFF supports layers too, but it creates a larger file size than PSD.
From the Color Space menu, choose the range of colors you want to work with. If you’re shooting in raw, choose ProPhoto RGB. If you’re shooting in JPEG, choose AdobeRGB instead.
As you can see in the sidebar “Choosing a color space,” ProPhoto RGB encompasses the widest possible range of colors and protects colors captured by your camera from being clipped or compressed. Since a raw file doesn’t have a conventional color profile until it’s rendered by a pixel editor, such as Photoshop (or by exporting it from Lightroom), choosing ProPhoto RGB here preserves that broad color range when you edit it in Photoshop.
NOTEIf you’re not planning to print the image on a high-end, wide-gamut printer that uses seven or more inks, you may want to use AdobeRGB instead of ProPhoto RGB.
JPEGs, on the other hand, can’t use the broad color range that raw files do. If you’re shooting in JPEG format, your largest color-range option is AdobeRGB.
From the Bit Depth menu, choose 16 bits/component if you’re shooting in raw format or 8 bits/component if you’re shooting in JPEG format.
Bit depth refers to how many colors the image itself contains. The goal is to keep as much color detail as you can for as long as you can.
Choosing a color space
Color space refers to the range of colors you want to work with. Here’s what you need to know about choosing the one that’s right for you:
AdobeRGB is the most popular workspace to date. It includes a wide range of colors, so it’s perfect for designers and photographers. It’s also great for printing on inkjet printers and commercial presses.
You can also change your digital camera’s color profile to match what you use in Photoshop. For example, most cameras are initially set to sRGB mode, but you can switch to AdobeRGB instead. Alas, you’ll have to dig out your owner’s manual to learn how, but the increased range of colors and monitor consistency can be worth it.
ProPhoto RGB is currently the largest workspace in use and is the one used by programs that process raw images. It’s the native workspace of Lightroom and of Photoshop’s Camera Raw plug-in. In the infographic shown here, the ProPhoto RGB workspace is shown in white with the other workspaces superimposed atop it.
sRGB is slightly smaller than AdobeRGB (1998). It is the Internet standard, so it’s perfect for prepping images for use on the web, in presentation programs, and in videos and for submitting to online printing companies (labs such as www.mpix.com and www.nationsphotolab.com). This is the RGB workspace that Photoshop uses unless you pick another one.
The CMYK workspace, on the other hand, represents the smaller number of colors that are reproducible with ink on a commercial printing press. The bottom image shows the ProPhoto RGB workspace compared to the color gamut of the truly incredible human eye.
JPEGs are 8-bit images that can contain over 16 million colors. Raw images, on the other hand, can be 16-bit and contain over 280 trillion colors. So if you’ve got 16-bit files, send them to Photoshop and reduce them to 8-bit only if you need to do something in Photoshop that doesn’t work on 16-bit files (say, running a filter) or when you’re ready to export the image from Lightroom for use elsewhere.
Leave Resolution set to its default value of 240.
Resolution determines pixel density and thus pixel size when the image is printed. Leave it at 240 ppi, which is a reasonable starting point for a typical inkjet printer, and then adjust the resolution as necessary when you export the edited file from Lightroom.
NOTEPPI stands for pixels per inch. DPI, on the other hand, stands for dots per inch. The latter term is used when referencing printers, because many printers use a dot pattern to reproduce an image with ink on paper.
Don’t close the dialog yet; you’ll use it in the next section.
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From this point forward, whenever you select a thumbnail (or several) in Lightroom’s Library module and choose Photo > Edit In > Edit In Adobe Photoshop, or when you press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+E/Command+E, Lightroom uses these settings.
NOTE
Only Photoshop or Photoshop Elements can be your primary external editor. If you have neither of those programs installed, the commands for editing in a primary external editor aren’t available in the first section of Lightroom’s Photo > Edit In menu. That said, you can still designate other applications in the Additional External Editor section and then choose them from the second section of the Photo > Edit In menu.
Setting additional external editor preferences
You can designate one or more additional external editors that also appear in Lightroom’s Photo > Edit In menu. Doing so gives you a choice of editors or a choice of settings for the same editor.
Additional editors can be third-party programs or plug-ins such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, Alien Skin’s Exposure X, ON1 Software, and so on. You can even create additional configurations for Photoshop—each with settings geared toward particular kinds of photos or uses.
For example, you may set up Photoshop as an additional external editor with options suitable for photos destined for the web. The following steps are basically the same as in the previous exercise, but these discuss all the options as they relate to web use:
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Click Choose to the right of the Application field in the Additional External Editor section of the dialog.
NOTEWhen choosing an external editor, be sure to click the actual application file (the .exe or .app file) and not the application folder.
In the operating system window that opens, navigate to Photoshop’s .exe program file (Windows) or Photoshop’s .app application file (Mac OS). In the resulting dialog, click Use Anyway.
If the same version of Photoshop you select here is also your primary external editor, Lightroom warns you that you’re already using this version of Photoshop as an editor. Clicking Use Anyway dismisses the warning and allows you to use the same version of Photoshop—with different settings—as both an additional external editor and the primary external editor (both of which are available via a keyboard shortcut).
Choose PSD from the File Format menu.
As mentioned earlier, this keeps the quality you have in Lightroom and supports any layers you create in Photoshop. You’ll learn how to export a JPEG you can post online in Lesson 9, “Exporting and Showing Off Your Work.”
Choose ProPhoto RGB or AdobeRGB from the Color Space menu.
As you learned in the sidebar “Choosing a color space,” sRGB is the Internet standard. However, since sRGB is a smaller color space than both ProPhoto RGB and AdobeRGB, you’ll usually get better results if you save the step of reducing colors until you’re ready to export the image from Lightroom. When you do that, Lightroom can take the (potentially) billions of colors you’re working in and convert them to the best 16 million that are available in an 8-bit sRGB file.
NOTEAnytime you convert an image in a large color space to a smaller one, its colors may shift. That’s why it’s important to view the image in the smaller color space (a process known as soft-proofing) before you export it. You’ll learn how to do that in Lesson 9.
Choose 8 bit (JPEG) or 16 bit (raw) from the Bit Depth menu.
Here again, it’s best to keep maximum data in the photo while you’re passing it back and forth between editors. When you export a copy of the edited photo in JPEG format for web use, Lightroom will reduce it to 8-bit automatically.
Leave Resolution set to its default value.
When you’re preparing a photo for the web, it’s the pixel dimensions, not the resolution, that determine image size. You can specify pixel dimensions in Lightroom’s Export dialog.
From this point forward, these settings will be used when you choose Photo > Edit In and the second menu item: Edit in Photoshop.exe/Edit in Adobe Photoshop CC.app (or when you press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+E/Command+Option+E).
TipYou can use the Additional External Editor section to configure as many external editing preferences as you like. Simply use the Preset menu to save each one as a preset. You won’t see them all listed in the Preferences dialog; they merely stack up in the second section of Lightroom’s Edit In menu.
Alternatively, you can click the Preset menu and choose Save Current Settings as New Preset. In the dialog that opens, enter a meaningful name for the options you configured, such as PS web, and then click Create.
If you go this route, the preset you saved appears as a menu item in the second section of Lightroom’s Photo > Edit In menu.
NOTEYou can expand and collapse a stack by selecting it in the Library module’s Grid view and then pressing S on your keyboard.
Leave the External Editing Preferences dialog open for the next section of the lesson.
Setting the stacking preference
When you send a file from Lightroom to Photoshop, the PSD that comes back to Lightroom appears next to the original file in the Library module. In some cases, you may also generate copies of the PSD—if, say, you want to create different versions of it.
To reduce the clutter in your library, you may want to turn on Stack With Original to have Lightroom stack your PSD(s) into a pile with the original photo.
Doing so creates a collapsible group, known as a stack, of thumbnails. When you expand a stack, your PSDs are displayed side by side in the Library module in Grid view and in the Filmstrip. This makes related files easy to spot.
However, when a stack is collapsed, only one thumbnail is visible in the grid and the Filmstrip, so you can’t see all of its associated files. Therefore, you may want to leave Stack With Original turned off, and instead rely on the Library module’s Sort menu to keep original photos and their associated PSDs together.
To do that, click the Sort menu in the toolbar at the bottom of the Library module, and choose File Name or Capture Time.
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NOTE
If you don’t see the toolbar in the Library module, press T on your keyboard.
Setting the file naming preference
The Template menu at the bottom of the External Editing Preferences dialog lets you specify how Lightroom names the files you’ve edited in Photoshop. The word “edited” is added automatically, but you can change the naming scheme to whatever you want (files are given the PSD extension automatically).
For the purposes of this lesson, stick with the default file naming scheme. However, if you want to change it later on, click the menu at the bottom of the External Editing Preferences dialog, and choose Template > Edit to open the same Filename Template Editor you learned about in the Lesson 1 section “Renaming your photos.”
The next section teaches you about the changes you need to make to Photoshop to make it play nicely with Lightroom.
Configuring Photoshop’s Color settings
Now that Lightroom’s settings are configured, you can turn your attention to Photoshop. In this section, you’ll learn how to make Photoshop’s color space match the one you told Lightroom to use when it sends a file to Photoshop. And in order for layered PSDs to be visible in Lightroom, there’s a special option to turn on. Here’s how to do all of that:
In Photoshop, choose Edit > Color Settings.
In the Working Spaces section, choose ProPhoto RGB or AdobeRGB from the RGB menu. The choice you make here should match the choice you made earlier in Lightroom’s External Editing preferences.
In the Color Management Policies section, choose Preserve Embedded Profiles from the RGB menu.
Turn on Missing Profiles: Ask When Opening, and leave the other options turned off.
With these settings, the files you send from Lightroom to Photoshop should open in the correct color space. And if Photoshop encounters a file that doesn’t have an embedded profile, you get a dialog asking how you’d like to proceed. In that case, choose Assign Working RGB, and click OK.
NOTEIf you’re using Photoshop Elements as an external editor, you need to adjust its color settings too. To do that, launch the Elements Editor and choose Edit > Color Settings. In the dialog that opens, choose Always Optimize for Printing, and click OK. This makes Elements use the AdobeRGB color space. (Choosing Always Optimize for Computer Screen uses the smaller sRGB color space instead.)
Click OK in the Color Settings dialog to close it.
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Now let’s take a look at how to create Photoshop files that Lightroom can preview.
Configuring Photoshop’s Maximize Compatibility preference
If you followed the advice of this book and told Lightroom to send files to Photoshop in PSD format, there’s one more Photoshop setting to adjust.
Lightroom doesn’t understand the concept of layers, so in order for layered PSDs to be visible in Lightroom, Photoshop needs to embed a flattened layer into each document. This flattened layer is what you see in Lightroom.
In Photoshop, choose Edit > Preferences > File Handling (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > File Handling (Mac OS).
In the File Handling Preferences dialog, choose Always from the Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility menu.
NOTEIf you assigned Photoshop Elements as your external editor, you need to do this in Elements too. In the Elements Editor, choose Edit > Preferences > Saving Files (Windows) or Adobe Photoshop Elements Editor > Preferences > Saving Files (Mac OS).
Click OK to close the dialog.
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Once you do this, you’ll be able to see your PSDs in Lightroom.
The next section teaches you how to keep your version of Lightroom synced with Photoshop’s Camera Raw plug-in.
Keeping Lightroom and Camera Raw in sync
Lightroom, at its heart, is a raw converter whose job is to convert the data in a raw file into an image that can be viewed and edited onscreen. Photoshop has a raw converter too: a plug-in named Camera Raw. Camera Raw and Lightroom use the same raw conversion engine, and when Adobe updates one, it usually updates the other with a matching version.
This is important because when you send a raw photo from Lightroom to Photoshop, Photoshop uses Camera Raw to render the raw data into pixels you can see and work with onscreen. If you don’t have matching versions of Lightroom and Camera Raw, you may encounter a mismatch warning in Lightroom and you may have content issues as you pass the file back and forth. For more on this topic, see the sidebar “Encountering a Lightroom–Camera Raw mismatch.”
To check which versions of the Lightroom and Camera Raw are installed on your computer, follow these steps:
In Lightroom, choose Help > About Lightroom (Windows) or Lightroom > About Lightroom (Mac OS). A screen opens that shows your version of Lightroom. It also reports the version of Camera Raw that’s fully compatible with your version of Lightroom. Click the screen to close it.
In Photoshop, choose Help > About Photoshop (Windows) or Photoshop > About Photoshop (Mac OS). Your version of Photoshop appears on the screen that opens. Close the screen by clicking it.
Also in Photoshop, choose Help > About Plug-Ins > Camera Raw (Windows) or Photoshop > About Plug-In > Camera Raw (Mac OS). Your version of the Camera Raw plug-in is reported on the screen that opens. Click the screen to close it.
If you subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud, you can use the Adobe Creative Cloud app to update your software. If you’re not a subscriber, choose Help > Updates in Lightroom or Photoshop (CS6 or earlier) instead.
When you update Photoshop, you get the latest version of Camera Raw too. If by some fluke, that doesn’t happen, you may need to search Adobe.com for the latest version of Camera Raw and install it manually.