Yesterday David asked the question… “If I am using CS4 (PS4) and I upgrade to LR3, if I choose “EDIT WITH PS” will I get a warning message regarding ACR versions (6 vs 5)? I assume that PS4 does not support ACR 6 and will thus not maintain ACR mods from LR3 if I edit with into PS4? Is this correct? Implications?” So here’s an sneak preview from Adobe Lightroom 3 – The Missing FAQ…
What happens if I’m still using an older version of ACR and Photoshop?
If you’re using a mismatched version of ACR, it may not understand all of Lightroom 3’s new settings, and therefore the rendering may be different. Besides the new camera support, there are a few other changes involved, depending on the version number. In recent years, there have been changes to the demosaic, new sliders added such as Grain, existing sliders redesigned resulting in the introduction of Process Versions, and now the new lens corrections too.
The demosaic, in basic terms, is the initial translation of the raw data into an image, which applies to all of the photos regardless of your Process Version setting. ACR 5.6 and earlier use an older demosaic, whereas Lightroom 3 and ACR 5.7 and higher all use the new demosaic. The visible difference is an increased amount of detail in the newer demosaic, which can affect the amount of sharpening and noise reduction you choose to apply. If you open a Lightroom 3 photo into a version of ACR with the old demosaic (5.6 or earlier), for example, opening a photo directly into CS3 with ACR 4.6, then it will appear softer and less detailed than Lightroom 3, even if you’ve used sliders that it understands. If you open into 5.7 or later, the demosaic will match.
There are also new sliders which older ACR versions may not understand, for example, Grain and the post-crop vignette Highlight Priority and Color Priority options are understood by 5.7 but no earlier.
Further down the line are the processing algorithms, including Fill Light, Noise Reduction and Sharpening, which have changed so significantly this time that they now come in 2 different versions – Process Versions 2003 and 2010, more often shortened to PV2003 and PV2010. We discussed those in more detail in the Develop chapter.
And of course, last but not least, there are the new lens corrections which require ACR 6.1 or later.
Here’s a quick reference of the most recent ACR versions for each Photoshop release, and the differences you’re likely to see if you open the files directly into Photoshop.
| Demosaic | PV2003 | PV2010 | New Sliders | Lens Corrections | |
| CS3 / 4.6 | Mismatch | Close | Mismatch | Mismatch | Mismatch |
| CS4 / 5.7 | Match | Close | Close (no UI) | Close (no UI) | Mismatch |
| CS5 / 6.1 | Match | Match | Match | Match | Match |
In summary:
CS3/4.6 – New sliders are ignored. If you only use sliders that were available in 4.6, with PV2003, it’s close but 4.6 also uses an older demosaic which can result in sharpening and noise reduction differences. Best to let LR render the file and then open that into Photoshop.
CS4/5.7 – No lens corrections are applied. There are other minor differences (i.e. sharpening slightly different) but otherwise it’s very close. 5.7 can read LR’s settings but there’s no UI to change the new settings. If you haven’t used lens corrections, the differences may not notice unless you’re looking for them, so you can probably open directly into Photoshop.
CS5/6.1 – Fully compatible with LR 3.0
There’s an additional dialog which often appears when the ACR version is mismatched, offering you the choice of ‘Render Using Lightroom’ or ‘Open Anyway’, although it’s currently missing with 5.7. More on the consequences of that dialog soon!
If you’re still on CS4 and you’re using LR 3.x, set the secondary external editor to CS4 so that it’s automatically forced to render the TIFF/PSD file, since the mismatch dialog is missing.
Ok, I have Ligthroom 3 but only CS3 so I have been “rendering using Lightroom” when going into Photoshop after edits in Lightroom . . .BUT then I get the huge TIFF files and I want to stay with JPEG. Arrg!
I am new to Lightroom and this all confuses me. I shoot in high quality JPEG and would like to stay with jpeg but maybe not gonna be the case with editing in Photoshop CS3 after Lightroom???
[That’s right Ramona. You have a few options:
One other thought – just bear in mind that JPEG is a lossy format, so although you’re ok resaving it a number of times without noticeable degradation, if you’re editing it in PS more than once or twice, you might want to use TIFF in the meantime and then flatten back to JPEG when you’re finished.
– VB]
Thanks VB. Can i ask…
In terms of performance though, it has the same effect as editing from LR2 to LR3?
why you would not want a TOFF?PSD on your hard disk?
Thanks Matt
[Let’s carry on chatting on your forum thread: http://www.lightroomforums.net/index.php?topic=11764.0 – VB]
am i correct in saying that if i set CS4 up as the 2nd external editor, then there is no issues using LR3 and CS4?
Many Thanks
Matt
[It has advantages and disadvantages – yes you get the correct rendering because LR always renders the TIFF/PSD before passing it to CS4, but on the other hand, you end up with a TIFF/PSD on your hard drive which you might not want. – VB]
Hallelujah! I thought I was going mad trying to figure out what was going on with lens correction between LR3 and PS4. Then I thought I was going to have to buy PS5 before reading the workaround in the comments. Hurray!
(Might be worth updating the main article to reflect that fact as I nearly missed it and would have shelled out for an update unnecessarily.)
Thank you!
[Brilliant Andrew, I do like saving cash! I’ll update the main article too. – VB]
You ARE the Lightroom Queen! This is the only place the web I have found that addresses Lens adjustments not transferring to PS. Thanks for the info!!
[My pleasure Charlie! My book’s full of tips like that… 😉 – VB]
Fantastic post, Victoria! I cannot wait to get hold of the book!
Very informative and explains a lot for people using different versions of Photoshop and Lightroom.
Thanks a lot!
I have confirmed this today as well. I am using LR3 with CS4. I get no mismatch “message” and using the External Editor (also configured as PS4), I indeded get the lens correction in the file. In essence, you are using LR3’s ACR to render the image before passing off to PS4 directly as a PSD/TIFF. The first option would pass off to PS4 using ACR but alas, due to the older ACR version, the Lens correction is not carried thru.
Thanks,
David
So, let me see if I understand you… If I use the first edit option -> Edit in Adobe CS4, I’m not going to edit a rendered copy of my image. Only if I use the “additional external editor” option, placing there CS4, LR3 will render first my image!!! So I have to have the same program in the first and second option (CS4) or what. Also, what does really the first option?
Thanks
[If you use the first edit option, CS4 will render the data and it’ll wait until you save the file before it creates a rendered file on disc. That’ll be pretty close to what you see in LR3 but won’t have any lens corrections applied. If you use the second edit option, it’ll be identical to what you see in LR as LR’s rendering the file, but it means you’ll have a TIFF/PSD file created on disc immediately. – VB]
I just don’t understand why LR doesn’t automatically use it’s own raw converter when exporting to PS. Kinda silly in my opinion that we have to do these workarounds to get lens corrections to show up in CS4.
[If LR was the render the file, it would have to create a TIFF/PSD on disc, whereas passing the raw data and settings to ACR allows PS to open the file directly. – VB]
It’s ridiculous that this is so hard to figure out. I’ve been struggling to get my lens corrections to show up in CS4. They really shouldn’t outdate the products as quickly as they do. It crazy that my less than 2 years old Photoshop can’t work with Lightroom 3 properly. No matter what I try I can’t get the lens corrections in Photoshop.
[Ryan, if you set CS4 up as the 2nd external editor, LR should render the TIFF/PSD with your lens corrections applied. – VB]
Funny, we were just talking about this. 🙂
I hope it is OK to suggest this to your readers, but if you are using Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS4 (with Camera Raw 5.7) you can configure CS4 as an additional external editor, which will force Lightroom to render the copy with the Lens Corrections before sending the copy to CS4.
[Excellent suggestion Rob! And yes, since that conversation, I’ve been uninstalling and reinstalling various PS versions to double check the details! 😉 – VB]
Must admit I totally missed this issue. I’m still using CS3 and ACR4 so I’ll ddefinitely be affected. So what you’re saying is that so long as you do all your ACR work in LR3 before doing anything in CS3 you should be okay?
[Scott, you’ve got 3 good options.
1. Do your Develop work in LR and Export, and then open those exported photos into CS3.
2. In the mismatch dialog that should appear (but is missing at least in CS4 5.7), press the ‘Render Using Lightroom’ button rather than the ‘Open Anyway’ button, which will create a TIFF/PSD.
3. Or you could set CS3 up as the additional external editor, as per Rob’s suggestion, which in this case will do the same as option 2. – VB]