Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: David Eichler on November 06, 2026, 03:42:57 am

Title: Problem Opening Multiple Files as Layers in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic
Post by: David Eichler on November 06, 2026, 03:42:57 am
Recently started having a problem opening a couple of images as layers in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic. This was with a RAW image I had done  a fair amount of LR processing on and then synched that processing to another RAW image, which I then tried to open in PS as layers. I tried opening a couple of other files as layers from LR to PS, which files had only had very minimal processing, and they both opened fine in this way. PS froze repeatedly with heavily LR processed files. I have occasionally done this sort of thing in the past with fairly extensively processed LR images. Tried reseting PS preferences and restarting, but that didn't work. Could this be something to do with LR, rather than PS?
Title: Re: Problem Opening Multiple Files as Layers in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic
Post by: digitaldog on November 06, 2026, 11:14:57 am
IF you apply ANY edits to a document in Lightroom Classic, if it had layers, they will be merged in order to apply that edit from Lightroom Classic. I'm not sure if that's what you're doing (the workflow is unclear). But yes, a layered doc in LR can be opened from LR with layers. But not if any LR edits were applied there. LR has to merge all the layers to apply that parametric LR edit.
Title: Re: Problem Opening Multiple Files as Layers in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic
Post by: David Eichler on November 06, 2026, 04:26:40 pm
IF you apply ANY edits to a document in Lightroom Classic, if it had layers, they will be merged in order to apply that edit from Lightroom Classic. I'm not sure if that's what you're doing (the workflow is unclear). But yes, a layered doc in LR can be opened from LR with layers. But not if any LR edits were applied there. LR has to merge all the layers to apply that parametric LR edit.
Not sure I understand. To be clear, I am not expecting the layers from LR to be transferred over into PS. I understand that all the layers in LR will be merged when transferring over to PS. What I am saying is that PS is freezing when trying to open two separate image files from LR as layers into a single PS file, each of this LR images having its own set of exactly the same (via LR synch) fairly extensive LR edits, including perhaps 7 or 8 layer masks.
Title: Re: Problem Opening Multiple Files as Layers in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic
Post by: digitaldog on November 06, 2026, 05:08:12 pm
Let's start with a reset of preferences to see if this fixes the issue.
Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) immediately after launching Photoshop. You will be prompted to delete the current settings. You can also reset preferences on quit if Photoshop is running by going into General Preferences>General>Reset on Quit.
Title: Re: Problem Opening Multiple Files as Layers in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic
Post by: David Eichler on November 06, 2026, 05:34:46 pm
Let's start with a reset of preferences to see if this fixes the issue.
Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) immediately after launching Photoshop. You will be prompted to delete the current settings. You can also reset preferences on quit if Photoshop is running by going into General Preferences>General>Reset on Quit.
Thanks, but I already did that.
Title: Re: Problem Opening Multiple Files as Layers in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic
Post by: digitaldog on November 06, 2026, 05:44:36 pm
And if you disable GPU?
Title: Re: Problem Opening Multiple Files as Layers in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic
Post by: David Eichler on November 06, 2026, 06:27:14 pm
And if you disable GPU?
Doesn't help either. PS still unresponsive.

PS, I have successfully and routinely opened multiple images from LR into PS where one of the images was extensively processed and the rest were minimally processed. But in this case there are two images with (the same) extensive processing.


Some more info. One of the LR images is an HDR (made in LR) from 3 images. The other image is one of the images used for the HDR, processed exactly the same as the HDR. I just tried rendering out a copy of the single image in PS and saving that back to LR, and then I was able to open this rendered image along with the HDR image as layers in PS. But I would like to avoid the extra step if possible.
Title: Re: Problem Opening Multiple Files as Layers in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic
Post by: digitaldog on November 06, 2026, 06:59:34 pm
You might zip the offending files and upload them somewhere (like Dropbox) so others can test.
Title: Re: Problem Opening Multiple Files as Layers in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic
Post by: David Eichler on November 06, 2026, 07:14:47 pm
You might zip the offending files and upload them somewhere (like Dropbox) so others can test.
Ok. Thanks.