Can you edit pictures from Photos in Photoshop or Lightroom?

If I right click, I have the option to "edit with Lightroom". It will laugh LR but I can't seem to save it and show the results in Photos.

iMac (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Jan 1, 2024 12:39 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 1, 2024 3:51 PM

There's a couple of things at play here:


  1. This feature is designed to work with pixel editors like Photoshop. IN other words, Photos sends a copy of the image to Photoshop where you alter not only the image but also the actual file. Saving sends the edited image back to Photos. As Photos creates the image sent to Photoshop it knows about the image. If you use a Save As in PS then that creates a new image and Photos doesn't know about it. So PPhotos -> Photoshop -> Save -> Photos
  2. Lightroom is not a pixel editor. It's a parametric editor - that is, when you send the image to LR it is imported into LR, because, like Photos, LR is a database driven application. Then when you edit the image the file is never changed. Your decisions are stored in the application's database. So the only way to get the image out of LR is to export it - and that means the LR is creating the new version, so Photos has no idea that the new version exists. There is no way to use a parametric editor with another photo manager except by exporting and importing between them.
  3. There is a further complication: as LR is cloud based (unless you have the very latest version) then the image has to be uploaded to the Cloud - another level of complication.
  4. You might ask yourself if you're paying for LR why you're using Photos at all. LR is a more capable app and can do anything Photos can, and then some. It's a bit like using TextEdit to write your doctoral thesis when you have Word on your machine...
2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 1, 2024 3:51 PM in response to rtstodden

There's a couple of things at play here:


  1. This feature is designed to work with pixel editors like Photoshop. IN other words, Photos sends a copy of the image to Photoshop where you alter not only the image but also the actual file. Saving sends the edited image back to Photos. As Photos creates the image sent to Photoshop it knows about the image. If you use a Save As in PS then that creates a new image and Photos doesn't know about it. So PPhotos -> Photoshop -> Save -> Photos
  2. Lightroom is not a pixel editor. It's a parametric editor - that is, when you send the image to LR it is imported into LR, because, like Photos, LR is a database driven application. Then when you edit the image the file is never changed. Your decisions are stored in the application's database. So the only way to get the image out of LR is to export it - and that means the LR is creating the new version, so Photos has no idea that the new version exists. There is no way to use a parametric editor with another photo manager except by exporting and importing between them.
  3. There is a further complication: as LR is cloud based (unless you have the very latest version) then the image has to be uploaded to the Cloud - another level of complication.
  4. You might ask yourself if you're paying for LR why you're using Photos at all. LR is a more capable app and can do anything Photos can, and then some. It's a bit like using TextEdit to write your doctoral thesis when you have Word on your machine...

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Can you edit pictures from Photos in Photoshop or Lightroom?

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