Hi all. I’ve gotten a lot of questions on the recent Photoshop and Lightroom updates from Adobe so I put together an FAQ. Enjoy!
Q. I’m having trouble updating Photoshop or Lightroom. I can’t update, or I’m not seeing the features you mentioned. Or I’m having trouble with my Lightroom catalog updating and something went wrong. Help?
A. I’m sorry you’re having issues but those are all great questions for Adobe Tech Support. While they haven’t always had the best reputation, in the last couple of years I hear over and over again from people having great success stories with them.
Q. When I try to update to the latest version of Photoshop, it’s telling me it can’t run on my current operating system or hardware. What gives?
A. This happens every year. It’s not new, but it just may not have happened to you before. I get it and it’s annoying, but every software company in the world does this at times, and it’s just the way it is. If you’re not sure about the message you get, and if you need to upgrade your Operating System or require a new computer or hardware, then contact Adobe and ask them.
Q. Can I remove old versions of Photoshop and Lightroom after I’ve installed them?
A. Yes. Photoshop is the only program that can leave it’s old version on the computer for you. Lightroom Classic and Lightroom will install new versions over the old ones. But yes, you can remove the old versions whenever you want. A quick Google search will get you help on how to do that.
Q. When I use the Generative AI feature in Lightroom, does that go against my Generative Fill credits?
A. Yes. Every time you click the “REMOVE” button that would be a credit. You can check your credit balance and how many you’ve used by logging in to your Adobe account via your web browser.
Q. I saw your video on the new features in Camera Raw and that some of them aren’t in Lightroom. Why did Adobe do this and do you think they’ll ever make it in to Lightroom / Lightroom Classic?
A. I can’t speak to why Adobe did this. “Technology Previews” are like beta features in a way. And they aren’t new at all and Adobe has been doing this for years – you may not have noticed since the feature many not have specifically affected you. It’s very normal. But I do believe they will make it in to Lightroom / LRC. When? I have no idea, but hopefully soon.
Q. How do I continue to use Lightroom, but use these features that are in Camera Raw as well?
A. There’s not really a good workflow. Lightroom and Camera Raw are not meant to be used together. Personally, as a LR/LRC user I’d continue your workflow as normal. Generative Expand is in Photoshop so by the time you added a workaround to your workflow to achieve it in camera raw, you might as well spend the 7 seconds it takes and go to Photoshop to do it. The Adaptive Profile is nice, but not worth any change in workflow to me – I doubt I’ll be using it. And while the DeNoise changes are nice, the quality of DeNoise is the same and again, considering the impact of to your workflow to try to use ACR and LR together, I’d continue the old way until this changes.
Q. But can’t LR and ACR integrate?
No, they are not meant to be used together. I’m not saying that you can’t use them together, so please don’t write a long comment instructing me on how to do it 🙂 I’m just saying they are not “meant” to work together, and any way that you do use them together is a workaround and will complicate your workflow. While I do love that DeNoise is easier now, no change to ACR is so impactful right now that you should go through this.
Q. I don’t see the changes you mentioned in my Camera Raw and I know I’ve upgraded to version 17?
Chances are that you’re probably not opening the raw file directly in to Camera Raw. Open Photoshop and go to File > Open and choose a raw file (not a JPG, or TIFF or PSD). That will open the raw file in to Camera Raw and the features I showed should be there. If they’re not, you’ll need to contact Adobe.
Q. Can I go from Lightroom to Photoshop and then to Filter > Camera Raw filter to get the options you showed in your Camera Raw video?
A. No. When you go from LR to PS, the file is no longer raw. These options (DeNoise, Generative Expand, Adaptive Profile) only work on raw files, not TIFFs, JPGs or PSDs.
Q. But I used to be able to run DeNoise on non-raw photos?
A. I hate to sound disagreeable by saying you’re wrong. So let’s just say that you’re 100% incorrect and that was never the case 😉
Q. I’m a Lightroom user. What is Camera Raw and how do I open a photo in to it?
A. Camera Raw is Photoshop’s Raw editor – and it’s almost always kept directly on par with Lightroom Develop features. Remember, not every photographer has / needs / or wants to use Lightroom, and many prefer Photoshop. But they do need a way to edit raw photos which is why Camera Raw is there (it actually came first, before Lightroom). To open a raw file in to Camera Raw, you can either double click the raw file in Bridge or in your Finder/Explorer window (assuming PS is set to the default app to open them – google this if you’re having trouble). Or in Photoshop go to File > Open and choose a raw file. That will open the raw file directly in to Camera Raw.
Q. Is going to the Camera Raw Filter in Photoshop the same thing as opening a raw photo directly in to Camera Raw?
A. No it’s not. See the question above.
Q. With all of this talk about Camera Raw all of the sudden should I switch my workflow and use Bridge/Camera Raw?
A. Absolutely not. The only thing that’s happened this week is Adobe made some small technology preview changes (I like to call them public beta changes) which they do ALL of the time. These changes happen to have some semi-cool features that are only in camera raw. That’s it. Nothing should change about your workflow and be patient that this will sort itself out and eventually those changes should get pushed to LR/LRC as well at some point.
Q. I saw something last week about a Generative Workspace. What is that and do you cover it?
A. The Generative Workspace feature is a Photoshop Beta feature. I don’t typically cover anything related to Photoshop Beta’s, as I don’t install them myself.
Q. I saw you mention the Lightroom DeNoise in some of your videos. Do you still use Topaz or do you use that instead?
A. I think Adobe’s DeNoise is fantastic. Most of my wildlife photos are high ISO photos so I Adobe’s DeNoise on most of them. But I do think running Topaz’s Noise Reduction on the raw file directly is a bit better when you pixel peep (key phrase there – you won’t see it if you don’t zoom in). For me, most of my photos are shared online, especially wildlife. I already have as many prints in my home as can fit on the walls, so I don’t print those too much anymore. Plus, when we are decorating my wife usually prefers landscapes and our travel photos on the wall, rather than an Eagle grabbing a bloody fish 🙂 So I just don’t have the need for perfect that often and good enough is often good enough. Using Topaz DeNoise on the photo takes me longer and breaks a bit of my workflow so it’s more complicated. So unless I feel I have an award winning photo that I want to show off VERY large, I use Adobe’s DeNoise. When I do want perfect, I use Topaz and I will be releasing a new Topaz course very soon so stay tuned.
Matt,
I’ve been a Photoshop user for at least five years and cannot control it at all. I spent an hour today trying to figure out why Photoshop locked up (it had popped up a window requiring input on another screen behind an existing full screen app). I learned more about Photoshop in your one hour tutorial on the Photoshop Summit today than I have had from others in 5 years.
THANK YOU! I’m giddy!
I like to use the generative fill to add a little “spice” to a photo. A small furry creature on the ground, a single bird or puffy cloud. I also may remove a small object here and there using one tool or another. It would be great to have a list of which actions reduce resolution and which don’t
Hi Robert. It’s pretty simple… anything with the word generative in it, is low resolution.
What’s the deal on generative credits? I’ve never heard of it until now. I looked on my Adobe account and it showed that I have 184/250 credits left. What does that even mean? Is it for using generative expand in Photoshop? I do use it but not a lot. Help please!
Hi. I could explain here but you’d probably get a much more thorough explanation if you just do a quick google search about it. There was quite a bit of news on it last year so it should be relatively easy to find and read more about it than I could write here. Thanks.
First a big thank you for all your tutorials.
I tried taking two small (old) jpeg files from LR to PS using open as smart object, double click to open in camera raw – super resolution worked on both files. It did appear to have cropped the images back in PS, but using the crop tool showed that all the image was still there (by opening the crop up),
Applied Topaz denoise – worked well on one image (sea, sky and a few stakes – Cedar Keys) and back in LR the comparison to the original was good. The second, similar image, included two girls crabbing in the distance no good as made a mess of the faces.
Using Topaz pre or post super resolution made no difference – these were both low res images to start with so no great expectations I was just curious after watching your noise hack video.
My camera is OM1 mk 2 so 21 Mpix – increased resolution in post might be nice but what I have tried has disappointed.
Visiting friends in Cocoa in 3 weeks and off to the Keys – back to some nice Florida light!
Best regards
Mike
Love the Q & A – really helpful, especially for making the distinction between CR Filter and direct opening in ACR – now I understand!!
I think some people are getting confused with the manual noise reduction sliders and the Denoise function. The manual sliders have been around forever, while Denoise has onlyi been availble for few releases. So, technically you are correct, Matt. But… it may be better to point that out instead of telling them they are wrong.
Your comment above relating to opening a RAW file directly with ACR was helpful. I was going through photoshop, and did not consider the PS converted the file.
Wow! That was a lot of questions people asked and me myself would have had a hard time being as eloquent as you were at answering them. Kudos to you and thank you for your very thorough explanations.
Matt, I shoot almost exclusively JPG and use Photoshop for editing. I had always assumed that Camera Raw was only a tool for dealing with RAW images. However, a couple of years ago I read something by you that said that using CR with PS provided the same capabilities as Lightroom Development tools for editing JPG images. So I began using CR within PS and the masking tools greatly improved the flexibility in my photo editing. Now in these latest videos about PS and LR updates, you seem to focus only on applying my PS/CR approach to RAW images. Am I correct that this is to gain access to the new AI and Denoise tools? Is there any reason that I should not continue with my PS/CR workflow?
Thanks Matt, for the info. Can you tell me why I am unable to export images from Lightroom Classic after they have been enhanced with Denoise?
Hi. I cannot. If File > Export isn’t working you’d have to contact Adobe. Thanks
I would greatly like to move to LR from LRC, but there are no plug-in options, unless you go to the plug-in’s first and then continue in LR. Am I correct?
Pertaining to the second question about the message that comes up when upgrading and your system isn’t compatible with the new version of PS. I got that message and, after checking with the Adobe Community, I found that LrC v14 is compatible with the v25 of PS. As a LrC user, I’m not all that concerned about this and it doesn’t affect my workflow at all.
Ignoring the workflow issues which may or may not be corrected to the liking of some (or many), what is the quality of the noise reduction compared to what we had in the previous version and with competitor products such as Topaz Photo AI?
I use Topaz Photo AI quite often. I’d be interested in your upcoming course. Thank you, Matt!
What is the schedule for release of your new program?