How cool is this! As fellow Photofocus author Levi Sim and I prepared for a Webinar on how we use Perfectly Clear, we stumbled upon a neat trick–using a Lightroom Preset in Photoshop! Instead of bouncing back and forth between programs, I can stay in Photoshop to complete my edits. It’s not as hard as you may think, here’s how.

Getting your Lightroom Preset into Photoshop

Step 1: Select a RAW file in Lightroom and apply a preset.

Working in the development module, apply a preset to an image.

Step 2: Edit in Photoshop as a Smart Object

Right mouse click on the image and select Edit In and choose Open as a Smart Object in Photoshop.

Save the Lightroom Preset in Photoshop

Step 3: Open Camera Raw

Double click on the smart object to open the Camera Raw dialog box. You’ll see the same settings as Lightroom but organized a little differently.

Step 4: Saving Lightroom’s preset as a Camera Raw preset

Click on the preset icon and select the new preset icon on the bottom of the window. Name the preset and click OK. Notice the new preset is created.

Applying the Preset in Photoshop

Step 5: Open any Image from Lightroom

To see the workflow in action, close out of Photoshop and return to Lightroom. Select any image in Lightroom– including jpgs– right mouse click and choose Edit in Adobe Photoshop. This can also work in Bridge or just Photoshop. The goal is to have an image open in Photoshop.

Step 6: Camera Raw Filter

Launch the Camera Raw Filter from the Filter’s menu. When the Camera Raw dialog box appears, click on the preset icon, choose your new preset then click OK. Your Lightroom preset is now applied inside Photoshop!

Benefits of this Workflow

Lightroom is designed to DEVELOP your images where Photoshop is designed to MANIPULATE them.You can now develop your image inside Photoshop with your Lightroom preset, then continue to manipulate the image. In the past, I would start in Lightroom with basic development values, then open the image in Photoshop, apply my perfectly Clear preset to enhance the subject’s eyes, remove blemishes and bring out the color. Then I would go back into Lightroom and apply my Sports Preset. If the image needed addition tweaking– not available in Lightroom– I would go back to Photoshop. Now I can apply my edits inside Photoshop along with my Lightroom Preset.

Wait until I show you how to make this entire process a Photoshop action!