Here we take a look at a new feature in October 2024's Adobe Lightroom (formerly known as Lightroom CC - I know it's confusing) - How to Edit in third party / external applications in Lightroom so not in one of Adobe's products such as Photoshop.

This process has been made a little easier now, so here are the steps.

As you can see here, I'm interested in editing this image of Ireland's largest sea arch Great Pollet which has strong partial lighting across its face.

Now let's say you're not a Photoshop user but you do use Lightroom, you also use a non-Adobe photo editing application such as Affinity Photo.

In Lightroom, right click on the image and choose Edit in > Browse...

Edit in > Browse..."/>

Then choose your app, here I have chosen Affinity's Photo.exe.

A dialog opens up, showing how to proceed; (1)make your edits in Photo (my chosen app), keeping Lightroom open in background, (2) Save your work in Photo then (3) Return to Lightroom.

Here I make my edits in Affinity Photo, let's say using the healing brish tool to remove dust spots. Then File > Save.

After the application, in this case Affinity Photo, opens, the Lightroom dialog changed to (1) Be sure your photo is saved and (2) Choose Finish and of course there is a Finish button to click to ensure the image is brought back into Lightroom. So I click Finish here after having already saved in Affinity Photo in the previous step.

The file now appears in Adobe Lightroom's filmstrip, seen here alongside the original RAW file, in this case as a TIF.

After having edited in your app, it will now appear as an option in future when you Right Click > Edit in > ...

I usually write about Adobe Lightroom Classic but if you're a regular reader here on Panoramic Ireland you will probably have seen my recent articles on Adobe Bridge, Lightroom and Photoshop.

Why not join me to learn how to photograph, use software and create images and stories that matter in Ireland's fine countryside.

I read recently online, someone asking for help to find previously imported images in Adobe Lightroom. They had set a location, imported and after changing folders couldn't find where they had imported images to.

It sounds like a simple fix, and in a way it is, but sometimes it can be confusing and until you get to know your software there is that time when this kind of thing can occur - is it on an external drive, date based folders or all thrown together in one big folder? Or indeed a combination of these.

Thankfully Lightroom has a few ways of helping out in this case.

• Go to Library (G) or Loupe (E) view and in the Catalog panel on the left column look for Previous Import, this will bring you to your most recent import.

• And if you need to find the location that these images are stored in, right click on any of the images and choose Show in Explorer

Adobe Lightroom - Right Click > Show in Explorer

• This will bring up in Windows Explorer the actual folder that the images are stored in.

That's it, now you know how to find your most recently imported images in Adobe Lightroom, like this one of a colourful autumnal woodland path from Ireland.

Are you having trouble editing files from Adobe's Lightroom in Photoshop?

Normally a seamless experience, right clicking on an image and choosing Edit In > Edit in Adobe Photoshop... is easy, or quicker using the CTRL+E shortcut.

****This issue has reappeared in September 2024, see this post for how to fix the problem: https://panoramicireland.com/photography-photoshop-post-processing/error-adobe-photoshop-lightroom-version-open-warning-having-issues-connecting-how-to-temporarily-fix-cliffs-of-moher-image ****

**Final Update: September 2023 - this issue has been fixed with the release of Adobe Photoshop 2024 which includes the Generative Fill commands previously only available in Photoshop Beta**

**Update Again: 17/08/2023 part Two - This bug has been addressed and partially fixed with Adobe Lightroom Classic v 12.5 that should be available now. The context menu will show "Edit in Adobe Photoshop 2024..." but now it actually does open as normal. So it's time to update Photoshop (Beta) to v 25.0 and you will have almost normal operation and the return of Generative Fill** 

Please consider a small donation to help with the costs of running this website, every little helps and goes towards creating articles on Photography, Photoshop and Ireland. Thank you.

In fact it only works to open Photoshop (Beta), if Photoshop is open it will default to the old behaviour of taking minutes to respond, tell you it can't be opened and then create a .tif file.

So if you have Photoshop open it will not work, only if both Photoshop and Photoshop Beta are closed, or if only Photoshop Beta is open, then it will work.

To say Adobe are making a right mess of this Photoshop Beta would be an understatement.

I was editing some images from Dublin, and this one of city's fine City Hall, it opened in 1779 as the Royal Exchange but functioning since 1851 the city hall. Unfortunately I ran into problems with editing the image.

If, like countless others, you are having problems with Photoshop hanging then Lightroom showing an error stating "The file could not be edited because Adobe Photoshop 2024 could not be launched.", well you are far from alone.

The solution in most cases is simple, this is a known and acknowledged bug by Adobe. 

Likely it is because you have also installed Adobe Photoshop (Beta), the newest version has an incorrect reference to Adobe Photoshop 2024 when in fact you have Adobe Photoshop 2023 installed.

This fix will work even if you are using Photoshop for external editing.

For me, on Windows 10, the error started after updating Photoshop Beta to the latest version (25.0).

CTRL+E in Lightroom, even with the official Photoshop app already open, caused the program to hang for several minutes after which Lightroom showed that error about Photoshop 2024.

After clicking OK, Photoshop did then open the image but it also instantly created a .tif version in the Lightroom filmstrip (normally when editing in Photoshop this tif wouldn't be created until you saved the file).

To fix, open Creative Cloud Desktop then go to Apps, scroll down to Beta apps and click on the three dots beside open for Photoshop (Beta)

Choose Other versions then go to the previous version, in this case I reinstalled 24.7.

You don't need to uninstall Photoshop (Beta) 25.0 as installing 24.7 here will uninstall the offending most recent, offending version.

Afterwards, Lightroom correctly shows the external editing in Photoshop to be Adobe Photoshop 2023 - Edit > Preferences... > External Editing > Photoshop Version:

Normality resumes, with Edit in Photoshop 2023 bringing the file instantly into Photoshop and loading it as a .CR2 file and only saving it when choosing to save.

I have read elsewhere of people uninstalling Lightroom and Photoshop but the simple fix is to try this first.

It's a big problem, and just one of a number recently introduced since Adobe launched Photoshop (Beta), so if you don't want to attempt this fix an update will be released sooner rather than later.

Sometimes, particularly when moving folders between drives, Lightroom will show only the folder with images in the left hand pane without regard to actual folder hierarchy on the drive.

Read on for more on how to keep Lightroom tidy as you like it.

See the image here, the folders 2008-01-28, 2017-08-29 and 2018-01-07 are all located in folders based on year, so 2008, 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Sometimes in Lightroom, just having a Smart Preview is enough.

Using Smart Previews saves having hard drives plugged in all the time, edits can still be made and images exported at a reduced size from the original.

But if you need to export the original file size for printing, for a client or even to make further edits using Photoshop or other software then you will need the original file.

It does happen that when you do some tidying in your hard drives, files and folders can get moved and Lightroom will see them as Missing.

In this case, my Q drive started to have troubles and I moved to using my second copy on a new drive.

There are, as always, a few ways to do anything in Adobe products.

Here, I have a Smart Preview and want to locate the original photo:

Adobe Lightroom Classic is full of shortcuts and learning them all can be slightly overwhelming.

Here is one shortcut that is useful, well two maybe.

Exporting photos from Lightroom is one of the most repeated tasks and speeding up that process can make a project quicker.

There are a few ways to get to the export dialog in Lightroom:

We all get to the stage where images are stored on different drives and sometimes we won't have access to those drives.

Especially when working on a laptop, a desk drive might be in a different location and the images on it temporarily inaccessible.

Lightroom has a handy feature for this very situation, called Smart Previews.

Smart Previews allow you to edit images when Lightroom can't access the original file, it contains all of your edits to the file made when the image was accessible.