Originally posted by graphicgr8s How could it be an improvement when the develop module is the same exact program whether PS or LR?
Not an improvement in image quality - an improvement in user interface.
And yes, Photoshop can accomplish non-destructive editing outside of ACR via layers, although this is a different "type" of non-destructive editing than the type done by ACR. The term "non-destructive" is an unfortunate choice here, because while it is indeed non-destructive, that's not the most interesting/useful aspect of that LR/ACR does - it's the fact that the edits are "parametric". Meaning they are stored simply as instructions to be re-applied on the fly to the original image data. It's this property that makes possible some of the really amazing things you can do. Like - and this is just one example - take a bunch of images that have already been processed, then make an adjustment to just one parameter and have it apply to all images without affecting the other parameters. So you could do all your processing with respect to everything but, say, sharpening, then apply a global sharpening adjustment - and still be entirely within the parametric / non-destructive environment (meaning you could then go in an individually customize that global sharpening adjustment for selected images. Again, that's but one isolated example of the things that parametric editing makes possible. And it's the interface to doing stuff like this that separates LR from ACR as it exists in Photoshop - although I have to confess to only a passing familiarity with the specifics of the interfaces in either program, so those who actually know both programs would have to answer any questions on how *specifically* the interfaces differ in this respect.