SUMMARY
Adobe's new Light adjustment layer in Photoshop closely mimics Lightroom's tone and exposure controls, causing confusion among users. While it can be useful for minor adjustments on photos with limited dynamic range, it fails to preserve detail in demanding edits, resulting in muddy highlights and blocky shadows. This layer is intended for users who don't work with raw files, such as graphic designers, and is better suited for layered composites than heavy exposure correction. Using it for significant edits can also lead to much larger file sizes compared to raw files.
TAKEAWAYS
Photoshop's Light layer resembles Lightroom's interface but produces inferior results on demanding exposures.
Raw editors like Lightroom preserve more detail in highlights and shadows than Photoshop's Light layer.
The Light layer is designed for users who don't edit raw files, excelling in layered composites.
Significant edits with the Light layer can drastically increase file size compared to raw files.