Author: Tim Grey

Today’s Question: I’m accustomed to seeing XMP (sidecar) files with the same (base) name as my edited images from Lightroom Classic. I just noticed a file I edited also has an ACR (Adobe Camera Raw?) file. Do I really need this one too or can I delete it?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You should retain both the XMP and ACR files, as they contain details of metadata updates and adjustments you’ve applied to the original raw captures in Lightroom Classic (or Adobe Camera Raw).

More Detail: As many photographers are probably already aware, XMP sidecar files are used by software such as Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw to store metadata that has been updated for raw captures, so that the original raw capture doesn’t need to be modified.

This approach was recently updated to include both an XMP and an ACR sidecar file, in part to help improve performance. The XMP file contains standard metadata updates, such as keywords and star ratings, while the ACR file contains raster data such as masks used for targeted adjustments.

As such, you generally want to preserve both of those files along with the original raw capture. Of course, deleting the XMP and ACR files won’t affect the original capture data in the raw capture file, so it is possible to delete those files without losing the original photo. However, in most cases you would want to retain the metadata updates and adjustments for your photos. In other words, the only reason to delete the XMP and ACR files is if you wanted to effectively reset an image to the original capture right out of the camera with no metadata updates or adjustments.

Today’s Question: After a recent update when I launch Photoshop I see a bunch of thumbnails from images I’ve worked on recently. I used to just see the empty window, and I find the new display distracting. Is there a way to go back to the old style?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can disable the Home Screen you’re seeing by turning off the “Auto show the Home Screen” checkbox in Preferences.

More Detail: The Home Screen is not a new feature in Photoshop, so if you only started seeing it recently it was probably caused by either installing a clean (without existing Preferences) version of Photoshop or from resetting the Preferences.

I also find the Home Screen to be distracting and not particularly helpful, so I prefer to turn off the “Auto show the Home Screen” checkbox, which can be found on the General tab of the Preferences dialog. You can bring up the Preferences dialog by choosing Edit > Preferences > General from the menu on Windows or Photoshop > Settings > General on Macintosh.

If you disable the Home Screen but find that you sometimes want to make use of it, you can click the house icon at the far left of the Options bar to bring it up.

I similarly find the newer New Document dialog to be cluttered and distracting, so I prefer not to use it. If you similarly prefer the older version of the New Document dialog you can turn on the “Use Legacy ‘New Document’ Interface” checkbox that is also found on the General tab of the Preferences dialog.

Today’s Question: I created a Photoshop workspace in the Beta version. Can I easily transfer that to the non-Beta version?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can copy saved workspaces from one version of Photoshop to another or from one computer to another.

More Detail: When you save a workspace for the overall layout of panels and toolbars in Photoshop, a file is created that contains the information for that saved layout. The only real challenge is navigating to the right place for those files.

The first step is to save a workspace in Photoshop. To do so, arrange the panels the way you want them, including enabling additional panels from the Window menu or closing panels you don’t need in the workspace. Then go to the menu and choose Window > Workspace > New Workspace. Enter a meaningful name for the workspace and click the Save button. You can then copy the settings file for that saved workspace.

On Macintosh go to the Finder and hold the Option key while choosing Go > Library from the menu. If you don’t hold the Option key you won’t see Library on the menu. Then navigate to the Preferences folder, then the folder named for the version of Photoshop you used to save the workspace. For example, the current version folder is called “Adobe Photoshop 2026 Settings”.

On Windows open File Explorer and navigate to the primary internal hard drive (C:). Open the Users folder, then the folder for your username. You can then navigate to AppData > Roaming > Adobe, followed by the folder for the version of Photoshop, such as “Adobe Photoshop 2026 Settings”.

You can then open the Workspaces folder and copy the files for the layouts you saved with that version of Photoshop. They can be copied to the same folder structure for a different version of Photoshop, or for Photoshop on a different computer. When you launch that version of Photoshop, you’ll find the workspaces available on the Window > Workspace menu.

Note that I demonstrated this process of copying saved workspaces in Photoshop toward the end of my presentation on “Configuring the Interface” as part of the Photoshop Ultimate Live Learning series that is available exclusively to GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle subscribers. The course for that series can be found here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/photoshop-ultimate-live-learning

Today’s Question: Can I change which metadata appears when I enable the overlay in the loupe view in Lightroom Classic by pressing the letter “I” on the keyboard?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can modify the settings for the info overlay in Lightroom Classic on the Loupe View tab of the Library View Options dialog.

More Detail: Pressing the letter “I” on the keyboard when in the loupe view in the Library module in Lightroom Classic will cycle you through three information overlay displays. The first time you press “I” it will show Loupe Info 1, the second time it will show Loupe Info 2, and the third time the info overlay will disappear.

You can configure the specific information that will appear on the three available lines for each info overlay configuration in the Loupe Info Options dialog. To get started choose View > View Options from the menu. In the Library View Options dialog select the Loupe View tab. Then choose the desired metadata field options from the three popups in both the Loupe Info 1 and Loupe Info 2 sections.

For example, you might want to have camera and lens information for one of the info overlays, and exposure and capture time for the second info overlay, perhaps with the filename at the top of both options. Note that the top line of the info overlay text is larger than the other two lines, so you might want to put whatever you consider the most important metadata field on the top line. When you’re finished setting the options, close the Library View Options dialog.

Once you’ve configured the desired metadata for the two info overlay options, you can use the letter “I” keyboard shortcut to cycle through with an updated display based on your selected settings.

Today’s Question: I would hasten to add that when using a Curves Layer to adjust tonality without wishing to affect color, it is best to use the Luminosity blend mode.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, if you add a Curves adjustment layer to an image in Photoshop, you can change the blend mode to Luminosity to ensure the adjustment will only impact overall tonality for the image, without any impact on color.

More Detail: While today’s question isn’t exactly a question, it is a follow-up to the question I answered on May 6th related to the behavior of the Channels adjustment layer in Photoshop.

By default, all adjustment layers have their blend mode set to “Normal”, which means the adjustment layer simply applies to underlying pixels based on the behavior of that adjustment layer. There is the potential, however, for there to be a relatively minor unintended impact on other attributes, especially with somewhat complex adjustments such as Curves.

In particular, there is a risk that when applying a tonal adjustment with a Curves adjustment layer that the color may be impacted in the image more than you would like. If you want to restrict the Curves adjustment layer to only affect tonality and not color, you can change the blend mode for the Curves adjustment layer to Luminosity using the popup at the top-left of the Layers panel.

The same concept could apply in other situations. For example, if you want to use an adjustment layer to affect color without impacting tonality, you could change the blend mode for that adjustment layer to Color.

In the vast majority of cases the impact of using the Normal blend mode for an adjustment layer rather than, for example, Luminosity or Color, is going to be quite minimal. However, if you want to exercise maximum control over your photos with no other unintended changes, changing the blend mode for an adjustment layer can be helpful. Just keep in mind that this will also limit the effect of an adjustment layer. For example, with a Curves adjustment layer if you set the blend mode to Luminosity and then alter the curve for the Red, Green, or Blue channel, you’ll only be impacting the overall brightness of the image with no shift in color balance.

You can read the question and answer that today’s question was a follow-up to on the Ask Tim Grey blog here:

https://asktimgrey.com/2026/05/06/curves-behavior-with-channels/

Today’s Question: My new camera specifications state that it features 45 megapixels. I understand there is a Bayer pattern, grouping 4 pixels with color filters effectively into one. So, does my camera 180 million pixels in 45 million groups of 4 or some other amount?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Your camera has 45 million photosites on the image sensor, resulting in an image with 45 million pixels (megapixels). Interpolation is used to calculate the “missing” color values for each single-color photosite.

More Detail: The number of megapixels specified for a digital camera generally relates to the number of photosites on the image sensor, and by extension the number of megapixels in the final image. Most images sensors employ a Bayer pattern design, where for each grid of four photosites on the sensor one will capture red light, two will capture green light, and one will capture blue light. But that grid represents four individual pixels in the final image, not four values that get combined into a single pixel.

When the raw capture is rendered, a demosaicing process calculates the “missing” color values for each pixel through interpolation. For the pixels that only recorded a red value, for example, the green and blue values must be calculated. This might seem improbable, but it makes more sense when you consider that the green and blue values for a photosite that only recorded red light is calculated based on neighboring green and blue photosites, not arbitrarily based on the red value.

In the vast majority of camera image sensors there is only one photosite on the sensor for each pixel in the final image. There are some exceptions to this. For example, the sensors original developed by Foveon used a specialized photosite construction where all three color values (red, green, and blue) were captured by each photosite.

There are other variations on the traditional image sensor structure that involve more than one photosite per pixel, such as sensors from Fujifilm that employed two sensors per pixel for increased dynamic range. In other cases, different technologies are used to enhance the image data captured by the sensor. For example, the Fujifilm Pixel-Shift Multi-Shot technology enables a camera to capture a series of images with the image sensor shifting position slightly between captures to produce an image with higher resolution and color fidelity than would otherwise be possible.

Today’s Question: Does the screenshot I’ve attached [showing a circle with an exclamation point icon attached to two folders in Lightroom Classic] indicate that I have missing folders? Someone added an image yesterday who was helping me on some printing issues and this showed up.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, an icon represented by a black circle with an exclamation point icon connected to a folder in the Folders list in Lightroom Classic indicates that one of the subfolders below that folder is missing.

More Detail: The icon with a circle inside a black circle in Lightroom Classic doesn’t indicate that the folder with the icon is missing, but rather that there is a folder somewhere within the subfolder structure that is missing. You may therefore need to scroll rather far down the Folders list on the left panel and expand multiple folders to reveal subfolders to find the actual folder that is missing. The missing folder will show a question mark icon attached to the folder.

If you suspect there is a small number of photos that are missing in the context of a missing folder, it may be faster to go to the menu and choose Library > Find All Missing Photos. Then navigate to the Missing Photographs collection in the Catalog section of the left panel, right-click on one of the photo thumbnails in that collection, and choose “Go to Folder in Library” from the popup menu. That will automatically navigate you to the folder the image is in, which may very well be the missing folder.

You can also scroll down your folder list, looking for additional icons with an exclamation point in a black circle, expanding each of those folders by clicking on the triangle to the left of the folder to reveal all subfolders. Continue this process until you find the missing folder with the question mark icon.

You can then right-click on the missing folder and choose “Find Missing Folder”, then navigate to the updated location (and perhaps updated name for the folder) and reconnect it. If, however, the folder in question had been deleted, then you can right-click the folder and choose Remove from the popup menu.

It is possible that there had been a missing folder all along, and that you hadn’t noticed the icons previously. But it is obviously also possible that the person who was working in your catalog made a problematic change. For example, they might have imported a photo temporarily in order to print it from Lightroom Classic, and then deleted the folder from the hard drive without removing it from the Lightroom Classic catalog.

Today’s Question: I am getting the following message when I attempt to back up my Lightroom Classic catalog:

“Lightroom was unable to back up the catalog…”

I have tried backing up to other drives with the same result. The drive was not disconnected or ejected. I have permissions set correctly. Any suggestions?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Based on your description I suspect your catalog has become corrupted. I suggest importing the data from your existing catalog into a new catalog.

More Detail: While permission issues can certainly result in an inability to back up the catalog to a specific drive or folder, if that were the case you would likely have seen other issues with Lightroom Classic, depending on your storage configuration. Plus, it sounds like you’ve verified the permission issue through your operating system. Note, for example, that on Macintosh computers you’ll want to enable the “Full Disk Access” option for Lightroom Classic so it can access all storage.

Based on your description, I suspect the issue is a corrupted catalog, causing Lightroom Classic to have difficulty making a copy of the catalog as part of the backup process.

My suggestion is to create a new catalog (File > New Catalog from the menu in Lightroom Classic) and then import your existing catalog into the new catalog. To do so, with the new catalog open choose File > Import from Another Catalog from the menu. Navigate to the folder location and select the prior catalog for import. This will bring all of the information about your existing photos from the original catalog into the new catalog, which will hopefully fully resolve your issue.

The risk of catalog corruption over time is the key reason I recommend using the built-in feature to back up the Lightroom Classic catalog. As part of that process, I recommend turning on both checkboxes in the backup configuration dialog to enable both error-checking and optimization of the catalog, as the former in particular can help identify problems before they become serious.

Today’s Question: You have recommended Backblaze as a good off-site backup solution, which involves “cloud” storage. Have you now seen evidence causing you to change your thinking about that?

Tim’s Quick Answer: No, not at all. I still highly recommend Backblaze as a cloud-based backup solution. What I don’t recommend is general cloud-based storage for photos, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and others.

More Detail: Today’s question is a follow-up to my answer in the May 7th Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, where I recommended that photographers should not store photos nor the Lightroom Classic catalog in cloud-based storage. The distinction is cloud backup storage versus cloud storage for actively working with files.

The key issue with cloud-based storage for files you’ll actively work with and update is that there are risks of files not synchronizing properly particularly when you are accessing the same files from more than one computer. For example, I’ve been able to create metadata mismatches in seconds and catalog corruption within minutes by accessing a Lightroom Classic catalog stored in the cloud. I’ve similarly had Word documents on more than one occasion not update properly (or at all) across more than one computer, resulting in data loss.

The reason this type of cloud-based storage can be problematic is that it involves synchronizing files to and from cloud storage, potentially across multiple computers and mobile devices. In theory if you have reliable internet access on all devices the files will remain up to date. However, as noted above, I’ve found that it is far too easy for files to get corrupted or lost if they are accessed from more than one computer.

Cloud backup services such Backblaze are different in that they provide a one-way data transfer. The drives you’ve enabled backup for are monitored, and any new or updated files get copied to the servers. There’s no synchronization happening across multiple computers, so there isn’t the risk of files getting corrupted due to synchronization failures across devices.

Cloud storage in generally is very reliable. And cloud-based backup services offer a convenient way to have an off-site backup of your photos and other important data. But I do not recommend depending on cloud-based storage solutions where your files are synchronized via the cloud to multiple devices when it comes to photos and related data. I also recommend caution when depending on cloud storage for documents that will be modified across more than one computer, as I’ve seen numerous problems with that approach.

Note that the concerns outlined above do not apply to cloud-based photo synchronization services such as iCloud or the synchronization in Lightroom. That’s because these types of services have more of a closed loop where the photos in cloud-storage are treated as the primary data source without the need to synchronize all data to other devices.

Today’s Question: I will be getting new MacBook Pro, but I’m completely stumped about whether I should get the new Nano-Textured display or the standard display. I’m really interested in your opinion on which option you would go with if you were getting a new MacBook Pro for doing all your image processing on?

Tim’s Quick Answer: While both the standard and nano-textured displays are very good, I prefer to use the standard display for better image quality and fidelity, along with easier maintenance.

More Detail: The decision between the standard display and the nano-textured display mostly comes down to deciding between greatly reduced glare versus higher image quality and fidelity. For photography applications, to me the image quality and fidelity is more important, which is why I prefer not to use a nano-textured display.

There is obviously a considerable benefit to having reduced glare on a nano-textured display. However, considering that it is always best to work in a somewhat darkened environment when evaluating and optimizing photos, glare reduction isn’t necessarily very important for photographers. It is helpful when you’re out in the world with your laptop, but much less of an issue when you’re in a controlled environment.

The key drawback of the nano-textured display is that the colors are slightly muted, contrast appears lower with blacks that aren’t as deep, and the display is slightly less sharp. In addition, because of the textured surface of the display, if you opt for the nano-textured display you need to use the included specialty cloth for cleaning, which reduced flexibility for cleaning and maintaining the display.

To be sure, both displays with and without the nano-textured surface are very good, but all things considered I prefer the standard display rather than the nano-textured display.