Author: Tim Grey

Today’s Question: I was intrigued by your answer about not necessarily needing all the adjustments that are available in software such as Lightroom Classic and Photoshop. I was particularly interested to read that you would consider removing a couple of adjustments if given the choice, and would be curious to know what those are.

Tim’s Quick Answer: The primary adjustment I would tend to want removed from Lightroom Classic (or Camera Raw) would be the Grain option in Effects. I would also suggest removing the Pet Eye option for the from the Red Eye Correction tool, as in my experience it never works well.

More Detail: I enjoyed the philosophical discussion of whether we should perhaps limit ourselves to a relatively small number of adjustments for optimizing our photos in yesterday’s edition of Ask Tim Grey. As I noted, I appreciate having most of the adjustments available even if I don’t use them very often, but there are some I could live without.

I would be perfectly happy if the Grain option in the Effects adjustments were removed. While I have fond memories of film photography from my younger days, I never feel the need to add a film grain effect to photos. Overall, it tends to look more like luminance noise, so I’d just as soon avoid the effect even when I’m trying to mimic the look of an old film photo.

While I would generally say that the ability to remove retinal glare in photos of pets (the equivalent of red eye removal for photos of people), in my experience this feature works so poorly that I consider it useless. It is far more reliable to use blend modes in Photoshop to remove the pet eye rather than struggling with the Pet Eye option for the Red Eye Correction tool.

Otherwise, I would say that while there are many features I use very rarely in Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw, I do appreciate that the adjustments are there. For example, I almost never use the Tone Curve adjustment (called simply Curve in Camera Raw). However, every now and then I do appreciate the refined control it provides for both tonal and color balance adjustments.

Today’s Question: As all the various editing software continues to be updated, we have more and more adjustments available for our photos. Is there an argument to be made that we have too many options, and that we should perhaps consider limiting ourselves to the more basic adjustments?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, there is most certainly an argument (perhaps more than one) that using fewer adjustments would be reasonable.

More Detail: As much as I love having options, I also think it would be reasonable to say that we have more options than we necessarily need when it comes to optimizing our photos. There are most certainly adjustments I never use, and even more that I use only rarely.

To some extent my opinion here might make me a bit old fashioned. I am, after all, a proponent of the long-held notion that the image should be created as close to perfect in the camera, so that minimal processing is necessary after the capture. I often find, however, that my favorite photos are those that don’t require much editing, because I’m mostly happy with how they were captured in the first place.

For the vast majority of my photos, I only need the basic adjustments related to tone and color, sometimes with a bit of fine-tuning for color such as with the Color Mixer and Color Grading adjustments in Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw.

I don’t find the need to use image cleanup tools very often, in part because I try to make sure my camera sensor remains free of dust spots, and because I try my best to avoid distractions and blemishes in my original compositions. I also don’t tend to need to use targeted adjustments (via masking, for example) for most of my photos.

Having said all that, I most certainly appreciate that all the adjustments are available. For example, it can be tremendously helpful to fine-tune the overall tonality specifically for the sky to help balance that area better with the rest of the photo. And while I do my best to avoid blemishes in my photos, sometimes they are unavoidable or I fail to notice them until after the capture.

So, I would not suggest that Adobe remove adjustments from Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw, perhaps with a couple exceptions. But I also think there’s something to be said for being sure not to over-process an image, and that just because a particular adjustment is available doesn’t mean it should be used for every image.

Today’s Question: I watched your presentation on customizing the interface in Photoshop, but ran into a problem right away where I couldn’t move any of the panels around. How to I enable that capability?

Tim’s Quick Answer: It sounds like you have the workspace in Photoshop locked, so all you need to do is choose Window > Workspace > Lock Workspace from the menu to turn it off. You’ll then be able to move panels around to reconfigure the workspace.

More Detail: One of the more helpful features of Photoshop is the ability to customize the interface based on your own preferences and the tools you tend to use most. You can even create more than one workspace to reflect different tasks, such as having one workspace for general image optimization and another for more advanced retouching work.

In addition to being able to save a custom panel arrangement as a workspace in Photoshop, you can enable the “Lock Workspace” option to ensure the workspace doesn’t get significantly altered. When you enable the “Lock Workspace” feature you can’t undock panels. However, you can still add additional panels via the Window menu, and you can move undocked panels around or close them. The menu command is found at Window > Workspace > Lock Workspace.

If you want to move panels around, such as to create a new workspace or modify an existing workspace, you can choose Window > Workspace > Lock Workspace first to unlock the workspace if it is locked. You’ll then be able to freely add, close, and move panels around.

Once you’ve configured the panel arrangement to your liking, you can save the workspace by choosing Window > Workspace > New Workspace from the menu. If you then want to make it so panels can’t be undocked, you can once again enable the “Lock Workspace” setting.

I covered the various options for customizing the interface in Photoshop in my “Ultimate Live Learning” presentation on “Configuring the Interface in Adobe Photoshop”. If you’re subscribed to my GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle you can sign in and then click the “Resume Course” button and find the lesson recording in the “Configuring Photoshop” chapter of the “Photoshop Ultimate Live Learning” course that can be found here:

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

Today’s Question: As a follow up to your answer about scratch disks in Photoshop, is there a way to actually know if the scratch disks are even being used?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The only way to determine if Photoshop is making use of scratch disks is to monitor the status bar at the bottom of the interface after setting the popup to “Efficiency”.

More Detail: As noted in yesterday’s answer, Photoshop uses hard drive space to supplement memory (RAM) when there isn’t enough memory. The hard drives used for this purpose are referred to as “scratch disks” in the parlance of Photoshop.

Ideally, Photoshop never needs to use scratch disks, because when scratch disks are used in place of memory performance will generally be greatly diminished. This goal is achieved by ensuring your computer has adequate system memory (RAM). I recommend 32GB as a good balance for memory, though more can certainly be helpful if you work with particularly high-resolution images or need to have multiple memory-intensive applications running at once.

If you want to monitor whether Photoshop is supplementing memory by using scratch disks, you can monitor the Efficiency value. To get started, open an image in Photoshop and look at the status bar at the bottom of the screen. Click the right-pointing chevron (arrow) symbol toward the left side of the status bar, which will bring up a popup where you can select what information is shown to the right of the current zoom setting on the status bar. Select “Efficiency” from that popup.

At this point the status bar will show “Efficiency: 100%” to indicate the current efficiency level. If a number lower than 100% is shown, that indicates that there isn’t enough memory and the scratch disks are being used to supplement that shortage.

If you only rarely see the Efficiency value drop below 100%, such as when you’re working on an unusually large image, it isn’t anything to worry about. But if you’re regularly seeing a value below 100% for Efficiency it is time to either make sure no other applications are running when you’re using Photoshop or to upgrade your computer so you have more available memory. It is also worth confirming that you have allocated enough memory to Photoshop in this case. On the Performance tab of the Preferences dialog I recommend setting the “Let Photoshop Use” slider in the Memory Usage section to about 80%.

Today’s Question: I am getting a “Scratch Disk getting full” message when starting Photoshop. What do I need to do to fix this?

Tim’s Quick Answer: When Photoshop reports that the scratch disks are getting full, I recommend clearing space on the drive so that at least 100GB is available or changing the scratch disk settings in Preferences to exclude any drives that don’t have adequate free space.

More Detail: The term “scratch disk” in Photoshop refers to the use of hard drive storage space to supplement memory (RAM). Ideally, you’ll never get into a situation where Photoshop is using a scratch disk, because it means you don’t have enough memory for the current task. When Photoshop uses a scratch disk performance can be dramatically diminished.

The first step would be to check the settings for scratch disks in Preferences in Photoshop. On the Scratch Disks tab of the Preferences dialog, you’ll find a list of all hard drives currently connected to your computer. You can turn the checkbox for each hard drive on or off to select which can be used as scratch disks.

You must have at least one hard drive selected as a scratch disk, and I recommend using an internal hard drive (so that it is always available) that has at least 100GB of free space. If you have more than one internal hard drive, I recommend using the one that does not have the operating system and applications stored on it, to help improve performance.

You can also select more than one hard drive, including external drives. In general, I recommend selecting only drives that offer very good performance and with at least 100GB available. In this case, for example, it might make sense to disable the drive that doesn’t have much free space, selecting a different drive instead.

If one or more hard drives don’t have at least 100GB available, I recommend clearing off space on those drives. This can involve uninstalling applications you don’t use, deleting temporary or duplicate data, or otherwise removing files you don’t need.

As noted above, you can avoid the use of scratch disks altogether by making sure you have adequate system memory. So, if you’ve been looking for an excuse to upgrade your computer, this might be a good reason to do so.

Today’s Question: I have always used Lightroom Classic’s “import photos” feature to download the images from my camera. Why is it that the images are often imported out of sequence instead of in the order taken?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Images will generally be imported in what seems like a random order, based on the way data is written to and read from the media cards. You can ensure you’re browsing the images in the correct order by setting the sort order to Capture Time.

More Detail: You can change the sort order for your photos using the Sort popup that is available both in the Import dialog and on the toolbar below the grid view in the Library module in Lightroom Classic. In general I recommend using the Capture Time option so you’re seeing photos in the order they were taken.

When you import photos from a media card into Lightroom Classic, they won’t generally be downloaded in the same order they were captured due to how the data is written (and therefore read) from the media card. This can lead to some potential challenges in your workflow. For example, if you set the sort order to “Off” in the Import dialog and rename with a sequence number during import, sorting by filename versus capture time can result in a completely different sort order.

I recommend setting the sort order to Capture Time both in the import dialog and in the grid view in the Library module, unless you have a specific need to sort the images in a different order. This can be especially important if you’re renaming during import and will include a sequence number as part of the file renaming structure.

Today’s Question: I processed an image with AI based on your class the other day. I had first exported the image to a folder on my desktop. Then I processed with ChatGPT. How do I get the resulting image back into Lightroom Classic?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I recommend putting the image into the same folder as the original and then using the “Synchronize Folder” command to bring that image into your Lightroom Classic catalog.

More Detail: When you’ve processed a derivative image outside of Lightroom Classic, in many cases it can be helpful to manage that new image in your Lightroom Classic catalog. For example, I recently taught a class on “Creative Effects with AI” as part of my GreyLearning Ultimate Live Learning series. More than likely you would want to manage images that result from such creative processing with AI alongside the original image that was used to create the new image.

While there are several ways you could go about this task, I recommend using the Synchronize Folder command to add the image to your Lightroom Classic catalog.

The first step would be to move the image into the same folder as the original image on your hard drive. Then in Lightroom Classic navigate to that folder, right-click on it, and choose “Synchronize Folder” from the popup menu. In the Synchronize Folder dialog turn on the checkbox for “Import new photos” and also turn on the “Show import dialog before importing” checkbox. Turn off the checkboxes for “Remove missing photos from catalog” (if it is enabled) and “Scan for metadata updates”. Then click the Synchronize button.

In the Import dialog that appears based on having turned on the applicable checkbox in the Synchronize Folder dialog, review the settings on the right panel and adjust as needed. For example, you may not want to set the Develop Settings and Metadata popups in the Apply During Import section to “None” so that no changes are applied to the images you’re adding through this process. Then click the Import button and the new images will be added to your catalog. Since the images will be in the same folder as the originals they were based on, you’ll be able to manage the originals and derivative images together.

If you missed my presentation on “Creative Effects with AI” and are a GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle subscriber, you can view the recording of the presentation by signing in to the GreyLearning website (greylearning.com) and then clicking the “Resume Course” button on this page:

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

Today’s Question: Back in the “old days”, a lot of the various 35mm camera lenses had a marking on the lens containing distance measurements for feet/meters where you could easily tell the distance at which you were focusing. What is an accurate way to obtain the distance measurements with a lens that does not contain any measurement indicators?

Tim’s Quick Answer: A laser measurement tool can provide accurate distance information, although they are limited in terms of the maximum distance they can measure accurately.

More Detail: Knowing the distance at which you’re focusing be helpful for a variety of purposes, such as to calculate depth of field for a photo. However, as noted in today’s question, it isn’t as common as it used to be for lenses to have markings indicating the current focus distance.

If you want to be able to measure distance to a subject in the field, I recommend a laser measurement tool. In my view these fall into two basic categories: more accurate and longer distance.

Some laser measurement tools provide accuracy within a fraction of an inch. However, devices that are this accurate are also limited in terms of range. For example, many such devices can only measure accurately out to around 100 feet. One such tool with accurate measurements up to 165 feet can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/GLM165-22-Ergonomic-Cordless-Digital-Measure/dp/B0943T93KB/

There are also devices with greater range, but with lower accuracy. These are often marketed to golfers or hunters, typically offering a range on the order of hundreds of yards. The accuracy is generally within about a couple feet, but for most calculations in photography that is generally accurate enough. For example, this device has a range of 1200 yards (3,600 feet, or about two-thirds of a mile):

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Rangefinder-Slope-Switch-Vibration-dp-B0GHYDVJ36/dp/B0GHYDVJ36/

Today’s Question: Is there a way for me to export my photos, folders and subfolders, and metadata from Lightroom Classic to an external hard drive for an archival copy? If so, how would you suggest I setup it up?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can use the “Export as Catalog” command to export a full copy of your photo library from Lightroom Classic, including the existing folder structure, standard metadata, and a copy of your catalog.

More Detail: While there are several ways you could go about creating an archival copy of your full photo library, I think one of the best options for Lightroom Classic users is to leverage the “Export as Catalog” command. This will create a copy of your catalog along with a copy of all photos, using the same folder structure including subfolders, and including metadata with the images.

To get started, select the “All Photographs” collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module. On the Library Filter bar at the top of the grid view (choose View > Show Filter Bar if it isn’t visible) choose the “None” option. Then on the menu choose Edit > Select None (yes, “None”) so that no photos are selected. This helps to ensure that all photos in the entire catalog will be included, even if they are in stacks, for example.

You can then choose File > Export as Catalog from the menu to initiate the export. Navigate to the external hard drive you want to copy everything to, making sure there is adequate available storage on that drive. You can also navigate to a folder on the drive if you prefer. Also, make sure the “Export negative files” checkbox is turned on, which will include the source images as part of the export process. Enter a meaningful name for the catalog and primary folder in the Save As field and click the Export Catalog button.

Depending on how many photos you have in your catalog and how fast your computer and hard drives are, the process could take hours or even days. But once the export is complete, you’ll have a copy of your entire photo library on the external hard drive you exported to. Just note that you’ll want to update that archival copy from time to time so that it contains all photos that had been added to the primary catalog in the meantime.

Today’s Question: I need an anti-glare screen protector for my laptop. Most of them also come with anti-blue light. I’m worried about the filtering out of the blue light affecting color accuracy of my photos, especially during editing. Do you have any recommendations?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In general, I do not recommend using anti-glare products on screens because they can negatively impact image quality and fidelity. If you need an anti-glare solution, I recommend a display designed to reduce glare, or the use of a high-quality product such as the iVisor line from Moshi.

More Detail: If possible, I recommend avoiding glare on your display in the first place rather than using an anti-glare film or other solution. For example, closing blinds or curtains, turning off lights, or moving to a different location would be preferred. I recognize, however, that in some cases you can’t really avoid glare altogether.

The key issue to keep in mind with anti-glare solutions is that they will have some degree of negative impact on the quality and fidelity of the display. That can cause problems when it comes to optimally editing photos, for example.

While reducing blue light from a display can help reduce eye strain, it also shifts the color of the display slightly toward yellow, which affects color fidelity. Anti-glare solutions can also reduce contrast and sharpness of the display.

If you simply must get an anti-glare solution, I recommend opting for a high-quality product without blue light filtering. The best approach is to get a display that is designed to reduce glare, such as the nano-texture glass available for many Apple displays including their laptops. Another great option is to opt for a laptop with Gorilla Glass from Corning.

Another option is to get an anti-glare film that attaches to your existing display. If you’re using an Apple product, I recommend the iVisor line from Moshi, which you can learn about here:

https://us.moshi.com

Beyond that there are a variety of adhesive films that attach to monitor displays, from companies like 3M and Kensington. However, in my experience most of these products reduce display quality and fidelity enough that I would personally rather not use them unless absolutely necessary.