Raw with a Compact Camera

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Today’s Question: I’m planning to buy a medium-priced superzoom compact to photograph birds while hiking and I intend to shoot in RAW. In researching cameras one reviewer made a passing comment wondering why anyone would bother to shoot RAW, noting the small sensor found in superzooms. This surprised me. What are the pros and cons of the claim and would JPEGs be better? I don’t expect the quality I would get from my mirrorless system, but I would still aim to get the best results possible.

Tim’s Quick Answer: I would actually argue the opposite of what that reviewer suggested. With a smaller sensor on a compact camera, I’d be even more interested in shooting raw to help overcome some of the limitations of a smaller sensor.

More Detail: I too have heard photographers suggest that there is no point in using raw capture for compact cameras or smartphones, because the quality of the sensor in such a camera is so inferior that there’s no benefit in using raw capture. I don’t agree with that notion at all.

To be sure, there are disadvantages to a small sensor size. If you had two sensors with the same resolution, with the only real difference being the size of the sensor, the smaller sensor would generally produce an image with more noise and less dynamic range. The reduced dynamic range could, among other things, result in gradations within the image that are not as smooth as they could be.

The higher bit depth of raw capture helps to maintain smooth gradations. In addition, raw processing can help produce an image of better quality than what could be achieved with an in-camera JPEG capture. Furthermore, JPEG captures involve lossy compression and the potential for compression artifacts that are visible in the final image.

When image quality is a top concern, I recommend using raw capture regardless of what type of camera you’re using. That includes the use of a compact camera or smartphone, for example. I would only use JPEG capture if you want to prioritize smaller file size, wider compatibility with other software and devices, and a more streamlined workflow after the capture.

Copy versus Move in Lightroom

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Today’s Question: Would this transfer strategy [discussed in yesterday’s Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter] function as a “backup” strategy as well? I’ve honestly never felt that I’ve had a solid understanding of backing up photos. Over the years I’ve used a “drag and drop” process outside of LR. Luckily I haven’t experienced a hard drive meltdown, yet.

Tim’s Quick Answer: No, the process of migrating photo to a new hard drive in Lightroom Classic does not provide an option for backing up your photos. Lightroom does not include a proper backup feature for photos, so I recommend using third-party software such as GoodSync (http://timgrey.me/greybackup) to create a backup of your photos.

More Detail: When you drag-and-drop photos or folders within Lightroom Classic, you are moving the photos (or folders) to a new location. There isn’t exactly an option to copy photos within Lightroom, which is actually a good thing because I think having the option to copy photos within Lightroom would greatly increase the risk of confusion and unwanted duplication within Lightroom.

Lightroom includes an option to backup the catalog, but not exactly an option for backing up your photos. You could use the “Export as Catalog” command to create a full backup of all photos and your catalog, but this would be a time-consuming process. You would need to go to the All Photographs collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module. Then choose Edit > Select All to select all of the photos in your catalog. Then choose File > Expor as Catalog from the menu. You can then navigate to the location (such as another external hard drive) you want to use to store this backup. Make sure the “Export negative files” checkbox is turned on, as that is what causes your photos to be exported along with the new copy of your catalog. Click the Export Catalog to initiate this export to create a full backup.

A better solution, in my mind, is to use third-party software to maintain an ongoing backup of your photos. I highly recommend making use of the built-in feature for backing up your catalog within Lightroom Classic. Then, I recommend using software such as GoodSync (http://timgrey.me/greybackup) to backup your photos. This software is able to intelligently synchronize your data, such as to keep a backup external hard drive updated so it is an exact match of the external hard drive you’re using for primary photo storage.

If you’d like help learning how to make use of GoodSync in your workflow, you can find my “Backing Up with GoodSync” course in the GreyLearning library here:

https://timgrey.me/goodsync

Hard Drive Upgrade

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Today’s Question: In Lightroom [Classic] I was exporting files from a smaller 8 TB external hard drive to a new larger (10 TB) drive. I plan to keep the older 8 TB drive as my new backup drive. I’m exporting all files to the new drive. In the new drive all the images are jumbled into the same folder, which I would have to re-separate if I want to keep the sub-folders. Do you have any suggestions for this workflow?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You actually don’t need to export the photos at all, but instead should transfer the photos from the “old” drive to the “new” drive directly within Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: Today’s question is related to yesterday’s question about moving a catalog and photos to a new external hard drive. However, I wanted to address this question as well because it relates to a common issue that I find many photographers experience at some point in their workflow.

When you want to upgrade to a new and larger hard drive, or expand storage to an additional hard drive, one of the challenges is that you can’t browse (or copy to) a hard drive for which Lightroom Classic isn’t managing any photos. The solution is to create a new folder on that hard drive first.

I think it is also worth pointing out that this migration can be managed directly within Lightroom Classic. There’s no need to export photos from your catalog just to import them again to a different hard drive. In fact, this could create a variety of problems and confusion in terms of potential duplicate images in your catalog.

So, to get started you simply need to add a new folder on the new hard drive, with that new folder serving as the “parent” folder for all of the folders and photos you’ll store on the new drive. To create the new folder click the plus symbol (+) to the right of the Folders heading on the left panel in the Library module. From the popup that appears, choose “Add Folder”. Then navigate to the new hard drive, and click the New Folder button at the bottom-left of the dialog. Type a name (such as “Photos) for the new folder, click Create to create the new folder, and click the Choose button to finalize the process.

You will now see the new hard drive and the new folder listed in the Folders section of the left panel in the Library module. At that point you can drag folders from the existing drive to the new folder you created on the new hard drive. You can even select multiple folders at a time if you prefer. I do, however, recommend moving folders in small batches to help ensure everything goes smoothly.

External Drive for Lightroom

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Today’s Question: In an “Ask Tim Grey” in November you discussed the subject of moving your Lightroom Classic catalog to an external drive. I will soon be ordering a new fast external SSD drive so I’m confident I will not have any speed issues. What I was wondering is, other than moving the catalog and my photos, are there any other files that need to reside on the external storage device, like presets or third-party plugins? Also, what is the best way to go about moving those files or folders?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can move the Lightroom Classic catalog files without needing to move anything else, as long as you move the entire folder that contains the catalog. If you also want to move photos, you should do that within Lightroom.

More Detail: The Lightroom Classic catalog can be stored on an external hard drive, as long as that drive has excellent performance. If the external hard drive isn’t fast, overall performance within Lightroom can suffer significantly when the catalog is on an external drive.

To move the catalog to another location, you actually just want to move the folder that contains your catalog. That will ensure all of the support files will be included in the same location. If you have turned on the option in Preferences to store presets with the catalog, those will be included in the same folder.

Before you move the folder containing your catalog, be sure to quit Lightroom. Then move the entire folder containing the catalog to the desired location. After moving the folder, double-click the catalog file (it has a filename extension of “lrcat”) to launch Lightroom with your catalog in the new location.

If you also want to move photos to a different hard drive, that should be done within Lightroom. With a new external hard drive you would first need to create an empty folder on the drive, so that that folder (and therefore the hard drive itself) will be visible within Lightroom.

To create a new folder, click the plus (+) button to the right of the Folders heading on the left panel in the Library module and choose “Add Folder” from the popup that appears. In the dialog, navigate to the new hard drive, and click the New Folder button at the bottom-left of the dialog. Type a name for the folder, such as “Photos”, and click the Create button. Then click the Choose button to close the dialog.

With the new folder created, you can then drag-and-drop the folders containing your photos to that new folder. You can move multiple top-level folders (and their contents) at once by clicking on one of the folders on the list and then holding the Shift key while clicking on the last folder in a series. You can then drag-and-drop the one of the selected folders to the folder you created on the new hard drive to move all of the selected folders at once.

Purging Unused Keywords

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Today’s Question: I just noticed the “Purge Unused Keywords” on the Metadata menu in Lightroom Classic. How would you have any unused keywords in the first place, since they are created by being added to a photo? Do you recommend using this command?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Unused keywords would result from either removing a particular keyword from all photos it had been assigned to or importing keywords that you haven’t yet assigned to any photos. As long as you don’t use a controlled vocabulary in your workflow, I would generally consider it safe to purge unused keywords from Lightroom Classic to reduce clutter on the Keyword List.

More Detail: When you add a keyword to a photo in Lightroom Classic, that keyword will be added to the Keyword List if it wasn’t already on the list. In addition, it is possible to import keywords from a “controlled vocabulary”, so that you can pick and choose keywords without having to type them in yourself. In either case, you can populate the list of keywords on the Keyword List found on the right panel in the Library module in Lightroom Classic.

You can, of course, also remove keywords from photos. If you remove a given keyword from every photo it had been assigned to, that keyword will obviously then not be assigned to any images in your catalog. That would represent an unused keyword.

Similarly, if you import a keyword list (by choosing Metadata > Import Keywords from the menu) you will find all of those imported keywords on the Keyword List. It is quite possible to import a large number of keywords that you never end up adding to any photos, which again would result in unused keywords.

On the Metadata menu, as noted in today’s question, you can find a “Purge Unused Keywords” command. If you issue this command, any keywords on the Keyword List that have not been assigned to any photo will be removed from the list. Note that on the Keyword List the number to the right of each keyword indicates how many photos that keyword has been assigned to.

If you have unused keywords because you removed keywords from some photos, you may very well want to purge those keywords from the list. If you have imported a keyword list as a controlled vocabulary, you may not want to purge unused keywords, because you may eventually put some of those keywords to use.

Note, by the way, that it is also possible to delete individual keywords from the Keyword List by right-clicking on a keyword and choosing Delete from the popup menu. Keep in mind that deleting a keyword from the Keyword List will also cause that keyword to be removed from metadata for any photos to which the keyword has been assigned.

Canceling Sync to the Cloud

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Today’s Question: I planned to sync 20 photos to put on the web [in Lightroom Classic]. Instead, 248 photos started syncing to the cloud. I can’t get it to stop and it goes on and on. Is there any way to stop this and also get my photos out of the Lightroom cloud? Thanks for all you do.

Tim’s Quick Answer: In Lightroom Classic synchronization of photos to the cloud is managed by collections. You can simply turn off synchronization for the applicable collections to disable synchronization and remove the photos from your cloud storage.

More Detail: Because synchronization to the cloud in Lightroom Classic revolves around collections, you must first create a collection and add photos to that collection if you want to synchronize images. You also need to enable synchronization for the collection. It is easy to enable some of these options without intending to, because there are options for adding selected photos and enabling synchronization in the dialog for creating a new collection.

Any “normal” collection (as opposed to “smart” collections) can be set to enable or disable synchronization. When you hover over a collection in the Collections list on the left panel in the Library module, you’ll see an icon to the left of the collection. If synchronization is not enabled, that icon will look like a checkbox that is turned off (meaning just a square). If synchronization is enabled, the icon looks like a lightning bolt turned on its side.

You can click where that icon appears to enable or disable synchronization. So, in this case you would see the lightning bolt icon for the affected collection, since synchronization is obviously being attempted in the background. You can click that lightning bolt to turn off synchronization. That will stop the attempted synchronization, and also remove the applicable photos from your cloud storage if some of them had already been synchronized.

Note that you can also pause synchronization by clicking on the identity plate at the top-left of the Lightroom Classic interface and then clicking the option to pause synchronization.

Impact of Canceling Lightroom Classic

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Today’s Question: A follow-on question [to the question about Lightroom Classic no longer being available with a perpetual license]. What happens if I stop paying the monthly charge for Creative Cloud? I assume I can no longer utilize Photoshop, but how about my Lightroom catalog information that I have invested a lot of time in?

Tim’s Quick Answer: When you cancel an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, you will actually still have access to Lightroom Classic on your computer, though some features would be limited. Photoshop would no longer be available after your subscription ends.

More Detail: I think many photographers would be surprised to learn that they can continue to make use of Lightroom Classic to manage their photos, even after they have canceled their subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud. Of course, some features would be unavailable, and you would not be able to upgrade the software. That means, for example, you would not be able to get the latest updates for new camera raw capture formats.

Here is how Adobe describes the limitations of using Lightroom Classic after you’ve canceled your subscription:

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You continue to have access to all your photos on your local hard drive through Lightroom [Classic] for the desktop. You can continue to import and organize photos and output your edited photos through Export, Publish, Print, Web, or Slideshow. Access to the Develop & Map modules and Lightroom for mobile is not available after your membership ends.

After cancellation, your allowed cloud storage is reduced to 2 GB. If you are over your storage limit, you have 90 days to reduce your online usage.

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What this all means is that you would be able to continue managing your existing catalog of photos with some limitations, and your online storage allowance would be reduced. However, the feature that remain available would enable you to continue managing your workflow as you transition to other software.

Testing Beyond the Camera Store

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Today’s Question: You recommended testing out a camera with an electronic viewfinder before making a decision about buying that camera. But for those of us who don’t have a camera store nearby, how can we actually test gear before ordering it?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I think one of the best ways to test out camera gear in general, or to use specialty gear for a short period of time, is to use a rental service such as LensRentals.com (https://timgrey.me/lensrentals).

More Detail: Reading specifications and reviews about camera gear can obviously be helpful in terms of choosing which particular product might be the best fit in your camera bag. But in my mind there is simply no replacement for getting your hands on the gear and getting a chance to try it out before you make a final purchasing decision.

If you have a camera store nearby, you can obviously visit the store to try out a wide variety of cameras, lenses, and other equipment. Another great option is to rent gear for a short period of time, both for evaluation and to supplement your gear with something you only need for a short period of time.

If you are thinking about buying a lens, for example, you could rent that lens and try it out in the real world. You could even rent a couple of different lenses to compare them as you work toward your final decision.

In some cases I have found I wanted a particular lens for a special trip or project, but I didn’t feel I would use the lens enough to justify spending the money to purchase the lens. This is another example of a great reason to rent camera gear.

There are a variety of options for renting camera gear, but one I’ve had a great experience with is LensRentals.com, which enables you to go online, select the gear you want to rent, and have it shipped to you to arrive by a particular date. As part of the rental, a return shipping label is included so you can easily send the gear back at the end of your rental period.

You can learn more about LensRentals.com by following this link:

https://timgrey.me/lensrentals

Electronic Viewfinder Quality

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Today’s Question: One of the reasons I’ve been avoiding the switch to a mirrorless camera is that I prefer an optical viewfinder rather than electronic. Have the quality of electronic viewfinders improved to the point that this should no longer be a concern?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Overall I would say that the electronic viewfinder (EVF) in many of the latest cameras does provide high enough resolution that it is no longer critical to favor an optical viewfinder. That said, it is a good idea to see the EVF for yourself before making a buying decision.

More Detail: In the early days of mirrorless cameras, the quality of the electronic viewfinder (EVF) was generally rather poor, primarily because the resolution of the display was quite small. As you can imagine the viewfinder in a camera is considerably smaller than the typical LCD display on the back of a camera. When you consider that the same image might be displayed on either an LCD or an EVF, you can appreciate that resolution is a key concern with the small display of an EVF.

As display technology has improved over the years, we have gotten to the point that many of the EVF displays in the latest digital cameras offer very good quality.

Of course, looking at an EVF is not the same as looking directly through the lens with an optical viewfinder. There are differences in terms of the viewing experience. However, an EVF also offers some advantages in terms of being able to present more information on the display compared to what can be done with an optical viewfinder.

Using an EVF can take some getting used to. More importantly, there is still some degree of variation in overall display quality for electronic viewfinders, so I highly recommend testing out a camera before you make a purchase decision.

Perpetual Lightroom

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Today’s Question: Is it still possible to buy the “forever” version of Lightroom without a subscription? I can’t seem to find it on the Adobe website.

Tim’s Quick Answer: No. Both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom Cloud now require an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, with no perpetual license available any longer.

More Detail: The last version of Lightroom Classic that was available with a perpetual license was Lightroom 6. It has been a couple of years since Adobe updated this version of Lightroom. A subscription is now required to use Lightroom Classic. The cloud-based version of Lightroom has always required a subscription.

More to the point, Adobe has recently made efforts to shift toward a subscription-only model for Lightroom. Initially it was just a bit more difficult to find the perpetual license for Lightroom Classic on the Adobe website.

More recently, Adobe has simply stopped offering the perpetual license for Lightroom. You may be able to find a DVD copy of Lightroom 6 that would enable you to install and run the software without a subscription, but that is surely getting increasingly difficult. For example, Amazon no longer offers the DVD version of Lightroom 6.

At this point, if you want to only use software available with a perpetual license, your only Adobe solution would be Photoshop Elements. Otherwise you would need to look at other software from different companies.

If you do want to stick with Lightroom as your workflow solution, you can review the various Adobe Creative Cloud plans available by following this link:

https://timgrey.me/ccplans