Tim Grey is a highly respected educator in photography and digital imaging, offering clear guidance on complex subjects through his writing and speaking. Tim has written eighteen books on a variety of subjects related to photography, has published hundreds of video training courses, and has had hundreds of articles published in magazines such as Digital Photo Pro and Outdoor Photographer, among others. For more than seventeen years he has been answering questions from photographers in his daily Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter. Tim also publishes the monthly Pixology digital magazine and the GreyLearning video training library. Tim teaches through hands-on workshops and presents at a variety of events around the world. You can learn more at timgreyphoto.com.
There will be a total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024, visible to much of North America, and I have a free resource to help you prepare to observe and photograph this event.
The October 2023 issue of my Pixology magazine for photographers included an article with tips on preparing to photograph a total solar eclipse. I’m making that full issue of Pixology available free of charge, so that all photographers can make the most of the upcoming total solar eclipse if they’ll be in an area where it will be visible.
Today’s Question: This may be a silly or pedantic question, but it is something that always struck me as odd. Why do photographers refer to “post-processing”? Isn’t it just “processing”, as in applying adjustments?
Tim’s Quick Answer: The term “post-processing” is a reference to post-capture processing, meaning adjusting the image after the capture.
More Detail: This is actually a question I’ve been asked on more than one occasion, perhaps because I tend to use the term “post-processing” somewhat frequently, and it has struck some photographers as an odd term.
While most of the processing we do to our photos happens after the photo is taken, there is an element of processing in the camera based on the camera settings and capture techniques we use. I therefore think it is fair to refer to the adjustments we apply after the capture as post-capture processing. This term is often shortened to simply “post-processing”.
Of course, perhaps I’m just biased because I tend to use the term “post-processing”. To me it makes sense. But obviously at least a few photographers disagree and think there’s no need to put “post” in front of “processing”.
In any event, I appreciate the question and don’t think it was silly. It was a fun diversion from the more typical questions I tend to receive.
Today’s Question: This may be a silly bit of trivia, but is there a difference between JPEG (4 letters) and JPG (3 letters)? I see it both ways quite often, and I’ve never understood whether there was a difference and if there isn’t why there are two ways to describe the same type of image.
Tim’s Quick Answer: JPEG and JPG both refer to the exact same thing: an image in a standard file format created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group.
More Detail: The JPEG image format gets its name from the committee that shares its name, so technically the initialism for the file format should be JPEG, including the “E”, because that represents the full name of the committee.
The reason JPG (without the “E”) has become a common way to refer to the file format is that when the format was originally created in 1992, computer operating systems typically limited you to a filename in the “8.3” format, with an eight character base filename and a three character filename extension. Thus, the JPEG file format has long been referred to based on the original filename extension of JPG.
With newer operating systems supporting long filenames, including long filename extensions, we can now save files with a complete JPEG filename extension, without having to exclude the “E”. However, in many cases the format is still referred to as JPG, and many software applications still default to using a three-letter filename extension of JPG rather than using the four-character extension of JPEG.
Oh, and I don’t think it’s a silly question at all.
Today’s Question: I was wondering if there is any reason to keep all the past Lightroom Classic catalog files. I’ve never deleted any of my catalog files but if the most recent one has all prior history, then I wouldn’t need to keep them.
Tim’s Quick Answer: As long as the old catalogs are predecessors to your current catalog, you can most certainly delete those catalogs without losing any information. I do recommend, of course, that you make sure Lightroom Classic is behaving normally and that you have a backup of your current catalog before deleting the older catalogs.
More Detail: One of the common sources of confusion and frustration among the photographers I consult with is the presence of numerous catalogs alongside their current catalog. For example, photographers often don’t understand why they have multiple catalogs when they only ever created a single catalog the first time they started using Lightroom Classic.
The issue here is that with some of the major updates to Lightroom Classic the catalog format needs to be updated to support new features. When the catalog is updated, the existing catalog is left unmodified, with a new catalog being created as part of the upgrade process. With more recent updates the new catalog has text added to the filename to indicate the version number, such as “-v13” for the current version 13 of Lightroom Classic. With earlier versions the text “-2” would be appended, which led many photographers to end up with a catalog filename such as “Lightroom Classic Catalog-2-2-2.lrcat” after several updates over time.
As long as the older catalog copies are based on new catalog files being created with some of the major updates to Lightroom Classic, the older catalog files can be deleted. I recommend that instead of deleting the files right away, you move them into a “Backup” folder so you can recover them if needed. This will enable you to make sure you didn’t accidentally delete a file related to the current catalog, for example.
Note that you want to preserve the “helper” files for your catalog when moving or deleting older catalog files. For example, if you have a catalog called “Lightroom Classic Catalog-v13.lrcat”, the helper files will have either the exact same base filename with a different filename extension, or the same base filename with additional words. For example, the “Lightroom Classic Catalog-v13 Previews.lrdata” file contains the image previews associated with the photos being managed by the catalog. Be sure to retain those helper files when moving or deleting older catalog files.
And if you aren’t confident that the files were predecessors to your current catalog, but were instead other catalogs you created at some point, you will want to review those catalogs to make sure they don’t contain any photos that aren’t being managed by your current catalog.
Today’s Question: I seem to be missing all the tools for straightening and perspective distortion. I believe they were under Optics. Where are they now?
Tim’s Quick Answer: In Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom the straightening and geometric adjustments are now found on the “Crop, Rotate, Geometry” panel, under a “Geometry” heading.
More Detail: In a recent update to both Camera Raw and Lightroom, the Transform adjustments were moved from the Optics section of the Edit panel to the updated “Crop, Rotate, Geometry” panel. In addition to the crop and rotation adjustments, there is now a Geometry section that includes the various sliders for transforming an image, along with the Upright controls.
In Lightroom Classic these tools remain primarily in the Transform section of the right panel in the Develop module, though some related adjustments are found with the Crop tool.
Today’s Question: I’m curious to know if your new course on Adobe Bridge is an indication that you use or recommend it over Lightroom Classic?
Tim’s Quick Answer: I am still using Lightroom Classic to manage my photos, but I do think Bridge is a good option for photographers who either don’t feel they would benefit from the catalog in Lightroom Classic or are (understandably) concerned about ending up with problems due to the catalog.
More Detail: I personally prefer the benefits of the catalog in Lightroom Classic, but I also recognize that many photographers have ended up with a mess in their workflow due to not managing that catalog properly. For those who don’t feel they would benefit from the catalog in Lightroom Classic, or are concerned about creating a mess, Adobe Bridge is a good alternative to consider.
In my view there are two key benefits to the catalog in Lightroom Classic. First, you can search across your entire catalog of photos based on a wide variety of metadata criteria virtually instantly. Second, you can browse and manage photos even when the source files aren’t available, such as when an external hard drive containing photos is disconnected.
The risk the catalog introduces is that you’ll end up with photos or folders that Lightroom Classic isn’t able to locate. This only occurs if you make changes outside the catalog. As long as all changes are made within the catalog, there won’t be any such issues.
Because many photographers aren’t interested in using Lightroom Classic, and have not been shy in letting me know, I wanted to make sure that the GreyLearning library included courses to meet the needs of those photographers.
Note that while I use Lightroom Classic to manage my photos, I still use Bridge for other purposes. Bridge is more than just a photo browser, after all, enabling you to browse all file formats that are otherwise supported by Adobe software. I therefore use Bridge to manage my publication files, video and audio recordings, and much more.
If you’d like to get a better understanding of the differences between Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom Classic, and Adobe Bridge, check out the recording of my webinar presentation on my Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube here:
Today’s Question: In Adobe Lightroom [not Lightroom Classic] on the Local tab is there a way to browse photos from multiple folders at once? I downloaded photos into folders by day during a three-week trip and need to correct the capture time for the photos from five days of the trip.
Tim’s Quick Answer: On the Local tab in Adobe Lightroom you’re only able to select a single folder at a time, and there isn’t an option to see the contents of subfolders. The easiest solution in this case might be to simply apply the capture time correction individually to each of the five folders.
More Detail: I have to assume that at some point Adobe will update Lightroom to include the option to select multiple folders (as you can do in Lightroom Classic) or to show all photos from all subfolders (as can be done in both Bridge and Lightroom Classic).
If the five folders in question share a common parent folder that doesn’t contain any other folders, you could use Adobe Bridge to update all the photos in one step. Simply select the parent folder and turn on the option on the menu at View > Show Items from Subfolders.
If the folders don’t share a common parent folder, you can create a new collection on the Collections panel and add the photos from the five applicable folders to the collection. Then select all photos in the collection and update the capture time for all of them there.
Note, by the way, that while you can mix and match the use of Bridge and the Local tab in Lightroom, I do not recommend adding Lightroom Classic to the mix. If you’re using Lightroom Classic you should only use Lightroom Classic to manage your photos, and if you’re using something else you should not use Lightroom Classic. That’s because Lightroom Classic involves the use of a catalog, whereas Bridge and the Local tab in Lightroom are browsers that don’t use a catalog.
Today’s Question: In my early digital days, I set my cameras to save raw + JPEG. I’ve since stopped that, but my Lightroom Classic catalog contains lots of those pairs. Is there any reason I might need those JPEG files? And can you suggest a way to find and delete those presumed extraneous files?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You more than likely don’t need to keep the JPEG images that were part of a Raw+JPEG pair. However, there isn’t really an easy way to remove them all without manually reviewing the images.
More Detail: In my view you don’t need to retain the JPEG images from Raw+JPEG pairs unless you had applied adjustments in the camera that you want to be able to reference. Those adjustments would not be applied to the raw capture.
Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way to remove the JPEG images without the risk of accidentally deleting JPEG images that weren’t part of a Raw+JPEG pair.
By default, Lightroom Classic will download the JPEG image for each Raw+JPEG pair, but won’t add the JPEG images to the catalog. If you had kept the “Treat JPEG files next to raw files as separate photos” checkbox turned off on the General tab of the Preferences dialog, the JPEG images will be in the applicable folders but not in the Lightroom Classic catalog.
In this situation you can right-click a folder and choose “Synchronize Folder” from the popup menu. Turn on the “Import new photos” checkbox, and turn off the “Remove missing photos from catalog” and “Scan for metadata updates” checkboxes. There will be a number to the right of the first checkbox if there are actually images in the folder that aren’t in the catalog. Click Synchronize to import those photos. Then go to the “Previous Import” collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module, which will contain the images just imported. Under ideal circumstances those will represent only the JPEG images that were excluded based on Raw+JPEG pairs, and can be deleted.
If the JPEG images had originally been imported along with the raw captuers you could sort by filename and scan to confirm that all JPEG images relate to a raw capture. If so, you can set a filter by file type for JPEG images and then select and delete them. I would perform this task one folder at a time, however.
There had been some plugins that purported to find the JPEG images from Raw+JPEG pairs, but the ones I’m familiar with have either not been updated recently or have gotten mixed reviews from photographers.
Today’s Question: Where has the Camera Raw preferences option to apply sharpening to preview only gone? I have toggled off Output Sharpening, but it still seems the Camera Raw sharpening is getting applied to the PSD file I save from the RAW. I am also finding lately that images that look nicely sharpened when examined at 100% in Camera Raw look far too over-sharpened when I open the saved PSD file.
Tim’s Quick Answer: The option to apply sharpening only to previews has been removed from Camera Raw. Output Sharpening can be disabled in the Camera Raw Preferences dialog. Keep in mind sharpening can also be applied in the Detail section of the right panel in Camera Raw.
More Detail: The “Apply Sharpening To” option is no longer included in the Camera Raw Preferences dialog, though I don’t have any information on why it was removed. This option previously enabled you to only apply sharpening to the preview image, not to the final image processed by Camera Raw.
If you don’t want output sharpening applied, make sure the Sharpen For checkbox under the Output Sharpening heading on the Workflow tab in Camera Raw Preferences is turned off. This sharpening is never shown in the preview in Camera Raw but does apply to the processed image.
Keep in mind there is also sharpening available in the Detail section of the right panel in Camera Raw. This sharpening will appear in the preview image within Camera Raw.
If an image processed with Camera Raw immediately appears over-sharpened when opened in Photoshop, most likely there had been output sharpening applied in Camera Raw. Since that sharpening does not appear in the Camera Raw preview, having output sharpening enabled would cause the image opened in Photoshop to appear with more sharpening than the preview in Camera Raw.
If you have confirmed that output sharpening is disabled and a raw capture opened via Camera Raw still appears over-sharpened, I would check to make sure you aren’t using any other software or plug-ins that might be applying sharpening to those processed copies of the images.
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There will be a total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024, visible to much of North America, and I have a free resource to help you prepare to observe and photograph this event.
