Category: Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: In several emails over the years, you’ve suggested resetting preferences in Photoshop or Bridge in order to fix a problem. If I reset the preferences however, does that mean that they would go back to the default settings and I would lose all the preference settings that I have input over time and been using? Or is this some way to save them?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, resetting preferences in Photoshop, Bridge, or Lightroom Classic will cause all settings in the Preferences dialog (and Color Settings in Photoshop) to revert to their default settings, requiring you to update them manually to your preferred settings.

More Detail: For as long as I’ve been using Photoshop (which has been over thirty years!) there has been the sometimes frustrating issue of needing to reset preferences. The same issue affects Bridge and Lightroom as well. The way I describe the issue is that if the software seems to behaving in an odd way that is different from what you would normally see, there’s a good chance that resetting preferences will solve the issue.

While resetting preferences often corrects issues where the application isn’t behaving normally, it does mean that any settings you have changed from their defaults will be lost. You’ll then have to go back and manually update the settings based on your own preferences. There isn’t a way to back up your settings, other than backing up the preferences files, but that approach would prevent the reset from actually taking effect.

What I recommend is to capture screenshots of all tabs of the Preferences dialog before you reset preferences, so you have an easy reference for your preferred settings. Note that for Photoshop in addition to the settings in the Preferences dialog, resetting the preferences will also reset the settings in the Color Settings dialog.

Note, by the way, that if you’re experiencing an issue that primarily affects the way the interface is displayed or with the application crashing unexpectedly, it is also possible that disabling GPU (graphics processing unit) support will resolve the issue.

Today’s Question: What are the pros and cons of Lightroom versus Lightroom Classic other than the cloud?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The core difference between Lightroom Classic and Lightroom relate to the fact that Lightroom Classic uses a catalog to manage photos while Lightroom provides a combination of local browsing and cloud storage. The catalog represents both advantages and disadvantages, depending on your perspective.

More Detail: The feature that is unique to Lightroom Classic is that it uses a catalog to manage the photos you import. The catalog enables you to quickly search across your entire library of photos incredibly quickly, and also enables you to work with photos (such as reviewing them and updating metadata) even if the source files aren’t available, such as when an external hard drive containing photos is not connected to the computer.

Of course, the catalog also introduces a risk into your workflow, in that if you rename or move folders or photos through the operating system rather than from within Lightroom Classic, you can end up with a large number of missing folders and photos and potentially have a significant mess on your hands.

Lightroom (the non-Classic version) had previously revolved exclusively around cloud-based storage, but now allows for local browsing as well. This takes away some of the advantages of the catalog, but it also enables you to avoid the risks of the catalog. You could, for example, only use the Local tab in Lightroom and skip cloud storage, or use cloud storage for limited purposes.

In addition, Lightroom Classic includes more sophisticated mapping features for photo locations, the ability to print photos, create slideshows and web galleries, and to create photo books that can be printed by Blurb.

When it comes to core features or organizing and optimizing photos, both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom are pretty much on par. When it comes to sharing photos Lightroom Classic provides an advantage. But the core issue is the catalog that is used in Lightroom Classic. I consider the catalog to be a considerable asset as noted above. You need to be careful not to make any changes outside Lightroom Classic, but as long as you follow this rule you can benefit from the catalog.

Perhaps most importantly, when making a decision between the two, I very strongly recommend that you only choose one of the two, and never mix-and-match using both of them in the context of your overall workflow. At the very least, using both version of the Lightroom desktop applications will likely lead to significant metadata mismatches for your photos between the two.

Today’s Question: I am going on an extended trip where I will be doing much photography, but would rather not take my laptop. Can I use an iPad while traveling and then just sync the photos one time after the trip and then go back to my traditional laptop using Lightroom Classic, without syncing?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can import photos to Lightroom on a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) while traveling. The photos will synchronize to Lightroom Classic, and you can then remove the photos from cloud storage after they are in your normal Lightroom Classic workflow.

More Detail: The Lightroom mobile app for smartphones and tablets makes it possible to travel without a laptop but still get your photos into your normal Lightroom Classic workflow relatively easily.

The first thing I recommend is to check your settings in Lightroom Classic for where photos synchronized from the cloud will appear. On the Lightroom Sync tab of the Preferences dialog I recommend turning on the “Specify location for Lightroom’s Synced images” checkbox. Then click the Choose button to the far right and select a folder location where you want the images to appear. This can be a generic name to indicate that the folder will contain images that need to be sorted still, such as “Cloud Images to Sort”.

You can then import photos during your trip into Lightroom on your mobile device. This often requires having an adapter that enables you to connect your memory card to the mobile device, and I strongly recommend testing this before your trip to make sure everything is compatible. When you import photos into the Lightroom mobile app you can assign star ratings, apply adjustments, and more. These photos will synchronize to the cloud automatically.

When you return home you can find the images in the folder designated on the Lightroom Sync tab of the Preferences dialog. I recommend marking those photos in some way to indicate they are synchronized to the cloud, such as with a color label. Then move the images to the desired folder destination. To remove the images from cloud storage (while leaving them on your local hard drive) you can go to the “All Synced Photographs” collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module, select the applicable photos you had marked (such as with a color label) and then right-click on one of the selected photos and choose “Remove from All Synced Photographs”. You can then remove the marker (such as the color label) that had identified the images as being in cloud storage and continue with your normal workflow.

Today’s Question: I watched one of your lessons that covered the Oil Paint filter in Photoshop, and the effect looked nice. But when I apply the filter to my own images the effect is so small it looks like a basic canvas texture rather than an oil painting. Is there something I’m missing?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In my experience you get the best results with the Oil Paint filter in Photoshop by first resizing the image to around 2,000 pixels or so on the long edge.

More Detail: The Oil Paint filter in Photoshop stands out to me as one of the most impressive creative filters, in large part because many of the other creative filters are very simplistic and outdated. The key to getting the best results with the Oil Paint filter is to apply the effect to an image that has been resized to around 2,000 pixels on the long side.

Reducing the pixel dimensions is obviously reducing the total amount of information in the image, and so it is important to create a copy of the original image for this purpose. For example, after opening the image you want to apply the effect to you can choose Image > Duplicate from the menu. In the Duplicate Image checkbox I recommend turning on the “Duplicate Merged Layers Only” checkbox so the duplicate image will be flattened, while preserving any layers in the original file.

Next, choose Image > Image Size from the menu, make sure the Resample checkbox is turned on, and with the popups for Width and Height set to Pixels enter the desired value for the larger dimension. Be sure to keep the lock feature enabled using the button with the chain link icon to the left of the Width and Height fields so the aspect ratio won’t be altered. Click OK to resize the image.

You can then apply the Oil Paint filter. If you want to have greater flexibility you can apply the filter as a Smart Filter, which means choosing Filter > Convert for Smart Filters from the menu to convert the Background image layer to a Smart Object first. Then choose Filter > Stylize > Oil Paint from the menu, and adjust the settings for the filter to create an oil paint effect with your preferred look.

Today’s Question: When I go to export an edited image, Lightroom Classic used to export it to the same folder as the last export. Now it goes to some other folder (same one each time, but nothing to do with the images I am editing). Where to I reset this to go to the same folder as the previous export?

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you want to export photos from Lightroom Classic to a specific folder, I recommend creating a preset for that purpose in the Export dialog.

More Detail: By default, when you export photos from Lightroom Classic the initial settings in the export dialog will be the same as those used for the previous export. However, this often does not reflect the intended export settings, including the destination folder. I therefore recommend creating a preset that represents you preferred baseline settings for export, along with presets for other specific scenarios you may want to use somewhat frequently when exporting.

Once you’ve selected the images you want to export and clicked the Export button at the bottom of the left panel in the Library module, you can establish all the settings you want to use for the export, including the specific location you want the exported images saved in with the options in the Export Location section of the Export dialog.

After configuring all the settings, click the Add button at the bottom of the Preset section on the left side of the Export dialog. In the New Preset dialog that appears, enter a meaningful name for the preset, such as something that describes the purpose for exporting represented by the preset. You can also create or select a folder for the preset to keep them organized. Click the Create button to create the new preset.

Moving forward, anytime you want to export images based on a saved preset, you can select that preset in the Export dialog and click the Export button, and the images you had selected before bringing up the Export dialog will be exported based on the settings for that preset. Alternatively, you can select multiple photos in Lightroom Classic and then right-click on one of the selected photos and from the popup menu choose Export followed by the preset you want to use for exporting the selected photos.

By using a preset for exporting images, you can ensure that the same preferred settings are always used for the export, including being able to specify different export preferences for different scenarios by creating multiple presets.

Today’s Question: After my computer switched off due to a power outage Adobe Bridge will no longer export my images. I have uninstalled and reinstalled, but Bridge still gives me an error message. Can you please suggest how I can overcome this issue?

Tim’s Quick Answer: This is the type of issue that would most likely be solved by resetting Preferences for Adobe Bridge. If you chose the option to keep settings when you uninstalled Bridge the Preferences would not have been reset.

More Detail: One of the common issues with Bridge and other Adobe applications is that the Preferences files can get corrupted, leading to erratic behavior or crashes. The way I think of it, anytime there is a behavior that doesn’t seem to make sense, there’s a reasonable chance that resetting Preferences will resolve the issue.

In the case of Adobe Bridge you reset Preferences by holding the Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys on Windows or the Command+Option+Shift keys on Macintosh while launching Bridge. Depending on how you launch the application, you may need to not hold the keys while initiating the launch, and then immediately press and hold the keys after doing so.

Continue holding the keys on the keyboard until you see the Reset Settings dialog. Turn on the “Reset Preferences” checkbox and click the OK button. When Bridge finishes loading, you will more than likely find that Bridge is behaving properly again.

Today’s Question: I have Lightroom Classic on two computers (Mac and Windows). I do all the rating, color label, flags and some editing on Mac and save the metadata to file before I switch to the Windows computer. Then I read the metadata from file to bring back all the metadata I updated but none of the updates come through. What did I miss here?

Tim’s Quick Answer: While it is possible to save metadata updates to the file in one Lightroom Classic catalog and then import the metadata changes in another catalog, I recommend that you instead move the catalog along with the photos between the two computers.

More Detail: When you save metadata directly to the source image files, that metadata can be accessed by other applications, including another instance of Lightroom Classic on another computer. However, there are two problems with depending on this approach to update metadata for two catalogs.

First, saving metadata to the source images (such as by using the Metadata > Save Metadata to Files command) does not preserve all updates in Lightroom Classic. For example, if you add images to a collection or create a virtual copy, those updates will not be preserved with this approach. Furthermore, if you don’t ensure that metadata was saved to the source images before moving the files to another computer, some metadata updates may not make it to the destination catalog.

Instead, in this type of scenario I recommend moving the Lightroom Classic catalog to an external hard drive along with the photos. You can then open the catalog from either computer by moving the hard drive between the computers. Just make sure that the volume label (Macintosh) or drive letter (Windows) remains consistent, so that Lightroom Classic will be able to locate the drive with your photos on both computers.

You can learn how to move a Lightroom Classic catalog to a different storage location in the article on the Ask Tim Grey blog here:

https://asktimgrey.com/2026/04/13/move-and-rename-catalog

Today’s Question: Do you have a recommendation for the location for a new Lightroom Classic catalog?

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you only need to work with Lightroom Classic on one computer, I recommend putting the catalog on the internal hard drive for performance and convenience. If you need to access your catalog from more than one computer I recommend putting the catalog on an external hard drive along with your photos.

More Detail: Generally speaking, I recommend keeping the Lightroom Classic catalog on the internal hard drive of your computer. This helps optimize performance, since an internal hard drive is generally going to be faster than an external hard drive (though not always!).

In addition, having the catalog on the internal hard drive ensures it is always available, so you can open the catalog and review photos and update metadata and more even if the source files aren’t available. For example, if you keep your photos on an external hard drive, you don’t even need to have that drive connected to the computer to work with many features in Lightroom Classic, provided the catalog is on the internal drive.

The primary reason I recommend putting the catalog on an external hard drive is if you want to be able to switch between more than one computer with that catalog. In that case I recommend keeping the catalog and photos together on the same external hard drive. That way you can simply move the hard drive between computers and open the catalog from that drive in Lightroom Classic. You just need to be sure that on both computers the hard drive is assigned the same drive letter (Windows) or volume label (Macintosh) so Lightroom Classic will find the drive and therefore the photos in the expected location on both computers.

Today’s Question: I’d like, for simplicity, to move my Lightroom Classic catalog to a new folder and rename it. Can you provide guidance on this?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can rename the catalog easily within Lightroom Classic using the Rename Catalog command. You can then quit Lightroom Classic and move the folder containing the catalog files to your preferred location.

More Detail: Adobe recently added a Rename Catalog command, making it very easy to rename the Lightroom Classic catalog and all associated helper files. Simply open Lightroom Classic with the catalog you want to rename and then choose File > Rename Catalog from the menu.

In the Rename Catalog dialog, enter your preferred name for the catalog. If you’re certain that there aren’t any photos within the folder structure that contains the catalog, you can also turn on the “Rename parent folder” checkbox if you want the folder containing the catalog to have the same name as the catalog. Click the Rename button to apply the change, which will also cause Lightroom Classic to restart.

To move the folder containing the catalog files, you first need to know exactly where that folder is. If you’re not sure, in Lightroom Classic choose “Catalog Settings” from the Edit menu on Windows or the Lightroom Classic menu on Macintosh. Go to the General tab and click the Show button toward the top-right of the dialog. That will open a window in your operating system with the folder containing the catalog highlighted.

Be sure to quit Lightroom Classic before moving the folder containing the catalog. If you don’t have a full backup of the catalog, it is a good idea to copy the folder to the new location, then rename the folder in the original location to indicate it is now a backup copy.

You can then open the catalog folder in the new location and double-click the primary catalog file that has a filename extension of “.lrcat”. I also recommend going to the General tab of the Preferences dialog and selecting the renamed catalog in the new location from the Default Catalog popup. That will ensure that this catalog will always be opened by default whenever you launch Lightroom Classic.

Today’s Question: Can you apply more than one preset to an image in the Develop module in Lightroom Classic, or would applying a second preset cancel out the first preset?

Tim’s Quick Answer: This depends on which adjustments were saved as part of each of the presets. If there is no overlap between the presets, then you’ll get the full effect from both. If the second preset includes some of the same adjustments as the first, those adjustments from the second preset will replace the same adjustment settings from the first.

More Detail: When you save a preset in the Develop module in Lightroom Classic you can choose which adjustments are included for that preset. You could, for example, include all Develop adjustments in a preset, or you could include only a single adjustment in the preset.

If both presets include all adjustments, the second preset will completely replace the adjustments for the first preset. For example, let’s assume that the first preset converts the image to black and white along with a variety of other adjustments included. If the second preset includes the Treatment adjustment that is set to color rather than black and white, applying that preset will convert the image back to color.

If, on the other hand, each preset includes only a small number of different adjustments, you could apply both presets to the image without losing any of the effects from the first adjustment. For example, if the first preset only includes the Clarity and Dehaze adjustment, and the second preset only includes a Post-Crop Vignette adjustment, applying both presets would cause all three effects to be applied without losing the effect of either preset.

Of course, the challenge is knowing which adjustments the preset includes to begin with. That’s why it is important to use meaningful names when creating a preset. For example, when I create a preset that only includes a small number of adjustments, I’ll use a name that reflects that the preset is limited in scope.

For example, if I create a preset that only includes the Post-Crop Vignette adjustment with a dramatic frame effect, I might save it with a name like “Strong Framing Vignette ONLY” with the “ONLY” on the end indicating that this preset only includes the vignette effect.