Category: Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: How concerned should I really be about over-sharpening photos in Lightroom [Classic CC]? Doesn’t Lightroom limit the amount of sharpening you can apply, so there isn’t much risk of sharpening too much?

Tim’s Quick Answer: While Lightroom Classic CC does indeed significantly limit the amount of sharpening you can apply to an image (compared to, for example, Photoshop), it is still very easy to apply too much sharpening. When an image is over-sharpened you can see edge halos and other visible artifacts in an image, which detract from the overall appearance of the photo.

More Detail: There are a handful of adjustments that many photographers seem to fall into a trap with, thinking that “if a little is good, a lot must be great”. Sharpening tends to be one of those adjustments, along with saturation and a handful of others.

The primary risk of sharpening an image too much is that there will be visible artifacts. This can be a simple appearance of excessive texture that I refer to as a “crunchy” appearance. Another common side effect of sharpening that is too aggressive is the appearance of bright halos along contrast edges within the photo.

In general it is the size of the sharpening effect that is most critical when it comes to visible artifacts. As a general rule, a value between around 0.6 and 1.0 works well for typical photographic images. Higher values should generally only be used with images that don’t contain much fine texture.

The Amount setting determines the overall strength of the sharpening effect, and generally a value ranging between about 50 and 75 works well, depending on the image. Going much higher, especially if the Radius is set above 1.0, will increase the risk of visible artifacts in the image.

So while Lightroom does limit the degree of sharpening you can apply in the Develop module compared to what is possible with other tools, there is still a risk of visible artifacts in the image if you apply settings that are too aggressive.

Today’s Question: I have been following you for a number of years and fully agree with your statement about having only one Lightroom catalog. But your statement about a “single storage device” is now confusing to me. Are you saying to use only one drive? This would entail using a 20TB hard drive for me! I have 7 LaCie externals and to put all photos on a single storage device does not make sense if it fails. I also backup regularly to these drives.

Tim’s Quick Answer: In terms of streamlining a photographer’s overall workflow, I do think that whenever possible it is best to store all master photos on a single storage device. Just to be clear, however, that is not to suggest that you shouldn’t also have at least one (and ideally more than one) complete backup of all of your photos on a separate storage device.

More Detail: As outlined in a previous Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter (from January 2, 2019), I highly recommend using a single Lightroom catalog to manage all of your photos. This enables you to simply launch Lightroom with your single catalog anytime you’re looking for a photo, without the added step of needing to know which of multiple catalogs the photo might be contained in.

Similarly, I recommend using a single storage device for storing all of the master copies of your photos. In other words, I recommend not spreading your master photos across multiple storage devices. I fully realize that for many photographers their storage capacity exceeds what a single hard drive is capable of. In fact, I myself have run into this issue.

I prefer to use bus-powered hard drives, and I also prefer ruggedized drives since I spend so much time traveling. The drives I’m currently using have a capacity of four terabytes. My total photo library is about six terabytes. So I’ve had to spread my photos across two hard drives.

Of course, there are other solutions that provide more storage in a single device, including RAID devices that make multiple hard drives in a single case appear as a single hard drive to the computer’s operating system. These, however, are not exactly portable, so they don’t work well for me.

And, of course, when I make reference to having photos on a single drive, that is only referring to the master copy of photos, not backup copies. I highly recommend always maintaining at least one (and ideally two or more) full backups of all of your photos and other important data. Those backup copies should also ideally be stored in a location separate from the master drives you’re regularly using.

Today’s Question: I have a few questions related to sharpening in Lightroom Classic CC. I find that moving the Sharpening Amount slider to about 60-65 seems to be about the right amount for my images. How dependent is sharpening on the camera and/or lens? And, the subject matter? Is sharpening something that you would consider automating during the import process to save time? I’ll assume that masking should be done on a per image basis.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Optimal sharpening settings will vary based on the camera and lens, as well as the content of the image. For that reason it is best to customize all of the sharpening settings for each image. That said, you could most certainly update the default settings to be closer to what you prefer to use when sharpening your photos.

More Detail: As noted previously in the Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, the sharpening available in the Develop module in Lightroom Classic CC is intended for compensating for factors that reduce sharpness in the original capture, not for finalizing a photo for output such as printing. As such, this sharpening should be relatively modest.

By default a very small amount of sharpening is applied by Lightroom. Most photos will benefit from an increased level of sharpening. However, the optimal settings for a given image will vary. It is therefore best to evaluate each image individually to find the best sharpening settings.

An Amount value of around 60 or so is perfectly reasonable, provided the Radius is left at a relatively low value of about 1.0 or lower. That’s not to say these settings will work well for all photos from all cameras, but they are reasonable values for many photos.

So, while I don’t recommend applying the same sharpening settings to all photos, I do think it is perfectly reasonable to establish different default values than Lightroom employs. This can be done by creating a preset in the Develop module that contains only the adjustments you want to apply by default to all images. That preset can then be applied to all photos during import, or even to large batches of photos later in your workflow using the Saved Preset popup in the Quick Develop section of the right panel in the Library module.

Today’s Question: I am about to embark on a project to copy about 10K slides with my 5D Mark IV. These slides range from the 1950s to 2006. Since the RAW files will have the digital capture date, should I change the digital capture date in Lightroom after import to the date the slide was actually captured or should I use some other metadata field to record the actual slide capture date and leave the digital capture date alone?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I do think it is a good practice to set the capture date for analog images to a date as close as possible to the original date of capture. In the case of photographing slides, I actually recommend changing the date on the camera, rather than saving that step for after importing the photos into Lightroom.

More Detail: Capture time is obviously useful for locating images, and for referencing when a photo was captured. For analog images that are scanned or photographed, the capture time in metadata will obviously be wrong in terms of when the source image was captured. I think it can be very helpful to update the capture time for those images to a value that is as close as possible to when the source image was actually captured.

Obviously in many cases it may be difficult or impossible to determine when a specific image was captured. I recommend developing a system in advance so you can best manage this issue. For example, you might always set the date to the earliest (or latest) date you believe matches the date of capture. You could also use the month and day values to help identify that the date is not necessarily known precisely. For example, you could use January 1st as the date for any photo where the year is not known precisely.

You could even use the time to represent specific situations about your knowledge (or lack thereof) of the date of capture. And, of course, other metadata fields could be updated with notes indicating what you know about the original capture.

As noted above, I do think it is generally easier to set the camera to the date you want to establish for the image. This will help streamline your overall workflow and help you keep the images more organized. But of course it is also possible to use the “Edit Capture Time” command in Lightroom to adjust the date and time later in your workflow.

Today’s Question: The voltage in Australia and New Zealand is 220-230 [volts]. Is it your experience that, like with the iPhone, you need an adapter but don’t need a transformer for charging camera batteries?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Most electronic devices will work perfectly well with higher voltages found in other countries. It is important, however, to confirm your battery charger and other electronic devices support the higher voltage levels.

More Detail: On your battery charger and other electronic devices you should find a label that typically has the serial number and other details on it. You want to make sure that the specifications cover a wide enough range to include the power in the countries you’ll be visiting.

In the case of Australia and New Zealand you want to make sure that the input voltage for the device goes up to 240 volts at 50 hertz. In the US, as you know, the power is 110 volts. Typically you’ll see an indication of the voltage on a device as something like “AC 100-240V 50/60Hz”. That means the device can handle AC (alternating current, as opposed to direct current) power anywhere between 100 and 240 volts, at 50 or 60 hertz.

These days most devices will support the higher voltages found internationally. There are, however, some devices (such as hair dryers) that often only support a narrow range of voltages. That means the device might only support US power voltages, or only higher voltages found in other countries. In that case a transformer would be required to be able to use the device.

If you plug in and turn on a device that can’t support the higher voltages found in other countries, the device will either blow a fuse (if you’re lucky) or be fried and potentially start a fire. But as long as the label for the device you’ll plug in shows a voltage range up to 240 volts, only a plug adapter would be required, with no need for a transformer.

For what it’s worth, none of the devices I own require a transformer to be plugged into any international outlet. They only need a plug adapter. And I didn’t do that on purpose! It is just that most devices support international voltages right out of the box. But even so, I still check the rating of every device before using it on an international trip.

Today’s Question: In you course “Cleaning Up Your Mess in Lightroom” you suggest labeling our drives with a label maker. What brand and model do you use?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I use a Brother P-Touch label maker to label my hard drives (among other things), and I’m very happy with it.

More Detail: I do highly recommend labeling your hard drives to avoid any confusion, and a label maker is a great way to accomplish this. I put the name I associate with each drive as a label on the drive, and also clearly mark my backup drives with an indication they are a backup, so I don’t accidentally try to use those drives for anything other than backing up my master drives.

The specific model label printer I am using is the Brother PT-65. This is an older version of the P-Touch line that has since been discontinued. I have had this label printer for probably ten years now, and it continues to perform great.

A comparable Brother P-Touch label maker would probably be the PT-70BM, though I’ve not had a chance to test this specific product since my older label maker continues to serve me well. You can learn more about this current model (and read reviews) here:

https://amzn.to/2Rb3UJS

Today’s Question: Some photographers don’t like the sharpening feature of Lightroom. They prefer using the High Pass filter in Photoshop. Sharpening in Lightroom is a standard feature with standard values. Is there a way to adjust these standard sharpening values during import? What is your opinion about the sharpening by Lightroom compared to the High Pass filter in Photoshop?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I think the initial sharpening available in Lightroom’s Develop module is excellent. Output sharpening (such as when printing or exporting a copy of a photo) is also very good, but doesn’t provide a preview that would help you make the right decisions about settings. It is possible to adjust the default settings for sharpening, but in my opinion the best way to approach this is to create a preset that you apply during import or later in your workflow.

More Detail: Sharpening is one of the photo adjustment options that many photographers seem to want to over-complicate. Granted, the math behind sharpening isn’t necessarily all that simple, but the basic concepts are relatively straightforward.

In the earlier days of digital imaging I certainly felt that many sharpening tools were a little too aggressive, and that using special “tricks” in software such as Photoshop could provide superior results. With more recent software updates, however, the sharpening algorithms have gotten much more sophisticated, to the point that no special tricks are generally necessary.

The initial sharpening available in Lightroom (and Camera Raw) is excellent, and so I recommend using this for your initial sharpening. The Clarity (and Dehaze) adjustments provide similar benefits, and in my mind largely eliminate the need for techniques such as the use of the High Pass filter for a sharpening effect. Note that the High Pass technique produces results that are closer to Clarity than actual Sharpening.

It is possible to change the default settings for adjustments in Lightroom. You start by clicking the Reset button in the Develop module to clear out all adjustments for a sample image. Then you change the settings you want different from the defaults, and choose Develop > Set Default Settings from the menu. You can then click the “Update to Current Settings” button to confirm the change. However, note that the change will only affect photos captured with the same camera model as your sample image.

If you want to apply these changes more universally, you can create a preset that includes only the adjustments you want to be different from Lightroom’s defaults. You can then apply that preset either during the import process, or later in your workflow either in the Develop module or via the Quick Develop adjustments in the Library module.

For output sharpening, because Lightroom does not provide a preview for the available settings, I often prefer to send photos to Photoshop to resize and sharpen them. This enables me to exercise much greater control over the output, which is especially important for images that will be printed.

Today’s Question: I’m trying to add a line around a photo using the Stroke feature, but it never actually appears in my image. I have even set the size very large, but it doesn’t show up. Do you have any idea what I’m doing wrong?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Under typical conditions, the most likely reason the Stroke effect isn’t showing up in your image is that the stroke is being added outside the image area, causing it to be beyond the visible canvas. You can use the “Inside” option for the Position setting, or use the “Reveal All” command to reveal a stroke that has been placed outside the image.

More Detail: To add a Stroke (or other effect) to an image layer in Photoshop, that layer first needs to be a “normal” layer rather than a Background layer. To convert a Background image layer to a normal layer you can simply double-click on the thumbnail for the Background image layer on the Layers panel, and then click OK in the New Layer dialog.

Next, click the “Add a Layer Style” button (the button with the “fx” icon on it) at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose “Stroke” from the popup menu. In the Layer Style dialog you can then adjust the settings for the appearance of the stroke.

I generally start out setting the color for the stroke, which in my case is most often black. You can select “Color” as the Fill Type for the stroke, and then click the color swatch labeled “Color” to bring up the Color Picker where you can select the color you want to use for the stroke effect.

Initially you can set the Opacity to 100% so you are better able to see the effect. You can always reduce the Opacity setting later. You can also change the Blend Mode if you want to use something other than “Normal”. And if you have reduce the Opacity setting, turning on the Overprint checkbox will cause the underlying image to show through the stroke, if applicable.

The Position is a key setting that can cause confusion. If the Position is set to Outside, and the current image layer extends all the way to the end of the canvas, you’ll never see the stroke effect. Instead, you can use the Inside option, in which case part of your image will be covered by the Stroke effect. Note that the Center option for Position will cause the Stroke effect to appear half inside and half outside the image.

If you don’t want to cover up any of your image, you can use the Outside setting for Position. You won’t see the actual stroke at this point if the image extends to the edge of the canvas. But after adding the stroke you can choose Image > Reveal All from the menu to enlarge the canvas so the entire stroke area is visible.

Today’s Question: Under what circumstances do you feel it is a good idea to have multiple catalogs in Lightroom Classic CC?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The only time I think it may be helpful to have your photos divided up among more than one catalog in Lightroom is when there is a need to keep certain photos separated from others. But frankly, even then you could still use a single catalog and divide those photos through other means, such as storing them on different hard drives or using metadata values to identify the various categories of images.

More Detail: It seems that many photographers want to maintain multiple catalogs in Lightroom, or at least the idea seems to make sense early on. Eventually, in my experience many photographers who start out with multiple catalogs realize that this approach adds complexity and potential confusion to their workflow. That is when they decide it would be best to merge their catalogs into a single “master” catalog, which is a decision I am in complete agreement with.

As I mentioned in my answer in yesterday’s Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, I recommend keeping your image-management workflow as simple as possible. Ideally that means storing all of your photos on a single storage device and using a single Lightroom catalog to manage those photos. This approach means you always know which catalog your photos are in, because it is your only catalog. And it would also mean you know which drive a given photo is on, because it is your only drive.

You can then use the folder structure, keywords, star ratings, and other metadata to identify the various properties of your photos that you can later use to locate any photo you need.

If you’d like to merge multiple Lightroom catalogs, and otherwise cleanup your workflow, you can get a special “New Year’s Resolution” discount on my full bundle of video courses on Lightroom by using this link to get started:

https://www.greylearning.com/bundles/lightroom?coupon=newyear19

Today’s Question: Do you recommend creating a new catalog in Lightroom Classic CC for the new year? I saw this advice, suggesting that it was better to have a separate catalog for each calendar year. Your thoughts?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Absolutely not. My general recommendation is to use a single Lightroom catalog for all of your photos and videos, and I certainly don’t recommend creating a new catalog for each calendar year.

More Detail: I recognize there are situations where a photographer may want (or need) to maintain more than one catalog in Lightroom. However, in my mind those situations represent an exception to what I consider “best practices” in Lightroom.

In general I recommend using a workflow that is as streamlined as possible. When it comes to managing your photos in Lightroom, I feel that having multiple catalogs can be cumbersome and confusing. After all, if you use multiple catalogs and want to find a particular photo, first you need to know which catalog that photo is contained in.

Therefore, I think it makes the most sense to use a single catalog for all photos whenever possible. And if you’re concerned about performance issues, that isn’t a significant issue. My Lightroom catalog currently contains a little less than 400,000 images, and the performance is nearly identical to when I’m working with a small catalog for demonstration purposes.

If you’d like to merge multiple Lightroom catalogs, and otherwise cleanup your workflow, you can get a special “New Year’s Resolution” discount on my full bundle of video courses on Lightroom by using this link to get started:

https://www.greylearning.com/bundles/lightroom?coupon=newyear19