Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Is there a way in Photoshop to extend the right side of the photo to make a larger canvass, but instead of inserting a solid color or transparancy, telling it to use the colors of the pixels at the far right so it just looks like that wall goes on further and further?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can actually accomplish this effect quite easily, primarily through the use of the Transform command to stretch a column of pixels to the edge of an expanded canvas.

More Detail: The first step here is to extend the canvas for the image, so that there is space available for the new pixels you’ll be adding. To avoid filling the new space with the current background color, you’ll want to convert the Background image layer to a “normal” layer. To do so, double-click on the thumbnail for the Background image layer on the Layers panel, and click OK in the New Layer dialog that appears.

Next, you can extend the canvas to create the desired amount of additional space for the effect. To get started, choose Image > Canvas Size from the menu. I generally find it easiest to turn on the “Relative” checkbox, so you can specify the amount of space you want to add. However, you can also leave this checkbox turned off and simply update the existing dimensions as needed. Then choose the unit of measure (such as Pixels or Inches) from the popup, and update the value for Width and/or Height. In this case, for example, you would only be extending the Width value. Click OK to apply the change.

You can now duplicate the desired pixels, in this case a single column at the far right of the image.

First, zoom in considerably, so you can easily identify (and click on) the pixel in question. So in this case you would zoom in to the right edge of the existing image, so you can click on a pixel in the right-most column. Then choose the Single Column Marquee tool by right-clicking on the button for the Rectangular Marquee tool on the toolbox and choosing “Single Column Marquee Tool” from the popup that appears. Then click on a pixel in the right-most column of pixels in the image to select that column of pixels. You can then choose Layer > New > Layer Via Copy from the menu to duplicate that column of pixels onto a new layer.

This new layer, consisting of only a single column of pixels in this case, will now be active on the Layers panel. So, choose Edit > Free Transform from the menu to enable a transformation of this layer. There will be anchor points at the corners and midway down the sides of the layer. Drag the right-center anchor point to the right, all the way to the edge of the canvas you extended for the image. You can then press Enter/Return on the keyboard, which will finalize the effect.

The overall process here may sound a little involved, but it is actually quite straightforward, and very easily produces the intended effect.

Today’s Question: If you cancel your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and several months later want to renew it will you be charged for the intervening time?

Tim’s Quick Answer: No, if you cancel your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and later restart your subscription, you won’t be charged for the time during which your subscription was inactive.

More Detail: Provided you have saved all of your photos and the information about your photos (such as a Lightroom catalog) to your own local storage (rather than in the cloud), there isn’t any real risk of losing data when you cancel your Creative Cloud subscription.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that if you are using the synchronization features (such as with Lightroom CC for mobile devices, or the cloud-synchronization service with Lightroom on the desktop), that the synchronized images and galleries will no longer be available once you cancel your subscription. So, again, you would want to be sure you have all of your data stored locally before canceling your subscription.

As noted in a previous edition of the Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, it is also possible to continue using Lightroom Classic CC after canceling your Creative Cloud subscription. Just note that certain features (such as the Develop and Map modules) will no longer function in this case.

If you later restart a Creative Cloud subscription, naturally the rate you had been paying previously might not be available any longer. So you might have no choice but to sign up at a higher price point. But you would not have to pay for the time period that your subscription was inactive. And if you properly saved all of your photos and data locally, you would be able to essentially pick up right where you left off in terms of managing your photos.

Today’s Question: I have students asking me if there is an app that will show a histogram while one is taking photos with their iPhone. Do you know?

Tim’s Quick Answer: There are two options I would recommend for viewing a histogram for a photo on the iPhone. One option is the Photo Extension Histogram app, which enables you to view a histogram for images in the Photos app. The other option is to use the Lightroom CC mobile app.

More Detail: It is a little surprising to me how difficult it can be to view a histogram for photos on your iPhone. Fortunately, there are a couple of solutions that do work.

The Photo Extension Histogram app, which enables you to view a histogram for images in the Photos app. Since the Photos app doesn’t include a histogram feature, a separate app is needed for this purpose, which provides a workaround to view a histogram for any image. The process involves “sharing” a photo via the Photo Extension Histogram app.

So, just as you might use the sharing feature in the Photos app to send a photo via Messages or using AirDrop, so too can you share a photo to the Photo Extension Histogram app to view a histogram (both luminance and color) for the photo.

You can find this app in the Apple App Store by searching for “Photo Extension Histogram”. The app has a price of US$2.99.

Another option is to use the Lightroom CC app for mobile devices. You can view a histogram for any photo you manage within Lightroom CC. Note that you can also capture photos directly with the Lightroom CC app, which provides a convenient solution for streamlining your workflow. When you capture a photo using the camera within Lightroom CC, the photo is automatically added to (and synchronized via) your Lightroom CC catalog.

To access the histogram in the Lightroom CC mobile app, you need to switch to the Edit mode. You can then tap on the image with two fingers to bring up the info display. Tap again with two fingers to bring up the histogram display, and then tap a third time with two fingers to remove the histogram/info display.

Today’s Question: We’d like to know why we can’t take a Photoshop PSD file directly into Adobe Camera Raw? We are able to take a PSD from Bridge directly into Photoshop, but not into Camera Raw. Yes, a workaround is Lightroom or Camera Raw as a filter in Photoshop, but we would still like to know we have this problem with PSDs?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Conceptually, the key challenge with a Photoshop PSD file in Adobe Camera Raw is that a PSD very often will include layers, which complicate processing with Camera Raw. For example, TIFF images with layers are also not supported in Camera Raw.

More Detail: I suppose the “real” answer here is that Adobe has thus far not chosen to support processing Photoshop PSD file via Camera Raw. If they wanted to add this support, it certainly could be done.

As many photographers may be aware, it is possible to open TIFF and JPEG images directly with Camera Raw, similar to how you can open proprietary raw captures (or Adobe DNG images) with Camera Raw. However, layered images would create a complication for this workflow.

So, while you can open a JPEG or TIFF image with Camera Raw, that support does not extend to TIFF images saved with layers. Only flattened TIFF images can be opened in Camera Raw in this way.

I imagine Adobe has decided that there isn’t much of a need to open PSD images in Camera Raw, in part because a PSD image file is perhaps more likely to contain multiple layers. As noted in the question, of course, Photoshop CC does include a Camera Raw filter, so you can apply Camera Raw adjustments as a filter to any image layer in any image format supported by Photoshop.

Today’s Question: When photographing a far-away subject such as the moon, if I manually set the focus on the lens to infinity will I be assured of proper focus?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Almost certainly not. Setting the focus to the greatest distance (ostensibly “infinity”) will not always ensure proper focus, even for a subject that is at a very great distance.

More Detail: In actual fact, I find that setting most lenses to infinity will definitely produce an image that does not have optimal focus. I’m sure the use of an infinity setting for focus works for some lenses in some situations, but I would absolutely not consider this a reliable technique.

Instead, for situations where autofocus doesn’t necessarily provide an ideal solution (such as with night photography) I recommend using manual focus in conjunction with the live view preview on the camera’s LCD display.

This approach obviously is best used in conjunction with a tripod. After framing up your scene, you can then use the zoom feature for the LCD display (not adjusting the zoom setting for the lens) to zoom in on a key area of the scene you are photographing. You can then manually adjust focus, with the autofocus turned off for the lens.

You’ll obviously want to use other techniques, such as employing a cable release, in order to help ensure optimal sharpness, especially if you are using a relatively long exposure time. But you will likely notice in these types of situations that when you adjust the focus manually with the assistance of the live view display, even for very distant subjects you are likely not ending up with the focus set at infinity. In many cases, in fact, you may be surprised at how far from the infinity setting you actually end up setting the focus.

Today’s Question: I am working with architectural abstractions doing most of the work in Photoshop CC. I often have to take the files back into Lightroom to use the clarity feature to gain mid-tone contrast. Is there an approach in Photoshop that would achieve the same results?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can actually access the Clarity adjustment in Photoshop by applying the Camera Raw filter to any image layer in Photoshop.

More Detail: As many photographers are aware, Adobe Camera Raw includes all of the same adjustments found in the Develop module in Lightroom. While Camera Raw was originally intended for processing proprietary raw captures, it can also be used for other image file formats, and is also available as a filter in Photoshop CC.

Since the Clarity adjustment is included in Camera Raw, that also means you can access the Clarity adjustment by simply applying the Camera Raw filter to any image.

To get started you may want to create a duplicate of your Background image layer, by selecting that layer on the Layers panel and then choosing Layer > New > Layer Via Copy from the menu. You could also convert an image layer to a Smart Object so you can apply the Camera Raw filter as a Smart Filter. To do so, select the applicable layer on the Layers panel, and then choose Filter > Convert for Smart Filters from the menu.

To apply Camera Raw adjustments as a filter, go to the menu and choose Filter > Camera Raw Filter. This will bring up the Camera Raw dialog, where you can apply a variety of adjustments (including the Clarity adjustment that is the subject of today’s question).

The availability of Camera Raw as a filter in Photoshop CC makes it much easier to apply some of the adjustments that are unique to Camera Raw at any point in your overall workflow for optimizing your photos.

You can learn more about my preferred workflow for using Camera Raw (including a lesson on using Camera Raw as a filter in Photoshop CC) in my “Optimizing with Adobe Camera Raw” video course available here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/optimizing-with-adobe-camera-raw

Today’s Question: What happens to Lightroom Classic, my photos and catalog, if I cancel my subscription for the rest of the year?

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you cancel a subscription that includes Lightroom Classic CC, you will actually be able to continue using most of Lightroom to manage your photos. Only the Develop and Map modules will stop being available when you cancel your subscription, and of course you won’t be able to install future updates.

More Detail: It is understandable that photographers would be concerned about losing all of the metadata for their photos if they discontinued their subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud. With applications such as Photoshop, discontinuing your subscription means the software will simply stop working. You can’t use Photoshop at all if you don’t have a current Creative Cloud subscription.

With Lightroom Classic, however, because it is a tool for organizing your photos, Adobe has ensured that you won’t lose access to the information about your photos.

As noted above, you won’t be able to adjust the appearance of your photos in the Develop module after you discontinue your Creative Cloud subscription. You also won’t be able to access the map in the Map module. In addition, online services (such as the synchronization of images in collections) will no longer be available.

You will, however, continue to be able to launch Lightroom, and work in the Library module. That includes the ability to update metadata for your existing images. You can even continue to print from the Print module. Of course, since you won’t have access to future updates, you won’t gain access to any new features. You also won’t receive updated support for new proprietary raw capture formats.

The most important consideration here, of course, is that you won’t lose access to your photos, and you won’t lose access to the metadata about your images. Obviously if you cancel your Creative Cloud subscription you are likely using an alternative software tool to manage your photos. But during the transition away from Lightroom, you won’t lose any of the information about your photos just because you canceled your Creative Cloud subscription.

Today’s Question: I noticed an icon I have not seen before [during a recent webinar presentation]. Near the flags and ratings on your screen there was what looks like a square with four points on each corner with a face in the middle. What is this for?

Tim’s Quick Answer: That button is the “Add Face Region” button, which enables you to manually identify a person’s face within an image. This is a supplement to the people recognition feature in Lightroom, which is something of an automated tool for adding keywords to identify the people who appear in your photos.

More Detail: Lightroom includes a feature that performs image analysis to identify faces within your photos. Beyond simply being able to identify where a face is visible within a photo, it can actually perform a degree of facial recognition, so that Lightroom can detect when the same face appears in multiple photos. That, in turn, can be used to identify the name associated with the face, which will result in a keyword being added for the image.

If you use the face recognition feature to have Lightroom identify where faces occur within your images, a face region will be added automatically to the area where the face appears in the image. That, combined with the keyword representing the name of the person identified by a given face region, enables you to browse by person, which provides a method for locating photos based on the people who appear within those photos.

In some cases, of course, Lightroom may not be able to identify a face for a person. This might be the case, for example, if the person was photographed in profile rather than from the front. When that is the case, you can use the Draw Face Region button to manually add a face region to identify where a person appears in an image. You can then associate a name with that face region, in order to actually identify the person in the image, and add a keyword for their name in the process.

I covered this face recognition feature in an article called “Face Recognition in Lightroom Classic”, which appeared in the November 2017 issue of Pixology magazine. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can get Pixology magazine for half price by following this link:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/pixology-magazine?coupon=pixten

Today’s Question: How can you send images to labs so they do not get cropped?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The first step is to crop the image precisely the way you want it printed, and to resize the image to fit within the final print size. Even better, if possible you should employ a “canvas” for the image so that the cropped image fits completely onto the canvas, with that canvas sized based on the actual final print size.

More Detail: When you print an image that is not cropped to the same aspect ratio as the paper you’re printing to, you will have two options for how the image will fit on the printed page. You can either fit the image within the limits of the paper size, or crop the image to fill the available space.

For example, let’s assume you have retained the original aspect ratio for an image when cropping, but will be printing to an 8″x10″ sheet of paper. For simplicity, we’ll assume a print where the image extends all the way to the edge of the paper. At the original aspect ratio, you will have likely an image that is sized to about 6.7-inches by 10-inches.

In other words, your options are to have empty space of about 0.67 inches on both sides of the shorter dimension of the print, or to crop the image so you are losing one inch at both ends of the longer dimension of the print. Of course, as noted in today’s question, the intent is to not have the image cropped based on the print size.

So, the first approach would be to simply size the image so it will fit on the intended paper size. For an 8″x10″ sheet of paper, for example, you might resize to 10-inches on the longer dimension (or likely a little smaller to provide some space around the print), letting the shorter dimension fall wherever it does based on the cropped aspect ratio. In other words, you simply resize the image to fit the size of the paper it will be printed on. Then you would need to make sure to communicate to the print lab that you want the image printed to fit the page, not enlarged to fill the entire printable area of the page.

You can help improve the chances that the image will indeed be printed without cropping, however, if you enlarge the canvas size for the image based on the paper size that image will be printed to. For example, if you have an image cropped and resized to dimensions of 6.67 inches by 10 inches, you could enlarge the canvas size to a full 8″x10″ so the image will print properly on the paper size to be used for the print.

In Photoshop it is quite easy to enlarge the canvas after cropping and resizing the image you are preparing for print. Simply choose Image > Canvas Size from the menu, and set the desired dimensions.

Lightroom doesn’t offer a simple way to accomplish this same task, but one approach you could use would be to configure a print in the Print module, and then save the result as a JPEG image for printing. You could configure the paper size and place a single cell on the page to print at the desired dimensions, and then make sure the “Zoom to Fill” checkbox in the Image Settings section of the right panel is turned off. When you have configured the print as desired, in the Print Job section of the right panel you can choose “JPEG File” from the Print To popup, and then click the “Print to File” button at the bottom of the right panel to save the print layout as a JPEG image that can then be sent to the lab.

Today’s Question: How do you create a new folder from within Lightroom?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can create a new folder in any location by choosing “Add Folder” from the popup associated with the “plus” (+) button to the right of the Folders heading on the left panel in the Library module in Lightroom. You can add a folder within the currently selected folder by choosing “Add Subfolder” from that popup.

More Detail: There are a variety of reasons you might want to create a new folder from within Lightroom. You might simply want to create a folder so you can divide images from one folder into multiple folders. You might also need to create a new folder in order to be able to move photos to a different storage location, such as to move some (or all) photos to a new (and perhaps larger) external hard drive.

If you want to create a folder within an existing folder, you can use the “Add Subfolder” command found on the popup associated with the “plus” (+) button to the right of the Folders heading on the left panel in the Library module. Before choosing this command you’ll want to select the folder where you want to create the new folder, as that new folder will be placed inside the currently selected folder.

So, for example, you may want to place a subset of photos from a given trip into a subfolder. Perhaps you took a side trip to a different location, and just want to organize the photos from that side trip into a subfolder. Simply select the desired “parent” folder, and choose the “Add Subfolder” command to define a name for the new folder that will be created inside the selected folder.

In some cases you may want to add a new folder in a location that isn’t currently visible on the Folders list. This would be the case, for example, if you’re adding a new external hard drive to your overall storage structure, and you want to be able to move photos to that drive. Because Lightroom is initially not managing any photos on that new drive, you won’t see the drive or any folders on that drive within Lightroom. If you create a new folder on that drive from within Lightroom, however, that folder will be visible so you can move photos to that drive.

To create a new folder, click on the “plus” (+) button to the right of the Folders heading on the left panel, and choose “Add Folder” from the popup that appears. In the dialog that is presented, navigate to the location where you want to create the new folder. Then click on the “New Folder” button at the bottom-left of the dialog and provide a name for the new folder. When you are finished creating that folder (and click the “Choose” button to close the dialog), the new folder will appear in the applicable location in the Folders list on the left panel in the Library module.

Once creating a new folder, of course, you can drag and drop photos or folders to that new folder location to refine your overall organizational structure.