Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Sometimes when I’m exiting Lightroom Classic it says “Adobe Lightroom is not finished writing metadata changes into XMP…”. It can seem to be busy for a while. How can I check the progress and see when it’s done?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can’t actually check the progress in this context, but it is also safe to bypass the warning and quit Lightroom Classic, as it will continue writing metadata to applicable images the next time you launch it.

More Detail: When you enable the option to automatically write metadata updates to the source images (in addition to the Lightroom Classic catalog) there’s a chance that some updates won’t have been completed yet when you quit Lightroom Classic. If so, you’ll see an alert indicating this is an issue.

It is perfectly save to quit Lightroom Classic without allowing the metadata updates to be saved to the source image files, because the information will already be saved in the catalog. The next time you launch Lightroom Classic, it will resume saving metadata updates to source files that hadn’t been updated yet.

If you want to be able to see the status and be sure that all applicable metadata updates have completed, you can also manually save metadata to images. For example, you can go to the All Photographs collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module, make sure the Library Filter bar above the grid view display is set to “None”, and select all photos (such as by choosing Edit > Select All from the menu). Then go to the Metadata menu and choose “Save Metadata to Files”. You’ll then see a progress bar at the far left of the top panel, so you’ll know when the process is complete.

If you haven’t already enabled the option to automatically save standard metadata values to the source images, I highly recommend doing so. That information can be invaluable if you were to ever lose your Lightroom Classic catalog, for example. To enable this option, go to the Metadata tab of the Catalog Settings dialog in Lightroom Classic and turn on the “Automatically write changes into sidecar files (XMP/ACR)”. Note, by the way, that this checkbox name has been updated from earlier versions of Lightroom Classic, making it a little more clear what happens when you turn the checkbox on.

Today’s Question: How can I find a photo in Lightroom Classic when I only know the date the image was captured? I’ve had several situations where I could not find a photo when all I know is the date of capture.

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can quickly find photos captured on a specific date by selecting the All Photographs collection in Lightroom Classic and then setting a filter for the specific date on the Library Filter bar.

More Detail: When you are looking for a photo and the only thing you know about the image is the date it was captured, the first step is to ensure you are searching broadly within Lightroom Classic. The easiest way to do so is to select the All Photographs collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module so you’re viewing all images in the entire catalog.

Next, go to the grid view, and make sure the Library Filter bar is enabled, choosing View > Show Filter Bar from the menu if it isn’t displayed above the grid view. I then recommend choosing the None option first to confirm all filter sections are closed, followed by clicking on the Metadata tab to bring up the filter columns.

If the left-most column on the Metadata tab isn’t set to “Date”, click the current heading for the column and choose Date from the popup. This will populate the column so that it lists every year that is represented by the capture date of at least one photo in your catalog. You can click the triangle to the left of the applicable year to expand the list showing the months of that year and then expand the applicable month to show the days. Click on the specific date representing the image you’re looking for, and you’ll now be browsing all photos in your catalog that were captured on that specific date.

If this results in a large number of photos, you can also use other metadata attributes to help narrow the field, such as to select the camera that was used, set a star rating, or any other option that will help you locate the specific photo. Note that it is also possible to select a range of dates to filter by, such as for situations where you don’t know the specific date. For example, you can click on the first date in the range you want to filter by, then hold the Shift key and click on the last date in that range. Similarly, you can select multiple days, months, or years from anywhere on the list, such as by holding the Ctrl/Command key to toggle the selection of individual values.

Once you’ve located the photo you were seeking, you can right-click on it and choose “Go to Folder in Library” from the popup menu to automatically navigate to the folder containing that image. You can also then set the Library Filter bar back to “None” if you want to see all photos in the folder in the context of the image you just located.

Today’s Question: With respect to the Assisted Culling, another question arises. Is there any way to change the assisted culling status of an individual image before selecting batch option? For example, if there is one image that fails a focus test, but you’re okay with that and want to work on the image anyway, can you remove it from the cull or change its status before accepting the status of the remaining photos?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can change the status for images analyzed with Assisted Culling in Lightroom Classic by right-clicking the icon that indicates the Select versus Reject status and choosing the option to reverse the status.

More Detail: When images are analyzed by Lightroom Classic based on the settings you’ve established for Assisted Culling, an icon at the top-right of the image thumbnail in the grid view will indicate whether an image was identified as a Select (with a checkmark in a green circle) or as a Reject (with an “X” in a red circle). If you disagree with the status assigned to an image, you can right-click on that icon and choose the reverse the setting.

For example, if you have enabled the “Subject Focus” option any images with relatively narrow depth of field might be determined to be out of focus, even though the narrow depth of field was intentional. For such an image you can right-click on the icon indicating the image was identified as a Reject and choose “Mark as Select” from the popup window.

If you apply the Batch Actions feature as outlined in yesterday’s answer on a set of images where you changed the Select versus Reject status, the updated status will apply for that batch processing for adding attributes to an image such as a star rating or reject flag, for example.

Today’s Question: I’ve tried out the Assisted Culling feature in Lightroom Classic, but don’t understand how I should then be marking photos as favorites versus outtakes based on the automatic review. Can you explain what that workflow should be?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can assign attributes such as a star rating and reject flag to favorites and outtakes by clicking the Batch Actions button at the bottom of the Assisted Culling section in the Library module.

More Detail: When you enable the Assisted Culling feature on the right panel in the Library module in Lightroom Classic, based on the settings you use images will be marked as Selects or Rejects based on image analysis. However, this does not assign actual metadata attributes to the images for actions like filtering images by attribute or automatically deleting rejected photos.

However, you can assign attributes to images based on their status from the Assisted Culling feature by clicking the Batch Actions button at the bottom-right of the Assisted Culling section on the right panel in the Library module.

Clicking the Batch Actions button will bring up a dialog where you can choose which attributes to assign to images based on their status. Images identified as Selected are those that were determined to meet the criteria for image quality. In the Selected section of the Assisted Culling Batch Actions dialog you can turn on the checkbox for the applicable attribute, such as “Apply rating” to select a star rating you want to assign to these images. Similarly, you can turn on a checkbox in the Rejected section for the outtake images, such as “Apply flag” to select a reject flag.

Once you’ve selected the attribute (or multiple attributes) you want to assign to Selected and Rejected images, you can click the OK button to apply the change. The attributes will then be assigned, so you can then filter or otherwise work with the images based on the attributes assigned.

Today’s Question: Speaking of converting to the Adobe DNG format, if I’ve not been using this option during import into Lightroom Classic, is it possible to convert images to DNG after the fact? Do I then need to delete the original raw captures?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can most certainly convert proprietary raw captures to the Adobe DNG file format any time after they have been imported into your Lightroom Classic catalog using the “Convert Photos to DNG” command.

More Detail: If you decided after importing proprietary raw captures into Lightroom Classic that you actually want to convert those images to the Adobe DNG (Digital Negative) format, you can most certainly do so with ease using the “Convert Photos to DNG” command.

To get started, navigate to the folder that contains the images you want to convert, switch to the grid view, and select all images you want to convert. In most cases I would suggest converting all raw captures in a given folder to the Adobe DNG format, but you can select a subset of the images in a particular folder if you prefer, for example.

With the applicable raw captures selected go to the menu and choose Library > Convert Photos to DNG. This will bring up the Convert Photos to DNG dialog, where the title bar will include an indication of the number of photos that are selected for conversion.

In the Source Files section, I recommend keeping the “Only convert Raw files” checkbox turned on, so that other file formats such as JPEG images will not be converted. I also recommend turning on the “Delete originals after successful conversion” checkbox so the original raw captures will be deleted once they are converted successfully to DNG. If you leave this checkbox turned off, the raw captures will not be deleted from the hard drive, but they will be removed from the Lightroom Classic catalog. If you take this approach and don’t want the raw captures taking up space on your hard drive, you will need to manually delete the raw files and their applicable XMP files (but not the DNG files of course) through the operating system.

In the DNG Creation section you can configure you preferred options for the Adobe DNG files that will be created as part of this process. Then click the OK button and the selected raw files will be converted to the Adobe DNG file format. If you chose not to delete the proprietary raw captures as part of the conversion, just keep in mind that the raw files will still be taking up space on your hard drive, but will not be reflected in the Lightroom Classic catalog.

Today’s Question: I just imported some images from a birding outing and was surprised when Lightroom Classic told me that all were converted to DNG. I have no idea how that happened, so my question is, did I inadvertently turn on some switch somewhere? Also, is this a bad thing, or should I just move past this and edit as I would normally, or do I need to reimport them as raw?

Tim’s Quick Answer: This indicates that you had the “Copy as DNG” option selected in the Import dialog, causing the raw captures to be converted to the Adobe DNG format upon import. You can re-import the raw captures from your media cards using the “Copy” option if you’d prefer to retain the proprietary raw image files rather than DNG copies.

More Detail: When importing photos from a media card into Lightroom Classic you can choose whether you simply want to copy the images to the desired folder location or copy them as Adobe DNG (Digital Negative) images. In this case the “Copy as DNG” option was obviously selected, causing the captures to be converted to DNG and copied to the destination folder. This approach means that as soon as you format the media cards so they can be used again, the original proprietary raw captures will be lost forever.

In general, there isn’t any great harm caused by converting to DNG and discarding the proprietary raw captures, and some would argue there are benefits to converting to DNG. I recommend choosing which option makes the most sense to you and then using that approach consistently.

In this case, then, my preference would be to re-import the images using the “Copy” option at the top-center of the Import dialog, to copy the original proprietary raw capture files to the destination folder while adding them to the Lightroom Classic catalog. Once that import is completed successfully, I would select only the DNG files that were created during the first import and delete them.

Keep in mind, however, that it would also be perfectly fine to simply retain the DNG copies of the imported photos, and even to continue using the “Copy to DNG” option for future imports. I personally prefer to retain the original captures as they were created by the camera, but converting to DNG on import is a perfectly reasonable workflow approach as well.

Today’s Question: In response to your answer about color labels not matching between Bridge and Lightroom Classic, I have exactly that situation. How do I update the white color labels for images I updated in Bridge so the labels appear correctly in Lightroom Classic?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can update color labels when you have a mismatch by filtering based on a mismatched definition, then assigning the intended color label based on the Lightroom Classic definitions.

More Detail: In my Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter from December 19th, I explained how different applications (such as Bridge versus Lightroom Classic, even though they’re both from Adobe) employ different definitions for color labels. This can result in a mismatch, where for example a color label assigned in Adobe Bridge will appear white in Lightroom Classic. That white color label represents a mismatch in color label definitions.

For example, if you assigned a red color label in Bridge, that would result in a white label in Lightroom Classic, because the two applications use different definitions for the color labels. To correct this issue, you can filter the images that have a mismatched color label, and then assign a new color label based on the original intent.

A red color label assigned in Bridge will have a value of “Select” for the Label field in metadata. To address this in Lightroom Classic, browse the folder or collection containing the images you want to update, which could mean selecting the “All Photographs” collection in the Catalog section of the left panel if you want to update all photos.

Next, go to the Library Filter bar above the grid view in the Library module and set one of the columns on the Metadata tab to Label. From the list within the Label column select the name for the color label you want to correct, such as “Select” for red color labels assigned in Bridge. Then select all images by choosing Edit > Select All from the menu, and assign the updated color label, such as by pressing the number “6” on the keyboard to assign a red color label in this example.

Once you’ve updated the color label assignment based on the definitions in Lightroom Classic, the white label will update to the appropriate color. You can repeat this process for all original label assignments that are currently resulting in a white color label display.

Today’s Question: During one of your presentations on Photoshop you were showing several different panels and moving them around, but then quickly reset to your initial panel configuration. How do you do that?! I have a habit of making a mess with many panels, and would love an easy way to get back to my typical configuration.

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you save a panel configuration in Photoshop you can quickly reset the panel layout based on the saved configuration using the “Reset Workspace” command.

More Detail: It can be quite helpful to create your own custom panel layout in Photoshop based on the specific tools and features you use most regularly. For example, I use a custom layout that primarily includes the Layers, Channels, and Properties panels.

After configuring the panels to your liking, you can save the arrangement by going to the menu and choosing Window > Workspace > New Workspace. In the dialog that appears enter a meaningful name for the workspace and turn on the checkboxes if desired to preserve any changes you’ve made to keyboard shortcuts, menus, or the toolbar. Click the Save button to save the new workspace.

While using Photoshop with a saved workspace, you might find that you tend to bring up additional panels, move panels around, or otherwise make changes to the overall panel layout. When you want to revert to the saved version of the currently selected workspace, simply go to the menu and choose Window > Workspace > Reset Workspace. Note that the command will also reference the current workspace name, such as “Reset Tim Grey Workspace”.

In this way you can save different workspaces for different tasks, switching between them at any time, but then also resetting the panel layout if you’ve made changes while working with a saved workspace.

Today’s Question: Something I’ve been thinking about for a long while is shooting raw vs JPEG as it pertains to the art of photography. I don’t understand the push for raw shooting other than being able to have more post processing manipulation options. To my mind shooting raw means it doesn’t matter how you set exposure if you get close because you can “fix it” in post. What are your thoughts?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Raw capture is not a license to ignore exposure, though accurate exposure and color are more critical for JPEG captures. But the bigger issue with JPEG capture is that image quality will always be degraded for every image you capture.

More Detail: Raw capture does provide more latitude when it comes to exposure, but it is still best to get the exposure optimized in-camera. If you completely blow out highlights or block up shadows with a raw capture, for example, that lost information can’t be recovered just because it was a raw capture.

JPEG captures are less forgiving when it comes to exposure, in large part because they are captured at 8-bits per channel compared to 12-, 14-, or 16-bits for raw captures. JPEGs are also less forgiving when it comes to the white balance setting, because JPEG images are rendered in-camera while raw captures are rendered during the raw processing phase of your workflow.

Perhaps even more significant is that JPEG captures will always suffer from a degradation in image quality due to the lossy compression that is applied to each image. Among other things affecting image fidelity, JPEG captures will have a visible grid pattern based on the compression artifacts. This can sometimes be relatively easy to see in an image that was captured as a JPEG, depending on the level of detail in the image and the extent to which the image was enlarged.

In my view using raw capture represents a choice to prioritize image quality and adjustment flexibility. JPEG, by contrast, to me represents choosing convenience over image quality. There’s no question that you can get excellent images when capturing in JPEG, but you can achieve greater image quality by always choosing to use raw capture.

Today’s Question: I’ve started using your approach of adding a red color label on import to mark images for review. I hadn’t previously made much use of color labels, but now that I’ve started, I have found some images with a white label. How does that happen when it isn’t possible to add a white color label to a photo?

Tim’s Quick Answer: A white color label indicates a label that doesn’t match the current definitions. For example, if you assigned a color label in Adobe Bridge and then imported the image into Lightroom Classic, the definitions of color labels won’t match and so the label will appear as white.

More Detail: Despite their name, when it comes to the metadata that gets added to an image, a color label isn’t really a color at all. Rather, the Label field simply contains text, which software such as Bridge or Lightroom Classic interpret and display as a particular color.

Different software will implement color labels differently, and in fact Adobe hasn’t even been consistent with the definitions for color labels in different applications, such as Bridge and Lightroom Classic. When there’s a mismatch in the metadata value and the current definitions, a white color label is displayed.

In Bridge, for example, the default value for a red color label is “Select” and the default value for a yellow color label is “Second”. In Lightroom Classic the names of the colors are used in metadata, such as “Red” and “Yellow”.

So, if you assign a red color label in Bridge, the word “Select” will be added to the Label field. But when you import that image into Lightroom Classic the color label definitions don’t include “Select”, and so the mismatch is reflected by displaying the color label as white.

While you can change the definitions of color labels to compensate for mismatches if they have been consistent in your previous workflow, my recommendation is to instead update the color label for any images that show a white color label to reflect the actual color label that was originally intended.