Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: I have a photo where the sky is washed out (but not blown out) due to high overcast clouds and relatively bright lighting. I think this was somewhat exacerbated by the foreground being boats on the ocean, with a lot of light reflecting off the water. What would you recommend for adding some color or detail to the sky using Lightroom Classic?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In this type of situation, I recommend using a mask in Lightroom Classic, using the Color control to add a tint to the sky, and possibly reducing the value for Exposure and refining other adjustments as needed.

More Detail: There are a variety of things you could do to deal with a washed-out sky, including completely replacing the sky using another photo by creating a composite image in Photoshop. However, as long as the sky isn’t completely blown out, you can generally add some color and possibly darken or add contrast as needed. This would involve adding a mask so the adjustment only affects the sky.

In many cases you could obviously use the Select Sky mask option so the adjustment would only affect the sky. However, in many cases, especially with a relatively straight horizon, using the Linear Gradient option works very well. This enables you, for example, to have the adjustment taper off toward the horizon for a more natural look.

Once you’ve added either a Sky or Linear Gradient mask, you can apply the targeted adjustments. I recommend starting with the Color adjustment, which is often missed as it isn’t especially conspicuous. By default, the color swatch will appear as a white rectangle with a black “X” on it. Click that swatch to bring up the color picker, and click within the gradient to select a good shade of cyan or blue for the sky. Click the “X” at the top-left of the color picker to close it.

You can then apply other adjustments as needed. Often a slight reduction in the Exposure value will help, but you may also want to enhance contrast such as by increasing the value for Clarity or by adjusting the other tonal value adjustments such as Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks.

As needed, you can go back and forth between refining the layer mask and fine-tuning the adjustment settings until you are happy with the result. For example, if you used a linear gradient for the mask, you can reposition or adjust the size of the transition based on the adjustment you’ve applied, or you can modify the adjustments to better match the area being affected based on the mask.

Today’s Question: Once I’ve identified the people who appear in photos using the People view [in Lightroom Classic], is there a quick way to locate photos of a specific person without having to switch to the People view to find them?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can simply filter the Keyword List to only show keywords that are identified as people, and then click the arrow associated with a name on the Keyword list to filter the photos to only those containing the keyword for the applicable person.

More Detail: When you identify a person in the People view, the keyword assigned to the image as part of that process is identified as a Person keyword. This is indicated by the fact that the Person checkbox will be turned on, which you can review by right-clicking on the applicable keyword on the Keyword List and choosing “Edit Keyword Tag” from the popup menu.

At the top of the keyword list there is a filter option for viewing only People keywords, which is easy to miss because it is hidden from view by default. You can expand the filter option by clicking the triangle icon to the right of the search field at the top of the Keyword List. That will reveal several options, including People. Click that label to filter the Keyword List to show only those that have the Person checkbox turned on.

Once you’ve filtered the Keyword List and located the name of the person you want to view images for, you can hover your mouse over the keyword for that person’s name and click the right-pointing arrow icon to the right of the keyword. This will set a filter so that all photos with the selected keyword will be displayed, based on your entire Lightroom Classic catalog.

Today’s Question: I upgraded to the latest Lightroom Classic and now the icons which indicated crop and adjustments are no longer at the bottom of the photos. I use this to keep track of my edits. Do you have any ideas why this is happening?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can enable the badges you’re referring to in the Library View Options dialog for the grid view or in the Preferences dialog for the thumbnail filmstrip on the bottom panel.

More Detail: The small icons that appear at the bottom-right corner of thumbnails for some images are referred to as badges. They indicate the status of various features, such as whether an image has been cropped or whether adjustments have been applied in the Develop module, among others.

I haven’t seen any issue with an upgrade to Lightroom Classic causing these badges to be disabled, but it is easy to enable them again regardless.

For the grid view in the main image preview area, go to the menu and choose View > View Options. Go to the Grid View tab, and make sure the “Show Grid Extras” checkbox is turned on. Then also make sure that the “Thumbnail Badges” checkbox in the Cell Icons section is turned on. Then close the dialog, and you’ll have the thumbnail badges again in the grid view.

For the thumbnails on the filmstrip on the bottom panel, go to the Edit menu on Windows or the Lightroom Classic menu on Macintosh and choose “Preferences”. Go to the Interface tab and turn on the “Show badges” checkbox in the Filmstrip section. You can then close the dialog and you’ll have the badge icons restored on the thumbnails on the filmstrip.

If you’re curious about the meaning of these badge icons, by the way, there’s a post that explains them on the GreyLearning blog here:

https://greylearningblog.com/meaning-of-thumbnail-badge-icons-in-lightroom-classic/

Meaning of Thumbnail Badge Icons in Lightroom Classic

Today’s Question: I know you can batch rename photos in Lightroom Classic, but the process involved seems cumbersome when I only want to rename a single image, such as to add a bit of text to the end of the filename. Is there a simpler way to rename a single photo?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes! You can rename a single image in Lightroom Classic by updating the File Name field in the Library module.

More Detail: While the Rename Photos command can be tremendously helpful (and flexible) when it comes to renaming multiple selected images, I agree that it can be a little cumbersome for a situation where you want to make relatively minor changes to the filename for a single image. For example, you might want to append “-BW” to the end of a filename to indicate this is a black and white version of a color original.

Fortunately, you can very easily change the filename for a single selected image by editing the text in the File Name field in the Metadata section of the right panel in the Library module.

You can make any changes you’d like in that field, including completely changing the base filename if you want to. Just be sure not to edit the filename extension, which is includes the period after the base filename and the additional characters (typically three or four characters) that appear after the period. The filename change will take effect as soon as you change the focus to another field, such as by pressing the Tab or Enter/Return key on the keyboard or by clicking on another metadata field.

Today’s Question: My current 8TB hard drive is filling and I think it is time to prepare to increase my storage capacity. I have a 20TB internal drive that can be installed in my PC. Can I move my Lightroom Classic files and photos to the new 20TB drive and then delete them from the original 8TB drive?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can most certainly move the Lightroom Classic catalog files and the photos to the larger storage without too much difficulty, though you do need to be careful with the process.

More Detail: There are several ways you could go about this task, but the approach I recommend is to copy the applicable files to the new destination, and then update the Lightroom Classic configuration to reflect the changes.

The first step would be to first quit Lightroom Classic and then copy the entire folder containing the catalog files to the new hard drive. After the copy is complete rename the folder on the original drive to reflect that it is now just a backup copy being held temporarily.

Then copy the entire photo storage to the new drive. If you don’t already have a top-level parent folder you might want to create it as part of this process, such as to create a “Photos” folder on the new drive and copy all folders for all photos into that drive. If the existing folder structure for folders was in a parent folder, I would rename that parent folder to indicate it is now a backup copy. If the drive is an external drive you can disconnect it, and if it is an internal drive you can change the drive letter (Windows) or the volume label (Macintosh). The point is to change the storage location so Lightroom Classic will not be able to find it where expected.

At this point you can open the catalog from the new hard drive location by double-clicking the file with the .lrcat filename extension in the catalog folder you copied to the new drive. Then go to the General tab of the Preferences dialog and set the catalog in the new location as the default catalog. This will ensure the catalog in the new location is always opened by default when you launch Lightroom Classic.

Initially all folders and photos will appear to be missing. But you can resolve that by reconnecting them to the new storage location. To do so, go to the top level folder above all existing folders, which might require you to right-click on the top folder on the list in the Folders section of the left panel in the Library module and choose “Find Missing Folder” from the popup. Then navigate to an open the related top level folder on the new drive, making sure that folder appears at the top-center of the dialog. Then click the Choose button to reconnect the top-level folder, which in turn will reconnect all subfolders and photos. At that point you can continue your normal workflow, and once you’ve backed everything up again you can delete the catalog folder and photos from their original location.

Today’s Question: How and where can you use Adobe Bridge to export a copy of the image?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can export copies of images from Adobe Bridge in several ways, including by using the Export panel or the File > Export To command on the menu.

More Detail: The notion of exporting photos from Adobe Bridge may seem a little odd, since Bridge doesn’t use a catalog the way Lightroom Classic does. So you can think of this action as being more about creating a copy of selected photos in a way that enables you to apply changes, such as to change the pixel dimensions and save in a different file format than the original.

For example, you might want to create copies of photos to send via email or share online, where you want to reduce the pixel dimensions and save as a JPEG image.

One of the easiest ways to create this type of copy of one or more photos in Bridge is to select the photos and choose the File > Export To command followed by the desired option (such as Custom Export). You can also select the photos and drag them to the desired preset on the Export panel. If the panel isn’t visible you can choose Window > Export from the menu to enable it.

In either case the Export dialog will appear, where you can configure the settings for the derivative images you want to create and then click the Start Export button to initiate the process.

Another option is to use the Image Processor in Photoshop. You can send photos to Photoshop for this purpose by selecting the images in Bridge and then choosing Tools > Photoshop > Image Processor from the menu. However, in most cases I recommend the Export feature outlined above, as it is newer and has a few more options. The main advantage of Image Processor is that you can save to more than one derivative file format in one process, but for most typical situations this isn’t a significant advantage.

Exporting copies of photos from Bridge is covered in more detail in my “Adobe Bridge for Photographers” course, which of course is included in the GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle. You can find the individual course here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/adobe-bridge-for-photographers

You can also get the GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle with a discount included automatically by using this link to get started:

https://www.greylearning.com/bundles/greylearning-bundle?coupon=golive

Today’s Question: When I open an image from Bridge it opens Photoshop and brings up Camera Raw. When I click the Open button the image is opened in Photoshop and then I have to save it. But what do I do if I don’t want to save another file?

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you just want to preserve your adjustment settings from Camera Raw, you can click the Done button instead of the Open button to close Camera Raw and save settings. You only need to save a derivative image if you want to preserve additional adjustments performed after Camera Raw.

More Detail: While a typical workflow for opening a raw capture in Photoshop after processing with Camera Raw involves saving the resulting image to preserve additional adjustments applied after Camera Raw, that isn’t necessary.

For example, you might want to apply adjustments to the raw capture, and then simply save your work so you can continue with additional adjustments at a later time using Photoshop. You might also want to preserve adjustments for the raw capture, and then export a copy of the image such as a JPEG for sharing online such as with Camera Raw or Bridge.

After applying adjustments with Camera Raw, if you don’t want to open the image in Photoshop you can simply click the Done button rather than the Open button. Before doing so you could also use the Save Image command (on the More menu) to save a copy of the image. When you click the Done button the adjustment settings will be preserved for the raw capture, but the image won’t be opened in Photoshop. Note that you could then also use Adobe Bridge to export a copy of the image in a different file format for sharing.

If you want to bypass Photoshop altogether in this adjustment workflow, you can also enable an option to edit raw captures using Camera Raw via Bridge, without launching Photoshop. To do so, open the Preferences dialog from Bridge and go to the General tab. In the Behavior section turn on the “Double-Click Edits Camera Raw Settings in Bridge” checkbox. With this option enabled, if you double-click a raw capture Camera Raw will come up without launching Photoshop. This can be more convenient if you don’t intend to further work on the image in Photoshop after applying adjustments with Camera Raw.

Today’s Question: I have keywords on my Keyword List in Lightroom Classic that have a quotation mark at the beginning. How can I remove that quotation mark so the keywords will sort correctly?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can edit the keywords to remove the quotation mark, unless that would create a duplicate keyword. In the latter case you could assign the correct keyword to the applicable photos and then delete the incorrect keyword.

More Detail: If you have added keywords with the wrong spelling, such as the example in today’s question where a quotation mark was included at the beginning of the keyword, you can edit the keyword on the Keyword List. This will update the Keyword List and also update the keyword for all photos to which the keyword had been applied.

To edit the keyword, simply right-click on it in the Keyword List and choose “Edit Keyword Tag” from the popup menu. Make the appropriate change in the Edit Keyword Tag dialog and click the Save button.

If you receive a message indicating that you can’t make the change because the keyword already exists, the solution is to assign the correct keyword and delete the incorrect keyword. Start by clicking the right-pointing arrow to the right of the incorrect keyword that appears when you hover your mouse pointer over that keyword in the Keyword List. This will set a filter so you’re only viewing photos that have that keyword assigned to them.

Next, select all the photos filtered by keyword by choosing Edit > Select All from the menu. Then go to the Keyword List and click the checkbox to the left of the correct keyword until a checkmark icon appears. This checkbox has three states. It is empty of none of the selected images has that keyword assigned, it shows a dash if some but not all selected photos have that keyword assigned, and it shows a check if all selected photos have the keyword.

Once you’ve assigned the correct keyword to the applicable images, you can right-click on the incorrect keyword in the Keyword List and choose “Delete” from the popup menu.

Repeat the process for all affected keywords, and you’ll have a more tidy Keyword List that sorts in the correct alphabetical order.

Today’s Question: How do I retain capture information in an image edited in Photoshop from Lightroom Classic? When I edit an image and save it either as a PSD and then look at later and open the Get Info data, it only shows the date of modification, not the capture date. Sometimes I want to find that original image and it’s tough when my catalog is so large and I’ve edited the photo a year or more later.

Tim’s Quick Answer: The derivative image created with this workflow will retain the original capture date and other metadata you had updated. You just need to use software such as Lightroom Classic (or Bridge for those not using Lightroom) rather than the operating system to view the image metadata.

More Detail: When you create a derivative image based on an original capture, such as by sending an image to Photoshop from Lightroom Classic using the Photo > Edit In command, the derivative image will inherit the metadata from the original image. That includes the EXIF metadata from the camera such as capture time, camera gear info, and exposure settings, as well as any metadata updates you’ve applied such as star ratings and keywords.

The confusion in this case comes from the fact that when you use the Get Info (Macintosh) or Properties (Windows) command to view file information in the operating system, you only see the date the file was created and the date the file was modified, not the date of capture from the camera EXIF metadata. Those dates will obviously not match the original capture date, since you are creating the derivative image after the original had been captured (potentially years afterward, for example).

The solution is to browse the image metadata for the derivative image using software such as Lightroom Classic (or Bridge), which enables you to see the original capture date that is inherited from the original image, in addition to the date the derivative file was created and modified.

Because of all this, you can locate a derivative image in Lightroom Classic (or Bridge) based on the capture date, such as by using the Capture Date option for the Sort popup on the toolbar below the grid view display. For example, if the derivative image and the original capture are in the same folder, or if you browse the All Photographs collection in the Catalog section at the top of the left panel in the Library module, the two files will appear next to each other because their capture times will match.

Today’s Question: There are some keywords in the Keyword List [in Lightroom Classic] that show a zero to the right of the keyword. Can I safely delete these?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can safely delete keywords that have not been assigned to any images, assuming you don’t want them on the Keyword List for future reference.

More Detail: The Keyword List on the right panel in the Library module in Lightroom Classic includes a list of all keywords that have been assigned to images in the current catalog. That includes keywords that may have been assigned to images and later removed, or that were added manually to the Keyword List without having been assigned to any images.

The number to the right of the keywords on the Keyword List indicate how many photos in your catalog have that keyword assigned to them. If a value of zero is shown, that means the applicable keyword is not currently assigned to any images in the catalog.

If you want to remove the keywords that aren’t assigned to any images, you can right-click on the keyword and choose “Delete” from the popup list. You can also select one or more keywords on the list and click the minus (-) button to the left of the Keyword List label to remove the keywords.