Month: June 2020

Today’s Question: I am working my way through your Photoshop training. Many of the adjustments you discuss in Photoshop are also available in Lightroom [Classic] and Adobe Camera Raw. I’m thinking of the graduated filter versus the gradient tool, HSL [Hue, Saturation, and Lightness], Curves, etc. I realize that most of the adjustments in Photoshop are done using adjustment layers which are non-destructive unless flattened but those in Lightroom are also non-destructive. Is there anything inherently better about saving such adjustments for Photoshop versus utilizing Photoshop only for tasks not available in the raw editors?

Tim’s Quick Answer: While it is generally best to perform as many of your adjustments as possible with the original raw capture rather than later in your workflow, my preference is to save most targeted adjustments and image cleanup work for Photoshop, using Lightroom Classic (or Adobe Camera Raw) for all other adjustments.

More Detail: There is a theoretical benefit to applying as many adjustments during the raw-conversion process as possible. However, it is worth keeping in mind that many of the adjustments you might be applying with your raw-processing software are actually applied after the “demosaicing” process. In other words, many of the adjustments are applied after the raw capture has been converted to actual pixel values.

The result is that for the most part I make a decision about which adjustments to apply at which stage of my workflow from the standpoint of both image quality and workflow convenience.

I recommend applying most adjustments in Lightroom Classic or Adobe Camera Raw, rather than saving those adjustments for Photoshop. Instead, I only save adjustments for Photoshop when I have a good reason to do so.

I save most image cleanup work for Photoshop rather than Lightroom or Camera Raw because the cleanup tools in Photoshop are more powerful and effective. This includes, for example, the Content-Aware technology being available for several of the image cleanup tools in Photoshop. For very minor dust spots in easy to clean areas, I’ll use Lightroom Classic for cleanup. But for anything beyond that, I perform the cleanup in Photoshop.

I also save most targeted adjustments for Photoshop, primarily because the tools and features for selections and layer masks provide a greater degree of control compared to what is available in Lightroom or Camera Raw. This enables you to apply targeted adjustments with a much higher degree of precision in Photoshop.

There are also a variety of creative filters and other effects you can apply in Photoshop, which are not available in Lightroom Classic. Those are obviously options I would take advantage of in Photoshop when I want to apply such an effect.

Today’s Question: I have held off on upgrading to [MacOS] Catalina out of concern for how it might affect Lightroom [Classic]. Am I worrying about nothing?

Tim’s Quick Answer: At this point I would say it is perfectly safe to upgrade to MacOS Catalina, though your worries are understandable since there were more than a few significant problems with this update when it was initially launched.

More Detail: One of the side effects of my work is that I often need to install software updates early, sometimes before they are even released to the general public. This enables me to learn about the updates quickly so I can be ready to help educate photographers about those updates and help them troubleshoot problems should they arise.

The update to MacOS Catalina was my most painful operating system in recent memory. A variety of software applications and device drivers did not function properly, in some cases because the software applications hadn’t been updated and in part due to bugs and compatibility issues. There were also a variety of operating system or related features that were not working properly, crashing, or experiencing other problems.

I upgraded to MacOS Catalina as soon as it was officially released in early October 2019. I almost immediately regretted performing that upgrade from the standpoint of running into a number of problems with the update. Over time, with additional updates to the operating system and other applications, things started to stabilize. Within a couple months of the initial release, I was back to completely normal functionality with MacOS Catalina.

In the last few months I have not experienced any issues with the latest update to Catalina. Everything is stable with all features working properly, and all applications that I use also working without any issues.

I should also note that there are a variety of new features and other improvements in MacOS Catalina that I feel make the update worthwhile. But of course, the most important first requirement is that your system and software applications will be fully functional when you upgrade, and at this point my feeling is that there is no reason to postpone this update.