Month: May 2023

Today’s Question: I keep all my images on a mirrored hard drive setup, so I have ready access to my images regardless of which computer I’m using. The “issue” has to do with the Lightroom Classic catalog: how do I make sure I’m always using the same catalog without having to keep current copies on both computers? I’m thinking that putting the catalog on a small, external, SSD that I plug into the computer I’m using at the moment would be the solution?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, in my view the best solution for using Lightroom Classic on more than one computer is to store the catalog (and generally the photos) on an external hard drive that you transfer between the computers.

More Detail: With Lightroom Classic the catalog is used locally to manage the information about your photos, and the catalog can’t be stored on a network drive. It is possible to store the catalog on a synchronized cloud-based storage service, such as Dropbox or Google Drive, but I do not recommend using this approach due to the risk of the catalog files getting out of sync when used across more than one computer.

Therefore, I consider the safest approach to be storing the catalog on an external hard drive. You can quit Lightroom Classic and then copy the entire folder containing the catalog and related files to an external hard drive. If you have your photos on an external hard drive, you could use that same drive for the catalog folder.

Once the catalog is stored on an external hard drive, you can simply open the catalog from that external hard drive from whatever computer you’re currently using. If the photos are also on that same hard drive, this provides a convenient way to manage all your photos and catalog files in one location. The important thing is that on each computer the path to the photos remains the same. That means, for example, having the same drive letter assigned to the drive on each computer if you’re using Windows, or making sure the volume label remains the same if you’re using Macintosh.

So, if you keep the catalog on an external hard drive, you can simply move that hard drive between computers and open the catalog from the external hard drive, so you never need to worry about using the wrong copy of the catalog when you switch between computers.

Today’s Question: I accidentally hit Video instead of Photo while taking iPhone photos of my grandchildren, and would like to know how to retrieve single photos from the video.

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can extract a still image from a video clip by opening the video in Photoshop, by using the Capture Frame option in Lightroom Classic, or even by capturing a screenshot on your iPhone.

More Detail: There are several ways you can extract a still image from a video clip, but it is important to keep in mind that the resulting photo may be at a lower resolution than a still image, depending on the video format that was used. When selecting which frame of the video to use, be sure to confirm that frame is sharp. Video is generally recorded with a relatively slow shutter speed, so there is a chance that some frames will be slightly blurry even if the video doesn’t seem blurry during playback.

You can open a video file in Photoshop, and then use the playhead slider on the Timeline panel to go to the frame you want to save as a still image. Then go to the menu and choose File > Save a Copy, which will enable you to save the current frame as a new image.

If you’re using Lightroom Classic you can also use the Capture Frame command to create a still image. Browse the video in the Library module using the loupe view, and drag the playhead to the position of the desired frame in the video. Then click the frame icon to the right of the timecode showing the minutes and seconds, and choose “Capture Frame” from the popup menu. This will create a still image from the current frame, which will be saved alongside the video.

You can also capture a screenshot on the iPhone to create a still image based on the video. To do so, open the video in the Photos app and pause at the point in the video you want to capture a still image from. Tap the screen to hide the controls, and then press the power button and the volume up button at the same time.

If you use Photoshop or Lightroom Classic to create a still image from the video, the still image will have the same resolution as the original video. That would be either 4K (approximately 4,000 pixels across) or 1080p (1,080 pixels across) depending on the setting for the Camera app in Settings on your device. If you create a screen capture the resolution will depend on the display resolution of your specific iPhone model.

Today’s Question: Based on your research, how does the Adobe version of AI-driven Denoise feature stack up against the Topaz Photo AI tool? The Topaz tool has many folks saying it does a better job of both sharpening and “denoising” than Adobe.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Overall I would say that Adobe’s AI Denoise feature is a little better than Topaz DeNoise AI, though both do offer very good results.

More Detail: Topaz DeNoise AI is certainly impressive, but my testing has demonstrated that Adobe’s new Denoise feature (available in Camera Raw and Lightroom) is a little better.

In general, I have found that Topaz DeNoise AI is too aggressive with smoothing of images, resulting in too much loss of texture. I also found that it tends to leave behind more color noise artifacts, even though the smoothing is more aggressive. In addition, Topaz DeNoise AI requires more input from the user in terms of noise-reduction settings, compared to a single slider for the Denoise feature from Adobe.

To be sure, Topaz DeNoise AI is very good at noise reduction. Some photographers may even prefer the Topaz solution because they prefer smoother images. However, I do find the aggressive smoothing in Topaz to be problematic most of the time.

I should hasten to add that while I feel the Adobe Denoise feature is a little better than the Topaz software, I am still generally able to get better results with most images using the manual noise reduction features in Adobe software (Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw) compared to both Adobe’s new Denoise feature and Topaz DeNoise AI. Of course, as these products continue to improve, I suspect we’ll soon get to the point that the AI noise reduction will exceed the quality of the manual approach for all images.