Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: During one of your presentations you used a brush with a unique shape for an effect, but I don’t have the same brush. Am I missing brushes I should have, or do I need to buy brushes somewhere?

Tim’s Quick Answer: While there are many sources of brushes you can use in Photoshop, a great variety is available for free from Adobe. You can download those brushes and then import them using the Brushes panel in Photoshop.

More Detail: To get started you can go to the Brushes panel in Photoshop. If the Brushes panel isn’t currently visible go to the menu and choose Window > Brushes. Then click the panel popup menu button at the top right of the Brushes panel, which is an icon with three horizontal lines. From the popup menu choose “Get More Brushes”, which will take you to this page on the Adobe website:

https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop-brushes.html

There you’ll find a variety of different creative brush categories, with links for downloading any that appeal to you. After downloading the brush files, which will have a .abr filename extension, from either the Adobe page above or from another provider, you’re ready to load them into Photoshop.

To load the new brushes, go back to the Brushes panel in Photoshop and click the panel popup menu, this time choosing “Import Brushes” from the popup menu. Navigate to the location where you saved the brush file downloads, and select the applicable files. Click the Open button to complete the import.

You’ll then find the new brush sets under the applicable heading on the Brushes panel, so you can use the new brush tip shapes with any of the brush tools in Photoshop.

Today’s Question: I had previously enabled synchronization for some collections in Lightroom Classic, but have decided I don’t want to have any photos in the cloud. I turned off synchronization for the collections that had it enabled, but the photos still appear in “All Synced Photographs”. I assume that means they’re still in the cloud. If so, how do I remove them?

Tim’s Quick Answer: As long as you’re totally sure that the only way photos were synchronized to the cloud via collections in Lightroom Classic, you can remove all photos from cloud storage by selecting all images in the “All Synced Photographs” collection and then right-clicking on a selected image and choosing “Remove from All Synced Photographs” from the popup menu.

More Detail: Once you’ve enabled synchronization for a collection in Lightroom Classic the photos in that collection will be synchronized to cloud-based storage. However, if you disable synchronization the photos won’t be removed from cloud storage. This issue can cause there to be “stragglers” in your cloud storage, meaning photos that are taking up space but that you don’t want to have in cloud storage.

As noted above, you can remove photos from the “All Synced Photographs” collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module to remove the photos from cloud storage. Simply select the applicable photos, right-click, and choose “Remove from All Synced Photographs” from the popup menu.

However, because this will remove the photo from cloud-based storage it is important to be sure that is safe to do. If the photos were only added to cloud storage by being included in a collection with synchronization enabled, removing them from cloud storage is no problem because the originals should still remain in your local storage (as long as you haven’t since deleted any of those images).

If, on the other hand, the images were added to cloud storage by capturing a photo using the Lightroom mobile app, or by importing a photo to Lightroom mobile, web, or desktop (excluding Lightroom Classic), then you’ll want to be sure you have the source files being managed locally via Lightroom Classic before you remove them from cloud-based storage. For example, images synchronized from Lightroom mobile to Lightroom Classic can simply be dragged to your preferred folder location and managed as a normal part of your workflow.

Note that you can also review photos that are in cloud-based storage, and remove them if needed, by using Lightroom in a web browser. To get started with that, point your web browser to https://lightroom.adobe.com and sign in with your Adobe Creative Cloud account.

Today’s Question: I’ve been reading about a new adjustment layer in Photoshop apparently called “Color and Vibrance”, but I can’t find it anywhere. How to I access (and use) this adjustment?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The new “Color and Vibrance” adjustment is currently available in the public beta version of Photoshop and is not yet available in the current general release version. This adjustment combines Temperature and Tint sliders for adjusting overall color balance along with Vibrance and Saturation sliders for adjusting color saturation.

More Detail: The new “Color and Vibrance” adjustment layer doesn’t actually add any new functionality that wasn’t in Photoshop previously, but it does provide a more efficient way to apply the most common basic color adjustments to an image. In effect, Color and Vibrance will enable you to use one adjustment layer to take the place of both Color Balance and Vibrance adjustment layers.

If you would like to try out the new adjustment before it is added to a general release of Photoshop, you will need to install the public beta version of Photoshop. To do so, go to the Creative Cloud application (the same application you use to install updates to other Creative Cloud applications), go to the Beta category, and install the Photoshop beta version.

Once you’ve installed the public beta version of Photoshop you can open an image and then on the Layers panel click the “Create New Adjustment Layer” button (the half-black/half-white circle icon) and choose “Color and vibrance” from the popup menu. Then on the Properties panel you can adjust the Temperature and Tint sliders to shift the color balance between blue/yellow and green/magenta, respectively. The Vibrance and Saturation sliders are also available for adjusting overall saturation for colors in the image.

While the new Color and Vibrance adjustment layer doesn’t add any new adjustments to Photoshop, it does provide a more convenient option for adjusting overall color in an image. I’m therefore grateful to see that it is being added to Photoshop. And keep in mind that by virtue of being an adjustment layer you can also use a layer mask to focus the adjustment only affect specific areas of an image.

Today’s Question: Recently I had heard that Denoise AI in Camera Raw and Lightroom is now capable of outputting a native RAW file instead of the usual DNG. When I tried Denoise AI in the Camera Raw Filter with a native RAW file the result was an ACR file at just 7.3 MB alongside the original untouched RAW file at 30.3 mb. What’s the real story?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Denoise no longer requires converting a raw capture to a DNG, but it doesn’t save the edits in a raw capture format. Rather, the Denoise information is effectively metadata, which gets applied to the image when it is rendered, such as by saving the processed raw image in a file format such as TIFF or JPEG.

More Detail: When the Denoise and Super Resolution features were added to Camera Raw and Lightroom, the processing required that an Adobe DNG file be created based on the original raw capture. That DNG file would include all the processing applied via Camera Raw or Lightroom.

With a recent update, a DNG file is no longer created. However, that doesn’t mean that the Denoise processing is being saved as part of the original raw capture. Camera Raw and Lightroom do not modify the original file (raw or otherwise) when you apply adjustments. That is still true with the updates for Denoise and Super Resolution.

In the case of Camera Raw the additional metadata is stored in an ACR file rather than the XMP file that is used to store other metadata updates. In Lightroom Classic that additional information is saved within the catalog files. The original raw capture is not altered. To create an image that has the pixel values updated to reflect the adjustments, you would save a derivative image in the usual way. In Camera Raw that means saving the resulting image using Photoshop, while with Lightroom Classic this would involve exporting a copy of the image.

Today’s Question: Can you explain what exactly is meant by the option to intersect a mask [or selection]? I understand the options to add or subtract, but can’t wrap my head around intersect.

Tim’s Quick Answer: The intersect option involves modifying a mask or selection to only include the overlap between the existing mask or selection and a new mask or selection. I recommend thinking of the intersect option as providing a way to say “subtract everything but this”.

More Detail: Admittedly, the intersect option for masks and selections can be a little confusing. Adding to a selection or mask is rather straightforward, as is subtracting from a selection or mask. The intersect option isn’t quite as clear.

Let’s assume you have a mask or selection of three hot air balloons in the sky, but you only want to modify the middle balloon. One approach you could take would be to subtract the balloon on the left and then subtract the balloon on the right, leaving only the balloon in the middle being included in the selection or mask.

A faster option, however, would be to subtract everything except the middle balloon in one step. That’s what the intersect option makes possible. Using the intersect option, you select only the middle balloon, and that middle balloon becomes the only balloon that is selected or included in the mask.

What’s happening in the background is that the two selections or masks are being compared, and the final selection or mask will represent only the overlap (or intersection) between both of them. However, I think it is easier to think of it as an option to “subract everything but this”. In this example that would mean you are selecting the middle balloon, effectively saying “remove all balloons from the selection or mask except this one”.

Another way you could look at this is that the intersect option is the same as subtracting the opposite of what you’ve selected. In the example above, that means intersect is the same as creating a selection of the middle hot air balloon, inverting that selection or mask, and using that to subtract from the selection of all three hot air balloons.

Today’s Question: I’d like to rename my Lightroom Classic catalog. The option for renaming asks about renaming the parent folder. When would I want to do this?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You might want to rename the folder that contains your Lightroom Classic catalog just so the folder name is more clear to you. Just be sure to NOT rename the folder if you have photos stored within the same folder structure as the catalog.

More Detail: With a relatively recent update Lightroom Classic includes an option to rename a catalog. Simply make sure you have the catalog you want to rename open in Lightroom Classic and choose File > Rename Catalog from the menu. You can then enter a more meaningful name in the New Name field, or simply update the filename such as to remove the text along the lines of “-2-2-2-v13” that may have accumulated over the years from various updates to the catalog over time.

In the Rename Catalog dialog there is also a “Rename parent folder” checkbox. If you turn this checkbox on, the folder containing the catalog will be renamed to match the new base filename of the catalog. This can be convenient, since a meaningful name for the catalog probably represents a good name for the folder containing the catalog and related files.

However, if you have any photos stored within the same folder structure as the catalog that have also been imported into the catalog, renaming the parent folder will cause the photos and any related folders to appear as missing in Lightroom Classic.

So, if you’re not sure whether you have any photos stored in the folder structure along with the catalog, it is better to not rename the folder. If you’re certain there are no photos stored in that folder structure (and there’s really no reason for there to be), you can rename the catalog folder if you’d like. If you do have photos stored in the same folder structure, you can rename the catalog as above, but then rename the parent folder from within Lightroom Classic to avoid creating any missing photos or folders.

Today’s Question: When I try to assemble an HDR [high dynamic range] panorama in Lightroom Classic, it tells me that Deghost will not be applied. Is there a way to use the Deghost feature when creating an HDR panorama?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can use Deghost for an HDR panorama, but you’ll need to merge the HDR frames first and then assemble those into a panorama.

More Detail: Lightroom Classic (and Camera Raw for non-Lightroom users!) can assemble high dynamic range (HDR) images and composite panoramas. Both applications can also combine the two techniques in a single process to create an HDR panorama.

However, when you assemble an HDR panorama the Auto-Align feature will automatically be applied (and can’t be turned off) and the Deghost feature is not available. If you want to use Deghost (or disable Auto-Align) you’ll need to assemble the HDR panorama in a two-step process.

The first step is to assemble each bracketed set if captures into an HDR image. During this process you can adjust the settings based on your preference, such as to leverage the Deghost feature. I recommend using the exact same settings for each bracketed set of images you’ll assemble into the panorama.

Once the HDR images have been assembled, you can select only the HDR images (they will be saved as Adobe DNG files) and then use the Photo > Photo Merge > Panorama command to create a panorama based on the HDR images. This will result in the final HDR panorama, requiring more steps than the fully automated approach but with more flexibility in terms of how the images are assembled.

Today’s Question: I have a photo where the People option for Distraction Removal in Lightroom Classic is not finding the people in the image and therefore can’t remove them. Is there a way to tell Lightroom Classic where the people are so they can be removed automatically?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Sort of. You can’t provide assistance to the Distraction Removal feature, but you can still remove the people by painting with the Remove tool, perhaps with the inclusion of generative AI. The same feature is available in Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom.

More Detail: The options found under the Distraction Removal heading for Lightroom Classic, Camera Raw, and Lightroom are completely automatic. If the target subject (such as people with the People option) aren’t identified for a given image, then the feature simply won’t work with that image. Note that this feature is specifically looking for people that are distracting in the frame, so a person that appears as a key subject won’t be detected either.

However, you can get similar results by using the Remove tool, generally in conjunction with the generative AI feature for the best results.

In Lightroom Classic, for example, after choosing the Remove tool from the toolbar below the histogram on the right panel, make sure the Remove option (the first button) is selected for Mode. To get results consistent with what you can normally expect for the Distraction Removal feature turn on the “Use generative AI” checkbox. You can then paint over the distracting people in the photo, refine the mask you’ve painted as needed, and click the Remove button to apply the distraction removal.

While this manual approach isn’t as fast or convenient as the automatic option under Distraction Removal, it will generally provide you with similar (and generally very good) results for removing people from an image.

Today’s Question: I have an older iMac running Ventura (13.x), that cannot run a later version of MacOS. I have the Adobe Photography subscription, which includes Bridge, Photoshop and Lightroom. In your opinion do you think it will continue to run on my iMac? And do you know if an update to the mentioned software will break it? And if so, is it possible to turn off auto updates from Adobe?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I would not expect MacOS Ventura to be supported much longer for future updates to Adobe applications. However, you can disable automatic updates to provide more time before you would need to upgrade your computer by using older versions of Adobe applications.

More Detail: Backward compatibility is a particular challenge for those using a Macintosh computer. Older hardware is not supported by more recent versions of the MacOS operating system, and Adobe applications (among others) tend not to support older operating system versions.

For Macintosh users the current system requirements only support operating systems as old as MacOS Ventura (v13). At some point in the relatively near future, I expect that to change so that MacOS Sonoma (v14) is the oldest operating system version that is supported. Since your computer can’t be updated, that prevents you from updating to the latest versions of Adobe applications, once they require MacOS Sonoma or later.

To buy yourself time before you need to replace your computer, you can simply stop updating Adobe applications once the system requirements no longer support MacOS Ventura. To disable automatic updates, choose “Apps” from the toolbar along the left edge of the Creative Cloud application (where you would install applications or updates). Toward the top-center click “Manage auto-updates”. You can then turn off “Auto-update” to disable any automatic updates, or keep that option turned on and then turn off automatic updates for specific applications.

Today’s Question: I have been using Photoshop for over 20 years and early on decided to avoid using the denoise functionality because of potential loss of detail. However, recently I have been experimenting with this function and have been pleased with the results in many challenging situations, so I assume this functionality has been upgraded over time. However, I still am concerned about what the process does to the source file, as it seems to apply destructive edits. Am I correct?

Tim’s Quick Answer: No, none of the adjustments (including Denoise) in Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom, will alter the original raw capture. And it is true that Denoise has gotten significantly better with recent updates.

More Detail: I suspect any concern about Denoise altering the original raw capture is the result that a recent change from Adobe enables Denoise to be applied without having to create a DNG file as part of the process. In effect, Denoise is now simply another of the many adjustments available in Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom.

One of the key features of raw processing software is that it does not alter the original raw capture. Rather, the raw data is processed with the adjustment settings you’ve specified, to generate new pixels that would typically then result in a new image file. The raw capture remains unaltered. The adjustment settings are preserved in an XMP “sidecar” file. This can contribute to making it appear that the raw capture was modified, because if you open the raw capture again, you’ll see that all prior adjustments (including Denoise) are already in effect.

Rest assured that your raw capture remains unmodified. You could, for example, simply reset all adjustments to revert to the original image, or make a second copy of the raw capture (without the XMP file) and open that to start from the default settings.