Author: Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Would you comment on the new “enhance” feature in Lightroom [for enhancing detail and enlarging photos]. The description sounds great but the instructions are not very clear.

Tim’s Quick Answer: The new “Enhance” features in Lightroom and Camera Raw include both a “Raw Details” feature for improving the appearance of detail in a raw capture, and a “Super Resolution” feature for enlarging the image to double the linear dimensions (four times the total image area). These features promise to improve the quality of large output for photos.

More Detail: The “Enhance” features make use of Adobe Sensei, which employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the quality of photos, especially for large output.

While my testing has shown that the Raw Details feature does create a visible improvement to the image, that improvement is not dramatic. There is a minor enhancement of edge contrast and smoothness within the photo, which can contribute to a better appearance in a large print.

I’ve been less impressed with the Super Resolution feature. With all of the images I tested the results of Super Resolution did not appear better compared to simple enlargement within Photoshop. In fact, in most cases the Super Resolution version of the image looked worse, with more texture that appeared as noise in what had been smooth areas of the image.

Therefore, I would certainly consider using the Raw Details feature for photos I wanted to print at a large size, but my testing has convinced me that the Super Resolution feature is not providing an advantage in terms of enlargement quality. Hopefully as this feature is improved in the future it will start to provide a clear advantage.

These features can be applied to photos in Lightroom Classic by selecting an image and choosing Photo > Enhance from the menu. In Camera Raw you can right-click on an image in the filmstrip and choose “Enhance” from the popup menu.

You can turn on the “Raw Details” checkbox if you want to enhance details for a raw capture. If you want to enlarge the image, you can turn on the “Super Resolution” checkbox. Note that the Raw Details feature is only available for raw captures (and only those with a Bayer or X-Trans sensor pattern). The Super Resolution feature can also be applied to TIFF and JPEG images.

When you enable Super Resolution, the Raw Details feature will automatically be enabled for supported raw captures.

There is also a “Create Stack” checkbox in the Enhance Preview dialog in Lightroom Classic. I recommend having this checkbox turned on, so that the newly created image will be included in a stack with the original, keeping the images together and making it easier to manage them.

You can then click the Enhance button, and the selected features will be applied to your image.

Today’s Question: For Lightroom Classic, would it be OK to just back up the catalog and not the previews? My previews take forever to back up.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, it is perfectly safe to exclude the previews from a catalog backup for Lightroom Classic. In fact, the built-in backup feature that I recommend using automatically excludes previews from the backup.

More Detail: I strongly recommend backing up your Lightroom Classic catalog to help ensure you are safeguarding the information about your photos. Obviously, you should also be backing up the photos themselves as part of your overall backup workflow.

There is no need to back up the previews that are included in the folder along with the actual Lightroom Classic catalog, because those previews can easily be re-built later should you need to recover from a backup of your catalog.

Even if you are backing up your Lightroom Classic catalog using other software, I still recommend using the built-in backup feature to back up the catalog on a somewhat regular basis. That is because the built-in backup includes options to check the catalog for errors and to optimize the catalog. I recommend making sure both checkboxes for these features are turned on in the dialog that appears when a catalog backup is initiated.

Today’s Question: Can you use the same Lightroom Classic catalog on both an Apple computer and a Windows computer? I’m thinking of switching to a Mac laptop, but am concerned that once I convert to a Mac I’ll never be able to use Lightroom on a Windows desktop again. If you put the files and the catalog on an external hard drive, can you access it from both computers?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can use the same Lightroom Catalog on computers running either the Windows or Macintosh operating system.

More Detail: The Lightroom Classic catalog file format is the same for both Windows and Macintosh, so you can switch a catalog between both operating systems without any problems.

The only thing you need to do is make sure the Lightroom Classic catalog is on a hard drive that can be written to by both operating systems. The default file system for hard drives on Windows is NTFS (New Technology File System) and the default for Macintosh is APFS (Apple File System). While it is possible to write to hard drives with either file system on both operating systems, this typically requires special software or drivers.

I recommend simply using a file system that is compatible with both operating systems. More specifically, I recommend using the ExFAT (Extensible File Allocation Table) file system.

If you store your Lightroom Classic catalog as well as your photos on an external hard drive that is formatted with the ExFAT file system, you can switch between working on a Windows or Macintosh computer by simply connecting the external hard drive to the computer and opening the Lightroom Classic catalog from that external hard drive.

Today’s Question: You have talked about moving files from one drive to another within Lightroom Classic. However, let’s say I installed a new drive and want to copy the files to the new one, but want to keep them on the old one as well. How do you do that in Lightroom Classic?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In this case I would use the “Export as Catalog” command to streamline the process of copying photos while still maintaining a link to those photos in the new location.

More Detail: The “Export as Catalog” command in Lightroom Classic enables you to export copies of your photos while creating a new catalog for those photos at the same time. In this case the creation of a new catalog probably isn’t necessary, but it does help ensure that the photos are referenced in the correct location without losing any of the information about your photos.

To get started, open Lightroom Classic and make sure the new drive you want to copy the photos to is connected and available. Then select the “All Photographs” collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module. From the menu choose Edit > Select None to make sure that no photos are selected. This will ensure you don’t accidentally export only part of the photos.

You can then choose File > Export as Catalog from the menu. Navigate to the location where you want to copy the photos, and specify a name for the overall library of photos, such as “My Photos”. Click the Export button and Lightroom Classic will export copies of all photos with the same folder structure as they were contained in on the source drive, with a new catalog created within that folder as well.

You can then launch the catalog from the new location by double-clicking on the file with the “.lrcat” filename extension. If you prefer you can also move the folder containing the catalog that was created as part of this export process to a different location, such as to your internal hard drive.

Today’s Question: In your GreyLearning Series on Optimizing Photos, in the lesson on HDR images you had a series of six captures ranging from a dark exposure to a light one. The sun was in the frame. My question is how did you make six captures with different settings without the sun moving, or apparently moving?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The key when including the sun (or moon) in the frame when capturing a series of exposures for a high dynamic range (HDR) result is to capture those exposures quickly using automatic exposure bracketing (AEB).

More Detail: While the sun and moon don’t seem to be moving all that fast across the sky to the unaided eye, they are certainly moving. In the case of the sun the rate of movement is about fifteen degrees per hour. That still isn’t incredibly fast movement across the sky, but it does create a risk that if you capture bracketed exposures that include the sun or moon, there could be a change in position for the sun or moon from one frame to the next.

Automatic exposure bracketing enables you to capture the various exposures as quickly as possible, minimizing the risk of movement between frames.

The specifics of how you employ automatic exposure bracketing will vary from one camera to the next, and not all cameras support this feature. In general, you will enable the bracketing via menu settings, where you can set the number of exposures to bracket and the number of stops between exposures. Two stops of separation between exposures works well for HDR bracketing.

With many cameras in addition to configuring the bracketing settings you’ll need to use a timer for the bracketing to be completely automatic. For example, you might set a 3-second timer so that when you trigger the exposure the bracketed captures will all be taken in rapid succession.

And, of course, to some extent HDR software can manage minor variations from one frame to the next.

For those interested, the HDR image in question was a sunrise photo of an abandoned homestead farmhouse in the Palouse region of eastern Washington State. You can see the photo on my Instagram feed here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/36alRoJ-fH/

Today’s Question: In the past you have recommended GoodSync for backing up photos. Recently you have been discussing BackBlaze. I’m trying to understand if you use both (and if so, how) or if BackBlaze has replaced GoodSync in your workflow.

Tim’s Quick Answer: I use both GoodSync (http://timgrey.me/greybackup) and Backblaze (https://timgrey.me/onlinebackup), with GoodSync providing my local backup and Backblaze providing my offsite backup.

More Detail: A good workflow for backing up your photos and other important data obviously involves making an additional copy of that data. Ideally, a copy of your data is also stored at a separate physical location, so that if there were a serious issue at your primary location, you still have a backup copy that can be recovered.

My primary tool for backing up my photos is a software application called GoodSync (http://timgrey.me/greybackup). I define jobs for each of my hard drives and use GoodSync to back up my primary drive to two backup drives. So, for example, I backup my Photos drive to both a “Photos Backup 1” drive and a “Photos Backup 2” drive.

I don’t happen to have a convenient way to keep one of my backup drives at a separate physical location, and so I use Backblaze (https://timgrey.me/onlinebackup) as an online backup solution that enables me to have a backup stored somewhere else.

Another advantage of an online backup is that it is relatively easy to maintain when I’m traveling, provided I have access to a relatively fast internet connection. Backblaze simply runs in the background, updating my online backup based on new or updated files on my computer.

This hybrid approach gives me greater confidence that no matter what causes me to lose photos or other data, I should be able to recover from one of my backups.

Today’s Question: With newer AI software [for enlarging photos], such as Topaz Gigapixel or the Enhancement feature in Photoshop, do these allow for a larger image to be printed without pixelation?

Tim’s Quick Answer: These latest tools do help to some extent, but they won’t dramatically improve the potential output size of an image. Rather, I see these tools as ways to produce enlargements with greater quality but not necessarily much larger than would otherwise be possible.

More Detail: Enlarging a digital image involves increasing the total number of pixels in the image, which means that new pixels need to be created and given specific color and tonal values.

As I’ve said before, with an image of good quality you can generally enlarge to a size that is twice as tall and wide (four times the image area) with very good results. As long as the viewer won’t get too close to the image, you can print significantly larger.

Some newer software such as Gigapixel AI from Topaz Labs and the Raw Details and Super Resolution features of Camera Raw from Adobe improve upon the previous technology for image enlargement, in part through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

These technologies certainly offer an improvement over earlier tools, but they don’t suddenly provide a magical way to dramatically enlarge a photo. Rather, I see these tools as helping to improve the quality of a reasonable enlargement rather than enabling much more significant enlargement than is possible with other software.

Ultimately, the best output quality results from a high-quality image with adequate resolution for the intended output size. Some enlargement can be done without seriously degrading image quality, but there are limits to how large an image can be enlarged while still looking good from a relatively close distance.

Today’s Question: If you lower your screen resolution below its native resolution, does that not affect accuracy when assessing image sharpness at 100% view?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, in terms of the image generally not appearing as sharp as it otherwise would. It is best to evaluate sharpness and apply sharpening at a 100% scale with the display set to native resolution, but with experience you can use different settings without difficulty.

More Detail: LCD displays have a fixed number of pixels, which limits their ability to adjust overall display resolution without impacting quality. Therefore, it is generally best to use the native display resolution for an LCD monitor.

As noted in a previous Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, using a lower resolution on a display can provide a benefit in terms of making text larger and easier to read. However, this can also lead to lower display quality.

For very high-resolution displays this often isn’t a problem, because the smaller pixel size enables better quality when scaling the display. For example, a 13-inch Apple Retina laptop display has a resolution of 2560×1600 pixels. However, the standard display setting actually mimics a resolution of 1440×900 pixels.

So, if you’re using a display with a very high resolution, it is generally less of an issue to use a lower resolution than the native value. However, anytime an LCD display is set to something other than the non-native resolution there is some risk that the display will not appear as sharp, which can make it a little more difficult to properly evaluate sharpening settings for a photo.

That said, when evaluating sharpening settings, the focus is really more about the size of the effect relative to the size of texture transitions in the image, so I wouldn’t consider this a major issue. If you are more comfortable with your display set to a lower than native resolution, you can still apply sharpening very effectively.