Category: Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Another instructor recommended using the “Embedded & Sidecar” option for Build Previews when importing into Lightroom Classic to maximize performance. Do you think that’s the best option for previews?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I do not recommend using the “Embedded & Sidecar” preview option when importing into Lightroom Classic, but instead recommend the “Standard” preview option.

More Detail: When you import photos into Lightroom Classic you can choose what type of previews you want to have built. Those previews are what are used to browse your images in the Library module, for example. You can even view your photos even if the source files aren’t available (such as when an external hard drive is disconnected) based on those previews.

The available options for previews are Minimal, Embedded & Sidecar, Standard, and 1:1 (meaning full resolution). The way I look at it, you can think of Standard previews as being the required minimum previews when browsing photos in the Library module, meaning when you’re browsing photos if a Standard preview doesn’t already exist Lightroom Classic will build one. There can be a brief delay in building the preview, during which time you will be looking at a lower-resolution (and therefore lower quality) preview. You might even mistakenly think the photo is out of focus because of that preview discrepancy.

In other words, Standard previews are going to be built for your photos eventually, so I feel it is best to get that work out of the way right at the point of importing new photos into Lightroom Classic. That means selecting the Standard option from the Build Previews popup when importing photos.

Note, by the way, that the 1:1 previews are only needed when you zoom in beyond 100% for a photo. Those previews will be generated on the fly as needed, but if you tend to zoom in beyond 100% for most of your photos, you may want to choose the 1:1 preview option on import. Just note that by default those 1:1 previews will be deleted automatically after 30 days, though you can change that setting on the File Handling tab of the Catalog Settings dialog.

Today’s Question: If I were to be a new Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop [Creative Cloud Photography Plan] subscriber, would you recommend Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, or something else to be the main editing platform starting off?

Tim’s Quick Answer: When it comes to editing (optimizing) photos, the features are virtually identical in Photoshop (Camera Raw), Lightroom, and Lightroom Classic. Therefore, I recommend making a decision based on what is going to make the most sense for organizing your photos.

More Detail: Photoshop (via Camera Raw), Lightroom, and Lightroom Classic share the same underlying engine for optimizing photos, and so while there are differences in terms of the interface (and sometimes the timing of updated versions), the actual adjustments are the same.

Therefore, I suggest choosing between these options based more on which will best fit your needs for organizing your photos.

I certainly have my own biases, but I prefer the use of Lightroom Classic over the cloud-focused version of Lightroom or Bridge (the software you might use to organize if you focused on Photoshop). My preference for Lightroom Classic is partly that I prefer to store photos locally rather than in the cloud, and because I appreciate the benefits of the catalog in Lightroom Classic. Those benefits include being able to easily browse photos even if they aren’t currently available (such as when an external hard drive is disconnected) and to easily search across the entire catalog of photos at once.

My second choice would be Adobe Bridge, which provides the advantage of being a browser rather than a catalog-based application, which helps avoid issues related to the catalog, such as missing folders or photos. However, I’ve found that performance in Bridge can be a bit sluggish at times, especially when trying to perform a broad search for photos.

My last choice would be Lightroom. Initially I decided Lightroom wasn’t for me because it only supported cloud-based storage. While it now supports both cloud-based and local-based storage, I feel that this implementation creates a bit of a fragmented workflow with the potential for confusion about where your photos are actually located.

I shared more details about my recommendations for deciding between Bridge, Lightroom, and Lightroom Classic in a fun and informative webinar. You can view the recording of that full presentation on my Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube here:

[https://www.youtube.com/live/BwpneG4y0nQ]

Today’s Question: I used to use Lightroom Classic, but with the catalog and so many other things I made such a mess of things that I switched to using Bridge. I feel like that was a mistake for me as I was more acquainted with Lightroom Classic than Bridge. Now I am wondering how to start over with Lightroom Classic. I would like to bring the photos that I have been using in Bridge back into Lightroom Classic.

Tim’s Quick Answer: To transition from Adobe Bridge to Lightroom Classic you can simply create a new catalog in Lightroom Classic and then import all photos in a single process using the “Add” option in the Import dialog.

More Detail: While Lightroom Classic uses a catalog to manage the information about your photos, with Adobe Bridge most of the updates for your photos are stored directly in the metadata for the source image files. In the case of proprietary raw captures that information is stored within an XMP “sidecar” file for each image.

That means that standard metadata such as star ratings and keywords, as well as adjustments applied with Camera Raw, will be preserved in metadata. Features that are not supported by standard metadata, such as collections in Bridge, are not stored in the metadata for the images.

If you want to transition to Lightroom Classic after using Bridge, you can simply import all photos in a single process into Lightroom Classic, using the “Add” option at the top-center of the Import dialog.

For example, if all your photos are stored on an external hard drive, in the Import dialog in Lightroom Classic you could start by setting that external hard drive as the source of the import on the left panel of the Import dialog. Make sure the “Include Subfolders” checkbox is turned on toward the top-right of the left panel.

At the top-center of the Import dialog choose the “Add” option, so that you’re adding the photos to the catalog but leaving the source files where they are. On the right panel you can choose “Standard” from the Build Previews popup and turn off the “Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates” checkbox since you’re importing into an empty catalog. I would leave the Develop Settings and Metadata popups set to “None”, so that you aren’t changing any of the updates that were applied in Bridge.

You can then click the Import button at the bottom-right of the dialog and wait for Lightroom Classic to finish importing all the photos. Once that import has completed, just be sure that from that point forward you only work within Lightroom Classic for making any changes to your photos. New photos can of course be imported into your catalog as you continue managing your overall workflow with Lightroom Classic.

Note that I have comprehensive courses on both Adobe Bridge and Lightroom Classic for those who want to learn to put these applications to better use in their workflow. You can find those courses on the GreyLearning website here:

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

Mastering Lightroom Classic:
https://www.greylearning.com/courses/mastering-lightroom-classic-2023

Today’s Question: If I’ve renamed photos in Lightroom Classic but then change my mind, is there a way to revert to the previous filename?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, but you can only revert to the original filenames, and only if the photos had originally been renamed using Lightroom Classic (or using Adobe Bridge with the “Preserve current filename in XMP Metadata” checkbox turned on).

More Detail: When you rename photos in Lightroom Classic, the original filename is preserved in Original Filename field. The same field will be populated with the original filename if you had used Adobe Bridge to rename the photo as long as the “Preserve current filename in XMP Metadata” checkbox was turned on when the photos were renamed using the Batch Rename command. You can then use that original filename to restore photos to their original naming.

However, you can only use this approach to revert to the original filename from the first time the photos were renamed. If you renamed the same images multiple times, your only option is to revert to the original filename, unless you remember what filename structure had been used and you can manually create a template for that purpose.

To revert photos to their original filename in Lightroom Classic you can first select the photos you want to rename and then choose Library > Rename Photos from the menu. In the Rename Photos dialog choose Filename from the File Naming popup to set a simple renaming template. Then click the popup again and choose “Edit”. In the large textbox delete the “Filename” token. Then choose “Original filename” from the second popup in the Image Name section. If this option was already selected from the popup, click the Insert button to the right. At this point the textbox should only contain “Original filename” as a token.

Click the Done button to close the Filename Template Editor and click the OK button in the Rename Photos dialog to rename the selected photos to their original filename based on the value stored in the Original Filename field in metadata.

Today’s Question: Would you mind sharing how you can use Lightroom Classic to rename photos for a custom sort order similar to how you explained the process in Adobe Bridge?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can add a sequence number to the beginning of filenames for photos in Lightroom Classic by creating and using a template for renaming.

More Detail: Today’s question is a follow-up to my answer on Friday, where I explained how you can rename photos to add a sequence number to the beginning of the filenames so the photos will sort in your preferred order when you sort by filename.

In Lightroom Classic the process begins by navigating to the location where the photos are stored and dragging the photos into the desired order either in the grid view or on the filmstrip on the bottom panel. Then select all the photos and choose Library > Rename Photos from the menu.

From the File Naming popup at the top of the Rename Photos dialog choose “Filename”. This will set the renaming structure to the existing filename, which won’t change the filename at all. To modify this preset to add a sequence number click the File Naming popup again and choose “Edit”.

In the Filename Template Editor dialog click the mouse to the left of the Filename token in the large textbox to place the insertion point before that token. You can also use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the insertion point within the textbox. In the Sequence and Date section below click the upper of the two popups and choose one of the “Sequence #” options based on the number of digits you need for the sequence number. This enables you to have leading zeros so the filenames will sort properly, so you’ll need one digit for up to nine photos, two digits for up to 99 photos, and three digits for up to 999 photos, for example. If you select an option other than the default from the popup, the token for the sequence number will be placed automatically in the large textbox above. If you keep the default selection you can click the Insert button to the right of the popup to add the token.

You can then type additional text you want to include in the filename, such as by typing a dash or space in between the “Sequence #” and “Filename” tokens.

If you want to save this template for future use, click the Preset popup at the top of the dialog and choose “Save Current Settings as New Preset”. Enter a meaningful name for the template and click the Create button. You can then click the Done button to close the Filename Template Editor dialog.

In the Rename Photos dialog, the File Naming popup will either show the name of the template you saved if you saved it, or “Custom Settings” if you didn’t save a template after modifying the renaming structure. You can then enter a value (such as “1”) in the Start Number field to define the starting number for the sequence number. Then click the OK button to rename the selected photos. At that point you can set the sort order to “File Name” using the popup on the toolbar below the grid view display to sort the photos based on the custom order you defined.

Today’s Question: I have a folder of images that I want to keep in their present order. Is there an automatic way I can add a prefix number that will keep the order? I have both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can easily rename the batch of photos, such as by adding a numeric prefix, so the photos will be in your custom sort order when you sort by filename.

More Detail: Renaming photos to add a sequence number at the beginning is easy to do in Adobe Bridge, which is available to anyone with an Adobe ID, even if you don’t have a paid Creative Cloud subscription. Note that Lightroom Classic users can use a similar approach to that outlined below for Adobe Bridge by using the Library > Rename Photos command.

In Adobe Bridge you would first navigate to the folder containing the images and drag the thumbnails into the desired order on the Content panel. The Content panel is set to a large size in the Light Table workspace, for example, which you can switch to by choosing Window > Workspace > Light Table from the menu.

You can then select all the photos and choose Tools > Batch Rename from the menu to bring up the Batch Rename dialog. Set the Destination Folder to “Rename in Same Folder”. Then under the New Filename heading, set the first popup to “Sequence Number”, enter the starting value (presumably “1”) in the textbox to the right, and specify the number of digits from the last popup based on how many images you’re renaming. You want to have leading zeros in the sequence numbers so that the photos will sort properly by filename. So you would only need one digit if you have no more than nine photos to rename, two digits for up to 99 images, and three digits for up to 999 images, for example.

If there isn’t another row of criteria already, you can click the plus button to the right of the row that you just updated. If you want to have a dash or space separating the sequence number from the rest of the filename you can set the first popup on the second row to Text, and then enter the desired text in the textbox to the right.

On the next row (adding it with the plus button if needed) you can set the first popup to “Current Filename” and the second popup to “Name + Extension”. If there are any additional rows you can click the minus button to the right of them to remove them.

Once you’ve defined the structure for the renaming of the photos, click the Rename button, and the photos will be renamed accordingly. When you sort the photos by filename, they will therefore be sorted in your custom sort order.

Today’s Question: As a follow-up to your answer about saving photos as both TIFF and JPEG for archival purposes, is there an easy way to create both of those file types at once when exporting from Lightroom Classic?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can export multiple copies of selected photos for different purposes by turning on the checkbox for presets in the Export dialog in Lightroom Classic rather than simply selecting a single preset.

More Detail: The “normal” process of exporting copies of photos from Lightroom Classic is to select the photos, click the Export button at the bottom of the left panel in the Library module, click on the name of the preset you want to use for export (or configure the settings to your liking if you don’t have a preset created) and click the Export button. The selected photos will then be exported based on the established settings.

However, it is also possible to export multiple copies of selected photos by selecting multiple presets within the Export dialog.

The first step is to create the applicable presets if you haven’t done so already. In the Export dialog you can configure all the settings you’d like for an export preset, then click the Add button at the bottom of the left section of the dialog. In the dialog that appears enter a meaningful name for the preset, choose the folder you want to save the preset in (the default is “User Presets”), and click the Create button. Note that if you anticipate exporting photos for multiple presets I recommend using unique folder names for each of them. For example, you could set the primary location for the export as the Desktop, then create a subfolder with the same name as the preset so that the images for each preset will be saved in individual folders.

Once you have the applicable presets created, you can export photos for multiple presets. Rather than clicking the name of the preset in the Export dialog, turn on the checkbox to the left of the preset name for each of the presets you want to export for. For example, you might want to export the photos as TIFF images for printing, as well as small JPEG copies for sharing on the blog. You can turn on the checkboxes for as many of the presets as you’d like, then click the Export button.

By using this approach, you can easily export photos for different purposes with one simple workflow. Just select the photos you want to export, click the Export button, turn on the checkboxes for the applicable export presets, and click the Export button to initiate the process of exporting the photos for all presets you selected.

Today’s Question: Over the decades I’ve created photographs that would be of potential interest to others in the future. An example of this would be photos of historic architecture. What would be the ideal form for the files to be formatted for this type of use? Would metadata fields transfer?

Tim’s Quick Answer: For an archival repository I suggest saving these photos as TIFF images. However, it is also a good idea to have additional copies as JPEG images for greater accessibility.

More Detail: When it comes to making images available for archival purposes, the two general goals are accessibility and image quality. To maintain maximum image quality, I recommend saving archival images as flattened images (no Photoshop layers, for example) in the TIFF file format.

However, while the TIFF file format is widely supported, it isn’t as ubiquitous as the JPEG file format, and the file sizes will be considerably larger for a TIFF image compared to a JPEG image. I therefore recommend also saving the images in the JPEG format to make them more accessible, recognizing that image quality will be degraded to some extent when saving the images as JPEG files.

Standard metadata fields such as caption, keywords, and more, can be included. You would obviously need to update the metadata in the source images, and then be sure that the metadata is included when creating the archival copies. For example, in Lightroom Classic you have options related to what metadata will be included when you export copies of the photos. Just note that not all updates you make to photos will be reflected in metadata. For example, in Lightroom Classic pick and reject flags and membership in collections are not preserved in metadata beyond the catalog.

For this type of photo archive, I recommend saving the TIFF images at full resolution. If you’re going to also prepare JPEG copies of the images, those could be at a reduced resolution if you want to keep the file sizes smaller, such as by sizing to perhaps 2,000 or 3,000 pixels on the long side.

Today’s Question: When printing photos what does in mean to let the printer manage the process [rather than software such as Photoshop or Lightroom Classic]? What is the alternative and does it relate to ICC profiles?

Tim’s Quick Answer: When printing a photo, you can choose whether you want color management to be handled by the software you’re using or by the printer. In general, I prefer to let the software manage the color, but the most important thing is to avoid “double color management”.

More Detail: In the context of printing, color management primarily revolves around converting the color values for pixels in the image to appropriate values that take into account the printer, ink, and paper combination being used for printing.

This often involves selecting an ICC profile for the paper you’re printing to in the software you’re using to print the image, such as Photoshop or Lightroom Classic. The software then takes the color values for pixels in the image and converts those values based on the profile. The resulting data is then sent to the printer, where the print should be an accurate reflection of the source image based on the color management that was applied.

Another option is to not select a profile in the software you’re using for printing, but rather select the option to have the printer manage the color. In this case the source data is not altered by the software, but is instead sent to the printer driver, which will then perform the conversion as needed to ensure accurate color in the print. This process doesn’t necessarily involve the use of ICC profiles, depending on how the printer software operates.

In most cases either approach is perfectly fine. You may also find that in some cases it is better to have the printer manage color, rather than the software you’re using to print. For example, some Epson printers include a special mode for producing black and white prints, and letting the printer software manage color in this case often results in a more accurate print than you would get by having the software manage the color.

The key is to choose one or the other. If you’re having your software manage color, you need to disable color management in the printer software. If you’re using the printer software to manage color, you need to select the applicable option in the software you’re using. If you select a printer profile in the software you’re printing from and also enable color management in the printer software, the color data will be converted twice, resulting in an inaccurate print.

Today’s Question: I downloaded photos from a memory card to two different hard drives before importing into Lightroom Classic, with the intent of having one copy in my primary storage and another copy on backup storage. However, I accidentally imported from the backup location, and made metadata updates after that. Is there a way to tell Lightroom Classic to use the primary location rather than backup location for the photos, but without losing the work I’ve done in the meantime?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can change the source for a folder of images in Lightroom Classic by using the “Update Folder Location” command.

More Detail: The “Update Folder Location” command is one that most photographers aren’t likely to need, but that can be incredibly helpful when it is needed. This command enables you to change an existing folder in Lightroom Classic to point to a different folder. This would generally only be used when you had more than one copy of a folder, and Lightroom Classic isn’t referencing the correct copy.

In the scenario for today’s question, for example, photos were imported from the backup location rather than the primary location. You can fix this by simply redirecting Lightroom Classic to use the primary folder rather than the backup folder using the “Update Folder Location” command.

To update the folder location, right-click on the folder that is currently in the wrong location in the Folders list on the left panel in the Library module in Lightroom Classic. From the popup menu choose “Update Folder Location”. In the dialog that appears you can then navigate to the correct folder location and click the Choose button. Lightroom Classic will then update the reference for the applicable photos to the updated folder location, with the prior folder location disappearing from the Folders list.

Note that this command should only be used when the duplicate folders represent an exact match, since Lightroom Classic will be expecting the same photos in the updated folder location that are already being managed within the catalog. Again, that means this command isn’t one that very many photographers likely need, but it does streamline the process of updating a folder location in a situation where you have multiple copies of a folder.