Category: Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Is there a feature or procedure to easily move thumbnail within the Grid mode [in Lightroom Classic]? I often have 200 or more images to place in a custom order for slideshow presentation. Dragging the thumbnails is a bit tedious. Appreciate any suggestions.

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can use the Label field associated with the color label feature to sort images based on values you enter into that field. This enables you to define the image sort order by typing in values rather than dragging with the mouse.

More Detail: You can define your own custom sort order for images in the grid view in Lightroom Classic in a couple of ways. One is to drag the thumbnails into the desired order within the grid view display. As noted in today’s question, however, this can be a little bit tedious.

Another option is to use a metadata field that is available as an option on the Sort popup on the toolbar below the grid view. In the context of defining a custom sort order I think the Label Text option is the best choice. When you select this option the images will be sorted alphabetically based on the value in the Label field in metadata.

The Label field is associated with the Color Label feature. By default, for example, if you assign a red color label the word “Red” is added to the Label field. If you were to make use of all the available color labels, and then select the Label Text sort option, the photos would sort in order based on the value in metadata, so that those with a blue color label would appear first, followed by green, purple, red, and yellow, since that represents the alphabetical order for those color label values.

You can also, however, update the Label field with any text you’d like. You can find the Label field by selecting “EXIF and IPTC” from the popup to the left of the Metadata label on the right panel in the Library module. You can then add a numeric value to the Label field for the images based on the intended sort order.

For example, if you have 200 images for a slideshow you could start with “001” (including the leading zeroes to ensure the correct sort order) all the way up to “200” for the last image. Then select Label Text from the Sort popup, and the photos will be sorted in the order you defined based on the numbering scheme.

Doing this data entry isn’t necessarily less tedious than dragging the images around, but it does provide a flexible way for you to define the sort order for the photos. Another option that might be helpful would be to cluster images together, and then drag and drop. You could, for example, assign color labels to photos based on groupings, and then only drag and drop within those groupings, making the task a little less tedious.

Today’s Question: I am using Photoshop and Adobe Bridge. The Image Processor feature I have used in the past has disappeared. Any suggestions to get the option back on the menu?

Tim’s Quick Answer: To get the Image Processor option available in Adobe Bridge you need to make sure both Adobe Bridge and Photoshop have been updated to the same major release, and that the Photoshop startup script is enabled in Bridge.

More Detail: The Image Processor tool can be incredibly helpful for batch processing images. With the Image Processor you can select a group of photos and then generate new images based on the originals. You can specify the file format(s) you want to convert to as well as the pixel dimensions for the derivative images, among other options.

The Image Processor is actually a feature of Photoshop, not Adobe Bridge. It is available by default on the Tools menu in Adobe Bridge, however, which makes it easy to select a large group of images for processing. The feature requires that Photoshop and Bridge are properly connected.

The first requirement is that Photoshop and Bridge be updated to the same major release. For example, the current versions of each are the 2023 versions. So, if you had Adobe Bridge 2022 installed along with Photoshop 2023, the menu commands would not be available under the Photoshop submenu on the Tools menu in Bridge.

In addition, you need to make sure the Photoshop startup script is enabled in Bridge. From within Bridge go to the menu and choose Edit > Preferences on Windows or Adobe Bridge > Settings on Macintosh. Go to the Startup Scripts tab of the Preferences dialog and make sure the “Adobe Photoshop” checkboxes are turned on. I recommend turning on the checkboxes for any other Adobe applications you might use in conjunction with Bridge. Click the OK button to close the Preferences dialog.

You should then quit Bridge and launch it again, at which point you should see the Image Processor option under Tools > Photoshop on the menu in Bridge.

Today’s Question: Is there a way to get rid of the Photoshop Home screen (the one with all the thumbnails) so that the program will just open to a blank workspace?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can prevent the Home Screen from showing up by default by turning off the “Auto show the Home Screen” checkbox in Preferences.

More Detail: By default, when you launch Photoshop you’ll see the Home Screen workspace, which presents thumbnails of recently opened images, links to common sources of files, buttons for creating a new file or opening an existing image, and more. I do find this screen distracting, and so I prefer to disable the option to have it appear by default.

You can disable (or enable) the Home Screen display in Preferences. Start by choosing Edit > Preferences > General from the menu on Windows, or Photoshop > Settings > General on Macintosh. On the General tab of the Preferences dialog turn off the “Auto show the Home Screen” checkbox, which is found among a group of checkboxes in the Options section.

If you later decide you want the Home Screen to appear automatically, you can turn on the checkbox instead. Click the OK button to apply the change.

Whether or not you have disabled the automatic display in Preferences, you can bring up the Home Screen on demand at any time by clicking the home button (it is an icon that looks like a small house) at the far left of the Options bar within Photoshop. The Options bar is the context-sensitive toolbar that by default appears at the top of the Photoshop interface, just below the menu or title bar.

Today’s Question: I have Lightroom Classic and am watching your how-to videos. When you go to the top of Lightroom Classic a blue menu pops down with things to click on. Mine doesn’t do that. Have a Mac. Am I missing something?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The behavior you’re referring to is available when you are in the full screen display mode without the menu. In this display mode you can move your mouse pointer all the way up to the top of the screen and the menu will appear.

More Detail: You can cycle through the display modes in Lightroom Classic by holding the Shift key while pressing the “F” key. There are three modes you can cycle through, with the mode changing each time you press Shift+F. The first mode is normal window mode, with a floating window that includes the menu bar at the top. This window can be resized by dragging at a corner or edge of the window.

The next mode is full screen with a menu bar, so that Lightroom Classic will fill the entire available display area, with the menu at the top of the interface. This can be a convenient option, since the Lightroom Classic interface will take up as much space as possible, but with the menu bar visible and available at any time at the top of the screen.

My personal preference is to use the full screen display mode but with the menu bar hidden. This is the third option when you switch modes using the Shift+F keyboard shortcut. With this option enabled the Lightroom Classic interface will take up the entire screen, with no menu bar visible. To access the menu, simply move the mouse pointer to the very top of the screen and the menu will pop down. When you move the mouse away from the menu it will be hidden again.

If you press the Shift+F keyboard shortcut while in the full screen display with the menu hidden, you will cycle back to having Lightroom Classic in a window. Simply press Shift+F as needed to switch between display modes to the option you prefer.

Today’s Question: Recently this [Contextual Task Bar] appeared on my Photoshop screen for every image that I open in Photoshop. I never asked for this and I can’t seem to get rid of it. Do you have ideas on how to eliminate this from Photoshop altogether?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The floating toolbar referred to in today’s question is the Contextual Task Bar in the public beta version of Photoshop. It can be hidden (or revealed) by choosing Window > Contextual Task Bar from the menu.

More Detail: The Contextual Task Bar is a new interface element in the public beta version of Photoshop, which can be used to test out features that haven’t yet been finalized, such as the new AI-based Generative Fill feature. By default the Contextual Task Bar appears as a floating toolbar on every image you open in this version of Photoshop.

If you don’t want to keep the Contextual Task Bar open, you can choose Window > Contextual Task Bar from the menu. The same command will reveal the task bar if it had previously been hidden. You can also hide the bar by clicking the “more” button (the three dots) on the bar and choosing “Hide bar” from the popup menu.

While the Contextual Task Bar can certainly be a convenient way to access certain features, it can also be a bit of a distraction. It is worth noting that the features you can access on the bar can also be accessed elsewhere. For example, if you want to test out the Generative Fill command in the public beta version of Photoshop you can create a selection and choose Edit > Generative Fill from the menu to access the feature without using the Contextual Task Bar.

Today’s Question: I understand that with the new Apple processor it is not possible to dual boot into Windows. Is there no longer a way to run Windows apps on a Macintosh computer?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can use emulation software to run Windows (and Windows applications) even on the latest Macintosh computers that feature the Apple M1 and M2 processors.

More Detail: The latest computers with the Apple M1 and M2 processors are not able to dual boot into Windows. However, you can run Windows in a software emulator such as Parallels (https://www.parallels.com), which enables you to run Windows applications.

Through the use of emulation software, you can think of the Windows operating system as running like an application on Macintosh. Within Windows via the emulator software, you can run any applications as though you were using a computer that runs Windows natively.

I actually find this approach far more streamlined than having to boot the computer into one operating system or the other, because it enables you to switch back and forth fluidly between Macintosh applications and Windows applications. My testing has shown that the performance is excellent, even when running applications that require considerable system resources.

You can learn more about Parallels software here:

https://www.parallels.com

Today’s Question: In Lightroom Mobile I want to edit a DNG and export a smaller JPEG. I do not want to synchronize to the cloud, because in some situations my internet connection will be very slow while traveling. Rather, I want to edit and save locally on my tablet. Can this be done?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can export copies of photos from the Lightroom mobile app, and if you keep your device offline then photos add to the device won’t synchronize. However, cloud-based synchronization is at the core of how Lightroom mobile functions and can’t be disabled.

More Detail: For many photographers, the way photos get to the Lightroom mobile app in the first place is by being synchronized from the Adobe Creative Cloud service. However, you can also capture photos with the Lightroom mobile app or import photos from a media card or other connected device.

If you were using your mobile device without a cellular or WiFi connection, you could still capture photos with the Lightroom mobile app and import photos from another device. Those photos would not synchronize to the cloud under those circumstances, but as soon as your device was once again connected to the internet the synchronization would start. You can’t disable the synchronization feature in the Lightroom mobile app.

You can still edit photos that are on your device in the Lightroom mobile app, and you can save copies to your device or export copies via the sharing feature, such as to use AirDrop to send a photo from Lightroom on an iOS device to another device or a Macintosh computer.

In other words, you can make use of many of the core features of the Lightroom mobile app even if you’re not able to synchronize because of the lack of an internet connection. You can also disable the cellular antenna and WiFi on your device when you don’t want synchronization to be active. However, as soon as you’re back online the synchronization will resume, because that is a core feature of the Lightroom mobile app. And, of course, if you prevent the device from getting online to stop Lightroom synchronization, that also means other apps won’t be online, such as email and other online features.

Today’s Question: As a follow up to [yesterday’s] question about changing the capture time for photos in Adobe Bridge, if you selected multiple photos and used the “change to a specific date and time” option would all photos get the exact same capture time?

Tim’s Quick Answer: No, with the “Change to a specific date and time” option you’re only specifying the date and time for the photo shown in the dialog. All other photos will be adjusted based on how their original capture time differed from the displayed photo.

More Detail: Admittedly, the “Change to a specific date and time” option for changing capture time in Adobe Bridge is a bit confusing. The same option goes by the name “Adjust to a specified date and time” in Lightroom Classic.

The wording for these options seems to suggest that if you had selected multiple photos and used the “specific time” setting that all photos would be adjusted to the exact same capture time. That is not the case.

Rather, the photo shown in the preview within the dialog will be adjusted to the specific date and time you enter. The other photos will be adjusted based on how their capture time differs from the previewed photo.

For example, let’s assume you have photos captured at 1:01, 1:02, and 1:03, but that those are the wrong capture times based on an incorrect time zone setting. Let’s further assume that the correct time was one hour and thirty minutes later. You select the three photos, with the first photo being the active photo that is shown in the preview. You select the “specific time” setting, and enter “2:31” as the new time, which is one hour and thirty minutes later than the original time for the first photo. The new capture times for the photo would then be 2:31, 2:32, and 2:33.

Today’s Question: Regarding your answer about the various dates and times for photos, is it possible to update the capture time for photos in Adobe Bridge, such as when I forget to update the time zone on my camera?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can update the capture time for a batch of photos in Adobe Bridge by selecting the photos and choosing Edit > Edit Capture Time from the menu. It is also possible to update the capture time for a single photo using the “Date Time Original” field in the Camera Data section of metadata.

More Detail: If you neglect to update the time zone on your camera the capture time in metadata for the photos captured with the wrong setting will obviously be off by a particular number of hours. It is very easy to update the capture time in this scenario using Adobe Bridge.

The first step is to select the photos you need to update the capture time for. Then from the menu choose Edit > Edit Capture Time. Under the “Type of Adjustment” heading in the Edit Capture Time dialog, select “Shift by hours, minutes and seconds”. Then select Add if you need to adjust to a later time, or Subtract if you need to shift to an earlier time. You can then enter values for the Hours and Minutes fields as applicable. In most cases this will only require that you enter the number for Hours, but there are time zones in some areas that are off by thirty minutes compared to the neighboring time zone.

Once you’ve configured the settings for the capture time correction for the selected photos, click the Change button. This will update the values for Date Created and Date Time Original in metadata for the selected photos.

Note that you can also directly edit the capture date and time for an individual photo with the “Date Time Original” field in the Camera Data section of the Metadata tab in Adobe Bridge. This field is fully editable, so you can simply click in the field and make any changes you’d like. You can also click the calendar icon to the right of the field to bring up the Edit Capture Time dialog outlined above, so you can use that dialog rather than a direct editing of the metadata field.

Today’s Question: I’m finding that a small percentage of my photos end up with the date they were moved as their ‘created’ date. I know the image date is incorrect, in some cases by as much as ten years. I know how to input the correct date but how do I stop or prevent that change from happening in the first place?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You should always see the correct capture time in the “Date Time Original” field in Lightroom Classic or Adobe Bridge. The “Date Time” field in Lightroom Classic or the Date File Modified” field in Adobe Bridge will show the date and time the file was moved, such as when moving to a different hard drive.

More Detail: There are several dates shown in metadata in Lightroom Classic and Adobe Bridge, which can certainly lead to confusion when those dates don’t match for a given photo.

The “Date Time Original” field in Lightroom Classic and Adobe Bridge will show you the data the photo was captured, which of course may not match the original value for the date and time of capture if you adjusted the capture time after the fact. This might be the case if you had neglected to update the time zone on your camera, for example, and changed the date of capture for your photos later.

The “Date Time Digitized” field in Lightroom Classic or the “Date Created” field in Adobe Bridge would also match the original time reflected in metadata in the camera at the time the photo was captured. Therefore, this date information can also be depended upon to reflect the original capture time, though without taking into account changes to the capture time applied later in your workflow.

The “Date Time” field in Lightroom Classic or the “Date File Modified” field in Adobe Bridge will reflect the date the file was created in the current hard drive location, which could be a much more recent date than the date of capture if the file had been moved to a different drive. For example, when I copy selections of photos to a different hard drive to use with a demo catalog in Lightroom Classic, the “Date Time” field shows when I copied the files rather than when the photos were captured.

In Lightroom Classic you’ll also find the “Metadata Date” field, which is a reflection of when the metadata was most recently updated. This field might obviously be updated quite often, such as when you assign a star rating or add keywords to the photo, for example.

My recommendation is to refer to the “Date Time Original” field when you want to confirm the date and time of capture, and to generally ignore the other date fields in metadata to avoid confusion, unless you specifically need to review the additional information contained in those other fields.