Category: Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Did you happen to find a way to match Wratten numbers with HEX numbers or RGB values? For example, what is the HEX code of an 81A warming filter?

Tim’s Quick Answer: While I’ve not determined the specific color values of the original Wratten filters, you can get an approximate color value for some of them using the Photo Filter adjustment in Photoshop.

More Detail: Today’s question was a follow-up to an old article I wrote about fifteen years ago on the subject of photo filter effects with digital processing. In Photoshop, that means using a Photo Filter adjustment layer.

The Photo Filter adjustment in Photoshop provides the ability to add a color tint to an image, enabling you to mimic the behavior of some of the colored filters that were often used in film photography. In fact, some of the presets for the Photo Filter adjustment represent approximations of the effect from some of the standard warming and cooling filters.

You can also select any color you’d like from the Color Picker when using the Photo Filter adjustment. Start by selecting the desired preset from the Filter popup. For example, you can get a warming effect with the “Warming Filter (81)” option. This will change the color of the color swatch associated with the Color option, and you can click that color swatch to bring up the Color Picker dialog, showing you the color values for the filter you selected.

I have discovered that there is a slight problem with some of these presets, in that not all of them use proper color management. What that means is that for some of the filters you will get a different color depending on which color space you are working in. The differences are not too significant, however.

So, you can use this technique to determine Photoshop’s version of the color you would apply to achieve the approximate effect of certain color filters. In the Color Picker dialog you can see the actual color values for the selected filter. Note that you can also adjust the overall strength of the effect with the Density slider for the Photo Filter adjustment.

Today’s Question: I have a concern relating to the magnetic portion of the XUME Adapters you have recommended. Since it would be stored in my camera bag in close proximity to my memory cards, my hard drive and, worse yet, my camera with its internal computer memory, should I be concerned about the possible impacts of the magnetic fields? Or, is it weak enough that it would be of no concern?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Most of the items you mentioned use flash-based memory rather than magnetic storage, and so magnets would not be a concern. If your hard drive is a traditional drive (rather than an SSD) I would tend to keep the XUME Adapters at a distance, but the reality is that it takes a very strong magnet to cause problems for a hard drive.

More Detail: I am a huge fan of XUME Adapters (http://timgrey.me/go-xume), since they make it so incredibly easy to add or remove a filter (such as a solid neutral density filter) to the front of a lens.

These adapters employ magnets. One piece attaches to the front of a lens, and the other piece attaches to the filter. You can then simply put the filter in place at the front of the lens, and the magnets hold the filter in place until you choose to remove it.

The magnet in the XUME Adapters is adequately strong to hold a filter in place, but not strong enough that I would be concerned about it being near a hard drive. And flash-based media (such as memory cards or the memory buffer in your camera) would not be a concern at all.

By the way, you can see a (very old!) video of me demonstrating the use of XUME Adapters on my “Tim Grey TV” channel on YouTube here:

https://youtu.be/qfOdqsC457s

 

Today’s Question: Is there a way to run a batch process to update Photoshop PSD files with the Maximize Compatibility option? After synchronizing a folder in Lightroom Classic I have 30-40 files with the message to Maximize Compatibility in Photoshop first.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can easily batch-process images to save as Photoshop PSD files with Maximize Compatibility turned on using the Image Processor feature of Photoshop.

More Detail: The Image Processor feature of Photoshop makes it easy to batch-process photos to save in a different file format or with different settings for the existing file format.

I recommend using Adobe Bridge to get started, as this makes it easier to locate and select the PSD files you need to process. You could, for example, browse multiple folders at once and set a filter to only show PSD files. Once you’ve located the PSD files you want to process, select them and then go to the menu bar and choose Tools > Photoshop > Image Processor.

The Image Processor dialog will then open automatically in Photoshop, and you can adjust the settings for processing. In section one you can keep the “Open first image to apply settings” checkbox turned on. In section two, choose the option to “Save in Same Location” (more on this in a moment).

In section three, turn on the “Save as PSD” checkbox, and turn off the checkboxes for JPEG and TIFF files. Under the “Save as PSD” checkbox, turn on the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox. Make sure the “Resize to Fit” checkbox associated with the “Save as PSD” option is turned off.

In section four you can keep the “Run Action” checkbox turned off, and turn on the “Include ICC Profile” option.

Click the Run button, and Photoshop will open and re-save the images you had selected. Note, however, that the resulting files will actually be placed in a sub-folder below the folder where the source image is located. Therefore, you’ll need to move the photos from the PSD folder created by Image Processor back into the intended parent folder. You can either move the older versions of the PSD files in the parent folder to a backup folder first, or simply delete them once you’ve confirmed the new PSD files were saved properly.

Today’s Question: Since there is no “Maximize Compatibility” for TIFF files [in Adobe Photoshop], does that mean TIFF automatically creates the flattened composite layer? If TIFF files can maintain all Photoshop edits, automatically “maximize compatibility” (if, in fact, they do), and support compression to boot, is there any advantage to saving as PSD over TIFF?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can think of TIFF files saved from Adobe Photoshop as effectively always having “Maximize Compatibility” turned on, whereas this is an option you can turn on or off for PSD files. So, you might say that the only reason you might prefer to save as a PSD file is if you want to be able to turn off Maximize Compatibility.

More Detail: In Photoshop you have the option to turn “Maximize Compatibility” on or off for Photoshop PSD files you save. It is necessary to turn on Maximize Compatibility in order to be able to import photos into Lightroom Classic, or to open those PSD files with software that support PSD files but not layers and other special features in Photoshop.

You might think of TIFF files saved from Photoshop as effectively always having Maximize Compatibility turned on. In other words, even if other software supports TIFF images but does not support the various layers and other special features in Photoshop, you would still be able to open a flattened version of that TIFF image using that other software.

In addition, TIFF files provides you with greater flexibility in terms of compression compared to PSD files. Therefore, now that Photoshop supports a layer-based workflow for TIFF images in a way that used to require saving as a PSD, my general preference is to use the TIFF file format rather than the PSD file format when saving images from Photoshop (including images sent to Photoshop from Lightroom Classic).

Today’s Question: In Lightroom Classic is there a way to reject a group of photos, so that I can delete them from Lightroom and the hard drive? I have lots of junk photos just wasting space.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can very easily apply a Reject flag to multiple photos in the Library view in Lightroom Classic, and then quickly delete all rejected photos in a given folder or other location.

More Detail: The Reject flag in Lightroom Classic can be very helpful for deleting outtakes with an efficient workflow. While this approach adds an additional step compared to simply selecting and deleting photos, that extra step also provides an additional opportunity to make sure you really want to delete the applicable photos.

The first step is to mark photos that you’d ultimately like to delete with a Reject flag. This can be done with a batch of photos in the Grid view (thumbnails) display in the Library module. You can select multiple images at a time to make this process easier.

To select a range of images that are all in a sequence, click on the thumbnail for the first image and then hold the Shift key on the keyboard and click on the thumbnail for the last image in the sequence. To select images that are not in a sequence you can hold the Ctrl key on Windows or the Command key on Macintosh while clicking on the thumbnail for each photo you want to add to the selection.

After selecting multiple photos within the Grid view display, you can press the “X” key on the keyboard to assign a Reject flag to all of the selected images.

Once you’re finished reviewing a group of photos you can easily delete all images to which you have assigned the Reject flag. First, navigate to the location where you want to delete all photos that have a Reject flag. That could be a single folder, for example, or you could even go to the All Photographs collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module if you want to delete all photos with a Reject flag in your entire Lightroom Classic catalog.

Finally, go to the menu and choose Photo > Delete Rejected Photos. In the confirmation dialog that appears, click the “Delete from Disk” button so the images with the Reject flag with be both removed from the catalog and deleted from your hard drive.

Today’s Question: I would like to use a printing service for some large metal prints. The printer will only accept a file size under 32 megabytes, but some of the images I would like to have printed are in the 38 to 39 megabyte range. The printer’s suggested solution is to change the resolution to 150 pixels per inch. Yet the same printer suggests a minimum resolution of 300 pixels per inch for metal prints. I am wondering if I should gradually lower the resolution in the Lightroom Classic export process until the file is under 32MB. Would that work?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I recommend contacting the printer directly to convince them to allow you to send larger files, or to find a different printer who doesn’t place this limitation on file size.

More Detail: Granted, you can achieve good print quality at 150 pixels per inch, especially if the final image will be displayed in a location where viewers won’t be able to get right up to the print. And in fairness, a metal print does lose a bit of detail as part of the printing process, which makes it somewhat reasonable to use a resolution of 150 pixels per inch.

However, I recommend sizing images for printing at the highest resolution supported by the output process. In most cases for a metal print, that resolution would be around 300 pixels per inch.

I consider the file size limitation of 32 megabytes to be arbitrary and frankly silly. An image saved as a TIFF file in 8-bit per channel mode would exceed 32 megabytes at an output size of a little under 13-inches by 10-inches at 300 pixels per inch. That’s not what most photographers would consider a particularly large print.

You could reduce the file size a little more by using ZIP compression for the TIFF file, which is lossless compression. Otherwise, for large prints, the only way to get the file size down without compromising on resolution would be to save as a JPEG image file, which I consider to be a bad idea especially for large prints.

So, again, I suggest having a conversation with the printer to find a way to submit a larger file size, or finding a printer that is able to accept file sizes commensurate with the output size being produced.

Today’s Question: I know you can use virtual copies in Lightroom Classic to have different interpretations of a photo. But in Friday’s answer you made reference to metadata as well. Don’t virtual copies inherit the metadata of the original image?

Tim’s Quick Answer: When you create a virtual copy in Lightroom Classic it does inherit the metadata of the original photo. However, after creating a virtual copy new metadata updates are not synchronized between the original photo and the virtual copy.

More Detail: A virtual copy in Lightroom Classic is often thought of as providing the ability to create more than one interpretation of a photo in the Develop module. For example, the original image might be in color, and you might make a virtual copy for a black and white interpretation, and yet another virtual copy for a sepia-tone version.

However, a virtual copy is really a complete additional set of metadata for the source photo. So, for example, after creating one or more virtual copies for a photo you can assign different star ratings to each version of the image. You can also assign different keywords and other metadata for each photo. And, as noted above, you can apply different adjustments in the Develop module for each image.

In some ways this is very good, so that you can assign different star ratings to the different versions of the photo to help you decide which is your favorite version.

Of course, this can also be a little bit of a challenge. If you’re adding keywords later in your workflow, after you had already created one or more virtual copies, those keywords won’t propagate to all versions of the image. You would need to update the metadata for all versions of the image or synchronize that metadata after applying it to one version of the image.

To some extent you can think of a virtual copy as being a completely separate copy of the original image. Of course, in reality a virtual copy is simply an “extra” set of metadata that relates to the source image. But it is important to keep in mind that the metadata for a virtual copy can be different from the metadata for the source image.

Today’s Question: You answered a question from a photographer about switching from Lightroom Classic to Bridge, and you said that one of the information losses would be “virtual copies”. I routinely make one or more virtual copies for different processing decisions. Will those virtual copies and all the processing information be lost if I for some reason stop using Lightroom Classic? Is that information not saved in metadata somehow attached to the original file? Would I have to, in effect, export every one of my virtual copies to retain that processing data? If so, yikes!

Tim’s Quick Answer: You would indeed need to export your virtual copies if you were going to stop using Lightroom Classic and wanted to preserve those versions of your photos.

More Detail: A virtual copy in Lightroom Classic enables you to create more than one interpretation of a photo in terms of adjustments in the Develop module or metadata for the image. For example, you can optimize a color photo, then make a virtual copy and create a black and white interpretation of the same capture.

If you enable the option to automatically write changes to metadata for your photos (found on the Metadata tab of the Catalog Settings dialog), an XMP sidecar file will be created or updated for raw captures that you apply changes to within Lightroom Classic. However, that metadata is not saved outside of the catalog for virtual copies.

If you wanted to preserve the virtual copy version of the photo in the same way as the original raw capture with a sidecar file, you would need to export the virtual copy. In the case of a raw capture, if you export with the “Original” option selected from the Image Format popup, the original raw file will be exported along with an XMP sidecar file containing the metadata updates and adjustment settings.

In other words, you can create multiple copies of the same raw capture file (each with a unique filename of course) and you can have different XMP sidecar files for each, containing different adjustment settings.

Keep in mind that the adjustment settings included in the XMP sidecar file from Lightroom Classic are only usable in Lightroom or via Camera Raw in Photoshop. Other software tools would not be able to interpret those adjustment settings. So, if you were going to stop using Lightroom Classic as well as Photoshop, you would want to export your raw captures to TIFF files to preserve the appearance of the photos with a format that other software could make use of.

Today’s Question: In your recent online workshop you used the transform command in Photoshop to change the shape of a selection. Can the other transform commands such as Skew be used for selections as well?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, the “other” transform commands found on the Edit > Transform menu in Photoshop can be used with selections. However, you may find it easier to work with these commands on a layer mask based on a selection, rather than directly on a selection.

More Detail: Photoshop features a Transform Selection command on the Select menu, which enables you to adjust the overall size and shape of a selection. This includes a Warp setting on the Options bar, which makes it possible to exercise considerable control over the shape of a selection.

Of course, the Transform Selection command is a variation on the Transform commands found on the Edit menu. The key difference is that the Transform Selection command is obviously aimed at changing the overall shape of a selection, while the commands found under Edit > Transform on the menu are aimed at adjusting the shape of pixel-based layers.

However, the various Transform commands can also be used on selections. If there is an active selection in Photoshop, choosing one of the Transform commands from the Edit menu will cause that transform to alter the shape of the selection, rather than the currently active layer on the Layers panel.

Transforming the shape of a selection can be a little challenging based on the animated dashed line used to indicate the selection edge. You may find it easier to instead either switch to Quick Mask mode (by pressing “Q” on the keyboard) before using one of the Transform commands on a selection, or by creating a layer mask based on the selection and then applying the Transform command to the layer mask.

Granted, in most cases a selection will likely have a somewhat irregular shape based on a specific area of the image, in which case the Transform commands may not prove especially helpful. However, when the selection has more of a geometric shape (such as an elliptical selection created with the Elliptical Marquee tool), the Transform commands can prove incredibly helpful for modifying the selection or a layer mask based on the selection.

Today’s Question: I have five images that are attempting to sync to the cloud in Lightroom Classic, but the sync never finishes. There are no error messages on the Lightroom Sync tab of Preferences. I have left Lightroom Classic open for hours and nothing changes. The sync function just keeps running… Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

Tim’s Quick Answer: You should be able to resolve this issue by rebuilding the synchronization data, which is a “hidden” option in the Preferences dialog in Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: I’ve had this same issue periodically with Lightroom Classic over the past year or so. In some cases the issue can be resolved disabling and then re-enabling synchronization. However, when no errors are indicated, I find it is generally necessary to rebuild the synchronization data.

To rebuild the synchronization data first bring up the Preferences dialog by choosing Preferences from the Edit menu on Windows or the Lightroom Classic menu on Macintosh. Go to the Lightroom Sync tab within the Preferences dialog and hold down the Alt key on Windows or the Option key on Macintosh. This will reveal a “Rebuild Sync Data” button. While holding the Alt/Option key, click on that “Rebuild Sync Data” button, and then click the Continue button in the confirmation dialog.

Once the process of rebuilding the synchronization data is completed, your sync should no longer be in limbo.