Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Thanks to your mention of the supermoon, I was able to get some nice photos of it. But how can you determine when the full moon will occur, and is it possible to plan in advance for where it will be visible?

Tim’s Quick Answer: There are a variety of tools that are helpful with planning photos that include the moon (or the sun), but one of my favorites is The Photographer’s Ephemeris (https://www.photoephemeris.com/tpe-for-desktop).

More Detail: The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) is available through a web browser, or as a smartphone app, and I find it invaluable for planning photos that include the moon or the sun. That includes planning for photos based on when the light will be right, even if the sun won’t be in the frame. In fact, I created a course demonstrating how I use The Photographer’s Ephemeris, which is available on the GreyLearning website with a discount included automatically if you use this link to get started:

https://timgrey.me/sunmoon

With TPE, you can plan ahead for specific celestial events. For example, when setting the date for which you want to plan, you’ll see a list of events, including phases of the moon, meteor showers, and eclipses.

Once you know the date you’ll be photographing, you can also use TPE to help plan the right location to be. For example, I’ve used TPE to choose where to photograph from when I know there will be a full moon rising around sunset. This is done through a map, with lines projected to show you the relative position of the sun or moon based on any position on the map.

Today’s Question: When using his printer tonal range target image, I would like to know whether to choose “Printer Manages Colors” vs “Photoshop Manages Color” and whether to choose Black and White or Color in the Printer dialog box.

Tim’s Quick Answer: When printing the printer tonal range target image, you should use the same settings you normally would when printing a photographic image. That generally means using the “Photoshop Manages Color” option and turning off color management in the printer settings. It also typically means setting the printer to Color rather than Black & White.

More Detail: The printer tonal range target image is something I developed for testing the tonal range capabilities of your printer, so you can apply adjustments before printing that will help ensure the print exhibits maximum highlight and shadow detail. When printing the tonal range target image, you want to use the same settings you normally would for the type of paper you’re testing with your printer. You can download the target image and learn more about how to use it on the GreyLearning blog here:

http://greylearningblog.com/printer-tonal-range-correction/

Generally speaking, I recommend using the “Photoshop Manages Colors” option when printing from Photoshop. That requires, however, that you specify a profile for the printer, ink, and paper combination you’ll be using for printing. These profiles are generally available from the manufacturer of the paper you will be using.

When using the “Photoshop Manages Colors” option, you need to select the appropriate profile from the Printer Profile popup. You also need to make sure that color management is turned off in the printer driver dialog, so that color management corrections are not being applied twice to the image you are printing.

If you don’t have a profile for the paper you’re printing to, you can instead use the “Printer Manages Colors” option, and then enable color management (and possibly color adjustments) in the printer driver settings.

In most cases I recommend setting the output to Color rather than Black & White, even if you’ll be printing a monochromatic image. You can achieve a much greater range of tonal values by allowing the printer to blend all of the colors of ink to produce a neutral print, rather than relying only on the black in (or inks) available on your printer.

You can learn more about color management (with a discount included automatically) with my “Color Management for Photographers” course, available on the GreyLearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/color?coupon=halfcolor

Today’s Question: You recently had a discussion about lens compression issues, and that got me thinking about photographing the moon. Does lens compression have anything to do with the moon appearing larger when it is close to the horizon versus high in the sky?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The moon appearing larger when it is closer to the horizon is actually an illusion. However, you can make use of the concepts related to lens compression to capture a more dramatic photo of the moon when it is near the horizon.

More Detail: A full moon just over the horizon provides a more dramatic view than the same full moon high in the sky. In my view, the reason for this is that the context of terrestrial objects appearing near the moon cause the moon to appear larger. When the same full moon appears high overhead with a clear sky, the moon seems more solitary and thus smaller. The only thing that actually affects the size of the moon in the sky is how near to or far from earth the moon is at that moment, based on the elliptical orbit.

While the moon will be the same size regardless of how close it is to the horizon, the impression is that the moon appears larger when near the horizon. You can make the most of this effect and create a more dramatic photograph if you keep the concepts of lens compression in mind.

For a more dramatic image of the moon you will want to include a terrestrial object in the photo, such as a tree. That will provide context, making the moon appear that much larger.

Keep in mind that a scene can be compressed, so that the background appears closer to the foreground subject, by moving farther away from your foreground subject. That naturally means you will use a longer lens focal length to frame up your foreground subject in the same way even though you’ve moved farther away, which is why this effect is referred to as lens compression.

The key when it comes to photographing the moon is to frame the moon up with an object that is as far away as possible. For example, if you include a tree in the frame and that tree is very close to you, the moon will appear tiny by comparison. If, on the other hand, you frame the moon up with a tree that is a fair distance away, the moon will appear larger relative to the tree.

So, while the moon is near the horizon, look for a relatively distant object you can frame up alongside the moon, so you’ll have a more dramatic result with the moon appearing relatively large compared to that distant object.

Today’s Question: I use Lightroom Classic. I just recently made a BIG move and have been away from editing photos for 20 months. (Yikes). I know that Lightroom has been updated a few times during that period of time. I am currently using Lightroom Classic 8.0. If I go into Adobe Creative Cloud and click it shows only one Lightroom update. If I use that update will it give me all the other updates that happened along the way? The same question for Photoshop too.

Tim’s Quick Answer: In this particular case, you’ll need to install the new “major” release of each application, and then uninstall the older version. That will provide the latest version of each application, including all updates from prior minor releases.

More Detail: When you install a “minor” update to an application in the Adobe Creative Cloud, such as Lightroom Classic, the existing installation is updated. So, for example, if you had Lightroom Classic version 9.1 installed and you upgraded to version 9.2, you would still only have one version of Lightroom Classic installed.

At some point in the future, when the next “major” release of Lightroom Classic is available, it will presumably be called Lightroom 10. If you “upgrade” to that new major release, a second copy of Lightroom Classic would be installed, so you would have both Lightroom Classic 9 and 10 installed on your computer. Once the new version is installed and working properly, you could uninstall the older version.

Because you are dealing with new major releases to some of the Creative Cloud applications (including Lightroom Classic and Photoshop), you’ll want to be sure to install the latest update before removing older versions.

Within the Adobe Creative Cloud application, you can see all of the applications by selecting “All apps” toward the top-left of the window. The top section will display the Installed category, which shows the applications you have already installed. If there is an update available, you will see an “Update” button associated with the application. If the latest version is installed, you will see an “Open” button instead.

If you have an older major release installed, you will also find the new major release listed in the “Available in your subscription” section, which lists applications that are not yet installed. So, you would see Lightroom Classic 9.2 listed, as well as Photoshop. In the case of Photoshop, you want to install the 2020 version, and you probably currently have the 2019 version installed.

This same concept applies to all of the Creative Cloud applications. So for each you would want to install the latest version, and then uninstall any older major releases that are still on your computer, once you know that the new major release is installed and working properly.

Today’s Question: I have synchronization enabled in my Lightroom Mobile app on my smartphone and in Lightroom Classic on my desktop computer. A part of my preferred workflow is to capture raw images with Lightroom Mobile and transfer them to my desktop computer automatically via syncing. I would then like to delete the photos from my smartphone and retain them on my desktop computer. If I do this, will the photos that I delete from my smartphone also be automatically deleted from my desktop machine via syncing?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Once the photos have successfully synchronized to Lightroom Classic on your computer, you can safely delete them from your smartphone and they will not be deleted from your computer. However, I do recommend moving the photos to a “permanent” storage location within Lightroom Classic as part of this workflow.

More Detail: As long as synchronization is enabled in the Lightroom app on your mobile device as well as Lightroom Classic on your computer, the photos you capture using the camera feature in the Lightroom mobile app will automatically synchronize to Lightroom Classic on your computer. Those photos will appear in a folder shown below your mobile device, with that mobile device listed as though it was a hard drive within the Folders list on the left panel in the Library module.

Once the photos are shown in the applicable folder within Lightroom Classic on your computer, the source capture files will be on your local hard drive. If you then delete the captures from within Lightroom on your mobile device, the files on your computer will not be deleted.

That said, I still prefer to move the photos within Lightroom Classic to a more “permanent” folder structure within your existing workflow. So, once the photos have synchronized to your computer, you can simply drag-and-drop them to the desired folder location on the drive where you store all of your other photos.

Today’s Question: I wanted to export all my photos from Lightroom Classic as JPEG backups for posterity so that I can give each of my kids a full set. How can I best do this? I guess that I just attach an external drive, select all photos in the catalog, and “export as a JPEG” for the 220,000+ photos. And days later, it’s done?

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you use the export feature in Lightroom Classic, you can’t define a folder structure, and so all photos would be exported to a single folder. Therefore, I recommend using the “Folder Publisher” plugin from Jeffrey Friedl for this type of export. You can get the info about this plugin here:

http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/folder-publisher

More Detail: When you export photos from Lightroom Classic, you can only define a single folder for that export. That means if you were trying to export copies of your entire catalog of photos, all of those photos would be placed in the same folder. The only real way you could organize the exported copies of your photos would be through file renaming. For example, you could add the date of capture at the beginning of each filename.

A better solution is to use a plugin for Lightroom Classic that enables you to maintain your existing folder structure for photos you export. The “Folder Publisher” plugin from Jeffrey Friedl enables you to do exactly that.

This plug-in essentially mimics the options available in Lightroom’s export feature, including converting to JPEG and resizing to a lower resolution. It adds, however, the ability to duplicate your existing folder structure for all of the photos you export. You could therefore export all of the photos in your entire catalog, creating JPEG copies as part of that process, and maintaining your original folder structure for the exported images.

For more information, check out Jeffrey Friedl’s blog here:

http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/folder-publisher

Today’s Question: I had dropped my external hard drive that held the Lightroom Classic catalog and photos and it was inoperable. The catalog is also on my laptop hard drive plus I had a backup of the inoperable external hard drive using Time Machine. Seagate notified me that they were finally able to retrieve the data and will send it on a new drive. Now what?! Any advice would be appreciated.

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you are able to restore from one of your backups, that would most likely be the best solution. When data is recovered from a damaged hard drive, the file and folder structure is often complete chaos compared to how the data was organized before the data recovery.

More Detail: It is obviously tremendously helpful that data can be recovered from a damaged hard drive. However, such data recovery can be quite expensive, and often results in a file and folder structure that in no way matches what the contents of the drive looked like before it was damaged.

Data recovery generally involves a rather complicated process of scanning the data storage areas of the drive multiple times. Files on a hard drive are often stored in data blocks that are not contiguous. This fragmented nature of data storage is only compounded over time as some files are deleted and other files are added. It is also quite possible that the recovered data will include duplicate copies of the original files.

Because of these issues, it is generally preferable to recover from a backup of your files, especially when it comes to the source image files.

The first thing you’ll want to do is identify the most recently updated version of your Lightroom catalog. This may be reasonably easy to find on the recovery drive, since you can search for the “lrcat” filename extension. Just be sure that all of the catalog files are intact within the folder that contains the “lrcat” file, such as the accompanying file(s) with the “lrdata” filename extension.

Once you have the latest copy of your Lightroom catalog, you can open that file with Lightroom to make sure it is working properly. At this point, of course, all of the source images will appear as missing.

The next step is to recover the source image files. If you had a recent backup, it will probably be easiest to restore from that backup, ideally to a new empty external hard drive. Make sure the new drive you restore to has the same drive letter (Windows) or volume label (Macintosh) as the original drive, and Lightroom will then be able to locate those photos on the new drive.

Depending on when the backup of your photos was performed, you may still be missing some of your photos. At this point, however, you would be able to search for those images on the recovery drive you receive as part of the data recovery process.

Today’s Question: I was in a workshop and the leader was discussing your Printer Tonal Range Target. I can’t find the Range Target download anywhere on your website. Can you help me please?

Tim’s Quick Answer: My Printer Tonal Range Target image can be used to determine the compensation required to achieve full shadow (and highlight) detail with your specific printer, ink, and paper combination. I have published a brief article about the use of my Printer Tonal Range Target image on the GreyLearning blog here:

http://greylearningblog.com/printer-tonal-range-correction/

More Detail: Even with proper use of color management in your workflow, it is possible that some detail in your image will not be visible in the final print. This generally means that details in the darkest shadow areas of an image will appear entirely black in the print, but it is also possible for detail to be lost in the brightest highlight areas of a print.

Fortunately, it is possible to test the behavior of a specific printer, ink, and paper combination using a printer target image I created. The basic process involves printing the target image with your normal color-managed workflow, and then evaluating the print.

What you want to determine is which tonal value is the darkest (or lightest) before you can no longer see detail. You can then use those values to apply an adjustment to the image before printing. That adjustment will compensate for the behavior of the printer, ink, and paper combination you are using, so you can maximize detail in the final print.

You can download my Printer Tonal Range Target image (and get additional instructions about the use of this image) on the GreyLearning blog here:

http://greylearningblog.com/printer-tonal-range-correction/

Today’s Question: I recently purchased your course on Fixing my Mess in Lightroom [“Cleaning Up Your Mess in Lightroom”, https://timgrey.me/mess29]. During the presentation, you stated that the backup in Lightroom Classic only backs up the catalog, not your photos. You discussed using GoodSync to backup photos. I need some clarification. During import I import photos to my “Photos” external drive and also send a backup to a “Photo Backup” external drive. Do I need to sync the photos in both drives periodically?

Tim’s Quick Answer: It is true that the built-in backup in Lightroom Classic only backs up the catalog, not your photos. Backing up during import is a good practice, but I highly recommend using a synchronization approach to backing up your photos either instead of or in addition to the import backup.

More Detail: The option to backup during import into Lightroom Classic ensures that you have a second copy of all of the photos being imported into your Lightroom catalog, which is obviously very important and helpful. My issue with this backup option, however, is that it doesn’t represent a perfect match of the overall folder structure of your primary storage. The backup during import will cause copies of photos to be placed in an “Imported on [Date]” folder, rather than a folder with the same name used for the primary storage of your photos.

So, for example, you might have photos from a trip to Iceland in a folder called “Iceland 2020”. But the backup folder would be called “Imported on…”. If your primary hard drive failed, you couldn’t just continue working with the backup, but instead would have to track down all of the backup images and copy them to the original folder structure. That would be frustrating because it would be difficult to ensure that all photos got to the right place.

By contrast, if you backup your Photos hard drive using a product such as GoodSync (http://timgrey.me/greybackup), the backup drive will be an exact match in terms of folder structure and file location compared to your primary storage. So, if the primary drive failed you could more or less just plug in the backup drive to replace the source drive, make sure the drive letter (Windows) or volume label (Macintosh) matched the original, and you’d be back in business.

For this reason, I generally use the backup feature in the Import dialog to backup photos to a temporary location. Then, after I have completed a backup with GoodSync, I can delete the import backup. Of course, I don’t delete that import backup right away, as it provides an “extra” backup in the meantime. But as soon as I want to free up some hard drive space, I can get rid of the import backup.

Note, by the way, that I actually maintain two backups with GoodSync for each drive. So, my Photos drive, for example, is backed up to a “Photos Backup 1” drive as well as a “Photos Backup 2” drive. You can learn more about GoodSync at http://timgrey.me/greybackup. And keep in mind that I have a video course that covers GoodSync, which you can find here:

https://timgrey.me/goodsync

Today’s Question: I imported some photos from my camera to the Lightroom mobile app to do some edits. Now I am trying to figure out how to get them into my Lightroom Classic library. Any ideas?

Tim’s Quick Answer: When you import photos into the Lightroom mobile app (or capture directly within the app), those photos can be brought into your Lightroom Classic catalog simply by enabling synchronization on both your mobile device and your computer.

More Detail: The Lightroom mobile app makes use of synchronization for all photos, just as the cloud-based Lightroom application you use on a computer will synchronize all photos. However, the Lightroom mobile app can also synchronize with Lightroom Classic.

The first step is to make sure that synchronization is active on both your mobile device and your computer. In the Lightroom mobile app you can click the cloud icon toward the top-right of the screen to make sure synchronization is not paused. If you see “Resume Synching” on the popup when you click the cloud icon, simply tap on that to enable synchronization.

Within Lightroom Classic you can make sure synchronization is enabled by clicking on the identity plate at the far left of the top panel. When you click the identity plate you’ll see a popup that shows the synchronization status at the top of the popup. If the popup shows “Paused” to the right of the popup, you can click the “play” button (the right-pointing triangle icon) to enable synchronization.

Once synchronization is complete, you’ll see your mobile device listed as though it is one of your hard drives within the Folders list on the left panel in the Library module. You can browse the photos within the folder structure there, and even move photos to other folders and storage locations by dragging and dropping them within the Folders section of the left panel.