Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Does the issue of a process version apply to Camera Raw, for those of us using Photoshop without using Lightroom Classic? I know you’ve said that Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic are basically the same thing when it comes to processing raw captures, but I’ve never heard about process versions for Camera Raw.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, the process version setting is available in Camera Raw just like in Lightroom Classic. If you are going to refine the adjustments for an image in Camera Raw, in general I recommend updating to the latest process version.

More Detail: Today’s question is a follow-up to Friday’s question, which addressed outdated process versions in Lightroom Classic. You can review Friday’s question and answer here:

https://asktimgrey.com/2024/08/23/updating-outdated-process-version/

As with Lightroom Classic, Camera Raw does provide an option to update the process version, which corresponds to various updates to Camera Raw. If an image has an outdated process version, certain adjustments may be unavailable, or may produce results different from those of the latest process version.

In general, I recommend working in the latest process version (currently version 6) to ensure you have the latest features and updates available for your adjustments. However, updating the process version may result in a change in appearance for the image.

If you’re simply opening an image that you have already optimized so you can print or otherwise share the photo, without updating the settings for any adjustments, you can leave the process version as it is so the appearance of the image will be exactly as it was when you previously optimized it.

However, if you’re going to be refining the adjustments for an image in Camera Raw, I do recommend updating to the latest process version. Just keep in mind that the appearance of the photo may change to some degree when you update the process version, so you may need to refine more adjustment settings than you had anticipated to achieve the final result for a photo.

If an image has an outdated process version, an alert symbol (a triangle with an exclamation point in it) will appear at the bottom-right of the image preview in Camera Raw. You can click that icon to update the process version, or simply select the latest process version from the Process popup in the Calibration section of the edit panel on the right side of the Camera Raw interface.

Today’s Question: After multiple updates to Lightroom Classic over the years, I’ve noticed an increasing number of photos that indicate the process version is out of date. How concerned should I be about updating photos to the latest process version?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In my view the only reason you should update the process version for a photo is if you want to refine the adjustments for a photo and want to be sure you’re taking advantage of the latest updates to Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: In effect, the process version for a photo in Lightroom Classic reflects the version of the Develop module. In other words, and image set to an older process version will reflect the adjustment options and effects that were available in an earlier version of Lightroom Classic.

In general, I recommend using the latest process version when optimizing a photo, so that you’re able to take advantage of all the latest features and improvements (and bug fixes) in Lightroom Classic.

However, if you’re not going to be refining (or at least reviewing) the adjustments for an image, there isn’t a significant advantage to updating the process version. In fact, updating the process version could result in a change of appearance to a photo that could be problematic.

If you’re happy with the way an image looks based on the adjustments you had previously applied with an earlier version of Lightroom Classic, there generally isn’t any need to update the image to the latest process version. If you’re going to be reviewing and possibly refining the adjustments for the image, however, I generally recommend updating to the latest process version. Just keep in mind that the appearance of the photo may change as part of this process, so you may have a little bit of extra work involved in getting the photo to look its best.

You can update the process version for a photo using the Process popup in the Calibration section on the right panel in the Develop module. You can also update the process version by clicking on the lightning bolt icon on the Histogram panel in the Develop module that appears for images that are not updated to the latest process version.

Today’s Question: Is there any reason you would recommend adding all photos to a collection during the process of importing photos into Lightroom Classic? I always skip over this option in the File Handling section, but wonder if I’m missing out on something.

Tim’s Quick Answer: In general, I don’t recommend adding all photos being imported into your Lightroom Classic catalog into a collection as part of the import process. However, there are a few scenarios where you may find this option helpful.

More Detail: Collections in Lightroom Classic provide a way to group photos together beyond the folder structure that provides a basic organizational structure for your images. For example, you might create a collection containing photos for a slideshow presentation or some other project involving your photos.

In most cases a collection would contain a subset of photos from a folder, and potentially photos from multiple folders. Based on the way collections tend to be used, it isn’t generally very helpful to add all photos you are importing to a single collection.

However, there may be times when it can be helpful to add photos to a collection during import.

For example, you may want to add all imported photos to a collection so you can more easily review those photos to identify favorites versus outtakes later. Lightroom Classic uses collections as the mechanism for being able to synchronize photos to the cloud, so that all photos in a collection that has synchronization available would be accessible from anywhere in the Lightroom ecosystem. You could, for example, add all imported photos to a collection with synchronization enabled, so you could then review those photos on a mobile device using the Lightroom app or by using Lightroom in a web browser (https://lightroom.adobe.com).

You might also be importing a relatively small number of photos that you want to include in a collection. For example, you might be working on a family history project, featuring a variety of photos. If you scan some old images and import them into Lightroom Classic, you might also want to add them to a collection based on the project you’re working for.

Ultimately, my experience has been that for most photographers it is somewhat rare to have a situation that warrants adding all photos being imported into a collection at the time of import. However, when it makes sense for a specific situation, it is certainly helpful to be able to easily add all the photos being imported into your catalog to a collection.

Today’s Question: I frequently use the Beta version of Photoshop and Camera Raw, but currently the Beta version does not offer me the choice of saving images as JPEG. I am offered JPEG 2000, TIFF, etc., but not JPEG. What is a good work around for this problem?

Tim’s Quick Answer: This is not an issue with the public beta version of Photoshop, but rather involves the need to use the “Save a Copy” command rather than the “Save As” command when you want to be sure you can save an image as a JPEG file.

More Detail: Some time ago Photoshop was updated to include a new “Save a Copy” command. While the change is aimed at helping ensure you don’t lose information related to your image files, it has also caused considerable confusion for photographers.

If you use the “Save As” command in Photoshop, you will only be able to select file formats that support all the features represented by the image you’re saving, such as layers, bit depth, and more. If you use the “Save a Copy” command, you’ll be able to choose any file format supported by Photoshop.

So, to be able to save the image as a JPEG you need to do one of two things. You can either change the file to support the JPEG format, or use the “Save a Copy” command so you can save an additional file as a JPEG. However, assuming you want to preserve the maximum potential for the source image, I recommend using the “Save a Copy” command in this case.

Based on today’s question the source image is likely in the 16-bit per channel bit depth, which is supported by JPEG 2000 images but not JPEG images. Thus, when you use the “Save As” command the JPEG option is not available. Simply choosing the “Save a Copy” command will enable you to save a copy of the image as a JPEG file.

It can be important to understand the differences between the various “Save” commands in Photoshop.

The “Save” command will update the current file with all the current settings and options. However, this is only an option if the current file format supports the features. If, for example, you open a JPEG image but then add layers, using the “Save” command will automatically invoke the “Save As” command, so you can save a copy in a file format that supports the updated features, such as layers.

The “Save As” command enables you to save a copy of the current image, but only in a file format that supports all features of the file. For example, the “Save As” command won’t offer JPEG as an option for an image with layers or that is set to the 16-bit per channel bit depth.

The “Save a Copy” command allows you to choose any file format that is supported by Photoshop, even if the file format you choose doesn’t support all features used for the image. For example, if you use the “Save a Copy” command to create an additional JPEG file, that JPEG won’t contain layers even if the source image has layers, since JPEG images don’t support layers.

Today’s Question: I don’t know what happened, but suddenly the left and right panels in Lightroom Classic disappear every time I move the mouse away from them. I have to click at the edge of the screen to make the panel come back, but as soon as I move my mouse away it disappears again. How can I stop this from happening?!

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can simply disable the auto-hide feature for the panels by right-clicking at the edge of the Lightroom Classic interface and choosing “Manual” from the popup.

More Detail: By default, panels in Lightroom Classic are in manual mode, meaning you can click on the outside edge of a panel to hide it, and click again at that edge to reveal the panel again. However, there are also options for automatically hiding and revealing panels.

If you right-click on the outside edge of a panel, you’ll see a popup with options related to the panel behavior. If you choose “Auto Hide & Show”, the panel will be hidden once you move your mouse away from the panel, and it will be displayed if you move your mouse over the “stub” at the outside edge of the Lightroom Classic interface.

If you choose “Auto Hide” from the popup (which from the description in today’s question is the issue involved here) the panel will hide whenever you move the mouse away from it, but you must click on the outside edge of the interface to bring the panel back.

So, in this case, simply choosing “Manual” from the popup menu will get the intended behavior, where you need to click to hide or reveal a panel.

Note, by the way, that there is also an option for “Sync with Opposite Panel” on the popup menu associated with the outside edge of panels. If you turn this option on, the left and right panels will operate as a set and the top and bottom panels will operate as a set. That means, for example, that with the sync option enabled if you hide the left panel the right panel will also be hidden.

Today’s Question: After reading your recommendations to have a cloud backup of my photos I looked into Backblaze, but I’m confused how you’re able to use it. Do I need to move my photo files from my external drive to the internal hard drive my computer to back up with Backblaze?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can back up both internal and external hard drives to the cloud using Backblaze (https://timgrey.me/cloudbackup), with no need to copy photos or other files to an internal hard drive.

More Detail: Backblaze (https://timgrey.me/cloudbackup) is the service I use and recommend for backing up photos and other important files to the cloud, which provides an offsite backup that is an excellent and potentially important supplement to local backups.

By default, Backblaze will only back up the internal hard drive on the computer you install the software on. However, you can most certainly add external hard drives to the Backblaze backup.

In the Preferences dialog for Backblaze there is a Settings button you can click to bring up an additional dialog. On the Settings tab for that dialog, you’ll see a section labeled “Select Hard Drives to Backup”. All drives that are currently connected to your computer will be shown on that list, and you can simply turn on the checkbox for each drive you’d like to back up with Backblaze.

Keep in mind that it can take considerable time for the initial backup to complete for a hard drive you enabled for backup. In the case of a 4TB hard drive on my high-speed internet connection, for example, it took about two weeks for the initial backup to complete. After that, however, the backups will stay updated with very little delay.

It is also important to note that by default backups will only be retained as long as you don’t leave an external hard drive disconnected for more than 30 days. You can extend this limit to one year by upgrading to the Version History option, which is only an additional $2 per month for the one-year option.

You can learn more about the Backblaze online backup service here:

https://timgrey.me/cloudbackup

Today’s Question: Many of my images in Lightroom Classic show a symbol [indicating a metadata mismatch] at the upper-right of the thumbnails. I have enabled the “Automatically write changes into XMP” option in Catalog Settings. Why isn’t Lightroom Classic automatically saving the metadata? Is there something I’m missing?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The issue here is that images have been updated in some way outside of Lightroom Classic. As long as you’re sure that all important updates have been applied within your catalog, you can either ignore the symbol or choose the option to save updates to the source file.

More Detail: With the “Automatically write changes into XMP” checkbox turned on (which I do recommend), standard metadata as well as Develop updates applied within Lightroom Classic will be saved to the source image files on your hard drive. This will update an XMP sidecar file for proprietary raw captures and save metadata directly to the source file for other supported file types.

However, it is still possible for there to be a metadata mismatch if updates were applied outside of the Lightroom Classic catalog. This could have been as simple a matter as opening a raw capture directly from the operating system, causing it to be opened in Camera Raw via Photoshop. You might have also updated images using Adobe Bridge or other third-party software.

As long as you’re sure that all updates you actually care about were performed within Lightroom Classic, the metadata mismatch indication isn’t anything you really need to worry about. You could, for example, just ignore the icon.

If you do prefer to resolve the metadata mismatches, first make sure the source image files are currently available so the files can be updated. Then select the photo (or multiple photos) you want to update the metadata for within Lightroom Classic. Click the icon that indicates the metadata mismatch at the top-right of the thumbnail for one of the selected photos. In the dialog that appears, click the Overwrite Settings button. This will save the metadata updates from Lightroom Classic to the source file on the hard drive and resolve the metadata mismatch so the icon indicating this situation will disappear.

Today’s Question: You indicated that it is possible to have Lightroom Classic activated on two computers. But wouldn’t it be difficult or problematic to try to use Lightroom Classic on two different computers due to the catalog?

Tim’s Quick Answer: While it can indeed be difficult or problematic to try to use the same Lightroom Classic catalog on two different computers, it can also be relatively straightforward, such as by storing the catalog on an external hard drive that you move between more than one computer.

More Detail: By default, Lightroom Classic will store the catalog on the internal hard drive on your computer. This is perfectly fine in terms of convenience and performance, but it can become problematic if you want to use Lightroom Classic on more than one computer.

In theory you could copy the most recent version of your catalog from one computer to another, and then copy that catalog back to the first computer when you wanted to switch again. But as you can probably imagine, this can quickly create confusion about, for example, which copy of the catalog is really the most recent.

Therefore, if you want to use Lightroom Classic on more than one computer, I recommend storing your catalog (and the photos) on an external hard drive. The catalog can be opened from the external hard drive with Lightroom Classic on whichever computer is most convenient to use at the time, such as when using a desktop computer when at home and a laptop computer when traveling.

Having the catalog and the photos on an external hard drive is no problem at all, and performance can be on par with having the catalog on an internal hard drive, as long as the external hard drive is of reasonably good performance.

Of course, it is worth pointing out that this issue of managing the catalog in Lightroom Classic is one of the reasons some photographers have avoided Lightroom Classic. I talked about the differences (and similarities) between Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Bridge, in a webinar presentation about six months ago. A recording of the full presentation can be found on my “Tim Grey TV” channel on YouTube here:

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

Today’s Question: I just bought a more powerful computer. Do I need to buy a new Lightroom Classic subscription for the new computer? Is there a way to migrate from the old computer to the new one?

Tim’s Quick Answer: No, you do not need a separate license for the new computer. Migrating from the old computer to the new one can be as simple as copying the folder containing all catalog files to the new computer, depending on your overall configuration.

More Detail: When you get a new computer, you don’t need a new license for Lightroom Classic. You can use your existing license for an Adobe Creative Cloud plan for Lightroom Classic on the new computer. In fact, with Creative Cloud plans you can have Adobe applications activated on up to two computers at a time, though you can only use each application on one computer at a time.

As for migrating the catalog and photos, that can be quite simple depending on your configuration. If you have your photos on an external hard drive, for example, you can simply copy the folder containing your catalog files to the new computer, and make sure that the external hard drive has the same drive letter (Windows) or volume label (Macintosh) on the new computer.

To locate the folder that contains your catalog files, you can use the Catalog Settings dialog in Lightroom Classic. This can be found on the Edit menu on Windows or the Lightroom Classic menu on Macintosh. On the General tab click the Show button to bring up a window in your operating system showing where the catalog folder is located. That folder will be highlighted.

You can then copy the entire folder containing the catalog files to the new computer. You could, for example, copy the folder to an external hard drive, and then copy it into the Pictures folder on the internal hard drive of the new computer.

Once the folder containing the catalog files is copied to the new computer, as long as you’ve already installed Lightroom Classic you can simply double click the primary catalog file (it has a filename extension of .lrcat) to launch Lightroom Classic with that catalog. As long as the photos are still in the same location where they are expected, you can then use Lightroom Classic on the new computer just as you had been on the old computer.

Keep in mind that it is important to only use the “current” version of your catalog, not an older copy. For example, after copying the catalog to your new computer you would not want to work with the older catalog on the old computer, instead treating that copy as a backup that could eventually be discarded once you have confirmed Lightroom Classic is working properly on the new computer and you have backed up the catalog.

Today’s Question: Is there a way to build previews for all photos with Adobe Bridge?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can build previews for all photos in Adobe Bridge by browsing all photos and making sure the “Always Generate” option is enabled for previews.

More Detail: To build previews for all images in Adobe Bridge the first step is to make sure the option is enabled to “Always Generate” previews for images. This setting is found on the PathBar panel, so first make sure this option is enabled by choosing Window > PathBar from the menu. When the PathBar panel is enabled a checkmark icon will appear to the left of its name on the menu.

The PathBar panel appears toward the top of the Bridge interface by default, and on the left side shows the path to the folder you’re currently browsing. On the right side the second button from the left is an options popup. Click this popup and make sure the “Always Generate” option in the Preview Generation section is enabled, indicated by a checkmark icon to the left. Note that you can also adjust the settings for the size and quality of previews on this popup.

Once you’ve enabled the “Always Generate” option for previews you can have those previews generated by browsing a folder location. To build previews for all images on a hard drive, for example, you can select that hard drive from the Folders panel and then from the menu make sure the “Show Items from Subfolders” option is turned on from the View menu.

At this point Bridge will process all images in the location you’re browsing (including subfolders as long as you’ve enabled the option to show images in subfolders). This process can take considerable time depending on how many images are in the selected location and the resolution of those images. Once the previews are generated, however, as long as the full preview is within the size limit of the cache setting, you’ll have a much more fluid browsing experience.

actually browse all images. This can be a little complicated if you have your photos stored across more than one hard drive, but in this case you could also build previews for one hard drive at a time.

Regarding the cache, you can adjust the Preferences settings to help ensure previews are preserved, or at least preserved for as long as possible.

On the Cache tab of the Preferences dialog in Adobe Bridge the first option is the cache size. This determines how much hard drive space can be consumed by the previews cache. If you have considerable available space on the hard drive where the cache is being stored, you can increase this value to help ensure previews will be preserved for longer. Note that the location of this cache can be set in the Location section of the Cache Management tab in the Preferences dialog.

There are two other settings on the Cache tab of the Preferences dialog that can be helpful. The first is the “Keep 100% Previews in Cache” checkbox. With this checkbox enabled, performance will be improved for larger previews (such as when zooming in or using the loupe) as well as when playing a slideshow. However, leaving this option on can also consume significant hard drive space, so I prefer to keep it turned off unless doing so causes frustrating performance issues.

The other setting is the option to purge previews from the cache that are older than a set number of days. If you want to preserve previews as long as possible (even though it will consume additional hard drive space) you can turn this checkbox off. You can also increase the time limit by increasing the value from the default of 30 days.

The settings above can help ensure the previews from your images are preserved in cache as long as possible once those previews are generated. You’ll just need to be sure to browse the applicable storage locations with the “Always Generate” option enabled in order to build previews for all images.