Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: The Layers panel [in Photoshop] that I always have open used to “dock” on the right side of the screen. Now it’s floating and could be dragged around. One of the nuisances of this is that the image is partially hidden by the Layers panel. How can I get the panel to dock on the right again and stay that way?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can simply drag the floating panel (or panel group) to the edge of the Photoshop interface to dock it. In addition, if you saved a workspace in Photoshop you can reset that workspace to restore the panel configuration.

More Detail: In Photoshop it is possible to have the various panels be docked to an edge of the main interface window or floating so they can be positioned anywhere you’d like (including on a secondary monitor).

If you have a floating panel (or set of panels) you can simply drag it to the edge of the interface. If it is a single panel you want to dock you can drag on the tab that shows the name of the panel. If it is a set of panels grouped together you can drag the bar at the top of the group. This bar looks like a title bar of a small window, but without a title on it.

You can drag the panel or group to any edge of the Photoshop interface, or to be docked within an existing panel or group. Once you drag close to an edge, you’ll see a highlight line or box depending on where you have moved your mouse, which indicates the position the panel will be docked when you release the mouse.

If you had previously saved a workspace, you can also revert to the original configuration of that workspace by going to the menu and choosing Window > Workspace > Reset, which will show the name of the current workspace after “Reset”. You can also simply switch to a saved workspace by choosing it from the Window > Workspace submenu.

If you haven’t saved a workspace, you can do so after configuring all the panels to your liking by choosing Window > Workspace > New Workspace from the menu.

I covered the many options for configuring panels and other aspects of the Photoshop interface in the lesson “Configuring the Photoshop Interface”, which is Chapter 1, Lesson 4 of my “Photoshop for Photographers” video course. This comprehensive course is included in the GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle, and you can learn more about it on the GreyLearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/photoshop-for-photographers-2024

Today’s Question: I edit my photos in Lightroom 12 on Macintosh and sometimes in Lightroom 13 on Windows. I get the message that metadata was changed externally, with two choices (Overwrite Settings or Import Setting from Disk). I have XMP files related to all photos, so which one should I choose?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In this context I recommend changing your workflow to avoid the metadata mismatches in the first place. I never recommend using two different catalogs, especially for managing the same photos.

More Detail: A metadata mismatch of the type described in today’s question indicates that an image was changed outside of Lightroom Classic. In other words, the metadata in the source image file (or XMP sidecar file in the case of a proprietary raw capture) doesn’t match the information in the Lightroom Classic catalog.

Under more typical circumstances you would choose to import the settings from the disk if you know the latest updates were made outside of Lightroom Classic, and you would choose to overwrite the settings if you knew the information in the catalog was the most.

In this case the issue is that two different catalogs are being used with two different versions of Lightroom Classic (and on two different operating systems) to manage the same photos. This is not something I would ever recommend, as doing so can lead to mismatched and conflicting metadata for photos.

It is perfectly fine to work across more than one computer with Lightroom Classic. However, when doing so you should always use the same catalog. That generally involves storing the catalog on an external hard drive along with your photos, so you can move the catalog between computers. However, for this to work you would also need to ensure that the same version of Lightroom Classic is being used on both computers so that the catalog version matches the software.

Today’s Question: Can you clarify why you use both GoodSync and Backblaze to back up your photos, rather than just using one of the two?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I use both of these backup solutions because GoodSync (https://www.timgreyphoto.com/goodsync) is a good tool for backing up locally, and Backblaze (https://timgrey.me/cloudbackup) is a good tool for backing up remotely via cloud storage.

More Detail: When it comes to a reliable workflow for backing up photos and other important data, I recommend following the “3-2-1” rule. This calls for maintaining three copies of your data, with two copies stored locally and one copy stored remotely.

I actually take this a little further, maintaining two local backups in addition to a remote backup. So, I use GoodSync to back up my primary drives to two additional drives. Each of those backup drives can easily replace the primary drive should I experience a failure of other issue with the drive.

To supplement my local backup workflow, I make use of Backblaze for an online backup, which serves as my primary offsite backup. This provides a backup that I can recover from even if I experience a disaster that causes all my local storage to be damaged or destroyed. As unlikely as this scenario may be (I hope!), the online backup provides additional peace of mind.

I covered my full backup workflow and provided much more information about defining and executing a workflow for backing up your photos in a GreyLearning Ultimate Event last year. Recordings of all presentations from this online event are available here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/greylearning-ultimate-event-backing-up-your-photos-may-2023

Today’s Question: I know you can click on an arrow for a keyword on the Keyword List [in Lightroom Classic] to set a filter for photos that include a keyword. But that includes all photos with that keyword in my entire catalog. Is there an easy way to only filter by that keyword for the folder I’m currently browsing?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can easily filter by keyword within a folder by using the Keyword List shortcut, making sure the filter is locked, and then navigate to a different folder to view only the photos with the applicable keyword in the selected folder.

More Detail: I find that many photographers overlook the filter lock button on the Library Filter bar in Lightroom Classic, which is unfortunate because I find it to be an incredibly helpful option. When you enable the filter lock, when you navigate to a different folder or collection the filter settings will remain, so you’re only seeing the photos within the folder or collection that match the criteria you’ve established.

In the context of today’s question, the first step would be to click on the arrow to the right of the filter you want to search for on the Keyword List on the right panel in the Library module. Note that the arrow icon only appears when you hover your mouse pointer over a keyword within the Keyword List. You can, of course, use any of the filter options available when it comes to locking filter criteria.

Clicking the arrow to the right of a keyword on a Keyword List actually serves as a shortcut for the Library Filter bar, while also switching you to the All Photographs collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module. When you click the arrow, the first column of the Metadata tab of the Library Filter bar is set to Keyword, with the applicable keyword selected. You can add or change any of the criteria from any of the tabs, such as if you wanted to filter by star rating in addition to the selected keyword.

Once the criteria are set, you can click the padlock icon at the top-right of the Library Filter bar to lock the criteria. When the padlock appears unlocked (open), switching to a different folder or collection will reset the filter to None, so that all images are displayed. With the padlock locked (closed), the filter criteria will remain locked so that as you navigate to a different folder or collection, you’ll still only be seeing the images in that location that match the criteria you’ve established.

So, in the case of today’s question, the process would simply involve clicking the arrow for the applicable keyword on the Keyword List, making sure the lock is enabled for the Library Filter bar, and then navigating to the desired folder or collection.

Today’s Question: What is the impact of noise reduction in terms of the degradation of image quality?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Noise reduction can reduce the apparent sharpness and level of detail in a photo and can also cause colors to become less saturated and potentially bleed into surrounding areas within the image.

More Detail: Noise reduction essentially involves averaging neighboring pixel values in an image to reduce the appearance of noise. The specific process is a bit more complicated than this, but if you think about it as a process of averaging neighboring pixel values you can get a better sense of the potential degradation in image quality that can result.

Luminance noise reduction can be particularly problematic, because it involves averaging tonal values in an image. This can quite literally involve reducing contrast between neighboring pixels, which reduces perceived sharpness and can also result in a loss of fine detail. It is therefore critically important to be very careful when applying luminance noise reduction. You will need to compromise between the level of noise reduction being applied and the degradation in image quality.

With color noise reduction the risk relates to altering color values. With modest color noise reduction, the primary risk is that colors may become less saturated. However, with strong color noise reduction you can also create a situation where colors bleed into each other. For example, if you have a photo with vibrant green leaves on a tree set against a bright blue sky, along those edges you may see the greens blending into the sky and the blues blending into the leaves.

The key is to carefully evaluate the image, and to only apply enough noise reduction to mitigate the effect of the noise without using such strong settings that the image quality is significantly degraded.

Today’s Question: What do you mean by the term “demosaiced” for raw captures that are converted to the DNG file format?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Demosaicing refers to the process of calculating the “other” two color values for each pixel in a raw capture, since the vast majority of cameras only capture one of the three RGB values for each pixel.

More Detail: While each pixel in a digital image is typically made up of three color values (generally red, green, and blue for an RGB image), nearly all digital cameras only record a single color value for each pixel. Most cameras use a Bayer pattern, where for each set of four pixels on the image sensor one pixel only records the red value, two pixels only record green values, and one pixel records blue.

For a raw capture, that original data is recorded without calculating the “other” values for each pixel. If you capture a JPEG image the sensor still only captures one color per pixel, but the other pixel values are calculated in the camera to create the JPEG image with full color information for each pixel.

Whenever the raw capture data is processed, the additional values need to be calculated. The raw data represents mosaiced data, meaning there is a mosaic of values that don’t represent the complete RGB pixel values. The missing values for all pixels are calculated based on the values for neighboring pixels. This process of converting the mosaiced data into full color information is referred to as demosaicing.

Today’s Question: As a follow-up to your answer about working with images in tabs, one of the reasons I use floating windows is so I can drag a layer from one image to another, such as to make a composite. Is there a way to drag a layer from one image to another when they are all in tabs?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can drag an image layer to another image in a tab by hovering the mouse pointer over the tab for the destination image as part of the drag-and-drop operation.

More Detail: When you have more than one image open as floating windows it can be a little easier to drag a layer from one image to another, since you can see multiple images at one time. However, as noted in my answer on Monday, having images opened in windows rather than tabs can be a bit cumbersome.

Fortunately, it is quite easy to drag a layer from one image to another even when the images are all opened in tabs.

To get started, select the tab for the image that contains the layer you want to copy to another image that is also open. On the Layers panel click and hold the mouse button on the thumbnail for the layer you want to copy to another image that is open in another tab. Keeping the mouse button held down, hover the mouse pointer over the tab for the image you want to copy the layer to. After hovering for a moment, the image represented by the tab will come to the forefront.

You can then continue dragging until the mouse pointer is over the destination image. If you want to center the image into the destination document hold the Shift key on the keyboard. Then release the mouse, and the layer you dragged from the source document will be copied to the destination image.

Note that you can select more than one layer if you want to copy multiple layers in one drag-and-drop operation. It is also worth noting that the layer will be placed in the destination document directly above the currently selected layer on the Layers panel. You can drag the layer into a different position on the Layers panel after copying it, but you can also ensure it goes where you want it by selecting the layer that you want the new layer to be positioned above in the destination document before dragging-and-dropping from the source document.

Today’s Question: Why does the Denoise with AI feature in Photoshop [via Camera Raw] cause the result to be saved as a new DNG file? Is the “old” way with Noise Reduction slider still available but hidden somewhere?

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you don’t want to use the Denoise feature in Camera Raw or Lightroom you can indeed use the Manual Noise Reduction option so you can control the noise reduction effect yourself.

More Detail: With some of the advanced features in Lightroom and Camera Raw, such as Denoise and Super Resolution, the processing requires that the raw capture data be processed and demosaiced. As part of this process the image is saved as an Adobe DNG file.

The new Denoise feature leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to process the image, and involves using just a single slider for the overall strength of the effect. If you prefer to use the manual noise reduction (as I do for most images) you can simply make use of the Manual Noise Reduction feature.

If the sliders for Manual Noise Reduction are not shown, you can click the triangle to the right of that heading to display them. This includes sets of sliders for both luminance and color noise reduction, which you can fine-tune based on the image and your preference in terms of balancing noise reduction with the potential degradation in the image that noise reduction can cause.

Today’s Question: When I open an image in Photoshop it “nests” behind my toolbar hiding the close or minimize buttons. Do you know of a fix for this?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can force images to open into a tab rather than a floating window in Photoshop by turning on the “Open Documents as Tabs” checkbox in Preferences.

More Detail: While Photoshop enables you to open images in floating windows, doing so can often lead to issues where parts of the window or of the Photoshop interface are blocked. Having your documents open in tabs helps avoid this issue, and in my view streamlines the process of working with images in Photoshop.

If you already have open documents that are in windows, you can consolidate all of them to tabs by going to the menu and choosing Window > Arrange > Consolidate All to Tabs.

To have Photoshop always open images into tabs rather than floating windows, you can enable an option in Preferences. Start by choosing Edit > Preferences > Workspace from the menu on Windows, or Photoshop > Settings > Workspace on Macintosh. On the Workspace tab of the Preferences dialog turn on the “Open Documents as Tabs” checkbox in the Options section. This will cause all new documents or images you open to be opened in tabs rather than as floating windows.

You can then switch between open images by clicking on the applicable tab, similar to how you might switch between tabs in a web browser. This makes it convenient for working with multiple images, while also making it more streamlined even when only working with a single image.

Today’s Question: When editing JPEGs that I used in my early days of digital photography I’ve always opened them in Photoshop and used “Save As” to get a TIFF file and then edited from there. Is that not a good option?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Saving a JPEG image as a TIFF file before editing is a good approach, as it ensures you won’t create additional degradation of the image by saving multiple times with JPEG compression.

More Detail: JPEG images exhibit visible artifacts based on the way JPEG compression works. This can lead to a somewhat obvious grid pattern in the image, which can be distracting. The pattern is often quite difficult to see, but once you notice it you may find it difficult to ignore.

If an image was captured or saved as a JPEG, there will always be a degree of artifacts from the JPEG compression that you really can’t do anything about. In other words, saving a JPEG file as a TIFF won’t remove the JPEG artifacts, it will simply prevent them from getting worse.

Each time you make changes to a JPEG image and save it again, the JPEG compression algorithm processes the image data, which can lead to further degradation of image quality. It is therefore best to avoid saving updates to a JPEG image when applying adjustments, in the interest of maintaining maximum image quality.

Saving the JPEG as a TIFF image either without compression or with a lossless compression option (such as ZIP or LZW) will ensure that additional image degradation will not occur from compression, since no additional lossy compression is being applied after that point.

Of course, as a result of saving the image as a TIFF file the file size will be significantly larger. For example, a JPEG image that might be less than two megabytes in size might translate to a TIFF image of around twenty megabytes. In other words, you’ll be consuming quite a bit more storage space when saving a TIFF based on a JPEG image. This is certainly something to consider, especially since the reality is that if you use a high setting for the Quality option when saving an updated JPEG file, the degradation in image quality is quite minor.