Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: As I’ve gotten older I am increasingly tempted to ditch my digital SLR in favor of a mirrorless camera system. But taking that idea a step further, do you think it would be crazy to use an iPhone as my only camera?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I don’t think it’s crazy at all to use a smartphone as your only camera system, provided you are willing to accept the inherent limitations of smartphone photography.

More Detail: In many cases you can save considerable weight by switching from a digital SLR to a mirrorless camera system. Opting to use a smartphone as your camera provides even greater weight savings, making it a tempting option for many photographers. But there are also inherent limitations with smartphone cameras.

One of the more significant limitations of smartphone cameras relates to lens focal length. Most smartphone cameras have a lens with an effective focal length of around 50mm. In general there is very little (or no) ability to zoom without sacrificing image quality. A variety of accessory lenses are available for many smartphone cameras, but these don’t provide the range (or quality) available with a larger camera system.

There is also a greater risk of noise and other image quality issues with a smartphone camera, primarily due to the extremely small sensor size used by most cameras. When you have relatively strong lighting you can achieve excellent image quality with many smartphones. Under conditions with low light levels, noise can become a significant issue.

In addition, there is generally less control you’re able to exercise over the exposure and other camera settings when using a smartphone. For example, you are generally not able to achieve long exposure times with smartphones, other than through the use of apps that simulate a motion blur effect by blending multiple images together.

To be sure, it is possible to capture incredible photographic images with a smartphone, especially a more recent model featuring top-of-the-line camera hardware. Many photographers are producing great work with the exclusive use of an iPhone or other smartphone. Provided the compromises don’t represent a serious concern for you, I think it is perfectly reasonable to consider the use of a smartphone as a primary camera.

Today’s Question: In Lightroom, when I crop a photo and then click and drag it to center it in the crop as best I can, I see a curving line shaped similar to a nautilus shell curve.  I don’t remember seeing that before. What is it, and what is it used for?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The spiral you’re seeing is one of the overlay options for the Crop tool in Lightroom, which can be helpful for refining the way you crop a given photo. You can choose an overlay option from the Tools > Crop Guide Overlay submenu, and change visibility options from the Tools > Tool Overlay submenu.

More Detail: Lightroom includes several different overlay options for the Crop tool, which include Grid, Thirds, Diagonal, Triangle, Golden Ratio, Golden Spiral, and Aspect Ratios. These can be helpful when you want to crop an image with a reference to one of the “rules” of composition, such as the “Rule of Thirds”.

From the Tools > Tool Overlay submenu you can choose Auto Show if you want to overlay to appear only when you are adjusting the crop bounding box. You can also choose Always Show or Never Show if you want to turn the display on or off at all times when working with the Crop tool.

You can select a specific overlay from the Tools > Crop Guide Overlay submenu, or you can press the letter “O” (as in “overlay”) on the keyboard to cycle through the available options. For overlay options that can be presented in different positions (such as the Golden Spiral, which can be rotated to begin in any corner, for example) you can press Shift+O on the keyboard to cycle through those variations.

Today’s Question: Is there a way in Adobe Bridge to specifically search for vertical versus horizontal images?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes! In fact there is an Orientation section on the Filter panel, which enables you to filter based on Landscape, Portrait, and Square aspect ratios.

More Detail: Adobe Bridge actually includes some rather sophisticated options for filtering your photos, including the ability to browse across a large range of folders.

The first step is to browse the photos in the location you want to search. That might mean, for example, selecting an individual folder from the Folders panel. You can also select a parent folder and then go to the menu and choose View > Show Items From Subfolders to display all images within all subfolders of the parent folder you selected.

You can then find the various filtering options on the Filter panel. If this panel isn’t currently visible you can choose Window > Filter Panel from the menu to bring it up. Expand the Orientation section if it is collapsed, and then select the orientation you want to filter by. You can also select other filter criteria to help narrow your search, of course.

I will offer one word of caution, however. If you are searching for an image for a specific output method (such as the cover of a magazine), don’t forget that in many cases it is possible to crop an image to a different orientation. A horizontal image of high resolution could potentially be cropped to a vertical version that can then be used for a magazine cover, for example.

Today’s Question: When I open Photoshop, I get an initial screen that shows recently used images in either thumbnail or list view format. Clicking on an image opens it. But then when I want to open another image, going to the File menu and selecting Open Recent only gives a text file list. There doesn’t seem to be any way to view the list as thumbnails. How can I get back to the initial Photoshop screen that shows the recent images as thumbnails?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The “Start” workspace that provides the thumbnail view of recent files is only available when there are no images open. If it is enabled in Preferences, you will see the Start workspace when you initially launch Photoshop, or when you close all open images.

More Detail: The Start workspace is essentially a specialty version of the type of saved workspace you can create in Photoshop. Oddly, while you can switch to another saved workspace when you are viewing the Start workspace, you can’t switch back to the Start workspace if there are any open images.

If you want to have access to the Start workspace, you’ll first want to enable it in Preferences. In the Preferences dialog (accessible from the Edit menu on Windows or the Photoshop menu on Macintosh) choose the General tab. Then turn on the “Show ‘Start’ Workspace When No Documents Are Open” checkbox. Quit Photoshop and launch it again to activate the change.

When you launch Photoshop you’ll see the Start workspace, complete with the option to display thumbnails for recently opened images. If you want to switch to a different workspace, you can go to the menu and choose Window > Workspace, and then select the desired workspace. As long as you don’t have any images open, you can switch back to the Start workspace by selecting it from the Window > Workspace submenu.

However, if you have an image open, you won’t have access to the Start workspace. To bring up the Start workspace you would need to close all open images. Unfortunately, there is not a way to view the list of images on the Open Recent submenu as a list of thumbnails, so the Start workspace is indeed your best option.

Worse, the reason this is no longer an option is that the “Recent Files” workspace was removed from Photoshop. This workspace provided the functionality you are looking for, but is no longer available. Instead you’ll need to close all open images in order to access the “Start” workspace.

Today’s Question: Once a raw capture has been edited in Adobe Camera Raw and brought into Photoshop (by clicking the “Open Image” button), what type of file is it? On my PC, when the file is opened in Photoshop, the file name is shown with an extension of NEF [Nikon’s raw capture format]. Does that mean that Photoshop permits one to further edit a raw file?

Tim’s Quick Answer: When you open a proprietary raw capture in Photoshop via Camera Raw, the processed raw capture you see in Photoshop isn’t a file at all. Rather, it simply represents the pixel values that were rendered based on the original raw capture. You aren’t directly altering the source raw file, but are instead creating a new image file that simply hasn’t been saved yet.

More Detail: Photoshop does not enable you to directly edit an original proprietary raw capture. Instead, you must use Adobe Camera Raw to process the original raw capture, with the result being a rendered image in Photoshop that has not yet been saved. In other words, when you open a raw capture in Photoshop using Adobe Camera Raw, what is open in Photoshop as a result is not an actual file on your hard drive. However, Photoshop presents the open image with the filename of the source raw capture, which can be confusing. That “filename” is simply a placeholder until you save the file in a supported image format (such as PSD or TIFF).

If you choose File > Save from the menu after opening a raw capture via Camera Raw, Photoshop will present the “Save As” dialog. That is because the image you are currently working with has not actually been saved yet. This is similar to what you might see if you create a new empty document in Photoshop using the File > New command. A new document will appear to have a basic filename (such as “Untitled-1”), but until you use the Save command there isn’t actually a file representing the image.

Even after processing the original raw capture with Camera Raw, the original source capture file on your hard drive remains unaltered. Furthermore, you can’t save an updated version of your image in a proprietary raw capture format from Photoshop.

Today’s Question: Is it possible to mask out a logo in Lightroom similar to what you covered about this technique in Photoshop in a previous Ask Tim Grey email?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can’t perform the masking work in Lightroom, but you can employ a masked logo as a watermark in Lightroom for a variety of sharing methods.

More Detail: In an Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter last week I discussed the use of a blend mode to automatically (and very effectively) mask a black logo on a white background (or vice versa). Lightroom does not have any such masking feature, and so you would need to perform the actual masking work in Photoshop.

In the context of preparing a logo to use as a watermark with transparency as part of that logo, you couldn’t actually use the blend mode option in Photoshop. You would instead need to use a layer mask, in order to create a logo file where the logo consists of opaque (or partially opaque) pixels, with completely transparent pixels in the non-logo areas.

From within Photoshop, after preparing this image with transparency, you could then create a PNG image with transparency to use as your watermark. To do so, choose File > Export > Quick Export as PNG from the menu in Photoshop. Save the resulting PNG file in a convenient location you’ll be able to access from Lightroom.

That PNG image can then be used as a graphic watermark with the various sharing options in Lightroom. For example, the watermark could be placed on an image you are printing from the Print module. After turning on the “Watermarking” checkbox you can click the associated popup and choose “Edit Watermarks” from the popup menu.

In the Watermark Editor dialog you could then choose the “Graphic” option from the “Watermark Style” setting, and click the Choose button to select the PNG file you created. Because this image includes transparency, only the logo itself would appear as the watermark on the image. You can then adjust the other settings (such as position and scale) for the watermark, and click the Save button to save this watermark for future use for sharing photos in Lightroom.

Today’s Question: I’m working on learning targeted adjustments in Photoshop. While watching your lesson on Quick Mask mode in Photoshop, I had a question. Can the same color overlay used with Quick Mask mode for selections also be displayed for layer masks? I find that display to be particularly helpful.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can display the equivalent of the Quick Mask overlay for a layer mask by pressing the Backslash key (\) on the keyboard while the applicable layer is active on the Layers panel.

More Detail: Quick Mask mode in Photoshop provides a workflow for refining (or creating) selections by painting with the Brush tool rather than using the various selection tools. When you press “Q” on the keyboard you’ll see a color overlay (it is red by default) that indicates areas that are not selected. Selected areas of the image appear in normal color.

With Quick Mask mode active, you can add areas to the selection by painting with white in the image. You can subtract areas from the selection by painting with black. In effect, painting with black adds the color overlay and painting with white removes that overlay. Pressing “Q” again returns you to the normal selection mode.

The same color overlay presented as part of Quick Mask mode can be displayed when you’re working with a layer mask. You need to first select the applicable layer on the Layers panel, which can be done by simply clicking on the thumbnail for the layer with the layer mask you want to work with.

With the applicable layer active, you can press the Backslash key (\) on the keyboard to activate the color overlay display. Note that while it is possible to change the color and opacity settings for the Quick Mask mode color overlay, those changes do not affect the layer mask overlay displayed when you press the Backslash key.

Today’s Question: I have a logo for my photography business that is black on a white background. What is the easiest way in Photoshop to mask out the logo so I can place it without the white background onto a photo like a watermark?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can very quickly hide the white areas of the logo image by adding it as a layer to a photo in Photoshop and then changing the blend mode for the logo layer (using the popup at the top-left of the Layers panel) to the Multiply blend mode.

More Detail: With this type of situation you could obviously create a selection of the white areas relatively quickly, and then create a layer mask based on the selection. However, this would likely result in the edge of the logo having some fringing of white or gray areas, which could be difficult to clean up.

It would also be possible to use the “Blend If” controls described in an article in the November 2017 issue of Pixology magazine. However, this could create similar challenges with fringing (though that fringing would be easier to resolve with this method).

The beauty of using the Multiply blend mode is that it will help create a more seamless result with virtually no effort. This blend mode will cause white pixels in the applicable layer (the logo layer in this example) to become completely invisible. Darker pixels will cause a darkening of the pixels in the underlying image, with black pixels in the logo layer resulting in completely black pixels in the image below. Because of this behavior, shades of gray in the logo layer will result in a darkened area of the image below, which will result in a much smoother blending of any fringed areas along the edge of the logo.

Note, by the way, that for an inverted scenario (with a white logo on a black background) you could similarly hide the black pixels from the logo image layer by using the Screen blend mode in place of the Multiply blend mode.

Today’s Question: I have been using Adobe Lightroom 5 and still not too efficient with this program. What advantages would I gain if I purchase Lightroom CC?

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you opt for subscribing to an Adobe Creative Cloud plan that includes Lightroom, the key benefit would be ongoing updates including support for new camera raw capture formats. Then you would need to choose between Lightroom Classic CC (which is essentially the latest version of what had been Lightroom 5 and then Lightroom 6) or Lightroom CC (which is the new cloud-based workflow solution).

More Detail: As noted in a previous Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, Adobe has released the final update to the version of Lightroom with a “perpetual” license. In other words, you can only get future updates to Lightroom by subscribing to an Adobe Creative Cloud plan that includes Lightroom.

There are a handful of new features included in Lightroom Classic CC that are not included in Lightroom 5. These include the ability to merge high dynamic range (HDR) and composite panoramic images, a facial recognition feature that speeds the identification of people in your photos, greater flexibility with targeted adjustments, and more. For most photographers interested in using Lightroom to manage their photography workflow, I recommend using Lightroom Classic CC.

The new Lightroom CC cloud-based solution revolves around the online synchronization of all original captures in your entire library of photos. This is certainly an interesting feature, and one that some photographers may find very appealing. However, in my mind there are enough features still missing from this new version of Lightroom that for most photographers Lightroom CC does not provide an adequate solution yet. In other words, for most photographers I would recommend waiting until Lightroom CC has been updated to include additional key features before considering it as a potential solution in your workflow.

Note that you can view a recording of a recent presentation in the GreyLearning Webinar Series that addresses the differences between Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC on the Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube here:

https://youtu.be/Os0-QNG1wjw

Today’s Question: I was looking at the Web module in Lightroom [Classic CC] for possible use sharing photos with clients, but then learned that you can only share these galleries if you have your own website. Is there an easier way to share images online with clients using Lightroom?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can easily share a gallery of images by synchronizing a collection of images using the Creative Cloud, and then sharing that gallery via a link you can email to clients.

More Detail: The option to synchronize photos to the Creative Cloud is only available with the Creative Cloud version of Lightroom, and in this context specifically Lightroom Classic CC. In other words, this feature is not available for the “perpetual” license version of Lightroom, which has now been discontinued by Adobe.

The first step in sharing a gallery in this way is to synchronize a collection from Lightroom on your computer. You can create a new collection, add photos to the collection, and then make sure you’re signed in (this option is available by clicking on the Identity Plate at the far left of the top panel). Next, turn on the checkbox to the left of the collection name, and a “sync” icon will appear that looks something like a horizontal lightning bolt.

Once the photos have synchronized to the Creative Cloud, you can view those photos by pointing your web browser to https://lightroom.adobe.com and signing in to your Adobe Creative Cloud account. Navigate to the collection (album) in your browser, and then click the Share button shown above the thumbnail display of the images in the album.

In the popup that appears, click the “Share This Album” link. Then, on the Share tab, click the “Share this Album” button to confirm you want to share the images. On the next page you can set additional options, and copy the link provided. Click “Done” to finalize the share.

You can then send the link you copied to anyone you want to be able to view the images in your synchronized collection. Note that those you share the album with can “like” and comment on the photos as well, provided they too sign in with an Adobe Creative Cloud account.