Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: When searching and scrolling through the list of Folders in Lightroom, I need to click the triangle icons to reveal sub-folders. After doing this repeatedly there are all of these expanded folders, which makes searching take much longer. Is there a way to “bulk” collapse the folders?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can collapse a folder along with all sub-folders by holding the Alt/Option key while clicking on the spinner (triangle) control for the top-level folder. This same option can be employed for the top-level parent folder to collapse (or expand) all folders and sub-folders on an entire hard drive, for example.

More Detail: When browsing a hierarchical structure (such as the folder structure represented in the Folders list in Lightroom) you will find a triangular icon to the left of each folder name. This triangle is a “spinner” control, which enables you to expand or collapse a folder structure, to reveal or hide sub-folders contained within a folder. In Lightroom, if that triangle is solid it indicates there are folders contained within the folder. A dotted triangle indicates there are no sub-folders.

If you hold the Alt key on Windows or the Option key on Macintosh while clicking on a spinner control, you will expand or collapse (depending on the current state) all sub-folders at all levels within the folder you are clicking the spinner control for.

Taken a step further, if you reveal the parent folder for a top-level folder, you will reveal the hard drive itself, enabling you to expand or collapse all folders in your entire storage structure on the entire drive.

So, for example, let’s assume you have expanded a variety of folders and sub-folders, as noted in today’s question. If you want to collapse all folders across the entire drive, you would first need to reveal the “folder” that actually represents the hard drive. To do so, right-click on any top-level folder on that drive and choose “Show Parent Folder” from the popup menu that appears.

You can then hold the Alt/Option key on the keyboard and click on the spinner control for the top folder that represents the hard drive itself. After collapsing all folders, you can release the Alt/Option key and simply click on the spinner control for the folder representing the hard drive to reveal the folders at the top level on the hard drive, without revealing any sub-folders within those folders.

When you’re finished working with the folder that represents the hard drive, you can right-click on that folder and choose “Hide This Parent” from the popup menu that appears. At that point you will once again only be viewing the top-level folders in your overall storage structure, without the folder representing the hard drive itself.

Today’s Question: I hope you don’t mind a question about iPhone photography. I like to use the iPhone to capture panoramas, but it always wants me to pan from left to right. Is there any way to change this so I can pan from right to left?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can absolutely switch the panning direction when capturing a panorama using the Camera app on an iPhone. Just tap the arrow to switch between left-to-right panning and right-to-left panning.

More Detail: There are two features related to capturing a panorama with the iPhone Camera app that I find many photographers are not aware of.

First, as noted above, you can reverse the panning direction for capturing a panorama. Normally, when you switch to the “Pano” mode within the Camera app, the arrow you see will be pointing to the right, indicating you need to start on the left side of your scene and pan to the right as you are capturing your panorama. However, you can simply tap on the arrow to “flip” it to point left. You can then start your capture on the right side of the scene, panning to the left across the scene during the capture.

In addition, I think it is worth keeping in mind that you are not limited to horizontal panoramas. You can also capture a vertical panorama when using Pano mode in the Camera app on an iPhone. All you need to do is rotate the iPhone for your capture.

For Pano mode, if you are capturing a horizontal panorama, you would hold your phone vertically and pan across the scene during your capture. If you want to capture a vertical panorama, simply rotate the iPhone 90-degrees, so that the arrow indicating the panning motion points up or down (depending on the direction you rotated the iPhone). And, as needed, you can tap the arrow to switch between panning from the bottom to the top of the scene, or vice versa.

Today’s Question: Is there a way in Photoshop to extend the right side of the photo to make a larger canvass, but instead of inserting a solid color or transparancy, telling it to use the colors of the pixels at the far right so it just looks like that wall goes on further and further?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can actually accomplish this effect quite easily, primarily through the use of the Transform command to stretch a column of pixels to the edge of an expanded canvas.

More Detail: The first step here is to extend the canvas for the image, so that there is space available for the new pixels you’ll be adding. To avoid filling the new space with the current background color, you’ll want to convert the Background image layer to a “normal” layer. To do so, double-click on the thumbnail for the Background image layer on the Layers panel, and click OK in the New Layer dialog that appears.

Next, you can extend the canvas to create the desired amount of additional space for the effect. To get started, choose Image > Canvas Size from the menu. I generally find it easiest to turn on the “Relative” checkbox, so you can specify the amount of space you want to add. However, you can also leave this checkbox turned off and simply update the existing dimensions as needed. Then choose the unit of measure (such as Pixels or Inches) from the popup, and update the value for Width and/or Height. In this case, for example, you would only be extending the Width value. Click OK to apply the change.

You can now duplicate the desired pixels, in this case a single column at the far right of the image.

First, zoom in considerably, so you can easily identify (and click on) the pixel in question. So in this case you would zoom in to the right edge of the existing image, so you can click on a pixel in the right-most column. Then choose the Single Column Marquee tool by right-clicking on the button for the Rectangular Marquee tool on the toolbox and choosing “Single Column Marquee Tool” from the popup that appears. Then click on a pixel in the right-most column of pixels in the image to select that column of pixels. You can then choose Layer > New > Layer Via Copy from the menu to duplicate that column of pixels onto a new layer.

This new layer, consisting of only a single column of pixels in this case, will now be active on the Layers panel. So, choose Edit > Free Transform from the menu to enable a transformation of this layer. There will be anchor points at the corners and midway down the sides of the layer. Drag the right-center anchor point to the right, all the way to the edge of the canvas you extended for the image. You can then press Enter/Return on the keyboard, which will finalize the effect.

The overall process here may sound a little involved, but it is actually quite straightforward, and very easily produces the intended effect.

Today’s Question: If you cancel your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and several months later want to renew it will you be charged for the intervening time?

Tim’s Quick Answer: No, if you cancel your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and later restart your subscription, you won’t be charged for the time during which your subscription was inactive.

More Detail: Provided you have saved all of your photos and the information about your photos (such as a Lightroom catalog) to your own local storage (rather than in the cloud), there isn’t any real risk of losing data when you cancel your Creative Cloud subscription.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that if you are using the synchronization features (such as with Lightroom CC for mobile devices, or the cloud-synchronization service with Lightroom on the desktop), that the synchronized images and galleries will no longer be available once you cancel your subscription. So, again, you would want to be sure you have all of your data stored locally before canceling your subscription.

As noted in a previous edition of the Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, it is also possible to continue using Lightroom Classic CC after canceling your Creative Cloud subscription. Just note that certain features (such as the Develop and Map modules) will no longer function in this case.

If you later restart a Creative Cloud subscription, naturally the rate you had been paying previously might not be available any longer. So you might have no choice but to sign up at a higher price point. But you would not have to pay for the time period that your subscription was inactive. And if you properly saved all of your photos and data locally, you would be able to essentially pick up right where you left off in terms of managing your photos.

Today’s Question: I have students asking me if there is an app that will show a histogram while one is taking photos with their iPhone. Do you know?

Tim’s Quick Answer: There are two options I would recommend for viewing a histogram for a photo on the iPhone. One option is the Photo Extension Histogram app, which enables you to view a histogram for images in the Photos app. The other option is to use the Lightroom CC mobile app.

More Detail: It is a little surprising to me how difficult it can be to view a histogram for photos on your iPhone. Fortunately, there are a couple of solutions that do work.

The Photo Extension Histogram app, which enables you to view a histogram for images in the Photos app. Since the Photos app doesn’t include a histogram feature, a separate app is needed for this purpose, which provides a workaround to view a histogram for any image. The process involves “sharing” a photo via the Photo Extension Histogram app.

So, just as you might use the sharing feature in the Photos app to send a photo via Messages or using AirDrop, so too can you share a photo to the Photo Extension Histogram app to view a histogram (both luminance and color) for the photo.

You can find this app in the Apple App Store by searching for “Photo Extension Histogram”. The app has a price of US$2.99.

Another option is to use the Lightroom CC app for mobile devices. You can view a histogram for any photo you manage within Lightroom CC. Note that you can also capture photos directly with the Lightroom CC app, which provides a convenient solution for streamlining your workflow. When you capture a photo using the camera within Lightroom CC, the photo is automatically added to (and synchronized via) your Lightroom CC catalog.

To access the histogram in the Lightroom CC mobile app, you need to switch to the Edit mode. You can then tap on the image with two fingers to bring up the info display. Tap again with two fingers to bring up the histogram display, and then tap a third time with two fingers to remove the histogram/info display.

Today’s Question: We’d like to know why we can’t take a Photoshop PSD file directly into Adobe Camera Raw? We are able to take a PSD from Bridge directly into Photoshop, but not into Camera Raw. Yes, a workaround is Lightroom or Camera Raw as a filter in Photoshop, but we would still like to know we have this problem with PSDs?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Conceptually, the key challenge with a Photoshop PSD file in Adobe Camera Raw is that a PSD very often will include layers, which complicate processing with Camera Raw. For example, TIFF images with layers are also not supported in Camera Raw.

More Detail: I suppose the “real” answer here is that Adobe has thus far not chosen to support processing Photoshop PSD file via Camera Raw. If they wanted to add this support, it certainly could be done.

As many photographers may be aware, it is possible to open TIFF and JPEG images directly with Camera Raw, similar to how you can open proprietary raw captures (or Adobe DNG images) with Camera Raw. However, layered images would create a complication for this workflow.

So, while you can open a JPEG or TIFF image with Camera Raw, that support does not extend to TIFF images saved with layers. Only flattened TIFF images can be opened in Camera Raw in this way.

I imagine Adobe has decided that there isn’t much of a need to open PSD images in Camera Raw, in part because a PSD image file is perhaps more likely to contain multiple layers. As noted in the question, of course, Photoshop CC does include a Camera Raw filter, so you can apply Camera Raw adjustments as a filter to any image layer in any image format supported by Photoshop.

Today’s Question: When photographing a far-away subject such as the moon, if I manually set the focus on the lens to infinity will I be assured of proper focus?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Almost certainly not. Setting the focus to the greatest distance (ostensibly “infinity”) will not always ensure proper focus, even for a subject that is at a very great distance.

More Detail: In actual fact, I find that setting most lenses to infinity will definitely produce an image that does not have optimal focus. I’m sure the use of an infinity setting for focus works for some lenses in some situations, but I would absolutely not consider this a reliable technique.

Instead, for situations where autofocus doesn’t necessarily provide an ideal solution (such as with night photography) I recommend using manual focus in conjunction with the live view preview on the camera’s LCD display.

This approach obviously is best used in conjunction with a tripod. After framing up your scene, you can then use the zoom feature for the LCD display (not adjusting the zoom setting for the lens) to zoom in on a key area of the scene you are photographing. You can then manually adjust focus, with the autofocus turned off for the lens.

You’ll obviously want to use other techniques, such as employing a cable release, in order to help ensure optimal sharpness, especially if you are using a relatively long exposure time. But you will likely notice in these types of situations that when you adjust the focus manually with the assistance of the live view display, even for very distant subjects you are likely not ending up with the focus set at infinity. In many cases, in fact, you may be surprised at how far from the infinity setting you actually end up setting the focus.

Today’s Question: I am working with architectural abstractions doing most of the work in Photoshop CC. I often have to take the files back into Lightroom to use the clarity feature to gain mid-tone contrast. Is there an approach in Photoshop that would achieve the same results?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can actually access the Clarity adjustment in Photoshop by applying the Camera Raw filter to any image layer in Photoshop.

More Detail: As many photographers are aware, Adobe Camera Raw includes all of the same adjustments found in the Develop module in Lightroom. While Camera Raw was originally intended for processing proprietary raw captures, it can also be used for other image file formats, and is also available as a filter in Photoshop CC.

Since the Clarity adjustment is included in Camera Raw, that also means you can access the Clarity adjustment by simply applying the Camera Raw filter to any image.

To get started you may want to create a duplicate of your Background image layer, by selecting that layer on the Layers panel and then choosing Layer > New > Layer Via Copy from the menu. You could also convert an image layer to a Smart Object so you can apply the Camera Raw filter as a Smart Filter. To do so, select the applicable layer on the Layers panel, and then choose Filter > Convert for Smart Filters from the menu.

To apply Camera Raw adjustments as a filter, go to the menu and choose Filter > Camera Raw Filter. This will bring up the Camera Raw dialog, where you can apply a variety of adjustments (including the Clarity adjustment that is the subject of today’s question).

The availability of Camera Raw as a filter in Photoshop CC makes it much easier to apply some of the adjustments that are unique to Camera Raw at any point in your overall workflow for optimizing your photos.

You can learn more about my preferred workflow for using Camera Raw (including a lesson on using Camera Raw as a filter in Photoshop CC) in my “Optimizing with Adobe Camera Raw” video course available here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/optimizing-with-adobe-camera-raw

Today’s Question: What happens to Lightroom Classic, my photos and catalog, if I cancel my subscription for the rest of the year?

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you cancel a subscription that includes Lightroom Classic CC, you will actually be able to continue using most of Lightroom to manage your photos. Only the Develop and Map modules will stop being available when you cancel your subscription, and of course you won’t be able to install future updates.

More Detail: It is understandable that photographers would be concerned about losing all of the metadata for their photos if they discontinued their subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud. With applications such as Photoshop, discontinuing your subscription means the software will simply stop working. You can’t use Photoshop at all if you don’t have a current Creative Cloud subscription.

With Lightroom Classic, however, because it is a tool for organizing your photos, Adobe has ensured that you won’t lose access to the information about your photos.

As noted above, you won’t be able to adjust the appearance of your photos in the Develop module after you discontinue your Creative Cloud subscription. You also won’t be able to access the map in the Map module. In addition, online services (such as the synchronization of images in collections) will no longer be available.

You will, however, continue to be able to launch Lightroom, and work in the Library module. That includes the ability to update metadata for your existing images. You can even continue to print from the Print module. Of course, since you won’t have access to future updates, you won’t gain access to any new features. You also won’t receive updated support for new proprietary raw capture formats.

The most important consideration here, of course, is that you won’t lose access to your photos, and you won’t lose access to the metadata about your images. Obviously if you cancel your Creative Cloud subscription you are likely using an alternative software tool to manage your photos. But during the transition away from Lightroom, you won’t lose any of the information about your photos just because you canceled your Creative Cloud subscription.

Today’s Question: I noticed an icon I have not seen before [during a recent webinar presentation]. Near the flags and ratings on your screen there was what looks like a square with four points on each corner with a face in the middle. What is this for?

Tim’s Quick Answer: That button is the “Add Face Region” button, which enables you to manually identify a person’s face within an image. This is a supplement to the people recognition feature in Lightroom, which is something of an automated tool for adding keywords to identify the people who appear in your photos.

More Detail: Lightroom includes a feature that performs image analysis to identify faces within your photos. Beyond simply being able to identify where a face is visible within a photo, it can actually perform a degree of facial recognition, so that Lightroom can detect when the same face appears in multiple photos. That, in turn, can be used to identify the name associated with the face, which will result in a keyword being added for the image.

If you use the face recognition feature to have Lightroom identify where faces occur within your images, a face region will be added automatically to the area where the face appears in the image. That, combined with the keyword representing the name of the person identified by a given face region, enables you to browse by person, which provides a method for locating photos based on the people who appear within those photos.

In some cases, of course, Lightroom may not be able to identify a face for a person. This might be the case, for example, if the person was photographed in profile rather than from the front. When that is the case, you can use the Draw Face Region button to manually add a face region to identify where a person appears in an image. You can then associate a name with that face region, in order to actually identify the person in the image, and add a keyword for their name in the process.

I covered this face recognition feature in an article called “Face Recognition in Lightroom Classic”, which appeared in the November 2017 issue of Pixology magazine. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can get Pixology magazine for half price by following this link:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/pixology-magazine?coupon=pixten