Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: In one of your video lessons on Lightroom I noticed that you only had one section of each panel open at a time, and that when you opened a different section the previously opened section would close. Where is the setting to enable that feature?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The option to have only a single section of a panel open at a time in Lightroom is referred to as “Solo Mode”. You can enable Solo Mode for either panel by right-clicking on an empty area of the panel, and then choosing “Solo Mode” from the popup menu.

More Detail: When Solo Mode is activated for a panel in Lightroom, only one section of that panel will be open (expanded) at a time. When you open a different section on a panel with Solo Mode enabled, the panel that had been opened will close (collapse).

The Solo Mode feature operates independently for each panel (left or right) in each module (such as Library versus Develop). Therefore, you can enable Solo Mode for some panels in some modules, but leave it disabled for others if you prefer.

You can see Solo Mode in action in tip 41 (from April 11, 2018) in my “Lightroom Quick Tips”, which features a new quick tip every single week. This course is available as part of the GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle or the Mastering Lightroom Bundle. In addition, the course can be purchased as a standalone on the GreyLearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/lightroom-tips

Today’s Question: After reading some of your posts about using a camera with a built-in GPS receiver, I’m giving thought to an upgrade to such a camera. But I’m wondering if there is a clear indication that the camera actually has a GPS signal, so you have some confidence that you really are recording the location information. Do these cameras have such an indication?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Many cameras that include a built-in GPS receiver do indeed provide some form of indication about whether the camera has acquired a good GPS signal.

More Detail: As you can probably imagine, different cameras have different ways of indicating the status of the GPS feature, and some cameras don’t provide any clear indication of the current status.

With digital SLR cameras that include a built-in GPS feature (or the accessory devices available for cameras without a built-in GPS antenna), there is generally an indication on one of the camera’s displays to let you know if the camera has acquired a good GPS signal.

For example, on my primary camera, there is a “GPS” indicator on the top LED display. When the GPS antenna has been activated in the camera’s settings, that indicator flashes. Once a good GPS signal has been acquired, the indicator becomes solid. Other cameras use different indications, but in most cases you will have some indication that you have a reliable GPS signal, and therefore will have accurate location information embedded in the metadata of your photos.

In most cases when the camera does not have a good GPS signal, no location metadata will be added to the images. However, it is worth noting that in some circumstances photos may have outdated (and inaccurate) location information embedded. For example, I’ve had situations where the first few photos I capture at a new location have location metadata from the previous day’s location.

Of course, checking the status of the GPS signal first can help ensure the most accurate location metadata. So, when looking for a camera that includes a built-in GPS receiver, it is a good idea to also take a look at how the GPS signal status is displayed, so you can help ensure the location information in metadata is accurate for all of your photos.

Today’s Question: I have started to use Landscape Pro, which saves back to my Lightroom catalog as a TIFF file. If I then export as a JPEG, do I lose quality doing this? If so, when I want to send a file to a lab for printing and they accept TIFF or JPEG, which would you consider the better choice?

Tim’s Quick Answer: While it is possible to produce an excellent print from a JPEG image, I do recommend opting for a TIFF file when possible. While the impact may be minor, there is always at least a small degree of quality loss when saving an image as a JPEG.

More Detail: A JPEG image always has compression applied to it, and that compression always causes a certain degree of quality loss for the image. At a high quality setting the JPEG compression won’t be especially significant, but there is still a degree of risk that some of the compression artifacts will be visible in the image (and in the final print).

Therefore, to help ensure maximum print quality, I always recommend using a file format that enables you to either not apply compression at all, or to employ lossless compression. The TIFF file format is one such option.

If possible, I recommend using the TIFF format (rather than JPEG) when creating derivative images you will send to a lab for printing. When creating a TIFF file, be sure to either not use compression, or to use LZW or ZIP compression (both of which are lossless compression options).

It is most certainly possible to produce high-quality prints from a JPEG image. However, there is also a risk that a print from a JPEG file will exhibit some degree of visible compression artifacts. So, if possible, I recommend the TIFF file format rather than JPEG when creating a derivative copy of an image for printing.

Today’s Question: I was recently told by a Lightroom guru that when importing images shot in RAW into Lightroom, they actually come in as JPEG images. If that is true, what then is the advantage of shooting in RAW?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Your raw captures are not converted to JPEG images upon import into Lightroom, so you can indeed retain the original raw captures and the benefits those captures provide. The previews of your captures viewed within Lightroom (other than in the Develop module) are JPEG previews, however.

More Detail: It is possible you may have misunderstood what that Lightroom guru was saying (or that they weren’t in fact a guru).

Lightroom does indeed enable you to import (and therefore retain) supported proprietary raw capture formats. The confusion about converting to JPEG probably relates to the previews that Lightroom generates for your images. You can choose, for example, to generate “Standard” previews for all of your images upon import. These are essentially JPEG images that are approximately the size of your monitor display (depending on your Preferences setting and monitor configuration).

The previews Lightroom generates enable you to view your images more quickly in the Library module, and also to view a preview of the image even when the source files are not available, such as when an external hard drive containing your photos is disconnected from the computer. In the Develop module a full preview based on the source image is generated and updated in real time as you apply adjustments.

So, JPEG previews are most certainly created for your images when you import them into Lightroom or view them within the Library module, but those JPEG previews do not replace your original raw captures. The actual source files you imported would still be available. The only other exception to this would be if you converted your proprietary raw captures to the Adobe DNG format during import, but in that case you would still have the DNG version of your image, which is similar in concept (and provides the same quality) as your original raw capture.

Today’s Question: When cropping a photo in Lightroom, one is given the option of “As Shot”, “Original”, or “Custom”. What is the difference between the first two, and when would one use one rather than the other?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The “As Shot” crop option in Lightroom is for supported images from cameras that enable you to choose a crop that differs from the native aspect ratio of the sensor. With such a capture, the “As Shot” option would activate the crop aspect ratio set at the time of capture, and the “Original” option would activate the full image based on the sensor dimensions.

More Detail: For many photographers the “As Shot” and “Original” crop aspect ratio options will produce the exact same result, either because their camera does not offer the option to alter the capture aspect ratio, or because Lightroom is not able to access that information in the metadata for the capture.

When you select an in-camera crop aspect ratio that differs from the full aspect ratio of the sensor, you are of course capturing an image that does not contain all of the available pixels based on the sensor in the camera. With a raw capture, however, that crop setting is just a metadata value, and the full range of pixels available on the sensor will actually be included in the raw capture.

With supported capture formats, Lightroom is able to access the in-camera crop setting, and make that available with the crop tool. So, if you have taken advantage of this option with a camera that is supported for this feature in Lightroom, you can choose whether or not to crop to that aspect ratio setting based on the availability of the “As Shot” crop aspect ratio option in Lightroom.

Today’s Question: I am using latest version of Lightroom Classic. How do I discontinue Import DNG Creation? Under preferences, File Handling, I am unable to disable this feature. Hence, my images are no longer available in Canon Raw. I’m missing something, obviously.

Tim’s Quick Answer: The option to create Adobe DNG (Digital Negative) files upon import is found at the top-center of the Import dialog. Simply choose the “Copy” option (rather than “Copy as DNG”) and your proprietary raw captures will be retained without being converted to DNG.

More Detail: When importing new captures into Lightroom, you’ll generally want to copy your images from their current storage (such as a media card from your camera) to a hard drive. However, there are actually two “copy” options when importing your photos.

At the top-center of the Import dialog you can choose whether you want to copy the photos being imported, move those photos, or simply import from the current location using the “Add” option. When downloading from a media card, of course, you would want to copy the images to a hard drive.

If you prefer to make use of the Adobe DNG format (rather than your camera’s proprietary raw capture format) you can choose the “Copy as DNG” option at the top-center of the Import dialog. Of course, if you don’t want to convert your images to DNG (or you want to import the proprietary raw captures and convert to DNG at a later time) you will want to use the “Copy” option.

So, next time you import photos, you can simply change the import setting from “Copy as DNG” to simply “Copy”, and you’ll be once again copying your proprietary raw capture files without converting them to the Adobe DNG format.

Today’s Question: I often submit images to camera club competitions. I shoot in RAW and only use Photoshop (not Lightroom). I must resize the image and convert the image from PSD to JPEG. Do you think it makes a difference which is done first: resize or conversion?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In concept I would perform the resizing step before saving the image as a JPEG. But in reality I would recommend using the Image Processor feature in Photoshop to help automate this task (even if you are only processing a single image).

More Detail: As noted above, conceptually I would want to resize the image before saving a JPEG copy, rather than saving as a JPEG and then resizing that image. In reality the differences in terms of image quality would be virtually non-existent, especially in the context of an image that will be impacted by the quality loss involved with JPEG compression.

In any event, you can make the overall process of creating JPEG copies of your master images by using the Image Processor feature in Photoshop. You can find this feature on the menu by choosing File > Scripts > Image Processor. However, I recommend using Adobe Bridge to first select your photos. Within Bridge you can then choose Tools > Photoshop > Image Processor to send the selected photos to Photoshop and bring up the Image Processor dialog automatically.

Within the Image Processor dialog you can first select where you want to save the copies of your images that will be created. You can then turn on the “Save as JPEG” checkbox, and turn off the checkboxes for the PSD and TIFF file formats. Below the “Save as JPEG” checkbox you can then set the other options for the JPEG images, including a setting for resizing the images, setting the quality level, and converting to the sRGB color space profile (which I do recommend doing).

Once you’ve established the desired settings in the Image Processor dialog you can click the Run button to process the images you had selected. The resulting files will be saved in the destination folder you specified. Note that if you chose the option to save the images in the same location as the source images, they will actually be saved in a folder by file type (such as “JPEG” in this case).

Today’s Question: Is there a way to use the leveling tool in the crop menu on auto import?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can have your images automatically rotated (such as to straighten a crooked horizon) during the import process by using a preset that includes the Upright mode set to “Level”.

More Detail: The Crop tool in Lightroom enables you to adjust the rotation of the image to straighten a line that should be perfectly vertical or horizontal, such as a horizon line. There is even an Auto button that enables you to apply the rotation to the image automatically based on image analysis.

As you may have noticed though, you’re not able to save crop settings as part of a preset in the Develop module in Lightroom. That means the leveling feature of the Crop tool can’t be applied as a preset in the Develop module or upon importing new images. You can, however, achieve the same leveling result by creating a preset that includes the Upright Mode option, with the Upright feature set to “Level”.

To create a preset that includes automatic leveling, be sure to first click the “Level” button under the Upright heading in the Transform section of the right panel in the Develop module in Lightroom. Then, when saving a new preset, be sure to turn on the “Upright Mode” checkbox under the Transform checkbox within the New Develop Preset dialog.

If you apply that preset within the Develop module or using the Develop Settings popup in the Apply During Import section of the right panel in the Import dialog, the preset will apply the Upright correction to rotate automatically based on an analysis of the image. Note that you could also apply more sophisticated transformations by using the Vertical or Full options for the Upright adjustment, for example.

Today’s Question: If I understand correctly Adobe Camera Raw includes all of the adjustments found in the Develop module in Lightroom. If that’s the case, is there any reason I should consider using Lightroom to process my images rather than continuing to rely on Camera Raw?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The Develop module in Adobe Lightroom Classic does provide the same adjustments found in Adobe Camera Raw, so you could achieve the same results with either. Therefore, in my view the only reason to consider using Lightroom rather than Camera Raw is to take advantage of the image-management (and sharing) features available in Lightroom.

More Detail: When it comes to a comparison between a workflow that revolves around Lightroom Classic CC and the combination of Adobe Bridge, Photoshop, and Camera Raw, in my mind the key differentiator is the overall workflow.

As noted above, Adobe Camera Raw provides the same adjustments available in the Develop module in Lightroom, so there isn’t a real advantage in terms of using Lightroom instead of Camera Raw for optimizing your photos. Quite frankly, many (though certainly not all) of the organizational features available in Lightroom are also available in Adobe Bridge. So you could absolutely manage and optimize your library of photos using Adobe Bridge and Photoshop, rather than Lightroom.

To me the key advantage of Lightroom relates to the catalog that is used to manage the information about your photos. To be sure, if you haven’t learned to truly understand how Lightroom works, you can create a huge mess in your Lightroom catalog. That is perhaps why my “Cleaning Up Your Mess in Lightroom” video course (included in the “Mastering Lightroom” bundle at https://www.greylearning.com/bundles/lightroom) has been my most popular course on GreyLearning.

In addition to the use of a catalog for managing your photos, I consider Lightroom to provide a more seamless workflow solution. These are the key reasons I prefer to use Lightroom to manage my own library of photos.

Ultimately, I think the decision about whether or not to use Lightroom depends on your workflow priorities. If you prefer to have a streamlined workflow that is especially helpful when you need to work seamlessly with images across a variety of different folders, I think Lightroom provides a good solution. But if you want to avoid the use of a catalog for managing your photos, the various tools that revolve around Adobe Photoshop certainly provide options suitable for many photographers.

Today’s Question: Can import presets [in Lightroom Classic] be set as the default settings every time I want to import or do I need to choose these import settings each time?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can’t exactly establish default settings to be used automatically for every import into your Lightroom Classic catalog. However, when you select a Develop preset during import, that setting will remain in place for future import operations as long as you don’t change the setting. In addition, you could create an import preset to preserve (and reset) your preferred import settings.

More Detail: Most of the settings within the Import dialog in Lightroom are “sticky”, meaning when you initiate an import most of the settings in the Import dialog will match those used for the previous import.

Therefore, if you have created a preset in the Develop module that you want to apply to all images during import, you could select that preset from the Develop Settings popup in the Apply During Import section of the right panel in the Import dialog. After that import task is complete, the next time you bring up the Import dialog the same preset will be selected on the Develop Settings popup.

If you want to preserve your preferred import settings, you can also create an import preset. After establishing the desired settings in the Import dialog, click the Import Preset popup at the bottom-center of the dialog. From that popup select the “Save Current Settings as New Preset” option. In the dialog that appears you can enter a meaningful name for this import preset, and click the Create button to save that preset.

In the future, if you need to re-establish your preferred import settings, you can select your saved preset from the Import Preset popup at the bottom of the Import dialog.