Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: When is the best time to apply AI Denoise in the Lightroom Classic workflow? Should it be done early or late in the process? Or does it matter?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Ultimately, the answer is that it doesn’t matter when you use Denoise in Lightroom Classic. However, when it is needed I prefer to apply Denoise early in my workflow, as it can have a significant impact on how I approach other adjustments for the image. I expect this will become even less of a consideration once Lightroom Classic is (presumably) updated to match the capabilities of Camera Raw.

More Detail: With the current version of Lightroom Classic, when you use the Denoise feature based on AI technology (rather than the manual noise reduction option), a new Adobe DNG file is created based on the original raw capture. By contrast, with the latest update to Camera Raw, you can apply Denoise to the raw capture non-destructively, without the need to create a DNG file. Assuming Lightroom Classic is updated to match this workflow, the timing of using Denoise will be even less of an issue.

Of course, when you create a DNG file by applying Denoise to a raw capture in Lightroom Classic, existing adjustments will be incorporated with the new file. For example, if you convert an image to black and white and then apply Denoise, the DNG file created in the process will appear in black and white. However, the adjustments are still non-destructive, so for example you could later convert the black and white DNG file back to a color image by turning off the “B&W” treatment option.

While you can really use the Denoise feature at just about any point in your workflow, for images that I feel will benefit from Denoise I prefer to apply the adjustment as early in my workflow as possible. This is mostly a simple matter of the Denoise adjustment having a significant impact on the image, and therefore having a somewhat significant impact on my decisions about other adjustments. I therefore find it helpful to apply Denoise early in my workflow. I may apply some of the adjustments from the Basic section first to get a better sense of the overall potential for the image, but once I feel that the image has potential but would benefit from Denoise, I apply Denoise right away.

Today’s Question: I have separate workflows for my Lightroom Classic photos and my Photoshop images. They are effectively organized by the Lightroom catalog and a Bridge folder structure. I have an extensive keyword structure in Lightroom and love how quickly and easily I can find photos. But I haven’t been able to see an entire list of assigned keywords or find a way to use them in a search of the entire Bridge folder structure. Do you have any suggestions?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can actually add all keywords from Lightroom Classic as persistent keywords in Adobe Bridge, so that you’ll have access all keywords in both applications.

More Detail: I should point out right from the start that I don’t normally recommend using both Lightroom Classic and Adobe Bridge, due to the risk of confusion and metadata mismatches. But if you are working with completely different groups of photos with each application (or are extremely familiar with how these applications work), it can be done.

In this case I’ll assume that the two sets of photos are completely separate, even if that’s not the case, because the idea makes me feel more comfortable. But I digress.

Adobe Bridge will show you the keywords assigned to images in the current location, or for the currently selected image, for example. But Bridge also includes the concept of “persistent” keywords, which appear on the Keywords panel even if they have not been assigned to any images. This is similar to the Keyword List in Lightroom Classic.

If you’d like to make your full Keyword List from Lightroom Classic in Bridge, you can export from Lightroom Classic and import to Bridge.

To get started, in Lightroom Classic go to the Library module and from the menu choose Metadata > Export Keywords > Exclude Keyword Tag Options. In the dialog that appears you can enter a meaningful name for the exported file, and choose a convenient location to save it.

Once you’ve exported the keywords from Lightroom Classic, go to Bridge and click on the panel popup menu (the three horizontal lines) on the right side of the tab for the Keywords panel. From the popup menu choose Import (or choose “Clear and Import” if you want to clear out all persistent keywords from the Keywords panel and replace them with the keywords from Lightroom Classic). Navigate to the location where you saved the keyword export from Lightroom Classic, select the file you exported, and click the Open button. Note that importing keywords into Bridge in this way will not cause any existing keywords to be removed from your images, even if you used the “Clear and Import” option.

At this point you will have the full keywords list from Lightroom Classic available on the Keywords panel in Bridge. Just keep in mind that these lists won’t stay synchronized automatically. Therefore, if you want to update the lists I recommend adding keywords in Lightroom Classic and then repeat the import process in Bridge using the “Clear and Import” option.

Today’s Question: Please mention that the color labels of an image in Bridge do NOT correspond to the color labels in Lightroom Classic (dear Adobe: please fix this) and the color labels of an image in both images and folders are not visible outside of their respective software.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Actually, this issue can easily be fixed (mostly) by updating the color label definitions.

More Detail: The problem with color labels in software such as Bridge and Lightroom Classic is that they aren’t really color labels at all. I mean, they look like colors, but really they are simply represented by text in a metadata field, similar to keywords. The real problem that is the basis for today’s question (or request) is that Adobe used different default text for color labels in Bridge versus Lightroom Classic.

A red color label gets the word “Select” in Bridge, while it gets the word “Red” in Lightroom Classic. Similarly, yellow is “Second” in Bridge and “Yellow” in Lightroom Classic. As you may have realized, in Lightroom Classic the color label definitions are logical, and in Bridge they are unique to whatever Adobe employee defined them in the first place.

But you can change those definitions. If you had been using Bridge and switch to Lightroom Classic, you can change the color label definitions to the Bridge defaults by going to the Library module and choosing Metadata > Color Label Set > Bridge Default from the menu. Note, however, that if you change the definitions, any images with color labels that don’t match the definitions will appear as a white color label rather than the color you had actually assigned.

Similarly, you can change the color label definitions in Bridge. In the Preferences dialog go to the Labels and Ratings tab, where you can change the definitions for the color labels in the Label Options section. For example, you could update these to the names of the colors as used in Lightroom Classic.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that if you assign color labels in Bridge for photos that are already imported into your Lightroom Classic catalog, those color label updates won’t appear in your catalog. Rather, you’ll see a metadata mismatch. My recommendation, however, is to never update metadata outside of Lightroom Classic for photos that are being managed with a Lightroom Classic catalog.

Similarly, color labels assigned in Lightroom Classic will not appear in Bridge unless you have saved metadata out to the source images, in addition to having those updates saved in the catalog. This can be enabled by turning on the “Automatically write changes into XMP” checkbox on the Metadata tab of the Catalog Settings dialog, for example.

If you’ve struggled with restoring order to your workflow and catalog in Lightroom Classic, I have an online workshop next month that can help you tidy up your workflow and better understand how Lightroom Classic works. For a limited time you can get the full workshop experience (including getting answers to your questions) for just $59. Get all the details here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/online-workshop-cleaning-up-your-mess-in-lightroom-classic-january-2025

Today’s Question: I’ve had the idea that I need to keep external drives connected to my laptop all the time when I’m at home. But do I? Similarly, do I need my backup drive connected all the time or only at those times when Carbon Copy Cloner is scheduled to back up?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Out of an abundance of caution, I prefer not to keep external hard drives connected to the computer unless they are needed.

More Detail: While it is perfectly reasonable to keep external hard drives connected to your computer at all times, so you have access to the data on those drives at any time, I prefer to only keep external hard drives connected when they are actually needed.

Admittedly, this is a habit born out of what some may consider an extreme abundance of caution. Part of the concern, for example, is that if you keep all hard drives connected at all times and there is a severe power surge or lightning strike, you may have a situation where all drives are damaged at the same time and you don’t have a backup to recover from. This is obviously not a highly likely event.

In general, it is safe to keep hard drives connected to the computer at all times. I just prefer to take a more cautious approach and only connect the drives I need when they are needed. That could include connecting drives in time for a scheduled backup, or connecting drives all day long when you’ll be working with your photos, for example.

Keep in mind, by the way, that with Lightroom Classic you don’t need to have your source photos available to be able to review and update metadata, based on having built previews of your photos. If you build Smart Previews you can even work in the Develop module when the source photos are unavailable due to a hard drive being disconnected.

To be sure, this isn’t an issue I would stress about. To me it is just a matter of trying to maintain the best habits to minimize the risk of data loss. Therefore, I only connect drives when I need them. For example, I never connect all backup drives and the source drive at the same time, instead backing up to a single drive without other backup drives connected during that backup.

Today’s Question: I have installed the beta version of Photoshop so I can explore the new features there. But now when I send an image to Photoshop from Lightroom Classic it is opening in the beta. Is there a way to edit in the non-beta version without uninstalling the beta?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can designate which installed version of Photoshop you want to use for editing on the External Editing tab of the Preferences dialog in Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: You can have more than one version of Photoshop installed at a time, including the public beta version if you’d like to test out new features that are still in development. Fortunately, Lightroom Classic includes an option for you to choose which version of Photoshop you’d like to use when using the “Edit In” command to send an image from Lightroom Classic to Photoshop.

To change this setting, first bring up the Preferences dialog in Lightroom Classic by choosing Edit > Preferences on Windows or Lightroom Classic > Preferences on Macintosh. Go to the External Editing tab, and then choose the desired version of Photoshop from the “Photoshop version” popup in the top section. In this case, for example, you could choose “Adobe Photoshop 2025” from the popup instead of “Adobe Photoshop (Beta)”.

Once you’ve changed the setting, anytime you use the Photo > Edit In command to send an image to Photoshop, the version you selected in Preferences will be the version of Photoshop your image is opened in.

Today’s Question: I’ve been exploring the addition of a vignette effect to photos, and so far I’m happy with the results. However, no matter what setting I use for the Highlights slider I’m not seeing an effect. What is this slider supposed to do?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The Highlights slider for the vignette adjustment in Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, and Camera Raw, enables you to have bright highlights (such as the sun in the frame) overpower the vignette effect rather than being darkened down unnaturally.

More Detail: The vignette effect adjustment in Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, and Camera Raw enables you to more or less mimic the behavior of a natural lens vignette, along with other creative possibilities. The Highlights adjustment enables you to make the vignette effect more realistic in this context.

When a lens creates a vignette effect it is the result of light falloff around the edges of the frame, causing those areas to appear darker than the central area of the image. However, if there is a very bright light source, such as the sun, near the edge of the frame, that will overpower the vignette effect so that the area appears bright, with little or no visible vignette. The Highlights slider enables you to mimic this effect.

The Highlights slider is only available when you have selected either “Highlight Priority” or “Color Priority” for the style option, not with “Paint Overlay”. The Highlights slider is also only available when you have used a negative value for the vignette effect, resulting in a darkening rather than lightening of the perimeter of the photo.

In addition, the Highlights slider will only have an obvious effect if you have very bright areas (such as bright lights or the sun) in the area of the image that is being darkened by the vignette effect. In that case, increasing the value for Highlights will cause bright areas to overpower the vignette effect, so they are not darkened (or not darkened as much) as areas that are not as bright. This can create a more natural vignette effect in photos that have bright areas toward the perimeter.

Today’s Question: I was watching your video about importing photos into Lightroom Classic, and you mentioned the option for automatic date-based folders. What I’m confused about is why there is even an option to have folders with the name of the month, since those folders would then not sort in chronological order. Shouldn’t the only available option be to use folder names with numbers for the months?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In general, I recommend using numbers to represent the year, month, and day (as applicable) for date-based folders, so that the folders will sort in chronological order when sorted in alphabetical order. However, some users may prefer using the names of months if they prefer to sort by name rather than number.

More Detail: I am not personally a fan of using date-based folders for organizing my photos, in large part because I don’t tend to remember the year (let alone month or date) that particular photos were captured. But many photographers do prefer to use date-based folders for a variety of reasons.

When using date-based folders, I recommend using numbers to represent the year, month, and day. For example, I would recommend using a folder structure of ” 2024/11″ rather than “2024/November”, so that the folders for the months will sort in chronological order when sorted in alphabetical order. If the names of the months are used instead of numbers, then when sorted alphabetically within a year folder the December folder would appear before the January folder even though December comes after January chronologically.

Of course, not everyone is comfortable with scanning folders where the months are represented by numbers rather than the name of the month. Therefore, for some it may be preferable to use the month names for the folders instead of numbers, so they can scan alphabetically looking for the name of a particular month.

So, in general I recommend using number-based names for folders in a date-based folder structure, rather than names. But for those who find it easier to locate a particular folder by having the names of the months spelled out, that is perfectly reasonable as far as I’m concerned.

Note, by the way, that while there are limitations in terms of the folder structure options available for date-based folders when importing into Lightroom Classic, it is possible to later rename the folders to add additional information, such as to add the name of the location for a particular month-based folder to reflect where the photos in that folder had been captured.

Today’s Question: Isn’t it possible to assign color labels to folders in Adobe Bridge, not just mark them as favorites?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can assign a color label to a folder in Adobe Bridge, as long as you select (or right-click) the folder within the Content panel rather than the Folders panel.

Today’s question is a follow-up from an answer last week where I recommended marking folders as favorites in Adobe Bridge to provide quick access to frequently used folders via the Favorites panel. I incorrectly mentioned the lack of support for color labels for folders in Bridge. You can indeed assign color labels to folders in Bridge, you just need to do so via the Content panel rather than the Folders panel.

If you right-click on a folder in the Folders panel you’ll find an option for “Add To Favorites”, so you can have the folder appear on the Favorites panel. On that menu you will not, however, find the option for color labels. The option will appear, however, if you right-click on the folder in the Content panel, at which point you can choose Label followed by the desired color label option. In addition, you can select the folder on the Content panel and then go to the menu bar and choose Label followed by the desired color label.

So, I had merely confused myself by not finding the color label option on the popup menu when right-clicking a folder on the Folders panel. Hopefully Adobe will update Bridge in the future to include the color label option within the Folders panel. And hopefully I won’t forget again that the option exists as long as you use the Content panel rather than the Folders panel!

Today’s Question: I recently downloaded photos from my iPhone to my computer and on looking at them realized that all were in the JPEG format and none of the raw [Apple ProRAW] captures came as raw. What did I do wrong and what can I do to get my raw captures?

Tim’s Quick Answer: If you use the Apple ProRAW capture option on an iPhone, you’ll need to use specific workflow options for transferring those captures to your computer to retain the raw capture format.

More Detail: Certain of the higher-end recent models (Pro and Pro Max of Apple iPhone (since the iPhone 12) support shooting in raw via the Apple CameraRAW format, which is actually a variation on the Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) format. However, simply downloading those captures directly to your computer will result in images converted to JPEG rather than the original raw capture format.

One option for retaining the original raw capture format for Apple ProRAW captures is to make use of iCloud synchronization. That will cause the images to appear in the Photos application on your Macintosh computer (assuming both are set to synchronize photos with the same Apple ID). You can then export the original captures from the Photos application on your computer using the menu command File > Export > Export Unmodified Original.

Note that for Windows users, the same workflow above could be used, except that instead of using the Apple Photos application (since it isn’t available for Windows) you can access your photos by signing in using your Apple ID at iCloud.com and go to the Photos app to download the original photos.

You can also retain the raw capture format by sending the ProRAW captures to your computer using AirDrop. If the photo had been edited on your device, it will be shared as a JPEG via AirDrop. In that case you’ll need to first use the Duplicate option on the sharing options, edit that duplicate and choose the Revert command, and then use AirDrop to send the image.

While it could be argued that automatically converting shared ProRAW captures to JPEG represents a convenience, it also represents a workflow challenge for photographers who want to retain the original raw capture format. Fortunately, there are a couple of ways you can transfer the raw captures to your computer without too much difficulty.

Today’s Question: I noticed there are “1” and “2” icons at the top-left of the bottom panel in Lightroom Classic. Clicking the “1” button reveals a popup that lets me change the view mode, which of course can be changed in other ways too. When I click the “2” button a new window appears, with just a few controls. Why would I want this second window?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The feature you’ve discovered is primarily intended on enabling you to have two different windows on two different displays for Lightroom Classic. This can be used to streamline your workflow, such as being able to navigate among images on a secondary display while optimizing the selected photo on the primary display.

More Detail: Working with dual displays can be quite helpful in a photographer’s workflow, enabling you to have two different working areas. For example, I’ve long favored using Photoshop with dual displays, putting all the panels on a second display so I can focus almost exclusively on the image on the primary display.

Lightroom Classic also provides support for dual displays, which is a feature I find many photographers overlook. The controls (found at the top-left of the bottom “filmstrip” panel) are two simple buttons, one representing the primary display (with the number “1” on it) and the other representing a second window (with the number “2” on it). While using these options is aimed at the use of dual displays, you don’t actually need to have a second display to bring up the secondary window.

The idea is that you can click the “2” button to bring up a window that you can drag to your secondary display. This secondary window is primarily focused on browsing your photos. For example, the top panel only includes options for the grid, loupe, compare, and survey views.

Therefore, the secondary display is generally focused on selecting photos among those you’re currently browsing. For example, you can have a full-screen grid showing thumbnails of the current photos, while working in the Develop module for the selected photo on your primary display.