Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: When it comes to panoramic photos, why not just crop the scene to a panorama rather than assemble a composite image from multiple captures? Wouldn’t the final image be the same either way?

Tim’s Quick Answer: It is often possible to achieve the same overall composition for a panorama with either cropping or a composite image. However, with a composite image you’ll be able to produce larger output than if you had simple cropped a single photo, which can be especially important if you intend to print the image.

More Detail: Assuming you position the camera at the exact same location, you can achieve the same framing for a panoramic image by using a relatively wide-angle lens for a single frame or a longer focal length lens for a series of images that will be assembled into a composite panorama. There may be some distortion issues involved if you need to use a wide-angle lens for the panorama created by cropping a single image, but the overall framing can be the same.

The key difference, however, is that a composite panorama will have a much higher resolution than a single image cropped to a panorama.

For example, let’s assume a camera with a 24-megapixel image sensor. Assuming an output resolution of 300 pixels per inch (ppi) and an image cropped vertically but not horizontally, you would have a panorama that could be printed with a width of 20 inches without interpolation. Even if you only used three frames to capture a composite panorama, with about 25% overlap between frames, you would still be able to print the composite panorama at a width of 45 inches without interpolation.

If the composite panorama involves more frames, the benefits in terms of output size are even greater. But the point is that with a composite panorama you’re able to achieve much larger output size than would be possible by cropping a single photo.

If you only share your images digitally, or if you don’t need to produce large prints, then you could most certainly achieve the same basic panorama with a single photo that is cropped rather than creating a composite panorama. Just be sure to consider the potential for image distortion if you need to use a wide-angle lens to capture the single frame. For situations where you need to use a particularly short lens focal length to capture the scene in a single frame, you may prefer to create a composite panorama to avoid that distortion, even if you don’t need the larger potential output size.

Today’s Question: Where are photo edits from the cloud-based version of Lightroom desktop stored? I know the edits to raw files in Lightroom Classic are stored in the catalog and optionally as .XMP files next to the raw files, and the same with Bridge. But how about with the cloud-based version of Lightroom? How do you back up the edits for the photos?

Tim’s Quick Answer: For photos stored in the cloud with the Lightroom desktop application (not Lightroom Classic), the edits are stored in the cloud as well. You can back up the edits by exporting with the “Original” option, which includes the original image plus the settings.

More Detail: The cloud-centric version of Lightroom (not to be confused with Lightroom Classic, though it is obviously confusing) now enables you to manage photos with both local storage and cloud storage options. For local images the metadata is saved to the source image, with an XMP file created or updated for raw captures.

For photos that are stored in the cloud with Lightroom the photos and metadata are stored in the cloud. You can specify that you want copies of the originals stored locally as well, by turning on the “Store a copy of all originals” checkbox on the Cache tab of the Preferences dialog. You can also designate where you want these copies to be stored.

However, enabling that option means you aren’t really taking full advantage of cloud-based storage for your photos. Note, by the way, that Adobe does maintain a backup for your photos that are stored in the cloud, minimizing the risk of any of those source images ever being lost.

Instead of storing a copy of all originals locally, it can be more efficient to only export copies of the cloud-based photos that you want to back up locally along with the settings for the image. To do so you can select the photos you want to back up to local storage, click the sharing icon toward the top-right of the Lightroom interface, and choose the “Original” option. You can then designate the location where you want to save the exported copies and click the Export button. The source raw captures along with an XMP sidecar file containing the metadata for each source raw image will then be downloaded to the location you designated.

Today’s Question: You made reference to one of the differences between Lightroom Classic and Lightroom being that the former involves using a catalog and the latter does not. But how does that catalog impact the workflow for Lightroom Classic compared to Lightroom?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The fact that Lightroom Classic utilizes a catalog to manage the information about your photos creates a fundamental issue in your workflow, which effectively makes it mandatory that all tasks related to your photos be initiated within Lightroom Classic. Because Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Bridge do not use this type of catalog you have more flexibility in your workflow.

More Detail: I think it is very important to understand that while the catalog in Lightroom Classic can create some challenges, it also provides some potentially significant benefits in your workflow.

One of the key reasons I consider Lightroom Classic to be a critical component in my workflow is that it enables me to quickly and easily search across my entire catalog of almost 400,000 photos and videos. I can set a filter based on star ratings, keywords, camera gear or settings, or a variety of other metadata fields, and instantly be viewing only the photos that match that criteria, across my entire catalog.

The drawback to using the catalog is that if you make changes outside Lightroom Classic, such as moving or renaming folders or photos, or even updating metadata, you can have a very big mess on your hands very quickly within your catalog.

Adobe Lightroom (the non-Classic version) does not employ a catalog in this way, and so you don’t need to worry about making updates outside of Lightroom. For photos you are accessing the local storage in Lightroom, you can use any combination of software you’d like, such as by switching freely between Lightroom and Adobe Bridge. For cloud-based photos you can only access the images through the Lightroom ecosystem (desktop, mobile, or web), and so it isn’t possible to do any harm as could be possible with the catalog in Lightroom Classic.

In this regard it is “safer” to use Lightroom than Lightroom Classic. But of course, there are also features and capabilities in Lightroom Classic that aren’t available in Lightroom.

Note that I’ll be presenting a webinar soon that will focus on the differences between Adobe Bridge, Adobe Lightroom, and Adobe Lightroom Classic, which will be helpful for photographers wanting to better understand these tools and for deciding which might be the best fit for your workflow. Stay tuned for more details soon!

Today’s Question: I’m strictly a long time Camera Raw and Bridge user. Is there any compelling reason to switch over to Adobe Lightroom? Or is sticking to what I’m used to a better plan?

Tim’s Quick Answer: While Adobe Lightroom provides a slightly more seamless workflow than the combination of Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw and the ability to synchronize selected images to cloud-based storage, it is important to consider the potential learning curve involved in switching to Lightroom.

More Detail: Adobe Lightroom provides approximately the same feature set as the combination of Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw. There are obviously some differences, but there are many similarities as well. While the similarities make a transition relatively easy between the two, you need to consider whether the benefits of Lightroom will be meaningful to you.

If it would be helpful in your workflow to synchronize some (or even all) of your photos to cloud-based storage, that would be a strong argument in considering Adobe Lightroom instead of Adobe Bridge. That synchronization, for example, enables you to have photos available from virtually anywhere, via the Lightroom desktop app, the Lightroom app for mobile devices, or by accessing Lightroom through a web browser on any internet-connected computer.

I also like that the workflow is a little more streamlined in Lightroom, by virtue of effectively having Camera Raw built right into Lightroom. That means you can switch seamlessly between organizing and optimizing photos within a single interface, rather than switching between Bridge and Camera Raw, for example.

In my view Adobe Lightroom provides enough advantages over Bridge and Camera Raw that I think it is worth considering switching to Lightroom (or to Lightroom Classic if you’re not opposed to using a catalog to manage your photos). However, if you’re concerned about the learning curve involved, that might be reason enough to stick with what you know, as long as you feel that workflow is serving you well.

And of course, if you’re interested in learning to make the most of Adobe Lightroom, even if you’re not yet sure if you want to incorporate it in your workflow, my comprehensive video course on “Mastering Adobe Lightroom” can help. You can get all the details of this course on the GreyLearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/mastering-adobe-lightroom-cloud-2024

Today’s Question: Is it possible to create a collection in Lightroom Classic (probably a smart collection) which filters for year, rating (5 stars), flagged. and color labels (green and yellow)?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can create a smart collection in Lightroom Classic based on multiple metadata criteria, such as photos captured during a specific year with a 5-star rating, pick flag, and particular color labels.

More Detail: A smart collection in Lightroom Classic can be thought of as a saved search result. You can specify multiple criteria based on metadata, and only the photos that match the criteria will be included in the smart collection. As the metadata for photos gets updated, the contents of the smart collection will update automatically, so only photos matching the criteria will appear in the smart collection at any time.

You can get started by clicking the plus symbol to the right of the Collections heading on the left panel in the Library module and choosing “Create Smart Collection” from the popup menu. In the Create Smart Collection dialog you can enter a meaningful name for the smart collection in the Name field. You can also add the collection to a collection set if you’d like with the controls in the Location section.

You can then specify the criteria for the smart collection. In this example you might start by choosing Date > Capture Date from the first popup in the criteria area. You can then choose “is in the range” from the second popup so you can specify the date range you want to filter by. This will enable two fields where you can enter the starting and ending dates. For example, if you want to include only photos from 2023 you could enter “2023-01-01” in the first textbox and “2023-12-12” in the second textbox.

You can then add additional rows to the set of criteria, clicking the plus button at the far right to add a new row. To add a star rating to the filter you could then add a row with “Rating” selected from the first popup, “is” from the second popup, and select the five-star rating to the right of that.

If you want to create a smart collection based on multiple values for the same metadata field, you’ll need to take advantage of an additional conditional option. For example, if you want to include images with either a green or yellow color label, the standard criteria options won’t work, because you can only compare the various criteria using the “all” or “any” options.

To add conditional items, you can hold the Alt key on Windows or the Option key on Macintosh, which will cause the add buttons to change from showing a plus symbol to a pound symbol. While holding Alt/Option click the button with the pound symbol, which will add two more rows below. From the first row specify how you want the values below to be evaluated, such as by choosing “Any of the following are true” in this example. Then set the popup below to “Label Color” for the color label field, set the second popup to “is”, and choose a color (such as green in this case) from the third popup. Click the plus button to the right of this color label row, and create another rule, which in this case would be for a yellow color label.

In this way you can define the overall criteria, as well as a set of conditional criteria, giving you more flexibility in defining the smart collection. Assuming you want to only include images in the smart collection if they meet all criteria you’ve specified, you can choose “all” from the Match popup. Then click the Create button, and the new smart collection will appear in the Collections list of the left panel in the Library module, populated with all images from the catalog that match the criteria you specified.

Today’s Question: I’m intrigued by the changes to Adobe Lightroom you’ve referenced. However, I’m wondering if Lightroom is still missing the Map module that is available in Lightroom Classic, as like you I do like to have my photos displayed on the map based on capture location.

Tim’s Quick Answer: While Lightroom (cloud) does not contain a Map module with the features found in Lightroom Classic, it does display a small map showing photo location for images with embedded GPS metadata, and you can click that map to open the applicable location in Google Maps in a web browser.

More Detail: Because the location where I capture my photos tends to be information that is meaningful and helpful to me, I very much appreciate the Map module in Lightroom Classic. In the Map module I can browse a map showing the location for all photos in the current storage location (including my entire catalog) with a pin on the map showing the location of all photos that have GPS coordinates in metadata.

In the cloud-focused version of Lightroom there isn’t a Map module, but there is a small map. When browsing metadata for a photo that includes GPS coordinates in metadata, you will see the coordinates reflected in the GPS field of metadata and a small map with a pushpin that shows the location of the photo.

While you don’t have the ability to navigate on that map shown on the Info panel in Lightroom, you can click on the map thumbnail to open a window in your default web browser showing the location of the photos in Google Maps.

So, while you’re not able to browse a map of all photos in Lightroom the way you can in Lightroom Classic, you can still review the location of photos with GPS metadata in the context of the map, and browse that specific location in Google Maps in a web browser by clicking on the map thumbnail in Lightroom.

My upcoming comprehensive course on the cloud-focused Lightroom desktop application (including coverage of GPS and other metadata) is currently in production and available at a discounted price until all lessons are published. You can get all the details on the GreyLearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/mastering-adobe-lightroom-cloud-2024

Today’s Question: I was intrigued to read about your new course on the cloud-based version of Lightroom, in particular because you indicated it now supports working with local photos. Does that mean you could use the updated Lightroom without uploading any photos to the cloud?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Correct. With the cloud-focused version of Adobe Lightroom (meaning not Lightroom Classic) it is now possible to store photos locally, in the cloud, or any combination of both. In addition, Lightroom does not involve the use of a catalog the way Lightroom Classic does.

More Detail: For photographers who have followed any of the developments related to Lightroom and Lightroom Classic, and in particular those who have noted the challenges photographers have faced with Lightroom Classic that I’ve addressed in my email newsletter, the recent update to Lightroom is certainly a reason to pay attention.

Put simply, in addition to being able to import photos into the Lightroom desktop application and have them stored primarily in the cloud, with the latest update to Lightroom you can also now browse photos stored locally.

This enables a completely new approach to your workflow with Lightroom, and may even convince photographers who have been frustrated by the catalog to switch from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom. You could use Lightroom to manage photos that you only store locally, for example, similar to using Adobe Bridge to browse photos, but with the added benefits of a more integrated workflow.

You could also use Lightroom primarily to manage photos stored locally in a folder structure you define and manage, and then only import selected photos that you want to have available across the full Lightroom ecosystem by storing those photos in the cloud.

And of course, some photographers may prefer to import all photos into Lightroom so that every photo is synchronized to the cloud, so they are available from virtually anywhere with an internet connection, using the Lightroom desktop app, the Lightroom mobile app, or Lightroom in a web browser.

In part because of the new possibilities afforded by this recent update to Adobe Lightroom, I am back in the studio to produce a comprehensive new video course focused on organizing, optimizing, and sharing photos with Adobe Lightroom. You can learn more about this course (and get a pre-order discount of over 50% off) on the GreyLearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/mastering-adobe-lightroom-cloud-2024

Today’s Question: In Photoshop, the Stroke option is available both under Edit on the menu and as a layer style. What is the difference between the two? When I add a Stroke as a layer style it does not always show up on my image even though it shows up on the Layers panel. What am I doing wrong?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Choosing Stroke from the Edit menu in Photoshop applies the stroke directly as pixels on the image, while using the layer style adds a non-destructive stroke that is editable. If a stroke isn’t appearing on the image, it is most likely because it was added outside the image area.

More Detail: A stroke is a border around the perimeter of an image (or image layer), which can be added in a couple of different ways in Photoshop.

The approach I recommend is to add a stroke as a layer style, so that you maintain greater flexibility. With this approach you can think of the stroke as being similar to an adjustment layer, in that the image layer is not altered directly. Instead, the stroke is applied as an effect to the applicable layer, and you can always double-click on that effect to bring up the dialog that enables you to change the settings for the stroke.

If you choose the Stroke command from the edit menu the stroke is applied as pixels directly to the current image layer. You aren’t able to modify the stroke after the fact, other than using the Undo command to remove the stroke and then add it again with different settings.

If you add a stroke and it doesn’t appear on the image, the most likely reason is that the Location/Position setting was set to Outside, which adds the stroke outside the current image layer. If that image layer fills the entire canvas, your stroke will be hidden from view. You can choose Image > Reveal All from the menu to expand the canvas to reveal the additional stroke, but you can also set the Location/Position option to Inside so that the stroke will be positioned within the image area. Just keep in mind that with the Inside setting the stroke will cover up pixels around the perimeter of the image.

It is also possible that you reduced the setting for Opacity or used an option for Blend Mode that makes it difficult or impossible to see the stroke effect. By adding the stroke effect as a layer style you’ll maintain the option to easily refine the settings for the stroke as needed. Note that you can add a stroke as a layer style by clicking the “fx” button at the bottom of the Layers panel or by going to the menu and choosing “Layer > Layer Style > Stroke.

Today’s Question: I was reading your very interesting article on bit depth in Pixology magazine, and wanted to follow along by doing the math involved with bit depth. However, the calculator on my iPhone only provides basic functions without support for exponents. Is there an app you recommend that provides more advanced functions?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can actually calculate exponents and other advanced math operations by simply rotating your iPhone to horizontal when using the built-in Calculator app.

More Detail: At first glance the default Calculator app included on the iPhone seems to only offer the very basic mathematical operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. However, that’s only the case when holding the iPhone vertically, in which case you’re only seeing the basic calculator.

If you rotate your iPhone to horizontal (making sure that rotation isn’t locked) the Calculator app will switch to scientific mode. This will provide you with significantly more options for calculations, including exponents and roots, trigonometric functions, and more.

In the article on bit depth in the December 2023 issue of my Pixology magazine, I outlined the math involved with calculating how many tonal and color values would be available at different bit depths.

For example, with 8-bit per channel you can calculate the number of shades of gray available on each channel by raising two to the power of eight. On a scientific calculator that would involve using the “x to the y” button, which shows the letter “x” with the letter “y” in superscript to indicate an exponent. You can press the number 2 (the base in this case), then the “x to the y” button, and then the number 8 (the number to raise to), which will provide you with the result of 2 raised to the power of 8, which is 256.

To calculate the total number of color values available for an 8-bit RGB image, you need to take the value of 256 and raise it to the power of three. This is represented as the “x to the power of 3” button, which shows the letter “x” with the number “3” in superscript. So, you can simply enter “256” and then press the “x to the power of 3” button to get the result of 16,777,216 total possible tonal and color values for an 8-bit per channel RGB image.

Today’s Question: I’m seeing a lot of references to 4K resolution, especially for video capture on cameras and monitors. But what does 4K translate to in terms of camera resolution in megapixels that is more familiar to photographers?

Tim’s Quick Answer: 4K resolution is equivalent to about 8.3 megapixels, for both video cameras and monitor displays that feature 4K resolution.

More Detail: Most 4K displays and video capture have a resolution of 3,840×2,160 pixels, though there is some variation in the specific pixel count in both directions. To determine the number of megapixels based on pixel resolution, you simply multiply the number of pixels across by the number of pixels down, and divide by one million.

So, in this case, assuming a resolution of 3,840×2,160 pixels, the total number of pixels is 8,294,400. Divided by one million (or moving the decimal to the left six places) yields 8.2944, or about 8.3 megapixels.