Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: You referred to using a 4K monitor as your “primary display”, which I assume means you are using more than one monitor on your computer. Is this something you generally recommend, or do you have unique needs for multiple displays that wouldn’t apply to most photographers?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I do find it very helpful to have two monitor displays and recommend that just about anyone consider taking this approach. Two displays can be helpful in general when working on a computer, but I also find two displays particularly helpful when working in Photoshop, and to some extent helpful in Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: To be sure, a big part of why I find it helpful to have two (or more) monitor displays is that I often have a lot going on when I’m working on my computer. That is especially true when I’m presenting online, for example, when I’m sharing my primary screen with viewers but also monitoring the broadcast software, watching for questions from viewers, and more, all on my secondary display.

But even when focused on my photography workflow, I find two displays to be very helpful. In Photoshop, for example, I love being able to put all the panels on my secondary display while only having the general Photoshop interface and the image I’m working on visible on my primary display. This provides much more space for the image I’m focused on.

While I don’t use dual displays as often in Lightroom Classic, this is something that is possible and that can be helpful. Lightroom Classic supports having a secondary window on a second display, though the features are a little limited. However, this does make it possible, for example, to view a grid of all images you’re currently browsing on the secondary display while focusing on the current image in the loupe view on your primary display.

So, yes, I absolutely think using two (or more) monitor displays can be very helpful and would certainly recommend that photographers consider this approach. For example, if you are considering getting a new display you could keep the old display so you can connect both and test out the benefits of multiple monitors for yourself.

Today’s Question: I’m wondering if I should consider a 4K monitor, which all the marketing suggests is a great thing. When I’ve seen 4K monitors on display it seems everything on the screen is really tiny, so why would I want such a display?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I actually highly recommend using a 4K display, even if you set it to a lower display resolution, because the details on the display will be significantly crisper and sharper with a 4K monitor.

More Detail: A 4K monitor is a display that has a resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels (thus 4K) across. With most displays that feature 4K resolution the actual number of pixels across will be 3,840, but the specification rounds this up to a tidy “4K” designation. Various displays will feature a different specific resolution but still be referred to as 4K.

I had long resisted switching to a 4K display, knowing that I would not want to use 4K resolution because interface elements would be incredibly small. Put simply, I knew I would likely never want to use the 4K resolution based on the tasks I tend to perform and the applications I typically use on my computer.

However, even if you don’t want to run a 4K monitor at a 4K resolution, there is still a significant advantage in terms of display quality to using a display with a resolution of 4K (or higher). I was actually a bit surprised at just what a significant difference it made when I switched from a display with 1080p resolution (1920×1080 pixels) to one with 4K resolution (3840×2160 pixels).

In particular, with a high-resolution display set to a lower resolution, text looks significantly sharper that with a display that has a native resolution that matches what you’ve set the high-resolution display to. The overall interface also looks crisper, though this isn’t quite as obvious as the benefit for text. The overall experience of using a 4K display set to a lower resolution is significantly better in my view.

I happen to be using an LG 27UL550-W 27-inch monitor (https://bhpho.to/3NimIlq), but there are many other options available. I’ve also been happy with displays from ViewSonic, BenQ, Dell, and others.

Today’s Question: When updating applications in the Adobe Creative Cloud application I saw an alert that said, “Creative Cloud Files sync is going away”. I followed the link to get info but didn’t understand what the implications were for me. Does this mean I won’t be able to synchronize collections from Lightroom Classic?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The feature being discontinued only relates to the local “Creative Cloud Files” folder, which enabled files stored in that folder to be synchronized to the Adobe servers so they could be accessed from virtually anywhere. You’ll still be able to save files to the cloud via Creative Cloud applications, and you’ll still be able to synchronize collections to the cloud in Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: When you subscribe to a Creative Cloud plan from Adobe one of the benefits of your subscription is a set amount of cloud-based storage. This allows you to store photos or documents on Adobe’s servers, so they can be accessed from virtually anywhere.

For example, from Photoshop you can click the “Save to cloud documents” button to switch to saving to the cloud rather than locally on your computer. If you were then on another computer with Photoshop installed, or using the Creative Cloud application or a web browser to access your account (https://assets.adobe.com/cloud-documents), you could access the files you saved to your cloud-based storage. This option will continue to be available.

In addition, cloud-based synchronization for collections in Lightroom Classic will still be supported, and of course synchronization will remain available for the cloud-based version of Lightroom.

The only feature that is being discontinued is the option to save files to a local “Creative Cloud Files” folder on your computer and have the files in that folder synchronized to the Adobe Creative Cloud. This had previously provided a more general way to save files in a way that they could be accessed from nearly anywhere with an internet connection, but Adobe is discontinuing this feature.

My experience has been that very few photographers had been making use of the Creative Cloud Files synchronization option, and there remain several other very good options for storing photos or other documents in the cloud if you prefer to use that option for making your photos and other files available more broadly, in addition to being able to use this type of feature as an additional option for backing up critical files.

Today’s Question: What are the key different uses for the Texture, Clarity and Dehaze sliders in Lightroom and other processing programs [including Camera Raw]? Sometimes they seem to give similar results and other times one or the other is significantly better than the others.

Tim’s Quick Answer: The Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze adjustments are all somewhat similar in the effect they create, with each operating at a different scale in terms of detail within the image.

More Detail: The Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze sliders all enhance contrast in an image. I often describe these adjustments as applying an effect that is similar to sharpening, but with each operating at a different scale. You can sort of think of them in this context as offering enhancement for small, medium, and large areas of detail, but of course there is an overlap between each of the adjustments.

Texture operates at the smallest scale, which makes it closest to a typical sharpening effect. As the name implies, the Texture adjustment is focused on enhancing (or toning down) the finest texture details in an image. For example, I often increase the value for Texture when I want to enhance things like fine wood grain, sand or stone textures, and similar areas of fine texture. The Texture adjustment can also be used with a negative value to reduce texture, such as to smooth out skin textures in a portrait.

The Clarity adjustment can be thought of as being focused on midtone contrast in an image. This can enhance detail and texture, though at a larger scale than the Texture adjustment. It can also help reduce the appearance of haze, though at a smaller scale and with less impact than the Dehaze adjustment. I use the Clarity with many—if not most—images when I want a bit more overall contrast, drama, or impact in the photo. A negative value can be used with the Clarity adjustment if you want to reduce overall midtone contrast and add a somewhat dreamlike or ethereal quality to an image.

The Dehaze adjustment, as the name implies, is primarily focused on reducing the appearance of haze in an image. While it overlaps with the Clarity adjustment, it has a much stronger impact on overall haze, in many cases making the haze in a photo seem to magically disappear. I use this effect almost exclusively for reducing the appearance of haze in a photo, though it can be used to add a bit of dramatic contrast in other images as well. The Dehaze adjustment can also be used with a negative value to add a hazy or foggy appearance to a photo.

Today’s Question: I recently saw a tutorial from a photographer who recommended cropping images at a resolution of 72 ppi when the intent is to share to a digital display. But is this the correct number regardless of the display, such as with different monitors or digital projectors?

Tim’s Quick Answer: No, 72 pixels per inch (ppi) is not the correct resolution for digital displays. In fact, the ppi resolution is only relevant when you are preparing an image for print, while for digital sharing only the actual pixel dimensions matter.

More Detail: One of the most persistent misunderstandings about resolution for photographic images relates to the pixel per inch (ppi) resolution. For digital images this information is essentially meaningless.

For an image that will be displayed digitally, all that really matters when it comes to resolution are the pixel dimensions of the display upon which the image will be presented. For example, if an image is intended to be displayed full screen on a display or digital projector with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels (often referred to as “1080p” resolution), the image should be resized to pixel dimensions close to 1920×1080 pixels.

In the context of a display the pixel per inch resolution doesn’t impact the resolution needed for the image prepared for such a display. You simply want to size the image based on the pixel dimensions of the display. The setting for the output resolution is simply another metadata value in this context.

The only time the pixel per inch resolution is really helpful is when printing, and even in this context it is only a convenience in terms of describing the resolution needed for optimal quality. For example, with offset press printing the effective resolution is generally around 300 pixels per inch. With that information you can resize an image easily, because you know how many pixels are required based on the intended output size. For example, an 8″x10″ print would require 2,400 pixels by 3,000 pixels based on 300 pixels per inch.

With a digital display the pixel per inch resolution isn’t as meaningful, in large part because different displays will have widely variable pixel per inch resolutions. For example, my 27-inch 4K display has a resolution of 163 ppi. The same size display at 1080p resolution would have a resolution of about 82 ppi. A digital projector at 1080p resolution projected onto a 10-foot-wide screen would have a resolution of 9 ppi. The point is that the pixel per inch resolution isn’t as uniformly helpful in the context of a digital display the way it is with print, so you can simply resize the image based on optimal pixel dimensions and effectively ignore the pixel per inch resolution.

Today’s Question: Do you have a recommendation for a 35mm slide scanning service?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I have used ScanMyPhotos (https://www.scanmyphotos.com) with good results, though I will say that I do not like their extensive use of add-on fees in their pricing structure.

More Detail: If you have slides and negatives you’d like to digitize, you could certainly use a scanner to scan the images yourself. Of course, these days there aren’t very many scanners still in production, so if you don’t already have a scanner there aren’t very many options available to you.

Fortunately, there are a variety of services that can scan your slides and negatives for you. One service I’ve used with good results is ScanMyPhotos (https://www.scanmyphotos.com). The only thing I dislike about their service is the way they structure their fees.

For example, with ScanMyPhotos you can opt to pay for a box that you can fill with the slides you want scanned for a flat fee (they also offer pricing per slide scanned). The flat fee for the slide scanning box is quoted as starting at $275, which would work out to a little over $0.50 per slide. However, you’ll likely want to upgrade to 4,000 dpi scans rather than 2,000 dpi, which costs an additional $59. In addition there is a $29.95 fee to have your slides returned to you, and if you don’t want the slides returned you have to instead pay a $24.95 disposal fee.

The scanned images will be available for download for five days, and you can pay an additional fee to have them available for a longer period of time. There are additional fees for additional features that are reasonable. But based on what a photographer would typically want as a basic starting point the cost for the slide scanning box would be about $364, which works out to about $0.67 per slide if you’re able to fit 540 slides in the box. That’s still a reasonable rate in my view, I just wish the pricing structure was more straightforward.

Note that you could also use a digital camera to digitize slides, such as by using a slide adapter. For example, Nikon offers the ES-1 Slide Copying Adapter (https://bhpho.to/3RC8gHF) that is designed to attach to a 55mm macro lens (20mm extension tube would also be needed for a cropped sensor camera). This enables you to simply place a slide in the adapter and photograph the slide rather than using a film scanner.

Today’s Question: I noticed in one of your (excellent) video tutorials on Photoshop that you had the “Save a Copy” command on the menu highlighted in green. How did that color get added, and can I do something similar for the menu commands I use most often?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can assign a highlight color to individual menu commands in Photoshop in the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog. The colors you assign can be preserved by saving a workspace configuration that includes your customized menu options.

More Detail: Photoshop enables you to assign a highlight color to individual menu commands, so you can color-code commands in different categories or mark the commands you use most frequently for quicker access.

To get started go to the menu and choose Edit > Menus. This will bring up the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog, opened to the Menus tab. You can navigate among the menu commands by expanding the sections for each top-level menu you’d like to update commands for and locating the applicable command.

To the right of each command there are options for Visibility and Color. You can click the eye icon to toggle the visibility of menu commands off or on, so that for example you can hide menu commands that you know you’ll never need to use. More importantly in the context of today’s question, you can click in the Color column for a menu command to bring up a popup menu where you can choose a color to use for the command.

You can save the menu configuration within the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog, but I recommend simply saving the updated menu configuration with a saved workspace. You can click the OK button to close the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog when you’re finished configuring the highlight colors for menu commands. Then go to the menu and choose Window > Workspace > New Workspace. This will bring up a dialog where you can enter a name for the new workspace, and to preserve your changes to the menu configuration turn on the “Menus” checkbox. You can then click the Save button to save the workspace.

You can select the workspace you want to use by choosing Window > Workspace and the name of the saved workspace from the menu. You can also reset the current workspace to the saved configuration (such as after having moved some panels around) by choosing Window > Workspace > Reset (with the name of the current workspace shown after “Reset” on the menu).

I demonstrated how to configure menu colors along with the overall Photoshop interface in Chapter 1, Lesson 4, “Configuring the Photoshop Interface”, in my new comprehensive course on “Photoshop for Photographers”. You can learn more about this course on the GreyLearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/photoshop-for-photographers-2024

Today’s Question: After reading your answer about the Remove tool in Photoshop I decided to give it a try, since I didn’t even know it was there. I noticed on the Options bar there are buttons for add and subtract, but the subtract button is disabled. Is it supposed to do something?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The subtract button for the Remove tool is available if you turn off the “Remove after each stroke” checkbox, and it enables you to subtract from areas you have marked for cleanup with the Remove tool before actually applying the cleanup to the designated area.

More Detail: By default, the Remove tool in Photoshop performs cleanup work on an area as soon as you paint a brush stroke on the image, in the same way the Spot Healing Brush tool performs cleanup after every brush stroke. However, you can change this behavior if you prefer, such as when you want to carefully paint over a relatively large object you want to remove from a photo.

If you turn off the “Remove after each stroke” checkbox on the Options bar for the Remove tool, you can paint using multiple brush strokes to define the area you want to clean within the image. This includes the option to use the add and subtract features for the brush. By default, the Remove tool is set to the add option. However, you can click the subtract option (or hold the Alt key on Windows or the Option key on Macintosh) to subtract portions of the area designated for cleanup, which will erase the color overlay that indicates the portion of the image to be cleaned up.

With the “Remove after each stroke” checkbox turned off, to apply the actual cleanup you’ll need to click the apply button (it has a checkmark icon) on the Options bar. To the left of the apply button is a reset button you can use to remove the overlay so that none of the image is marked for cleanup.

Note that I covered the Remove tool (and all the other image cleanup tools in Photoshop) in “Image Cleanup in Photoshop”, which is Chapter 2, Lesson 3, of my “Photoshop for Photographers” video course. You can learn more about this new comprehensive video course on the GreyLearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/photoshop-for-photographers-2024