Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Should I switch my organizing program from Adobe Bridge to Lightroom? I have been using Bridge for a number of years, but everyone talks about using LR. What criteria should I use in making this decision? I have several TB of photos that would have to be loaded into LR, but Bridge does not require loading files into its program. What am I losing by sticking with Bridge?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In my mind there are only two things (one good and one bad) that you’re missing out on by continuing to use Adobe Bridge rather than Lightroom Classic. First, you’re missing out on a faster and more comprehensive search capability. Second, you’re missing out on the learning curve involved with making sure you understand Lightroom Classic so you can gain the benefits without encountering the pitfalls.

More Detail: The key difference between Lightroom Classic and Adobe Bridge is that Lightroom Classic uses a catalog (central database) while Bridge is a simple browser without a corresponding database. This translates to both advantages and disadvantages when it comes to considering a switch from Bridge to Lightroom Classic.

The potential advantage of having a central catalog is that you can search across your entire library of photos very quickly and easily using a wide variety of criteria. You can quickly see every photo in your entire catalog that matches specific metadata, such as those captured in a particular date range, captured with specific camera settings, containing certain metadata values such as keywords, and much more.

For many photographers, including myself, this is a tremendous advantage. Trying to find photos across an entire library based on specific metadata is a much slower and frustrating experience with Bridge. For other photographers, this may not provide any real benefit, if they don’t need to be able to search across an entire library of photos based on specific criteria. I was just speaking with a friend the other day, for example, who never needs to use this type of broad search because he only really needs to locate photos based on his folder structure.

The point is that for some photographers this benefit for searching photos can be significant, and for others it may be minor or inconsequential.

It is important to keep in mind that switching to Lightroom Classic will also involve a bit of a learning curve. It is critically important that you understand how Lightroom Classic works, especially in the context of the catalog, before using it in your workflow. If you’ve not previously used Lightroom Classic I strongly recommend using resources (such as my video training courses) to make sure you understand how to use the software before you use it in your actual workflow.

I find Lightroom Classic to be tremendously helpful in my workflow. I also frankly find Bridge to be frustrating to use when I do put it to use. So, I’m very happy that I’ve adopted Lightroom Classic in my own workflow, but I also completely understand that it isn’t the right solution for everyone. I don’t recommend that all photographers switch to Lightroom Classic, but rather recommend considering whether it is the right solution based on your workflow needs.

Today’s Question: In the Develop module of Lightroom Classic, I no longer see the menu across the top where, for instance, it would select File and I could obtain a dropdown menu and export. I can right-click on the image and obtain those commands and export, but I wonder what else I am missing with the menu bar gone from the top of my screen. How do I restore the ability to see that menu?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In this situation you can view the menu bar in Lightroom Classic by moving your mouse pointer to the very top of the screen and holding it there until the menu appears. You can then restore the menu bar by choosing Window > Screen Mode and then choosing either “Normal” or “Full Screen with Menubar”.

More Detail: Lightroom Classic includes a couple of full screen view options so you can have the interface take up the entire display rather than having Lightroom Classic in a window. One of the full screen options causes the menu bar to disappear, but you can bring the menu back by hovering your mouse pointer at the very top of the display where the menu would otherwise normally appear.

You can cycle through the three options by holding the Shift key on the keyboard while pressing the “F” key. Each time you press Shift+F you will change screen modes, with the three options being “Normal”, which causes Lightroom Classic to appear in a window, “Full Screen with Menubar”, which has Lightroom Classic take up the entire screen, but with the menu bar at the top of the display, or “Full Screen”, where the menu bar will be hidden so Lightroom Classic can really take up the full display area.

You can also select one of these options by choosing Window > Screen Mode from the menu, followed by the preferred setting.

In this case I suspect you accidentally pressed the Shift+F keyboard shortcut, causing the display to cycle to the full screen option with the menu bar hidden. It is worth noting, by the way, that there is also a full screen option for the current image, where the single image can fill the screen without any of the Lightroom Classic interface shown. To toggle that full screen viewing option on and off you simply press the “F” key without holding the Shift key.

Today’s Question: When I make a synchronized collection public [in Lightroom Classic] and use the provided link to view the collection, the images seem to be in some random order and I can’t find any way to force them to sort, such as by capture time. If I log into Lightroom in a browser and look at the collection it is sorted the same way as I see it in Lightroom Classic. Is there any way to change the sort order when using the link?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You can set the sort order for a public collection by using the Custom Order option for sorting the images in the collection in Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: When you enable synchronization for a collection in Lightroom Classic, that collection can be viewed from virtually anywhere with an internet connection using the Lightroom app on a mobile device or in a web browser by signing in at https://lightroom.adobe.com.

In addition, you can make a synchronized collection public so that anyone can view the images in that collection if you share the link for that public collection with them. To make a synchronized collection public go to the grid view display for the collection and click the “Make Public” button found at the top-right of the thumbnails of pixels in the grid view.

A custom link will appear to the left of the button, which at this point will be labeled “Make Private”. You can click the link to open the collection in a web browser, or right-click on the link and choose “Copy to Clipboard” so you can then paste the link to send to someone else, such as via email or text message.

If you want the images in the public album to be sorted in a specific order, you should set the sort order to “Custom Order” using the Sort popup below the grid view display when viewing the collection. After selecting “Custom Order” you can drag the thumbnails around to change the order of the images to anything you like. Once those changes have had a chance to synchronize to the cloud, you can refresh the web browser to update the sort order for the public album.

If the sort order appears completely random when you initially make the synchronized collection public, I suspect it is because you had previously adjusted the Custom Order sort for that collection of images. Otherwise, the images would generally be sorted by capture time rather than a random order. Fortunately, however, you can use the Custom Order sort option to change the order to anything you’d like, and the updates will be synchronized to the cloud.

Today’s Question: I’ve heard you talk several times about using star ratings and color labels as options for marking your photos in Lightroom Classic. Is there a reason you don’t use pick flags instead of star ratings to identify your best photos?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The key reasons I prefer star ratings over the pick flag are that the pick flag and the related reject flag are not supported as a standard metadata field, and star ratings provide the ability to stack-rank photos.

More Detail: The main reason I don’t use the pick flag attribute in Lightroom Classic is that this option is not part of an established metadata standard. That means the pick (and reject) flag is only supported within the Lightroom Classic catalog. Other software would not be able to see the pick (or reject) flag, and if I lost my Lightroom Classic catalog I would lose these attributes altogether.

Because of this issue, I treat the pick and reject flags as “temporary” settings, because I would lose them if I ever lost my catalog. I use a reject flag to mark photos for deletion, but I don’t use a pick flag to mark favorite photos.

Instead, I use star ratings to identify favorite photos. Another key reason I prefer star ratings for this purpose is that they provide a stack-ranking capability, meaning there is a difference between a “favorite” photo and a “very best” photos.

As a very broad way of thinking about the way I use star ratings, I start with a one-star rating for any image that is a “keeper”, meaning a photo I think I might possibly use for some purpose. A two-star rating represents a favorite from a given photo trip or outing. Three stars is for images that can be thought as being a best photo of the year, while four stars is the rating I think of as being “best of the decade”. A five-star rating to me signifies “best of all time”, meaning an image I would put in my portfolio of very best photos.

I also use color labels as a supplemental tool in my workflow, with a red color label being used to mark photos (and folders) that still need to be reviewed to identify favorites and outtakes.

Once I’ve reviewed all photos from a given trip or outing I will review the photos I marked with a reject flag, and delete those photos once I’m confident I really don’t need to keep any of them.

By the way, I cover my full workflow for identifying favorite photos versus outtakes in the “Identifying Favorites and Outtakes” lesson included in my “Lightroom Lectures” course featuring long-form lessons on key topics in Lightroom Classic. This course is included in the “Mastering Lightroom Classic” bundle that you can find on the GreyLearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/bundles/lightroom-classic-bundle

Today’s Question: Is there a way in Lightroom Classic to search for photos captured on a particular date but for any year? For example, could I find all photos captured on my birthday or wedding anniversary for all years?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can search for all photos captured on a given date (month and day) for any year using the Month and Day options on the Metadata tab of the Library Filter bar in Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: I suspect most photographers using Lightroom Classic are aware that they can search for photos based on a specific date or range of dates using the Date column on the Metadata tab of the Library Filter bar. What I find many photographers don’t appreciate is the potential value of the Month and Day columns.

With the Date column on the Metadata tab of the Library Filter bar you can select an individual date or range of dates. You can also select an individual month or group of months, as well as a year or group of years. But this option mostly enables you to select a range of dates, since it wouldn’t be very easy to select a single month for every year that is represented by the metadata of your photos, for example.

However, the Month and Day columns make this task an easy one to accomplish.

To start off, you’ll want to select the “All Photographs” collection from the Catalog section near the top of the left panel in the Library module, so you’re viewing all photographs in your entire Lightroom Classic catalog.

Next, select Month from the popup on the heading for one of the columns on the Metadata tab of the Library Filter bar. You would generally use the left-most column for this purpose unless you needed to specify other filter criteria first. For example, since my birthday is in May I might select “May” from the Month column after selecting “Month” from the popup in the first column of the Metadata tab.

You can then select “Day” from the popup at the header for the column to the right of the column that is currently set to Month. Then select the specific date for the selected month that you want to search for. For example, my birthday is on May 20th, so I could select “20” from the “Day” column.

At this point the grid view display will show every single image that was (in my example) captured on May 20th of any year, based on the metadata for the photos in my Lightroom Classic catalog. I could, of course, use other criteria to further filter the photos. For example, I might use another column on the Metadata tab, or I could use the Attribute tab to specify a star rating as an additional setting for my filter.

The point is that the Month and Day columns on the Metadata tab of the Library Filter bar make it easy to locate photos captured in a specific month or on a specific date, but for any year for which you have captured photos.

And happy birthday or anniversary, as the case may be!

Today’s Question: I greatly enjoyed your class on “Find Any Photo” as part of the Lightroom Virtual Summit. One follow-up question: You mentioned that smart collections are like saved search results. You also talked about saving a search. When would you use one over the other?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In general, I would say that a smart collection is the better solution if you want the search to be more easily discovered and active across your entire Lightroom Classic catalog. A saved search is the better option when you want to search a particular folder or collection for photos that match specific criteria, rather than searching across your entire catalog.

More Detail: I think it is a good analogy to think of a smart collection as a saved search result. After all, you create a smart collection by specifying the search (or filter) criteria you want to use for the smart collection. For example, you might create a smart collection for “Best Sunsets” that includes photos that have “sunset” as a keyword with a star rating of 3-stars or more. This smart collection would then automatically include all photos in your entire catalog that match both criteria.

Similarly, you could specify the same criteria using the Library Filter bar, and then save those filter settings using the popup at the top-right of the Library Filter bar (or at the top-right of the filmstrip). The key difference is that when you select a saved search with the Library Filter bar, the filter criteria will only be applied based on the current folder or collection.

If you are browsing the “All Photographs” collection in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module when you select a saved search from the Library Filter bar, then the results will be the same as a smart collection with the same criteria. However, you could also navigate to a particular folder or collection first so that only photos in the location you’re currently browsing that also match the filter criteria will be displayed.

So, both a smart collection and a saved search are effectively saved searches. The only real difference is scope. A smart collection searches across your entire catalog unless you’ve included a folder or collection location as part of the filter criteria. A saved search on the Library Filter bar will only show images that match the specified criteria in the location you’re currently browsing.

Today’s Question: I have a desktop [older] version of Photoshop 6 and don’t want a subscription. I tried Lightroom but didn’t like it. Wondering if the new version of Photoshop Elements is a better alternative with updated features beyond Photoshop 6? Any experience or thoughts appreciated.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Photoshop Elements is a reasonable alternative to Photoshop for photographers, though it does lack some of the power of Photoshop. I do think the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan (https://timgrey.me/ccplans) represents a good overall value for photographers. If you don’t want a subscription plan, another option worth looking at is Affinity Photo (https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/).

More Detail: There are a variety of software tools that aim to compete on some level with Adobe Photoshop. In fact, there are several new entrants to the market that I am currently evaluating and will be reporting on soon.

In the meantime, I think Affinity Photo may be a better solution for photographers than Photoshop Elements in terms of providing more features that are closer to the power of Photoshop. You can learn more about Affinity Photo here:

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Of course, I also think it makes sense for photographers to consider getting past the understandable frustration of the subscription model for software, especially considering that such a large number of software tools are now available only via subscription. You can learn more about the options for the Creative Cloud Photography Plan here:

https://timgrey.me/ccplans