Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Long ago, when I was first learning to use Photoshop, I found a way I could lighten or darken a particular area of an image and then “brush” that effect gradually into neighboring areas. Either my memory has failed me (quite possible), or the tools have changed, but I am unable to duplicate that process now. What am I missing, or messing up?

Tim’s Quick Answer: This is indeed a good technique that is still available in Photoshop. The process involves adding a new image layer with specific attributes, and then using the Brush tool to paint with black and white at a reduced opacity to darken and lighten areas of the image, respectively.

More Detail: The flexible dodging and burning technique is probably one of the adjustments I’ve been using (and teaching) in Photoshop the longest. It provides greater flexibility and control than using the Dodge and Burn tools by making use of the Brush tool instead.

To get started, select the top-most image layer (which could be the Background image layer) on the Layers panel by clicking on its thumbnail. Then hold the Alt key on Windows or the Option key on Macintosh while clicking on the “Create a new layer” button (the plus within a square icon) at the bottom of the Layers panel.

In the New Layer dialog, enter a meaningful name in the Name field, such as “Dodge and Burn”. Set the Mode popup to Overlay, set the Opacity to 100%, and turn on the “Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray)” checkbox. Click the OK button to create the new layer.

Next, choose the Brush tool from the Tools panel. On the Options bar click the brush popup (the third icon from the left) and set the Hardness value to 0%. Make sure the Mode popup on the Options bar is set to Normal, and set the Opacity value to somewhere around 10% to 20%.

Set the colors to their default values of black for the foreground color and white for the background color by pressing the letter “D” on the keyboard. As needed you can press the letter “X” to exchange the foreground and background colors.

With everything configured, you can adjust the brush size as need by pressing the left square bracket (“[“) key to reduce the brush size and the right square bracket key (“]”) to increase the brush size. Then paint with black over areas of the image you want to darken, and paint with white over areas you want to brighten.

The result is a non-destructive layer-based approach to dodging and burning an image with great flexibility.

Today’s Question: I keep all my images on a 6TB external hard drive, which is quickly running out of space, and would like to back it up to an external 20TB hard drive. What software do you recommend and why?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I would use software such as GoodSync (http://timgrey.me/greybackup), though there are some very important issues that need to be kept in mind when performing this work.

More Detail: There are a variety of ways you could migrate photos to a larger hard drive. However, I recommend using software that is designed for this type of purpose to avoid problems and frustrations.

If you’re using Lightroom Classic you’ll of course need to keep in mind that if the overall path to the photos changes, you’ll need to reconnect the “missing” folders after the migration. This is best done by reconnecting a single top-level folder, such as by having a “Photos” folder that can be used as the single folder to reconnect above all others.

I don’t recommend simply copying (or moving) the photos, because this can result in problems and frustration if there are any photos that aren’t able to be transferred for any reason. This process can be managed much more easily by creating a backup job for this purpose with software such as GoodSync (http://timgrey.me/greybackup).

One significant caveat to be aware of with GoodSync is that it will make the destination location look exactly like the source location, which can include deleting existing files if you’re not careful. For example, if you have existing files and folders on the destination drive, but then select the existing photos drive as the source and the top-level (root) of the larger hard drive as the destination, GoodSync will delete existing files on the larger hard drive so that it matches what is on the source drive. In this case you should use a new parent folder on the larger drive to serve as the destination for the backup.

While the overall process of migrating photos to a new and larger hard drive is rather straightforward, there are also risks involved if you’re not familiar with the specific process involved. In that case I would recommend having someone who is familiar with this workflow take care of the process for you. Even more important, if you’re using Lightroom Classic I consider it critically important to make sure that anyone who helps you with this type of computer work is very familiar with Lightroom Classic.

Today’s Question: I’m wondering if it’s possible do a search to find all the images in a Lightroom Classic catalog where the original image is missing.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can locate all photos that can’t currently be found where they’re expected by going to the Library module and choosing Library > Find All Missing Photos from the menu.

More Detail: A “missing” photo in Lightroom Classic is simply a photo that can’t currently be located in the specific location and with the specific filename that is expected based on the catalog. For example, if you disconnect an external hard drive that contains photos being managed by Lightroom Classic, all the photos on that hard drive would show as missing. However, all you would need to do is reconnect the hard drive to your computer and the photos would no longer be missing.

So, to get started with this task the first step would be to connect all hard drives so that as many photos are available as possible. You can then choose Library > Find All Missing Photos from the menu. This will cause a collection called “Missing Photographs” to be created (if it hadn’t been created previously) in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module.

You can then go through the images in the Missing Photographs collection and either reconnect photos you’re able to find or remove photos that you decide you won’t be able to locate. Note that it can also be helpful to reconnect folders rather than individual photos. For example, you could right-click on a missing photo and choose “Go to Folder in Library” from the popup menu. That will navigate you to the applicable folder in the Folders list on the left panel, where you can hopefully reconnect the entire folder rather than individual photos one at a time.

Today’s Question: I periodically get an email from Backblaze featuring “Your Backup Summary”. Is it important that I review the backup summary, or can I just ignore it and let it run in the background?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I do recommend periodically reviewing your online backup summary with Backblaze, even if only to confirm that all drives have been successfully backed up recently.

More Detail: The Backblaze service provides an online backup, which means you don’t have direct access to the backup on a local hard drive. That’s part of the point of using a service such as Backblaze, since it provides an offsite backup. However, because it is an offsite backup that you’re not controlling directly, it can be good to review the status of the backup periodically to make sure your photos and other important data are indeed being backed up.

There are two basic things you can check when reviewing your online backup status. First is the overall summary of the backup. When you visit the Overview page of your online account with Backblaze, you’ll see a summary showing when the most recent file was backed up from each drive that you are backing up with Backblaze. This is a good way to confirm that the backup for all drives has been updated recently and can serve as a good reminder that you need to connect a particular drive so the backup can be updated.

In addition, you may want to periodically check the View/Restore Files tab for your online account. There you can navigate to a particular folder on a particular drive to confirm that files have been backed up. For example, you could check the files for a folder containing your most recent photos to ensure they were actually added to the backup properly.

While I have grown to trust Backblaze to properly manage my online backup, I do appreciate the peace of mind of being able to check the status of the drives I am backing up with Backblaze as well as specific folders and photos. I therefore recommend that all Backblaze users do a similar review periodically, if for no other reason than to improve your peace of mind.

You can learn more about the Backblaze online backup service that I recommend by following this link:

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup/personal#af9pdk

Today’s Question: I have Lightroom Classic and have limped along with it fine for some time. But I have a lot to learn about organizing my images into folders and collections, and learning how to find them. My question for you is am I better off learning Bridge and Camera Raw, or sticking with Lightroom Classic for file management? I hate to switch to Bridge/Camera Raw, as it is yet something new to learn, but maybe it is superior to Lightroom Classic?

Tim’s Quick Answer: I wouldn’t say that Bridge or Lightroom Classic are necessarily better than one another, but rather that they are different. Bridge is a little easier and more forgiving, while Lightroom Classic offers some unique benefits but requires that you have a pretty good understanding of how it works to avoid problems.

More Detail: In many respects, Adobe Bridge is the safer choice compared to Lightroom Classic, in that Bridge is a browser that doesn’t rely on the catalog. Therefore, if you’re struggling with Lightroom Classic it might make more sense to consider Bridge, if for no other reason than to avoid the potential problems that can be created if you forget that all updates should be applied within Lightroom Classic, not through other software or the operating system.

While Bridge is overall a little simpler and more forgiving, there are some advantages to the catalog that is a core feature of Lightroom Classic. That includes being able to browse all photos even when the source files aren’t available (such as when an external hard drive is disconnected), the ability to search across your entire catalog of photos quickly and easily, and more.

I personally use Lightroom Classic to manage my catalog of almost 400,000 photos, and very much appreciate the benefits the catalog provides. But I also appreciate the potential problems that can occur when photographers use Lightroom Classic without fully understanding it. There’s a reason, after all, that my “Cleaning Up Your Mess in Lightroom Classic” course (https://www.greylearning.com/courses/lightroom-mess) is one of my best sellers.

Put simply: I personally prefer Lightroom Classic compared to Bridge (or the cloud-focused version of Lightroom). However, I will caveat that by saying if you’re going to use Lightroom Classic it is very important to make sure to understand it well before getting too deep into using it in your workflow.

For more information on choosing between Adobe Bridge, Lightroom, and Lightroom Classic, check out my webinar presentation from early this year on my “Tim Grey TV” channel on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/live/BwpneG4y0nQ?si=hE1txjZ3HWxCH-TH

Today’s Question: Is there a way to get a histogram in Bridge? I feel my several requests on this to Adobe have fallen on deaf ears. Or is there something else to use instead of a histogram in Bridge to evaluate exposure? For example, [without a histogram] I could not easily choose which exposure from a bracketed set was exposed to the right and did not have slightly blown out highlights.

Tim’s Quick Answer: Adobe Bridge does not include a histogram panel, but you could select multiple images and open them in Camera Raw to evaluate the histogram there.

More Detail: Adobe Bridge is a popular tool for organizing photos, especially for photographers who are primarily using Photoshop to optimize their photos and who do not want to use Lightroom Classic (or the other versions of Lightroom). However, the absence of a histogram panel in Bridge can create a little bit of a workflow challenge, such as when you want to evaluate the exposure of several bracketed exposures.

While you can’t view a histogram directly in Bridge, you can do so in Camera Raw. If you select one or more photos in Bridge and then double-click, by default the images will open in Photoshop within the Camera Raw dialog. However, you can work more efficiently (especially if you simply want to view the histogram without editing a photo) by turning on the option to edit with Camera Raw via Bridge rather than Photoshop.

To edit with Camera Raw directly in Bridge rather than launching Photoshop, go to the General tab of the Preferences dialog in Adobe Bridge and turn on the “Double-Click Edits Camera Raw Settings in Bridge” checkbox. With this option enabled you can select multiple photos and double-click one of the selected photos to open all of them in Camera Raw. You can switch among the photos on the filmstrip in Camera Raw, evaluating the histogram for each. You can then click the Done button to return to Bridge, or select one or more images on the filmstrip in Camera Raw and click the Open button to open them in Photoshop.

While this process isn’t as efficient as it would be if Bridge simply included a histogram, it is still a relatively streamlined workflow overall. That’s especially true if you’ll ultimately want to open an image in Photoshop after evaluating the histogram.

Note that my comprehensive course on “Adobe Bridge for Photographers” can help you learn to use Bridge to organize your photos. This course is included in the GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle at no additional cost, but is also available as a standalone course here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/adobe-bridge-for-photographers

Today’s Question: Is it possible to create a still photo from a video clip? I recorded videos with my camera of whales breaching and wish I had still images as well. Is this possible?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can capture an individual frame of a video using software such as Photoshop or Lightroom Classic (among others). However, it is important to keep in mind that the image may be at a relatively low resolution depending on the resolution of the video.

More Detail: Many cameras support the recording of video in addition to capturing still images. In many cases, however, that video is recorded at a lower resolution than the still images the camera is capable of capturing. For example, many cameras capture video at 1920×1080 pixels, which equates to just over 2 megapixels. Some cameras offer 4K resolution video, which typically has resolution of 3840×2160 pixels, which translates to just over 8 megapixels. The point is that in many cases capturing a still image from a video may result in an image of lower resolution (and therefore lower quality) than you might have anticipated.

In Photoshop you can capture a still frame from a video by first opening the video in Photoshop. This can be done just like opening a still image. When you open a video, you should see the Timeline panel automatically. On the Timeline panel you can use the playhead to navigate to the position in the video that you want to capture as a still image. When you’re at the frame you want, go to the menu and choose File > Save a Copy. You can then update the filename, choose the location, and specify the file format and any other available options to save a still image based on the current frame of the video.

In Lightroom Classic you can browse the video you want to capture a still frame from in the Library module. Drag the playhead to the position in the video you want to capture a still image based on. Then click the Frame button (the rectangular icon toward the far right of the playhead area) and choose “Capture Frame” from the popup menu. This will save a JPEG image based on the current frame of the video, in a stack with the video. You could then export a copy of that image, for example.

In many cases it is better to capture a still photo rather than planning to extract a still frame from a video after the capture. However, for situations where you only captured a video, you can most certainly extract an image from the video.

I covered the topic of capturing a still frame from a video, as well as the overall process of optimizing videos in Lightroom Classic, in my lesson “Optimizing Video”, which is Chapter 3, Lesson 10, in my comprehensive video training course “Mastering Lightroom Classic”. This course is included at no additional cost in my GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle, but is also available as a standalone video course here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/mastering-lightroom-classic-2023

Today’s Question: In Lightroom Classic I see the “Move files on disk” message regularly and I like having it there so I don’t accidentally move images or folders. If you turn on the “Don’t show again” checkbox, and then change your mind about wanting to see the messages again, do you have any idea how to restore this dialog box?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can restore this (and all other warning dialogs) by clicking the “Reset all warning dialogs” button on the General tab of the Preferences dialog in Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: Many of the warning dialogs in Lightroom Classic include a “Don’t show again” checkbox. If you turn on that checkbox for a particular warning dialog, that specific warning will not be presented again.

If you have changed your mind and want to restore one or more of the warnings, the only option is to enable all of them again by clicking the “Reset all warning dialogs” button on the General tab of the Preferences dialog.

After clicking this button, all warning dialogs you had previously disabled will be enabled again. Therefore, if there are dialogs you still don’t want to see, you’ll need to turn on the “Don’t show again” checkbox again for the specific dialogs you want to disable.

The task of configuring the Preferences and other settings in Lightroom Classic is a topic I covered in great detail in the lesson “Configuring Lightroom Classic”, which is Chapter 1, Lesson 3, in my comprehensive video training course “Mastering Lightroom Classic”. This course is included at no additional cost in my GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle, but is also available as a standalone video course here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/mastering-lightroom-classic-2023

Today’s Question: When assembling a composite panorama is there any significant differences or advantages between processing the RAW files in Camera Raw or Lightroom before merging into a composite panorama versus simply merging the original RAW files into a composite panorama, flattening it and saving it as a PSD image file, and then using the Camera Raw Filter for editing using the selected image layer in Photoshop?

Tim’s Quick Answer: There is at least a theoretical advantage to processing the raw captures via Camera Raw or Lightroom rather than rendering into a composite panorama first. From a practical perspective the advantage is more about workflow flexibility.

More Detail: If you process raw captures and assemble a composite panorama using Camera Raw or Lightroom, you are processing the original raw data using the applicable adjustments. This provides a potential benefit in terms of image quality compared to applying adjustments to rendered pixel data later in your workflow, such as with the Camera Raw filter in Photoshop.

The advantage in terms of image quality generally won’t be very significant unless relatively strong adjustments are required. The stronger the adjustments, the greater the advantage of working with the raw capture data rather than rendered pixel data.

In my view, however, the key advantage is more about workflow flexibility and efficiency. If you assemble a composite panorama using Camera Raw or Lightroom you are creating an Adobe DNG file that essentially amounts to a new raw capture. If you process that image, the adjustments you applied before assembling the composite panorama are still non-destructive, so you can change the settings without degrading image quality.

For example, if you convert raw captures to black and white in Camera Raw or Lightroom and then merge the images to a composite panorama using Camera Raw or Lightroom, the adjustments are simply metadata values. You could later change the Treatment option from black and white to color, and you would be back to the original color version of the image.

From a workflow perspective, I therefore prefer to use Camera Raw or Lightroom to assemble composite panoramas. The only reason I would use Photoshop to assemble with a more manual process is if the panorama didn’t come together well with Camera Raw or Lightroom. In that case, the images can be assembled into layers in conjunction with layer masks to merge the images together. Thankfully, most of the time Camera Raw or Lightroom do a great job of assembling composite panoramas.

Note that I covered the process of assembling composite panorams in great detail in my lesson “Panoramas and High Dynamic Range Images”, which is Chapter 3, Lesson 8, in my comprehensive video training course “Mastering Lightroom Classic”. This course is included at no additional cost in my GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle, but is also available as a standalone video course here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/mastering-lightroom-classic-2023