Ask Tim Grey

Today’s Question: Do you miss film photography?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, though I would never want to miss out on the incredible advantages provided by digital photography.

More Detail: I must admit, when I first saw this question, my immediate thought was that I did not miss film photography because I appreciate the advantages of digital photography. With digital, for example, we have immediate feedback on how an image turned out, greater resolution and overall image quality, the convenience of being able to capture many photos with no real cost involved, and more.

However, as I reminisced about what photography was like in the days before digital photography even existed, I realized that there were some unique advantages of that era. In effect, what we may have perceived as disadvantages with film photography also represent some of the things I miss most about photography before digital cameras were available.

One of the key things I appreciate about film photography is that it tended to be more deliberate and required more focus and attention to detail. For example, we were often limited to just 36 exposures on a roll of film, and there was no preview of what those images were going to look like. You had to wait until the film was processed to see the results.

To be sure, even in the days when film photography was our only option, the limitations could be frustrating. But there was also something special about the process involved, and the need to wait for the film to be developed before you would know how your photos turned out.

In a world where we have the incredible tools of digital photography, I don’t feel particularly inclined to pursue film photography. I have fond memories of the days before digital cameras became available but am sure glad that we can take advantage of the benefits of digital tools in photography.

Today’s Question: What do camera manufacturers need to do to remain relevant in a smartphone-camera world?

Tim’s Quick Answer: If camera manufacturers want to remain relevant in photography long-term, my feeling is that they’ll eventually need to start manufacturing their own smartphones.

More Detail: Today’s question is actually one that was submitted for a panel discussion at the Smoky Mountains Photo Fest event that I had the privilege of speaking at recently. We ran out of time to address the question, so I wanted to share my thoughts here.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I still think there is a significant market for dedicated digital cameras, I just think that market will start to diminish over time. For example, I would expect there won’t be any new digital SLR camera models in about five years.

Mirrorless camera sales have actually been increasing over the years, and represent a significant market. I suspect a significant portion of the sales of mirrorless cameras are photographers transitioning away from digital SLR cameras, which makes sense in the context of the sales statistics for both.

What I think is perhaps more significant is that smartphone sales represent more than 100 times the sales of dedicated cameras. Granted, those smartphones aren’t purchased primarily as cameras at least by the vast majority of users, but they are used for many types of photography by a huge number of people. And that includes a decent number of professional photographers, by the way.

I believe these trends will continue. Combined with the fact that smartphone cameras have dramatically improved in terms of image quality, features, and control, I think photographers will increasingly realize that much of their photography could be handled with a smartphone, which after all provides an incredibly convenient photography solution that most of us carry with us pretty much at all times.

But I should emphasize that none of this is to suggest that photography will be diminished by these changes. Quite the contrary, I think that as smartphone cameras continue to improve there will only be greater enthusiasm for photography. As long as AI doesn’t diminish that interest in photography, I suppose.

Today’s Question: Congrats on 25 years of Ask Tim Grey. I’m curious if there is a particular category of question that has “disappeared” over the years, meaning something that was maybe more topical early on that photographers don’t ask about these days?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, I would say the most significant topic that has disappeared over the years would be color management. Fortunately, this is in large part because circumstances have improved to the point that color management isn’t as big a challenge as it was in the early days of digital photography.

More Detail: In my early days helping to educate photographers in the world of photography (and especially during the transition to digital photography that was getting started at that time) color management was one of the topics I was asked about the most.

I think there are several factors that contributed to this. One was that color management is a rather technical topic that isn’t particularly easy to understand. The second is that in the early days of digital imaging the available tools weren’t great in terms of accurate color throughout the workflow. The third factor was that I was (and still am) a bit of a technical nerd, and so I gravitated toward topics such as color management.

In fact, I intended for the first book I authored to be on the subject of color management. Circumstances intervened so that my first book (as a co-author) was “Real World Digital Photography”. But my second book was “Color Confidence”, which served as a guide to color management for photographers.

In those early days monitors were CRT rather than LCD. Those CRT displays were far less stable, tending to drift in the overall color relatively quickly. This required somewhat frequent calibration to ensure an accurate display. These days, LCD displays are quite stable, especially in terms of color.

Similarly, there has been a great improvement in the accuracy of color profiles available for printer, ink, and paper combinations. This is the result of both printer manufacturers and paper manufacturers providing more accurate profiles by default, so that building your own profiles is far less necessary.

Of course, another factor that has caused color management to be a less important topic for photographers is that there has been a significant shift away from printing photos in favor of sharing digitally, such as by sharing photos online.

All of these factors have led to a situation where the topic of color management is one I am rarely asked about, despite the fact that in my early days of helping photographers in the world of digital imaging color management was easily the topic I was asked about the most.

Today’s Question: Do you think that AI will replace you in terms of providing answers to photographers, or will a human element continue to be important?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, in large part I expect that AI will be able to answer questions from photographers to the point that there will be less demand for me to answer questions. In the meantime, however, I’ve found that an increasing number of photographers are seeking additional assistance from me after AI chatbots contributed to problems in their workflow.

More Detail: AI chatbots have improved dramatically in recent months, to the point that they’re able to provide in-depth answers to complex questions. For photographers that can include getting answers related to photography, workflow, and more.

As I celebrate 25 years of answers questions from photographers through my Ask Tim Grey newsletter, the notion of AI making me obsolete is certainly top of mind. To some extent I think it is probably inevitable that photographers will increasingly seek answers from AI chatbots and have less of a need to seek answers from me.

However, there are two things that make me worry less about AI making me obsolete.

The first is that while AI generates answers based on a tremendous library of information, it still lacks the element of human perspective. I believe there is still value in having a real person with real-world experience and expertise. In other words, AI will surely reduce the demand for my answers but won’t eliminate that demand altogether.

Second, at least for the short term I’m finding that AI is contributing to photographers needing more help from me rather than less. When I provide one-on-one online consultations to photographers, it has become increasingly common for the photographer to report that they tried to solve their problem with the help of an AI chatbot, only to have that lead to additional and sometimes bigger problems.

I remain rather ambivalent about the impact of AI. In many respects AI will prove tremendously helpful in a variety of ways. But AI will also very likely be disruptive in very transformative ways, some of which have the potential to be very problematic.

In many respects, AI has the potential to be disruptive in troubling ways. But my hope is that it will be like other technological innovations over the years that were disruptive but that we managed to transition through without too much difficulty. In other words, AI may negatively impact some aspects of my work, but I’m confident I’ll be able to adapt to the changes brought on by these developments.

Today’s Question: I saw that you presented on the use of AI tools for applying painterly creative effects to photos. Have you drawn a conclusion about which tool provides the best results?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes. If I could only use one AI tool for applying painterly effects to photos (such as oil paint and watercolor effects) I would currently choose Google Gemini. My current second choice would be ChatGPT from OpenAI.

More Detail: I have done some relatively extensive testing of the various AI tools for applying creative effects to photos, with an emphasis on creating a painterly effect. That includes transforming photos to look like an oil painting, watercolor, pointillist painting, and more.

During my recent testing I consistently found that Google Gemini (https://gemini.google.com) provided the best results, though I fully acknowledge that there is considerable subjectivity involved in choosing a favorite. My second favorite results were achieved with ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com), though it is worth noting that with some images ChatGPT provided my favorite results.

One of the biggest disappointments in my testing was Midjourney (https://www.midjourney.com). This came as a little bit of a surprise, because for a period when the current AI tools were newly available, Midjourney consistently provided the best results. In my latest testing I was mostly disappointed with results provided by Midjourney.

There are, of course, other tools available, but here I’ve highlighted what I think are the most noteworthy options. In my presentation on “Creative Effects with AI” I not only demonstrated how to use various AI tools for applying creative effects to photos, I also provided extensive tips for creating prompts that can help you achieve the best results for an image with whatever AI tool you’re using. That included tips for having AI help you create a prompt that you can then feed to AI to get a unique effect for a photo.

If you’re already subscribed to my GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle, you can view the recording of my presentation on using AI for creative effects by signing in to your GreyLearning account (at greylearning.com) and then following this link and clicking the Resume Course button:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/creative-effects-ultimate-live-learning

And if you’re not already a GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle subscriber, you can sign up for just $99 per year by using this link to get started:

https://www.greylearning.com/bundles/greylearning-bundle?coupon=golive

Today’s Question: I have a similar question to the one you answered about more advanced searches by keyword in Lightroom Classic. I have a collection of photos to which I’ve assigned keywords. But if any photos in that collection don’t contain all of a set of keywords (usually two or three keywords) then I want to remove them from the collection. Is there a way to accomplish this?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In this scenario the best approach would be to select all photos that contain all the keywords on your list, and then invert the selection so you have the images without those keywords selected.

More Detail: While Lightroom Classic includes a “Don’t Contain” option when using a search based on keywords on the Text tab of the Library Filter bar above the grid view in the Library module, there isn’t an option for “Don’t Contain All”. In other words, when you use this option, if an image doesn’t contain just one of the keywords you’ve listed, it will be excluded even though it contains one or more of the other keywords on your list.

Therefore, I recommend selecting images based on those that do include the keywords, and then inverting the selection to get to the images you actually want to work with. In this case that would mean removing the images from the collection after inverting the selection.

The first step would be to set a filter on the Text tab of the Library Filter bar. From the first popup choose “Keywords” so you’ll only be searching the Keywords field in metadata. Set the second popup to “Contains All” so that images will be filtered to only those that contain all those on your list of keywords. Then enter the keywords in the text field separated by commas.

For example, let’s assume based on the above criteria you entered “New York City, Pershing Square, umbrella” in the text field. Only images that have all three of those keywords assigned to them would be visible. You can then select all those photos by choosing Edit > Select All from the menu.

Next, set the Library Filter bar to “None”, so all images in the current collection (or folder) are visible again. Then choose Edit > Invert Selection from the menu. At this point the selected images do not contain all the keywords you had used for your search. They might contain some (or none) of the keywords you listed, but they don’t contain all three. You can then, for example, remove those selected images from the collection or otherwise process them as you see fit. In the example above, for example, that would mean that the current selection could include images with “New York City” as a keyword but that doesn’t include “umbrella” as a keyword. The key is that the selection will only include images that don’t have all the keywords from your filter list assigned to them.

Today’s Question: Sometimes while working in Lightroom Classic I’ll accidentally click on a collection or folder, and then I have to go searching for the folder I was trying to browse. Is there a way to “undo” that selection to go back to the folder that had previously been selected?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can use the “Go Back” button to navigate to previously browsed folders or collections in Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: Among the lesser-known features of Lightroom Classic are the “Go Back” and “Go Forward” buttons. These are found toward the top-left of the bottom panel in the Library module, and enable you to navigate backward or forward through the history of folders and collections you’ve browsed. The buttons have icons with a left-pointing arrow and a right-pointing arrow, respectively.

For example, if you’re browsing photos in a folder and then accidentally click on a collection, you don’t need to scroll back up and locate the folder you had been browsing. You can simply click the “Go Back” button on the bottom panel.

In other words, the “Go Back” and “Go Forward” buttons behave very much like the Back and Forward buttons common in web browsers. So, let’s assume you start a session in Lightroom Classic browsing a folder containing photos from Italy. Then you navigate to a folder of images from Iceland. You then click on a collection featuring photos you intend to use in a calendar. If you click the “Go Back” button you’ll be taken back to the Iceland folder. Clicking the “Go Back” button again will take you to the Italy folder. If you click “Go Forward” at that point you’ll be back to the Iceland folder, and clicking it again will take you to the collection for the calendar.

While in many cases you could simply click on the folder or collection you want to navigate to, the “Go Back” and “Go Forward” buttons do provide a convenient shortcut for navigating among sources of images you’ve been reviewing. And those buttons can be particularly helpful when you’ve clicked on a folder or collection accidentally and want an easy way to get back to the images you had been browsing previously.

Today’s Question: I know you can add photos to the Quick Collection [in Lightroom Classic] by pressing the “B” key on the keyboard. But is there a way to add a keyboard shortcut for another collection to make it easier to organize photos for a specific project?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can set any collection as the target collection so that pressing the letter “B” on the keyboard will add selected photos to that target collection.

More Detail: The letter “B” on the keyboard is often referred to as the shortcut for adding a photo to the Quick Collection in Lightroom Classic. However, in actual fact this keyboard shortcut is for adding photos to the current target collection, and the Quick Collection is the default target collection.

You can change which collection selected images will be added to when you press the letter “B” on the keyboard by changing the target collection. To set a collection as the target collection simply right-click on the collection in the Collections section of the left panel in the Library module and choose “Set as Target Collection” from the popup menu.

The current target collection will have a plus symbol (+) to the right of the collection name. Pressing the letter “B” will add selected photos to that target collection.

When you’re finished working with a specific collection as the target collection, I recommend setting the Quick Collection as the target collection again. This will help ensure a more consistent behavior in Lightroom Classic when you use a keyboard shortcut that you may already associate with the Quick Collection.

Today’s Question: Why are photos no longer stacked together when I add them to a collection in Lightroom Classic?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Stacks do not follow photos from folders to collections nor from collections to folders in Lightroom Classic. Rather, images can be stacked independently in both folders and collections.

More Detail: While stacks can be very helpful in the context of organizing photos in Lightroom Classic, certain aspects of the behavior of stacks can be a bit confusing.

First, when you add stacked images to a collection, the images in the collection will not be in a stack but instead will simply be individual images. If a stack is collapsed when it is added to a collection, only the top image in the stack will be added to that collection. If you want to add all images in a stack to a collection you need to expand the stack first and select all the images, then add them to the collection.

Similarly, if you add photos to a stack and then group them into a stack within the collection, that stack will not appear in the folder the images are contained in. This is in part because you can add images from a wide range of different folders to a single collection.

It is also important to note that adding stacked images to a collection won’t cause you to lose the stack in the source folders. It is just that the stack doesn’t follow the photos from the folder to the collection.

Today’s Question: Is it possible to locate photos in Lightroom Classic that have a particular star rating but that I haven’t yet edited in the Develop module?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, this is possible, with the important caveat that if you applied a Develop module preset during the import process, those images count as having been edited in the Develop module even though immediately upon import you would not think of them as having that status yet.

More Detail: Among the many filter options available in Lightroom Classic to help you locate specific images, you can filter images based on whether they have been edited in the Develop module. Just keep in mind that assigning a Develop preset during the process of importing photos into Lightroom Classic counts as having been edited in the Develop module. So, if you always assign a Develop preset during import, this filtering option won’t be useful.

The filter based on edit status is found on the Attribute tab of the Library Filter bar. So, select the folder or collection (or the “All Photographs” collection in the Catalog section) from the left panel in the Library module. Then go to the Library Filter bar (choose View > Show Filter Bar from the menu if it isn’t shown), and navigate to the Attribute tab.

The third set of buttons from the left on the Attribute tab represent the edit status filter. The first of those two buttons, which has an icon showing a set of three adjustment sliders, is for showing photos that have been edited in the Develop module. The second button has an icon showing the three sliders with a slash through them and is for filtering images that have not been edited in the Develop module.

The edit status filter option can, of course, be combined with any other attributes or options on the Library Filter bar. For example, you could filter images based on those that have a particular star rating but that have not been edited, as suggested in today’s question, so you can track down potential favorite photos that you haven’t yet worked on in the Develop module.