How to turn off that annoying grid in Photoshop when you zoom in.
Feb 18, 2017
Joseph Parry
Joseph Parry is a Commercial and Editorial photographer based in the UK that provides cinematic photography and ounces of humour. Follow him on Instagram for stories and kick ass imagery.
Share:
Hey, guys!
I’ve been working on 4K for the last year, and as such, I have to zoom in quite considerably more than resolutions such as 1080 and 1440 to get to the same level of “zoomed in” view. This extreme zoom-in adds a grid to the view. As a photographer and a retoucher, it can make life very difficult if you’re not aware that you can turn this grid off.
When someone sends you 16 images to retouch, and you have to work on pore level details, you zoom in on a 4K monitor and boom, the grid from hell.
Here’s the issue at a 1080 resolution:
And here’s the issue at 4K:
As you can see, this is a cr–shoot for retouching work.
It kicks in faster and faster the higher the resolution you’re working with (you can zoom in less before it turns on).
To see the difference, here’s a comparison with and without the grid:
The problem we have as retouchers is that the grid popping on gives us a false impression of luminosity, as well as making it very difficult, if not impossible, to accurately see which pixels need to be dodged and burned effectively when zoomed in for precise work.
Even looking at the image as widely as possible before the grid kicks in changes the perceived shape of the face, and this is something we have to avoid at all costs when it’s not something we’re able to control.
We want to be able to see an image and it’s problems clearly so that we, as retouchers and editors can dictate the corrections with as few complications as possible.
I hope this fix helps you on your journey!
The fix is simple my friends: VIEW>SHOW>PIXEL GRID
May your zoomed in experience be forever improved as a retoucher/photographer.
Joseph Parry
Joseph Parry is a Commercial and Editorial photographer based in the UK that provides cinematic photography and ounces of humour. Follow him on Instagram for stories and kick ass imagery.
Join the Discussion
DIYP Comment Policy
Be nice, be on-topic, no personal information or flames.
15 responses to “How to turn off that annoying grid in Photoshop when you zoom in.”
I think the pixelgrid is awesome – it stops me when I zoom in to much – so it prevents overretouching and time wasting.
Exactly. It reminds me that I’m about the spend time on something no one will ever be likely to even see in the printed result. Although I can imagine that for very high-end retouching jobs in the beauty and fashion industry it might be annoying.
Exactly what i was thinking.
The problem is that 1080p, 1440p and 4K do not have the grid turn on at the same points. Meaning if you worked at 1440P and were used to th grid coming on at a certain point, in 4K it comes on a lot sooner (meaning your “safety net” is 30% more zoomed out than usual).
So it’s not a practical safety net for 4K imo.
On 1080p and 1440P it probably ties in nicely with zooming in too much, but at 4K it kicks in when you’re WAY further out, meaning editing on 1080P you’d be used to working much closer in to an image before this hit you.
I turned it off as soon as Adobe added it in CSwhatever. I just have a second copy of the image zoomed out on my other monitor to help spot when I’m doing work for no reason.
Temporary disable: cmd+h / ctrl + h
Von der seite betrachtet…machts wieder sinn^^
ThankS!
Do you know how to make Photoshop stop popping up million times over the desktop while starting? The most annoying thing about Photoshop begins from the very start. It blocks my PC from being used completely for a minute or so. Hate Adobe for this.
Agreed! Lightroom and Photoshop both do this. The other members of the Creative Cloud are better behaved.
I’m really sorry Margaritas but I’m not familiar with the problem. Can you video it?
really? what´s next “how to change the color of a brush”??
Would you like help with this? I can arrange for a beginner tutorial for you if you feel it of benefit.
Aahh.. Thanks.
I was looking for that. It annoyed the hell out of me.
Thanks a lot!
I always forget how to do this everytime I install on a new machine or reinstall. Thanks!