first post here so hello to you all. i did a search for this but couldn’t find anything so hope this simple question hasn’t already been answered.
when i have multiple images selected, how do i select a different image without losing the selection of images?
so for example i have images 001 to 099 selected, and am adjusting image 012. now i’d like to see how image 059 looks but i’d like to keep all the images selected
In a word, no. This is fairly standard behaviour that you can see in all sorts of file browsers - even Finder on Mac and Explorer on Windows.
hmmm, not really the kind of answer i was hoping for
why the comparison to Finder/Explorer? they are apps that list file names and folders whereas PL is an image editor…
so what is the typical workflow then in my example above? if i’d like to edit a bunch of images at once, but need to switch images a few times, how do users typically approach this?
You could always create a project from just those images you want to work with. This is like a sort of persistent selection. When you’ve finished with it, simply delete the project.
Select the image you want to see, then select all the ones you want to work on.
@john_jay firstly we do not know whether you use a Windows or a Mac system and that can alter some features available to DxPL or modify the way that they work!!
The alternative with some products is to use “Tagging” which may or may not persist across a program restart, but within DxPL “Tagging” is not available!
@Joanna’s suggestion of creating a ‘Project’, which can be “permanent” for as long or as short a period as required and can have projects within projects (from PL6 onwards), e.g.
An alternative or an adjunct technique could be to use IPTC data to “mark” certain images either within a directory or within a ‘Project’. Please note that there is only one database record and one DOP for an image whether it is in one project or many, the edits made are all to the same record regardless of the path used to locate that image!?
So here I have created a project of 110 images and started to “mark” some as “Ground cover” using the IPTC ‘Subject’ field and used the search function to find ‘ground’ and then selected the items from the search results!
The ‘Search’ function will work for partial searches in DxPL for data in the IPTC fields so I could also search for “cover” successfully!
But you cannot search using “AND” or “OR” etc, which I and others also consider a serious omission!
But for the purposes of managing your workflow, simple fields should suffice and all should work well!
In the screen snapshot you will also see ‘External Selections’ (bottom left), i.e. images “tagged” and/or selected in other packages and then passed as a group to DxPL for processing and ‘External Selections’ can be edited just like a project but they can also be turned into or added to a ‘Project’.
The snapshot is from a Win 10 system and most packages work well and can submit multiple images for processing in one pass but FastStone submits a number of images in a way that results in only the last image arriving at DxPL!
‘External Selections’ are persistent but cannot be added to or removed from!
Removing from a project causes the image to be removed from the project but not from disk.
‘Projects’ are persisted only in the DxPL database, loss of the database will mean loss of the ‘Projects’ so backup regularly. The IPTC data will be persisted in the DOP and will survive the loss of the database. Whether that data is written back to the image is a function of this option
But the IPTC data will be in an image export unless specifically prohibited in the export process
Sorry it is easier to do that to write up!
PS:- An image can belong to as many ‘Projects’ as “desired”/required and are maintained as pointers in the database back to the actual image data, also in the database, so their impact is “light”!
Hi @BHAYT
In the filmstrip you can easily tag by the 2 status green and red at the right of the thumbnail, or using stars…
And then @john_jay can choose the corresponding filter to go to the wanted image.
@Pathal agreed you could
Providing that these are not part of a workflow and use the ‘Filter’ option
Using ‘Projects’ will not impact any existing workflow if the user is using any of the above as part of their normal workflow and using hierarchical projects it is very easy to move between sub-projects and an image can belong to more that one ‘Project’ or sub-project at a time if that fits the style of editing!
Using IPTC could also impact workflow depending on what the user is doing with those fields as part of their standard workflow!
PS:- or any permutation or combination of ‘Project’, ‘Tag’, ‘Rating’, ‘Colour Label’ or IPTC or keyword!!
On a Mac I can use the cursor keys 
or 
to switch to a different image of a selection (in the library tool)
In the Windows version of Customize I also use the arrow keys to move forward and backward through a group of selected images. In fact when you have a selected group of images, whether or not they are contiguous, the arrow keys will only move focus back and forth among the selected images.
Mark
@mwsilvers indeed it does and even when you are in full screen review mode, just don’t change an option because at that point it will be applied to all the selected images at the same time. It is a useful facility but not if you are making edits at the same time rather than just viewing the images one after another!
Referring back to the original post
You can make a selection of a number of images and add to the selection using the ctrl and mouse click but to find the selected image for viewing you the have to use the arrow keys until the image of choice comes into view!
Or better, select the images of interest, make a project or sub-project from the selected items and then navigate normally and/or make selections and use the arrow keys but the grouping will remain until an item is removed from a project and can belong to a number of projects at the same time.
Although an item can be selected and added to a project at any time it cannot be moved between projects except by adding to another existing or new project (drag and drop works just fine) and then deleting from the current project, I believe!
Unfortunately, as I just stated, any option choice will be made to all the images that have been selected, a useful facility but not in this case! In the example quoted changing 012 would either change all selected images or just 012 needs to be selected to restrict the scope of the edits!
There’s also an exception to that rule, and I don’t know how widespread it is: I was amazed when I selected a group of images and hit the “Auto” key of some option (maybe it was micro-contrast or Denoising). I was expecting to get the same value for all selected images. But PL does this “Auto”-calculation for each selected image separately and it did a pretty good job with nearly no need to fine tune manually. 
And I was amazed because other apps use the selected “main” image (in the white frame) to calculate an Auto-value and apply this exact value to all other selected images without treating them individually.
@JoJu I don’t consider that an exception! When I said that the option would be applied I meant that literally, i.e. ‘Auto’ means just that! So the behaviour you saw is what I have seen with DxPL(Win).
Thank you for testing on the Mac, I discovered this feature by accident by selecting some images and entering ‘Customize’ mode and then applying ‘DeepPrime’ to the image on the screen but all selected images had the DP icon appear on the selected thumbnails!
Further investigation showed how useful (or not) this feature is! Typically I use it to apply DP or DPXD to a number of images when I have been using the “revered” technique of exporting to test editing options between copies of the same image and across a number of images.
The exporting is almost essential with the amount of CA that becomes apparent in images from Late Autumn through Winter and into Spring. I like “naked” trees but the camera and “heavy” editing do not!
For example a screen snapshot from an image in PL620 in the full screen mode shows the following when compared within DxPL to the exported version.
Because I know what DxPL will do with the CA I don’t need to export just for that, unless I am “fiddling” and want to see the consequences, when I will create VCs and and export some or all for internal (within DxPL) and external comparison.
It is good to see that you can be complimentary when the situation warrants it!
Now I would like someone to check out parts of the super long diatribe, particularly the bit about whether DxPL(Mac) handles drives in an analogous way to DxPL(Win), i.e. whether the ‘Folders’ Table contains a ‘Volume Id’ so that DxPL can differentiate between “identical” data on two external drives as it can and does on Windows.
PS:- I haven’t tested every single option to see that they are all set specifically for the image when they can be but …
Make it a new thread please.
It’s not that I don’t recognize the strengths of PL, it’s just the price of (for my needs) too much weaknesses coming along in this package.
…and the transition to DPL6 has mostly been ruined by delivering a new feature that still is only partially supported. I’m talking about the colour space and neutral preset disaster.
@JoJu the current biggest weakness is the total lack of support from DxO in this forum plus a lack of transparency with regard to feature requests etc, with a long, long history. It brings out the cynic in all of use, just some are a little more vocal with their cynicism than others!
While I would agree with the comment, it is an area where I make no claim to any particular expertise. If directed or motivated I can run tests to prove or disprove someone’s findings but would not claim to be able to sit down and formulate a test strategy myself, fortunately there are many others who can!
Ah yes. the reason why I am still using PL5 for my production work. And still DxO haven’t yet issued any official documentation as to how to manage the whole colour space debacle. Until they do, I am recommending to everyone I meet in photo club situations to avoid upgrading too.
Hmmm. I wonder if we will ever get a chance to beta test the changing of the version number? 
