Feedback and Bugs in PL3

Hi,

I have just bought PL3 last week, I’ve been an Aperture user before and been looking for an alternative for a long time and I believe I have finally found it, I am quite happy with the usability of PL3 so far, it is a very nice program. There are however a few things that are already bothering me just after a short time of usage that I believe could be fixed easily and improve the user experience (v.3.0.3 on Windows 10, newest updates):

Usability features for the Photo Library:

  1. It would be nice that when I click on a folder, that it displays all the images from that folder, including all images of the subfolders. Currently, if the folder only contains subfolders, the browser remains empty. That way I could organize the images more easily, for example display all images from one shooting, and then in the subfolders, display each individual product.

  2. It would be nice to (optionally) define one or several “Image” Folders, that serve as the base folders for the tree structure of folders. I don’t need to see all the program folders and such. This would make the folder structure much cleaner.

  3. Lets say I have one folder where all my images are saved from my SD card. Now I would like to organize these images into several subfolders. Every time when I create a new folder, the browser jumps into that folder. I always have to return to the main folder and then move the images from that folder to the newly created folder. This makes no sense, there is nothing to see in the newly created folder, its empty. The new folder should be created, but the browser should remain in the existing folder.

  4. (Optional) I would prefer to “move” the pictures from one folder to another by default, and only “copy” the images when I hold down the shift key. I believe this is the more common operation, as I usually do not require several copies of the same image. Right now, it is opposite.

  5. When I create a project, it would be nice to have the option to organize the order of the images manually.

Usability features for the Customize Tab:

  1. I have seen this has already been mentioned elsewhere, but the HSL color wheel definitely needs a color picker, this is essential.

  2. When moving the sliders, the values do change in steps of 5. This is nice, but it would be nice, to be able to hold down for example the shift key when moving the slider to be able to make finer adjustments. I do understand that there are also the arrow keys on the side to make fine adjustments, but I think it would be more natural to do both adjustments with the slider, fine and coarse.

  3. (Optional) I have noticed that the colors of the Nikon D750 profile are a bit too vibrant. When I turn down the vibrant slider by -5, it comes pretty close to the Nikon Standard Jpg.

  4. It would be nice if the Comparison Tool could be extended, that when I select two images, that I can compare these two images. Also, it would be nice to compare various states of processing within one image. Using virtual copies and deleting them again afterwards, or using the “remove last step” hotkey are rather workarounds than nice solutions. One solution could be to keep some “temporal virtual copies”, that are automatically deleted after exiting the program. For example, I edit the picture, then i press a button, this state is then listed under the comparison tab. Then i continue editing, and i can press the button again, to save another state. When I process further, I can compare between these various states.

Bugs

  1. The comparison tool does not work properly. It offers me to compare the processed image with two versions, the original image and the original image with geometric corrections applied. However, both images do look the same to me, neither version has geometric corrections applied.

  2. Sometimes, the images are not updated. I can move the sliders, it has no effect. Same goes for the comparison tool. Sometimes, I press the comparison button, it does not switch to the original image. When I restart the whole application, it works again.

  3. I wanted to compare an PL3 processed image (Nikon Raw) with an processed Raw from Nikon’s View-i NX Software, saved as JPG. When I zoom in and switch from one image to the next, the zoom area is different. For example, I am zooming to the head in the top middle of the image, when I switch to the next image, the area is zoomed to the middle right part of the image. I have noticed that the Raw is displayed as “6000 pixels x 4000 pixels” in the metadata, while the JPG shows “4000 pixels x 6000 pixels”, also both images are displayed in Portrait orientation. One of these is interpreted wrongly by PL3.

  4. Sometimes the comparison tool offered me the option to display one image left and right, sometimes it offered me a slider. I do understand that I have the slider in the local adjustments tool, but I also had in other modes. I could not reproduce this yet, it appeared quite random. It would be nice anyway to always have both options.

Hello @maderafunk and welcome to the forum,

Thank you for the detailed feedback.

  • Already in plans, so it’s just a matter of time.

About 2,3 and 4 we’ll think over it but it’s also interesting how many users support this idea, so guys, I need your opinion.

  • Already possible with Sort option.
  • Yep, already in plans.
  • Actually it depends on the slider, some of them have a step of +1, some +5 etc. We’ll take your view into account.
  • If you want the equal to camera profile, set Intensity of “Protect saturated colors” to zero.
  • Already in plans.
  • Maybe the preview does not have time to be recalculated? How much does it take between the correction and pressing the compare button?
  • Please, provide me with both images for the analysis (please, upload them to upload.dxo.com under your forum name and let me know when ready).
  • Not a bug, it depends on old or new viewer is enabled.

P.S. Next time, please, report bugs in separate threads in order to be easy trackable.

Thank you,
Regards,
Svetlana G.

There is a similar feature request already: [MAC] Folder tree

I’ve experienced bug #2 also, numerous times. All of the adjustment controls keep working, but the image in the viewer stops getting updated until PhotoLab is closed and restarted. Going back and forth among adjustments or images might get things working again sometimes, but not usually. I haven’t experienced this particular problem since updating to PhotoLab 3.0.3, though it’s possible that I simply haven’t run into the right conditions for it. Or that I’m experiencing it in a different way now. (Support tickets # 195521 and 202000 document my experiences when adjustments suddenly stop working.) Are your video drivers up-to-date?

  1. A Right-Click either side of the slider-control moves the slider towards the mouse-cursor in increments of +/- 5

  2. Click on the slider-control (to get its attention!) and then you can use the Left/Right arrow keys to move the slider in increments of +/- 1

John M

When dragging slider bar pointers mouse vertical displacement from the slider controls how fast the pointer is dragged. This is an unusual UI feature which works well.

Yes, but that works only on the Local Adjustment sliders … For consistency, the ability to use Left/Right arrow keys with the LA sliders would be a great advantage.

John M

No it works on the global sliders as well but of course in the other axis as the global sliders are horizontal.

Ian

You are quite right, Ian; I had not noticed that before … probably due to the slider orientation, as you say.

So, the only inconsistency is the lack of ability to use Left/Right arrow keys with the LA sliders - - I’d very much like to see that addressed.

John M

The (right click) menu item Open output images with does not work on V3, it just says No processed image to open even when the check mark shows that image was processed successfully and the image is on disk.