Filtering - deselect all filters or quickly select only one item with Option+click

I used to use Lightroom and also CO1, which are both catalog based. At first, you need to import images. Then if you move them to another folder you need to update the location in the catalog. You delete some images, you need to resync the folder, and so on.

I like that with DXO I don’t have to do that at all. I can work with files anywhere. If I have my laptop on the trip and start to work on images, at home I move them to another computer and can continue. Deleted images are deleted. If I move the folder to NAS to the archive, everything is there and it’s done. I always out into archive final JPEGS too, to be real archive with “negatives”. I don’t need to browse all those images in RAW, filter them over lens length, ISO, body, etc. It’s finished and backed up together with negatives and I come back only occasionally. So I’m not tied with any catalog, I don’t care if it is huge, I don’t care if it’s corrupted, I don’t need to backup it up (no LR backup dialog when you close the app :wink: ). If I switch to another software, I don’t care how to move the catalog data. Several months ago I did some folders reorganization while using LR and if don’t have all images in one place it’s pain (you can’t move actually a missing folder).

So the workflow by DXO freedom for me which I really appreciate and is a big advantage.

3 Likes

While it’s true you have to import the images, that is importing them to the catalog. It’s a common misconception about Lightroom (and I am not saying you don’t understand this) that it has to “own” your photos. It is entirely possible in LR and others to “manage by reference.” This is not all that different from the (arguably automatic) scanning that PhotoLab does when you open a folder, and which you can ask it to scan ahead of time (thus truly equivalent to an “import” action).

As for moving and deleting, you just do that in the catalog. I realise this does mean you’re forced to use the catalog to do such actions but with a program like LR it is designed to do everything the photographer needs. In all of the time I used Lightroom, Aperture, and Luminar, I never once had to resynchronise a folder. That’s no different to how I use PhotoLab, but for a different reason.

In fact, using Lightroom imports is one step to get my photos off the memory card onto local storage and into the application. With PhotoLab it is one or two steps depending on how you count it, because I have to manually get my images off the memory card and then have PhotoLab index/import the images when I first open the local folder.

Neither do I because my keywords are in the files themselves (other people may have them in standard sidecars) and picks and ratings are only ever transient information for me. And of course, edits will never translate between products.

I never imported images “into the catalog”, I always used the “manage by reference” mode. But in principle LR still expect your images in the same path as when you import them. When you move the folder, copy new images or delete some, you need to locate the folder or do a synchronization. And as I don’t need to search for images from past sessions, I don’t appreciate cataloging advantages. I use a raw processor to cull images, do some corrections, make final JPEGS and put them into iCloud Photos (and archive RAW files as “negatives”). I’m not a professional who needs to look in the history on the “RAW” level, search for pictures shoot by specific exposure settings, or find images with a specific animal.

So I understand when somebody like a catalog and takes advantage of it, but I’m not that one. I like that I “open folder” with images in PL whenever it is and I know that RAW corrections remain even I move or rename that folder.

2 Likes

Lightroom still treats manage by reference as importing (as it still has to “learn” where they are so it can complain when you move them), which is why I was equating it to PhotoLab’s automatic-or-manual indexing of folders.

But yes, I get that catalogs aren’t for everyone. I think the ultimate treatment for PhotoLab would be to allow opening of any folder as it does now, but also provide for full cataloguing for when/who that is needed. ON1 does this.

24 votes until now, 11th place in two weeks. It’s not bad, can we look forward to a new feature? @sgospodarenko :innocent:

1 Like

I found similar, nearly identical topic: Please, add an option to deselect everything in the Filtering menu . This has 13 votes, so we sum it together, this feature request has about 37 votes :wink:

Hello,

We have similar story in the backlog but probably it’s time to ask @StevenL to pay attention to it.

Regards,
Svetlana G.

Not really that many, if the same people voted for both requests. But it’s clear that in both cases the request is popular. :wink:

1 Like

Oh yes, at first I would write that maybe some users voted on both topics, but I wanted to keep my comment simple :grin:

Anyway, both topics were voted by that people, so you can count votes from the other topic and trust them in the same way like postal ballots during unnamed election, so in sum there are 37 votes :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Hi folks,

This has already been said on this forum, but I’ll say it again because, honestly, the current filtering menu is just not good at all. If you allow me to make a self-critique, I would say that it has been made backwards: the result is that instead of easing a user’s workflow it does its best to slow it down…

We are well aware of it, and this is definitely something that need to be fixed. It’s on our radar!

Steven.

8 Likes

Hi Steven @StevenL,

As I described my workflow, in the fact I only want to quickly filter on “Picked/Rejected/Unrated” images. If I think about it, maybe the most used filter is “Rejected”, then select all and delete them. And if I go further, I don’t need the filtering at all, because if you add the operation “Delete Rejected” in the selected folder, I will be more then happy. This action is more about better covering the workflow based on Pick/Reject tags. Because If you tag some images as Rejected, it is a candidate for deletion.

I personally don’t care about rating stars, rating by color, and such. Whenever I tried to use it, I tend to think every time about what does 3 star means and how it compares to 1 or 4 stars, the same with the meaning of colors. Many years ago I stopped to use it and want only tags to separate picked and rejected images. DXO PL is great because I can quickly rate images by pressing “P/X/U” during culling. Maybe it’s a little bit of pity, that you need to hold shift together with these shortcuts to automatically go to the next image. Better for me would be the opposite, to stay on the image when the shift is pressed (or have an option to set default behavior - CO1 added recently option “auto-advance”).

It is always better to think about the “use case” of users and then think about features to support it, and not adding features and hope that the user will find it’s own way.

My use case/process is:

  1. Go through images and rate each one by Picked or Rejected.
  2. Delete Rejected.

Currently, I have to:

for 1) Hold Shift to go through all images, look at them, and rate them using P/X keys.
for 2) Open filter menu, click on “Picked”, click on “Unrated”, select all, delete, click on “Picked”, click on “Unrated”.

Regards,
Jiri K.

Hello DXO,

May we look forward to update with filtering improvements?

Thanks.

Jiri K.

Hi @Solivac,
As said a few weeks ago, the filtering menu is already on our radar. This means that unless some unexpected bad surprises down the road, it will go prime time on the next major version of PL (AKA PL5).
:wink:

About the workflow you describe, this is absolutely a behavior that could further enhance a user’s workflow.
Thanks for your feedback.

Steven.

Hi @StevenL,

Do I understand well, that suggested “option + click” improvement won’t be implemented and we have to wait one more year and buy upgrade to get better filtering? If yes, I’d be quite disappointed. Please spend 15 minutes of development time and add that “option + click” thing. I look forward to new major version, I probably will upgrade, but please do this little improvement in PL4.

Thanks.

Jiri K.

1 Like

The ability to easily select/deselect options is part of the new filtering menu we’d like to ship with the next major version. Maybe it could happen earlier, like a 4.x update, but I wouldn’t hold my breath…

I can understand your disappointment, but I’d also like to remind you that we do not have a magic wand and what you call “a 15-minute change” is far from being the case :wink:

Sometimes you have legacy code that has to be rewritten from the ground up, and usually you lay down your roadmap to deliver the same feature on each supported platforms (mac & win).

The new menu is not just the current menu with an “option+click” option, it’s a complete redesign to deliver the filtering menu you deserve.

Steven.

I understand the background of software development and yes, sometimes the little change means a ton of work and testing. Therefore I wrote only about deselecting other items, no other changes. I think, that detect “option key is down on click event” and then select only clicked item shouldn’t be so problematic (but I can imagine it’s not). If there is no other reason like not touching filtering system until new version, because of “marketing”…

Jiri K.

1 Like

Hi Jiri - - Just for clarification; you’re suggesting an option be added that’s the complete opposite of the existing “Reset” option (which switches ALL filters ON) - such that it switches ALL filters OFF … Right ?

image … Replacing “Reset” with: “Select ALL” and “Deselect ALL

John M

1 Like

Hi @John-M,

yes. More precisely I’d like to have and action to quickly “select only” one item. For instance - I need to filter only “Picked” images, so my suggestion is to click on “Picked images” while holding “option/alt” and only selected item would be “Picked images”, and all other items will be deselected. Like visibility of layers in Photoshop.

But at least that action to deselect all items would be helpful too.

Jiri K.

1 Like

OK - understood, thanks. That refinement would probably take more time, tho, as StevenL suggests.

John M

OK, please at least that new action that do the opposite of Reset.

Thanks.

Jiri K.

1 Like