I am missing the history pannel (like Lightroom offers). It makes it so much easier to trace back your steps.
You can cast a vote as well, but I believe this is already in the backlog.
Mark
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My first vote!!!
And having the choice of not saving the last/actual edit session.
George
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Since edits are applied immediately and non-destructively to the original image, I’m wondering if there’s anything you are asking for here that can’t already be done with virtual copies. While a history list will probably let you go back to a certain point in your development, such as the beginning of your session, you can simply start a session now with a virtual copy and delete it if you don’t want to keep the work.
I can do everything. But now I’m forced to think about what I want to do with the image first. A fresh picture I can reset. No problem. An already edited picture is more complicated. Now I must ask myself every time what I want to do with that picture. Always making a virtual copy, then find out that the edits are ok, trouble to bring the edits to the master, delete the virtual copy.
A history list will give me 1) an overview of what I have done 2) the result at former stage to check my thougths of editing 3)restart at a former place in the list.
And my second remark was the question after editing “do you want to save the edits?”. I know, it’s a question I have to answer every time but it gives me also the freedom to experiment more without the risk to destroy an already existing edit.
George
4 Likes
I completely agree with you.
Mark
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Yes there is. You don’t want to make a virtual copy after each minor change to an image, but you might want to go back to a certain step ( maybe create a virtual copy and try a different route)
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Plus one vote from me. This has been debated before and it has always seemed odd to me that people dislike the idea. If there was a history panel then people have the option to use it or not. I regularly keep hitting ctrl + z to get myself back to an earlier state.
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Why do you need a “history list” to see what you have done? You see that in the palettes anyway what you have done?
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And, what is more, since PL is parametric, there is actually no need for a “timeline”, since anything can be changed (or undone) in any order without affecting any other settings.
I would rather see a toggled view of just the palettes that have been changed.
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Mark/Hugo,
help me understand. Let’s assume I have worked on a picture, and lets say - based on the history panel I have done 20 edits and let’s say I have done “Contrast” as my 3rd correction in the list of 20. Now looking at the picture I have the feeling that there is too much contrast. I have now the following options:
Option 1: Very time consuming version
- I check the history panel
- I go to the 3rd enty - contrast - click on it - and correct the contrast
- I then have to redo all the other 17 steps and remember the settings.
Option 2: short and easy version
- I do not like the contrast, go to the contrast slider and correct it, all the other 17 corrections are not affected.
so why do I need a history panel in a parametric editor like DPL where changes can be done/undone in any order without affecting any other settings as Joanna pointed out?
Sigi
2 Likes
I think that’s a misunderstanding. Parametric just means that the edits are saved as parameters belonging to a function. PL uses the dop-file for that. Except for the raw conversion it’s just a pixel based editor. Edits are done on the content of that image at that moment.
There’s a history list in PL. One can go back in it with CTRL-Z, just step by step. But you can’t undo an edit. What you do is adding another edit to the list. If you activate/reactivate a tool 5 times then 5 times of that action is added to that list.
Other converters or parametric editors do show a list. One can go back in it, see the situation at that moment but as soon you try to edit that moment all the later edits are gone. Simply for the reason that the image on which the edits where done doesn’t exist anymore.
George
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Thank you, Svetlana. Looking forward to it
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George Thank you for ypur clarification. I love DxO, but I find myself doing the final edits in Lightroom. Because of the history panel it is so much easier to experiment with different edits and presets.
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For me I would say that editing is a process, and the process can take many paths. I find sometimes when I head down a path then sometimes I end up where I don’t want to be. So I would like to backtrack along the path taken and go another route. Currently I have to option to ctrl+z back along the path but I have to watch each slider as I ctrl+z to see what I am undoing. Or I have the option to reset the picture and start again. Whereas if I had history, I could just go back to where I want to branch and take a different route.
Yes I agree that I can go to the individual sliders revert or switch off certain edits, but that assumes that I know what I want to revert, it may be a combination of edits that need reverting. I would suggest that unpicking many edits manually takes longer than going back to a point in a history list. I do revert single edits as in your example by switching off or reverting individual sliders, but I do also find myself pressing ctrl+z many times also to revert multiple edits.
Regardless of the way I or anyone edits as George says there must be some form of edit history as ctrl+z works so why not make the software flexible to people’s working methods then people can choose to use it or not, I suppose that’s my overall point of the above ramblings.
Anyway it’s all a bit of a mute point since it sounds from Svetlana’s post that there is a plan for this functionality.
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I agree. That would be one of the important uses of a history list.
Mark
You don’t see the earlier states of an image in a palette. A visual history list would be the only way to see the state of an image at any point in the past. Virtual copies can be used of course, but each one would limit you to a single point in time. In that respect a history list would essentially be like an unlimited number of virtual copies. For some like yourself that may not be important. For others, like me, it is an extremely useful concept.
Mark
I think the case for a history list is well-made! My own workflow and way of developing has evolved without this feature, but I must admit that there are a few times when I think it would be quite useful. So I’m glad DxO has plans to implement it. And the various points of view expressed in this forum continue to open my mind to different ways of working and the benefits that can be realized. 
4 Likes
Technically speaking- LETS RETURN TO CAPTURE NX2 
PL kinda successor of NX2 already. But history and selective layers editing is still missing.