I understand that the ability to flip an image horizontally or vertically is locked into buying Viewpoint to get the function ungrayed in PL6. Once I do that, it doesn’t seem that the flip is recorded in the history, nor does it reset if I reset all the changes I’ve made in PL6. Other than trying to flip the image back, how can I tell that an image in PL6 is flipped?
While on this topic, is it possible to setup a preset that includes flipping horizontally as part of the initial changes?
The reason for this is that I’m converting a lot of slides to digital and they are supposed to be captured on the side that requires them to be flipped afterwards.
I confirm that this is how the feature behaves in PL6. The state of the image as flipped or not isn’t recorded in PhotoLab or indicated in any way. Resetting the image has no effect on the orientation. This is a problem.
I’m dealing with hundreds of images that its important that I can know what edits have been made. Having to blindly go into a single use menu and try to change it to see if it is already changed… that is pretty lame. No other way to put it.
Are you using the Mac or Windows version of PhotoLab? The Windows version does not save the edit history across sessions so I can only retain edit details during the current editing session anyway. Very few other post processing titles retain history across sessions. The Mac versions of PhotoLab is a relatively rare exception. As a result once the Windows version is restarted, it is irrelevant that the state of an image’s orientation was not displayed in the visible Undo/Redo stack.
I have both Mac and Windows versions of PL6 going in trial. I am primarily using the Mac version. I understand the limitation of history through sessions. Where I ran into the issue with flipping was actually all in the same session (on the Mac). I flipped a couple of images and then decided to clear my edits and start over as I’m trying to work out what default settings I want to use on these slides. After I cleared the edits I just happened to notice that one of the images I flipped didn’t flip back when I cleared the edits. Shame on me for not being more careful, but I incorrectly assumed that when I rolled back my changes in a RAW file, that they all rolled back. I didn’t know precisely which I’d flipped, so took a bit of time to finally figure that out. It may seem silly as if I can’t tell, then what difference does it make. But with a pile of slides, it does matter because 1)I want to reproduce them as original, and 2)Some of them have text and such that it matters and I don’t want to spend time on each image trying to figure that out.
The primary image tool I’ve used over the years were Lightroom and the defunct Apple Aperture and I believe they both retain their history through sessions, although I’m only positive about Lightroom. My “lame” comment was really that rolling back my changes wasn’t connected with flips, though they were done through the PL6 editing process. If I delete a DOP file for a RAW image, will the horizontal flip be undone? I guess that is most important. I will test that once I figure out why my NAS has now disappeared on me.
Moreover, manually modifying the value of “Orientation =” in the DOP file while DPL is not running) and re-launching DPL, has no effect on the orientation. It remains as defined in the database, even if the “Load settings from sidecar file automatically” is checked.
Upon exit, DPL resets this value as defined in the database, overwriting the value manually specified the DOP file.
Ooooooops ! Wait a minute…
Apparently the above applies to all settings. I changed some settings manually in the DOP file and then reloaded DPL. All changes were ignored.
It looks like that rotating and flipping an image is not part of the edits that are tracked in the DOP file. So allowing them to happen in PL6, while a convenience, is a little confusing when looking at history and resetting the image.
So the answer to my original question is that you can not tell, other than going in and resetting orientation, if it flips. For my use case, it may be easier for me to ignore flipping them in PL6 entirely, and just do it in the Mac Preview after I convert them to JPEG. I can rename them at that point in bulk or move them to a labeled directory.
Try making a virtual copy and flip that round horizontally. The master will then always be in its original position. You can always make further virtual copies of the original copy, thus preserving your master. If any virtual copies are the same way round as the master then they haven’t been flipped. Hope that makes sense.
