Image Editing, shown as a string of views

DxO PhotoLab Feature requests
1

Let’s say I am editing an image, and perhaps after 50 edits I stop for the day, to continue the next day. Then, I notice something I had done that I really dislike.

I would like to play a “history video” which would be in effect a slide show starting with the original image and then progressive edits, or to start with the final image and scroll back through previous edits. One way or another, I would quickly be able to find my “mistake”, correct it, and carry on with my editing.

Probably not that important in the scheme of things, but it could be very handy, playing it forwards, or in reverse.

2

You can essentially already do this.

When you want to “rewind”, just click to top entry in the History panel, then use the down arrow on your keyboard to go back a step at a time. Or you could click on the earliest entry and use the up arrow. You can go up and down as much as you want while concentrating on the image.

This would at least identify the particular correction where things “went wrong”. If you want to change only that correction, then you need to go all the way back to the top and manually revert the incorrect one.

3

Not in Windows. The history is not kept between sessions.

1 Like
4

Thanks, zkarj… since I’m using a Mac, this answers my question. I’ll try this today. So, let’s say I make a virtual copy of the image, and go back to my mistake in step #15, out of 30 steps total. So, I should go back up to the top, and then “revert” the incorrect step? Do you mean change it, or delete it? If I do that, do all the following steps remain, unchanged, but with my “mistake” corrected? I’ll try that today.

I’ve known about the HISTORY, but I haven’t used it very much. From what you wrote, all the following corrections remain intact, but the thing I did wrong no longer effects the following steps, as it has been removed?

I assumed that if I changed step #15, all the following steps would all be deleted, and I would need to re-do all of them. What you’ve described can be more useful.

5

This is so important. Mike, you need to know that scrolling back in the history and then changing anything completely obliterates all the other changes you made after that.

You are totally correct.

2 Likes
6

@Joanna beat me to it. Using the history panel you go back to a point in time and everything after that point in time is lost as soon as you make another change. It’s like a linear expansion of undo/redo or the back/forward buttons in a web browser.

1 Like
7

@zkarj,

Sometimes that’s exactly what you want.

Mark

8

@mikemyers,
You can also create recipes or a default “safe” starting point for editing. This can be a short or long list of edits or corrections you might have found you like or typically apply to a certain camera or lens combination. Incremental saves might also make it easier to go back.

9

I used to think of doing things that way, but I’ve changed.

  • First, I bring up the Advanced Work Space menu, which I have left as-is the way it comes from DxO.
  • I then start at the top, and work my way downwards, selecting options as needed, and ignoring others that I don’t fully understand.
  • Along the way there are “my” personalization options, which I verify I used before finishing.

If something is really amiss, I will take care of that before doing the above - the “Horizon” tool is near the top of my list, and most importantly, the “Crop” tool selects what I want the image to include, and helps me get rid of anything that interferes with what I want to show. “Deep Prime” is almost always selected as a default. I add the “copyright” notice, but often go back to it later, to match the color with something in the image.

When everything else is done, there are the options that I consider “fine tuning”, such as white balance, and sharpness, and the tone curve. I have rarely been using the HSL tool, but when necessary I figure out how to get it to do what I need.

The problems come in when the semi-finished image just doesn’t “look right” for whatever reason. There are times when I don’t think it’s worth publishing an image, so I just leave it as-is, and move on.

There are a LOT of things that I have changed how I do them, based on discussions in this forum. There are tools that I will never use again because of negative feedback. I’ve been getting more and more sensitive to where the sharpest part of the image is, and if that’s not right, I’m likely to abandon the image.

Finally, there are those things limited or influenced by my camera gear. Photos I take with my D780 are most likely to be technically excellent. Photos taken with my M10 are most likely to represent what I thought. But neither is essential, although both would be preferred.

I gave up on “recipes” long ago, and I’ve had many starting points, especially when I copied and used a Workspace from @Joanna or @Platypus, but I always wondered what I was forgetting. If I start with the entire advanced workspace, and work my way down, twice, I’m least likely to forget something.

Who knows, at some point I may develop a “style” but I’m not there yet, and may never get there.

I’d love to say that the equipment I use is based on what I’m going to be photographing, but the truth is the equipment I use is usually based on whatever I happen to have with me. Of course, if I walk out the door with a photo objective in mind, I take the camera and lens(es) that I think I’ll need, but that is rarely the case. I usually leave home with an open mind, and search for things that might be photogenic…

10

Yes, I was just backing up @Joanna’s point.

11

I start with one of two presets. My original one “Air Sharp” is for aircraft pictures. It (tries to, doesn’t work currently) set WG colour, adds a little fine contrast, boosts vibrance and saturation, sets DeepPRIME at my preferred starting point of 25, and a high lens sharpness. I created this because I found myself constantly setting these things on every image. Some images will get some changes from those settings (particularly reduction of vibrance/saturation or lens sharpness in some cases) but it saves me a lot of fiddling across most of the images.

I later created “Wildlife” which is based on “Air Sharp” with reduced lens sharpness. This one I generally use for my bird shots. I also use them as a starting point for other types of image, depending on the “cleanness” of the image — “Air Sharp” for architecture and “Wildlife” for landscape, for instance.

So it’s just those basic two presets I have, plus some specialist ones for things like adding my typical vignette when needed, or boosting texture, or applying only DeepPRIME and lens sharpness — a preset I call “PureRAW”. :grin:

Once I’ve picked a preset, then I’m all over the place. I don’t follow any pattern, other than usually adding my watermark last.