@BHAYT Thank you, those are some really interesting posts.
Digikam is using the internal command of Windows, if you have setup files to open with PL, they will open with PL. And same as when you open these files from the Windows Explorer, it will load the whole directory.
But I figured out how to open files directly as external selection from the command prompt.
You just pass the absolute filepaths of PL and the image paths, you can add as many images as you want. Important is, that the filepaths are absolute, somehow relative paths donât work, and just have a space between each path.
That will open these images directly in Customize Mode and create an âExternal Selectionâ Project for them. So this should easily be possible to implement in Digikam, thatâs why I prefer it, as it is open source and I can implement it myself.
interesting topic, when i have more time i need to re-read this again.
Every pl version update i am in the itch of re examen my XMP-data, my processing status of older images,(denoising mostly but also edit skills)
workflow slimlining.
Present workflow is:
1 old ingestion of panasonic software, (takes images and movieclips)
2 explorer of win to reorganise new imported folders and throw away all useless OOC -jpegs. (keep rawfiles)
3 FRV=> first culling and labeling(colors now seen by dxopl v6 so usable) and rating
4 (open for debate) Bridge 2022 for keywording and batch iptc (some say use Lrâs library but the videoâs on youtube i seen where less fast in keyword tagging then the tree list in Bridge i think.)
adding extra iptc data on the images, GPS needed in DXOPL from google)
5 dxopl indexing and refreshment. (before it was auto read even when sync was off. now it seems to create a S so i know it must be refreshed. ( See how that works on all images.)
(note DB of dxoPL i donât use it much as source so itâs redundant mostly.)
6 edit and add iptc/keywords in bridge not DXOPL (ok iptc yes keywords NEVER)
(new step need to remember to hit âwrite to xmpâ when needed.
Bridge can create project in DxOPL (search is folder only) but searching in dxoPL after index is much easier. (folder tree)
my first âsimpleâ start is run FRV though all my rawfile archieves updating xmp files.
then through bridge 2022 to update iptc data and such in xmp. (needed that anyway)
(keep note of progres by adding textfiles with date of visit and status.)
when i have my source side fully updated then i open DxOPL V6 index.
then walking through all image files and maybe maybe export every image once extra jpeg.
(softproof and write to properties the new metadata in the jpegs for archive.)
I really hope it is gona be a dreadfull winter with lots of bad weather and nothing to see on tellyâŚ
Depending on your photography genre and/or shooting style your workflow may be suited to one of two methods with FRV - either selecting unwanted photos and reject/delete them or, alternatively, selecting wanted photos and moving them to a folder for editing. For sports and wildlife photography where I use high frame rates I have way more rejects than keepers so I find the latter option to be quicker.
My method is:
Copy all images from card to a temporary hard drive folder for safety. I used to use FRV directly on the card (and still do for non-critical shoots) but others have rightly suggested there is always a risk of card failure so better to make a copy first.
Open the temporary folder with FRV and run through the files assigning two stars to any I want to use.
Filter the view in FRV to only show two stars, then make a second more critical pass. Here I assign one star to any I want to reject which removes them from view as I work. Rather than moving them to the reject folder this gives me the option to revisit them easily by just changing the filtering.
Using FRV copy the two star rated files to a new working directory and open that directory in DXO Photolab for editing.
At a later date delete the temporary import directory and format the card before next use.
Just my way of doing it, FRV is very flexible and you will easily find a good workflow.
I use the same workflow with FRV, moving images from the card to a temporary folder, selecting images that I want to use, and then moving them into a permanent folder for processing in DXO.
Gentlemen, thank you all for your efforts testing. Itâs been very informative.
Golden rules
do your work in FRV and then move to PhotoLab. Itâs not a two-way street (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnât depends on version of PhotoLab, thatâs no way to build a workflow).
Prioritise system level management. The goal is to come out of FRV with a Selects folder which you will then take into PhotoLab.
Colour labels should only ever be used in the application which is generating the labels. Cross-application compatibility of colour labels has been widely exaggerated.
In real world terms, I move four and five star images to PhotoLab (about 50-80 out of a 1200 soccer match shoot to add some real numbers) via a Selects folder. I first review five star images in PhotoLab and then review four star images. The final review pass is done in PhotoLab so I can try the exposure slider and noise reduction (I shoot a lot of high ISO) when making final selections.
When Iâm done, thereâs usually 25 to 50 finished images.
The finished images have to go through PhotoMechanic still for metadata so the less the better. But metadata processing in PhotoMechanic is a whole separate conversation. The one very important point I would make â PhotoLab metadata is more or less incompatible with third-party applications. PhotoLabâs deletion or acceptance of metadata depends on versions and subversions. PhotoLab metadata management is totally non-viable. Just donât use it, except for toy purposes on home photos.
The finished jpegs with metadata are saved out a final time from PhotoMechanic using PhotoMechanicâs watermark feature including the right titles as date-time-headline. Iâm not happy to have to do a final lossy save but from PhotoLab quality is 100 and so it is from PhotoMechanic. The final files are renamed correctly and only need to go to ImageOptim for web upload versions (down from 45 MB to about 8 MB with no visual loss). I keep the copy of the images with metadata and the original filenames as masters.
At one point, I had high hopes that PhotoLab metadata and PhotoMechanic metadata might end up being cross-compatible but enough events where metadata was lost and had to be carefully reconstructed or photos posted to the web ended up without the right metadata (part of an advanced workflow with WordPress to use the jpg metadata for captions) and had to be reprocessed.
I hope DxO eventually brings better third-party compatibility to their metadata features for star ratings, colour labels and IPTC data. Iâm not holding my breath or wasting any more time on testing workflows though. You gentlemen who have carefully worked through all of these variations, testing them diligently, are heroes. Unfortunately, results depend on which version of PhotoLab. Non-viable.
