New search feature in PhotoLab 2

I really do like the new search functionality. There are only a few things that are not so nice:

  1. Indexing on my MacBook worked in no time. Probably that is because I have only the few pictures I’m working on in folders and all others in my Photos library. Fortunately PhotoLab doesn’t try to index these libraries!

But now when I search it seems to find pictures anywhere. I can’t search in one specific folder. So I am still at loss e. g. to find all ISO 400 pictures in my import folder because it will find such pictures also at other places.

  1. No search for cameras and lenses. Often I want to search, or rather filter, for only one lens or camera type since I want to apply a specific correction on these pictures. Not possible at the moment.

  2. Multiple search criteria can be added. But the input field is rather small and then I have to type blindly.

  3. I can add “Thursday” (or “Donnerstag” in my native language) as a search criterion which feels very natural. Today is Wednesday, October 24. When I enter “Thursday” though it searches for pictures with a shot date of tomorrow, October 25. Week days should search in the past week, not in the coming week.

All in all I feel this feature was made in a rush. Beta testers should have easily been able to find these issue. It took me only one hour.

it is more useful if the search function can also index the keyword in the metadata

I agree. But when I work on a picture in PL there are no keywords yet since I just imported it from my camera. If your workflow is to import into some catalog first, then doing preselection, keywords etc before even starting to develop it may be different.

So being able to search for and add some keywords as well as other metadata editing would be very useful, but then XMP support is a must as well since otherwise the data is not available outside of PL.

And so it goes on and on. All these additional requests will only slow done the development of the core functionality of PL: to get the best image quality possible out of the raw material.

For everything else, like composing, heavy retouching, fancy filters, asset management, publishing, … there are other options available.

For me a full DAM functionality is not important in PL. The DAM only starts for me when I am done editing the picture. And the amount of features I would like to see in a DAM far exceeds anything that I want to see the DxO developers spend their time on.

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The search feature appears to be ever so slightly “foutu”

(Using macOS in French with AZERTY keyboard)

Apart from the fact that it is very limited in what it can search for in the way of metadata, I now have two empty “Recherche” folders and am unable to delete either one of them.

It would seem that deleting the search term from the search bar leaves a folder (which can be reused) but if you then go on to create a new search, even though you have emptied the search bar, a new Recherche folder is created. These folders are impossible to delete.

Des idées ?

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Second problem, separated out for clarity

I searched for some files by using “riviere” in the search bar and the explorateur shows three files with that word in the filename.

In fact there is only one file on the disk with that word in its name and, although that shows up correctly, the other two “files” only show a message

Cette image ne peut pas être traitée car le fichier source est introuvable
(This image cannot be edited because the source file cannot be found)

When I Cmd-click on the file icon in the title bar, I get a meaningless reverse URL path as :

NomDeFichier.jpg
PhotosRetenues
PhotosRetenues
Macintosh HD
MacBook Pro

So, I would ask where these two spurious “files” in the search results are coming from ?

I didn’t check it exactly, but had a similar issue. I think it finds files in the database of PhotoLab which were moved/deleted. When Windows Explorer/MacOS Finder is used to move/delete files PL obviously can’t keep track and an orphan entry will remain in the database.

But this is just a theory. I haven’t verified this.

I agree with what a few others have said here and that DxO should focus on core functionality as there are plenty of DAM apps and photo browsers out. in the world. FWIW, you can still use Adobe Bridge CC free and only costs you creating an account with Adobe. I use it for all my tagging and other meta data editing and it will create XMP side cars for RAW images. The only downside is that it won’t display previews with the DxO adjustments applied to any RAW files.

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I find OP doesn’t manage cleanly deleting images and all the dop files. I usually have to clean up after deleting as there are dop’s left and if that’s the case the data base may also not be being maintain correctly as images are removed. This has been passed to support, who initially weren’t interested but did in the end pass it on, though to what effect is unknown.
If that’s the case it could also add dead returns to a search if the data base is used.

Adobe Bridge CS6 continues to work even on El Capitan on Mac with no issues. Could go further (haven’t tested yet).

I also would like to be able to search for ranges, for example ISO hogher than 2000 or between 2000 an 5000. this seem not to be possible.

Let me address a few of the questions here:

  1. No search for cameras and lenses.

This makes sense and this is something we considered as an important criteria to be able to search on. So it’s coming, the only question is when :wink:
On that feature though, I’d be curious to know how many bodies/lenses you have from your images, just so we get a better feel on how users might use that one.

  1. Multiple search criteria can be added. But the input field is rather small and then I have to type blindly.

It should follow your typing, and if it doesn’t it’s quite a bug. But certainly, the field is quite small and we’re investigating alternative placements or solutions that would allow it to be bigger. Then again, taking examples from the Finder or Mail, the search field is usually not that big either, and that usually works well, so there’s also some balance to find there.

  1. When I enter “Thursday” though it searches for pictures with a shot date of tomorrow, October 25. Week
    days should search in the past week, not in the coming week.

Most certainly, and that’s probably a bug. We’ll look into fixing that for a future version (but we can’t fix it in the past quite yet :wink: ).

I now have two empty “Recherche” folders and am unable to delete either one of them.

Those are actually recent searches. They will be deleted automatically as you make new searches, so you’ll never have more than 5 of them. That being said, we reckon that this isn’t clear at all at the moment, so we’re working on improving on that point.

Thanks for the feedback!

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No ideas but same thing for me. Cannot delete empty search :frowning:

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First, I really like the fact that there is a search feature now.
Second, I may be using it wrong, but when I start a search, the engine seems to pull files that are in other directories than the one I am working in. Is it possible ? If not, is it hard to add ?

> If not, is it hard to add ?

Is it hard to add what? The ability to search other folders? Or the ability to restrict the search to the local folder? I am not sure which you are asking.

I would like to search the local folder.
Typical searches would be:

  • what are the pictures in the local folder that are rated 3 stars or more ?
  • what are the pictures in the local folder that have no star rating ?

Hi @Xavier,

if by local folder you mean the current one in which you are working, you can do that easily using Filter icon above the filmstrip.

Thanks, Pathal, but I think you are referring to a sorting, which is slightly different.

As an example, when I would like to search pictures that are “4 stars and more”, I would still like to keep chronological order, and I would also like all other pictures to go out of the way. With the sorting function, I have to scroll to see where the limit between 3 stars and less and 4 stars and more is. So, not only this is slower, but it is also not producing the desired result.

I guess it must be possible to enter searches for “current directory AND n to p stars”, but I just do not see how at the moment.

@Xavier,

I’m not referring to sorting, but to filtering (icon left besides the folder name) which allow to filter on some criteria, including stars, as you can see in below copy screen in French:


You deselect the number of stars you don’t want and you will have for the current folder only those you want.

Thanks! I had not seen it was possible to select items this way. Is there a quick way to deselect all items ? (the “Reset” choice just reselects everything).

just type in three * (***) in the search keywordand you get the threestars images visible.