I apologise for my suggestion of FRV, I was not concentrating and missed the part about the edited image. The method I proposed overcomes a problem I have of poor quality embedded jpgs from my Olympus and being able to view the original RAW but in a rendered form.
There have been suggestions made about comparing images side by side in PL5 and one way to do that would be to produce reduced size snapshots. However such capabilities do not currently exist.
The alternative is to use the full size preview and utilise a snapshot utility to âsnapâ each photo in its rendered state and compare them with IrfanView, FRV, FastStone etc.
The only thing that I can suggest is to export the Photo to JPG from PL5 to externalise your rendered edits. In that export option turn noise reduction down to HQ or Off completely to minimise render time. Reducing the size of the image may help conserve space but I am not sure whether that is worth it. A trial with one of my images took 7 seconds to render and that time will improve when large numbers are rendered one after the other. The 7 seconds does not involve any graphics card time since my monitor is connected directly to the motherboard and the machine is an i7-4790K @ 4.4.
To change or turn noise reduction off altogether select all images in the thumbnail strip (Ctrl-A) in the Customize Mode and then change the noise reduction method or de-activate NR altogether and that will happen for all the images selected (the reverse will change again or restore the previous settings). Then export as many images as required.
These exports could be sent to a proof directory (âlight tableâ) for proofing (with IrfanView or FRV or ⊠) or to the original directory when FRV could be used to compare the rendered original RAW with the PL5 edit etcâŠ
@KeithRJ Or Iâm a poor deluded fool who has just lost his marbles!! There is something not right but perhaps it is buried deep in my Win10 setup(s) but then it has occurred on two machines which are not clones (though that may mean that I have done something that has clobbered both of the systems!!)
If you watch PL5 while the launch from PM is taking place there is a lot of activity with boxes popping up and vanishing but you wind up with one photo on screen and a number of other âexternal selectionâ entries!!
Iâm sure Iâve said this before in these forums. I donât delete images. Well, I think I may have deleted maybe a dozen which were either purely test shots of the mess in my study, or an accidental shutter release when pointed at concrete or grass. Thatâs a dozen in 17 years of digital photography.
Why? Because:
I donât have to. My most prolific year is around 4,500 photos and my total library is just over 41,000. This easily fits on a 1TB drive.
Deleting images means making a decision at a point in time. Even if you ârejectâ and then wait a while before deleting, you still have to make a decision. If you decide today, next month, or next year, your decision may be different which means you will delete some photos you wouldnât have at some other time.
I take it the other way around, I keep everything and âpickâ the best to publish. But I also often go back to old photos and ârejectâ (unpublish) some and âpickâ some more. Iâve gone back and re-evaluated photos I took up to 13 years ago because I have newer software, better skills, and in some cases a deeper appreciation of the subject matter.
Iâm sure there have been famous examples but I cannot point to any specific ones, but you just need to see the stories in the mainstream news where someone is reported missing or tragically killed and the picture used is of terrible quality. If you delete images, you may throw away some that later prove to have a significance you cannot predict.
Using year/month folders none of mine have more than 999 images, most are much smaller. Even if I took twice the number of frames I still wouldnât delete a single one. If I took 10 times the number⊠Iâd start thinking about a different way of organising them. I still wouldnât delete any. I might start thinking seriously about why I take so many frames.
@KeithRJ I must apologise I was using an old copy of PM and when I went looking for the details of the latest release I failed to locate the screen with the latest release number 6.0(Build 6097) (which I located first time today - put that down to having to keep one 3 year old and one 7 year old amused at the same time and today my oldest son is due down with his wife, and two âchildrenâ a boy of 11 and a girl of 13 oh boy!! )which was not what I was running!!
The photo above shows yesterday versus today and it also shows what @George says about IrfanView is spot on and it can also âlaunchâ PL5 with multiple photos.
@zkarj I tend not delete any of my photos as a I stated above but I do use FRV to move any real mistakes or duplicates etc (burst mode) to an âOtherâ directory and these will be the first for the chop when space gets really tight. Q4 is typically a really light month for me and is currently running at 5,500 and it is not over yet!
Doing it the same way. Only delete if its blurry, to much over or underexposed, a.s.o⊠Like you I sometimes go back and voilà , there is the one, I missed on the first, or second view. And also when PL offers new features, like now with the control line tool, I start to edit photos again.
I would agree with others that 10,000 is a lot for one dir.
Apart from the delay of producing thumbnails etc., If your running Windows, the operating system directories will be taking strain and slowing things downâŠ
Linux is happy with huge directories, so it may be that Apple is too but I donât have a mac to test it on.
One additional note with respect to the use of âExternal Selectionsâ, with software able to pass multiple photos (or just one) to PL5 and not trigger a full directory read ( be that a small, medium or large directory) processing images within that âExternal Selectionâ is fine but any exports from those photos are not part of that original external selection and will not suddenly pop up in the display in PL5 when the export completes (it would normally only if exported to the same directory)!
XnViewMP can tag files in different directories and these tagged images can be sent to PL5 in a single pass. In the example used 3 were from one directory, 3 from another and an odd one from the âmegatestâ directory (of 11,000+ photos).
Any exports after editing will follow the normal rules of the export options and be placed appropriately, in the same directory (of the original photo), in a subdirectory (of the original photo), in a designated directory etc. etc. but none will be visible within the âExport Selectionâ (because they were not part of that selection).
Three options are then available
âLoad original image directoryâ my normal approach but could be a âproblemâ (slow process) with a large directory. You can always return to the âExternal Selectionâ later via the PL PhotoLibrary.
âShow Output file(s) in Windows Explorerâ shows the exported file and its location and allows that file to be loaded in Windows Explorer along with the rest of any photos in that directory. Selecting all of the files only displays the details of the last in the selection. If you are not âplaying gamesâ with files from a number of directories that would be O.K.
âOpen output images withâ provides a launch capability for output images from PL5. Selecting multiple images from the same directory launches but only selects the first image (expected really). Selecting two that are in different directories only selects the first. However, the behaviour may differ depending on the target application (tested with FastStone)!?
PL5 remembers the various applications selected and adds them to the menu
I might be a hoarder but certainly do not keep all images, the particular day I put the original question on the forum I was searching for a work related image which was taken at a particular site and particular project but within the overall folder for that job which has lasted many years. Photomechanic found it instantly as I had suitable keywords/location/description etc but at that time I could not get it into DXO, I have subsequently (with the help of the forum) found out how to do this although still not perfect. The work in this instance was not photography, instead it was more about documenting what is going on in the ecosystem or how the scientists are working there, it is not about fantastic shots as many of the subjects and weather conditions are not suitable. It is about using photography as documentation, very often the images are not used until years later when people want to look back and see what things were like, very often do not know what areas or images will be of value. The main thing is to get rid of any obviously bad ones or duplicates and to well document the rest.
@md999 I am sorry if my initial reaction was even the slightest bit condemnatory it should have only been one of surprise! Thank you for sharing your reasons for such a large directory with the forum, since I have installed the latest version of Photo Mechanic passing photos to and from PL5 has been relatively straightforward.
The observations in my post just above should indicate that âExternal Selectionsâ are very useful but âeyeballingâ the exported results in PL5 is less easy. However the âOpen output images withâ can take you back to PM or onto IrfanView which will display the exported image full screen and any other exported images (i.e. if more than one is selected) are available on a next/next basis.
The slightly trickier bit might be what happens if you want to view more than one export of the same photo with various editing options selected! The answer is that with IrfanView in particular there is no problem at least for two exports of the MegaTest image! The same applies to XnViewMP!
EDIT:
FastRawViewer copes with the large directory well enough, it renders what it needs for display as it goes and is well suited to handling multiple export versions of the same file (my edits are deliberately extreme so that I can tell one from the other when testing).
@Joanna If there are any more detailed snapshots that you want then donât hesitate to ask.
EDIT:-
and you have âFinderâ options!!
Stenis
(Sten-Ă ke SĂ€ndh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
100
I havenât experienced any problems at all since Camerabits fixed the problems they had with âEditâ. Be sure to use the right âEditâ. There is one option that only opens one image at the time!
I have asked them why they have several âEditâ-options but I havenât got a plausible explanation so far. Even be aware of that this funktion can be configured in âReferencesâ as so many other things in PM Plus. I guess that is a performance thing.
I use the Windows version. The Mac-version might have itâs own problems.
I have personally had a discussion with Kirk at Camera Bits and he sent me a testversion to verify the problem was solved and when I confirmed he wrote that this fix will be included in all future upgrades and so far they have done so. They have even fixed the problem with the integration between DxO PureRaw and PMPlus.
I also wrote about this in DXO Forums because I really thought that the integration between PMPlus and PL got so much more useful after they fixed the problem. So donât stick with old versions where the problem is still present. Upgrade to the latest version!
