Hello,
Here is a proposal to make a quick sort of photos.
The problem :
When I come back from vacation, having traveled 4,000 to 5,000 km by car and 300 to 400 km on a hike, I bring back a good about ten thousand photos.
I obviously do not have the time to sort them daily during my stay, so I have to do it on my return.
The solution :
Add a tab (after Library and before Customize) that could be named Sorting.
Display the pictures in a grid or filmtrip (according to the choice) with adjustment of the display size.
Assign the 3 keys located at the bottom left of the keyboard (ZXC for QWERTY - WXC for AZERTY):
W Accepted
X waiting
C rejected
Assign left arrow and right arrow to scrolling photos.
Add a filter with 3 options:
Accepted
Waiting
Rejected
Add a trash can
N.B .: Do not talk to me about the filter currently available with its 19 options because when I open it I am seized with convulsions!
When photos are loaded on the hard drive, sorting will be done very quickly. In one hour, we can process a thousand photos.
Then, either we work on the accepted photos, or we review again the pictures in waiting list that will be displayed thanks to the filter.
The rejected photos, once selected will all be erased by pressing the trash. Trash that will only work with the Reject option of the Sort function.
A photographer always takes care of saving his photos on at least 2 supports. So if it is easy to rectify error.
The combination of keys and arrows allows a great speed of execution. It is, IMHO, a defect for PhotoLab.
And if other testers have ideas on this subject, I would be very happy to read it.
I have used PhotoLab~Optics Pro for almost 15 years. I’ve never warmed up to its cataloging style (and slow speed). I know I’m going to be a “wet blanket” here but I do not see DxO - in anything resembling the near future - implementing an effective sorting~cataloging system… and hope they focus mainly on the raw converter aspect of the program not cataloging.
There are many alternate options~suggestions for sorting~culling that have shown up on this Forum over time - one that has been recurring is FastRawViewer. Not used it myself, but it has been recommended by several on the Forum.
I have used Adobe’s Bridge since its inception. I know this program inside and out and it is extremely capable. In a four week period a couple of years ago I sorted~culled 525,000+ images for a NewYork real estate company (their images not mine) who were looking to establish a significant web presence. Bridge was always a help, never a hinderance, in this project.
In any event I would look elsewhere than PhotoLab for your sorting operations… even with your suggestions it still would be too slow for this use (10,000 images - even divided in to sections - yikes!).
Thank you JimScott for these informations.
I just want to be able to sort my photos on import to keep only the best. Then, for the photos I keep (about 10-20%) I also use Bridge to classify them, especially with the Collections (with LR too).
Best regards
PhotoLab and PhotoPro have so far never focused on managing large collections of image files. As you seem to have Bridge and Lr, it is probably best to stick with these to manage your assets, specially if you use keywords.
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear.
I do not want to manage an images bank with Photolab.
I want to be able to use Photolab more often than I do now. For that I need to upload my photos to Photolab.
Rather than loading my photos on LR and send them to Photolab, I would have liked to load everything on Photolab but for that I need to delete the missed pictures and then work the successful photos.
Then, Bridge will take over to store the completed photos in its images bank.
It’s just sorting the photos at the beginning of the development process to do a first exam and to remove the rejects.
of course you can do it that way but - like mentioned above - it is not the smartest/fastest way in my opinion.
DPL is not built for culling quickly. It is very good in Raw development but not in photo management.
Because of speed and simplicity reasons I would load the pictures on the computer and cull them, keyword, rename etc… in a DAM software like bridge. After all of this use DPL.
you will be happier doing it that way because it is much faster
Has a Filmstrip approach if you wish.
You can assign colour code and / or star rating. You can then filter by these.
Use keys to assign rating / colour code.
Rejected folder is a separate folder where you can double check before deletion.
Works on local, removable and network drives
View histogram data
EXIF time stamp sorting
View EXIF shooting data.
Assign XMP labels
and a host of other tricks.
Just a little advice from a film and digital photographer - instead of snapping away and taking so many pictures only to delete a lot of them, try thinking about what you are photographing at the time, reviewing and deleting those that didn’t work straight away.
Apart from saving time and effort when you download them, you should also consider the shutter count. A lot of cameras quote anything between 100,000 and 200,000 actuations before possible failure. At your rate of shooting, it might not be long before you need either a replacement shutter or even a new camera
I don’t know fast raw viewer but I am using my Olympus Raw tool (OV3) and it is not so bad !
Make the folder automaticaly per day and fast raw selection.
For what it’s worth (the amount you paid for it ;-)), Here is my way of dealing with thousands of photos after holiday or event.
Take photos in RAW+Jpeg
Move all images to a folder on my Windows PC
Make sure they are sorted by date
Group them by type
Open Photolab
Start viewing the jpegs by double clicking the first
Scroll down to the RAW files
For each JPEG I like, select its RAW file for processing
Export the processed files to sub-folders for each resolution
This way I index my own files (location, event or occasion), keep all the originals (which ae backed up automatically to a NAS device) and have a record of the ones I like.
Thank you for yours advices.
I made this request because I used to sort with LR. So, I have no sorting problem, I just did not want to have to change software to do it.
