Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
21
Yes that must be a bug.
Un other strange thing is the indicator buttons showing if a picture is “picked” (green) or “rejected” are only displayed in my version if I hoover over the images which for example makes it difficult to select all “rejected” and delete them. I think we can consider version 8 as some sort of a start to improve and refine culling but there is quite a lot left to do. What I don´t really understand is when you add so many good things now with “Compare”-tools for example in version 8, that you don´t try to develop the workflows further.
I went to PhotoMechanic to get some ideas and below you see a screenshot that can illustrate all the different “Select”-related tools you can find under the “Edit”-menu in PM Plus 6. Totally I counted to 17 different variants. Below is an example where I renamed over 280 files in Photolab 8 that then appeared as “Source File Not Available” in PM Plus. There is a little yellow dot marking these previews in PM Plus as “orphans”. The reason was I had made a typing error when renaming the files mixing up the present year 2024 with 2004. So, this is a real case really. Then it is just to press Delete.
I then have two choices:
Select the “Source File not Available” and select all files not available - (orphans with broken file references) and delete them if you just want to kill the previews with broken references
or
Deleting the whole folder reference in PM and after that reindex that folder with the function “Scan to database” in order to repair the broken links.
The manual says a few words about it too…but there are no images.
As with earlier versions of DPL, the manual for DPL8 exists as a website only and gets updated every now and then. Nevertheless, the settings for the thumbnail display have been there for a few years and they should have, with the first use of DPL8, adopted what you had set for DPL7. Sometimes, this does not happen though.
Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
23
Thanks my friend, I will check that up immediately.
… BUT I still can´t find any Select-tools that quickly helps me selecting and deleting for example “the rejected” (red). I tried with no success to use the “Search for Images” without any success.
A few reviewers are stressing the rudimentary tools for managing files and images in Photolab and I think they have a point here. There is room for some improvements in this field I think before culling in Photolab will be effective enough to make it a realistic alternative for more users than it is today.
I have adopted a routine before using a new PhotoLab.
Select an empty folder in the previous version of DPL
Review settings (in preferences and in the menu) of the previous DPL
Start the new DPL
Review the settings
Quit the new DPL
Start the new DPL again
Select a folder of test images…to see if things work as expected
I have learnt to do this routine because I had new DPLs acting strangely if I used them from the very first time I opened them. Closing and reopening DPL usually fixed the oddities. I suppose that the initial background actions of DPL cause(d) the random issues. Things have improved though, but I still think it’s good practice to do the above and start with some test images before going live with the new version.
Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
29
Thanks!
Good (and nice that they have added “picked”, “unrtagged” and “rejected” at the top of that long list).
You see I have never used that panel and it is because I have never understood how I should get Photolab to display all my pictures like both Capture One and PhotoMechanic does in different ways. In Capture One I can select “All Images” and in PM Plus I either search with an “X” or use “Browse” and select my “top folder” where all folders and pictures are structured.
Both C1 and PM Plus also can handle and display all pictures under a certain selected folder including its subfolders (which is very handy if you like me always having my RAW in the main folder and my derivates in a subfolder. Photolab doesn´t seem to fix that either.
Well I think I get one lesson here that can help if I start to use “Rejected Images” with an initial culling. I´ll try that while waiting for an answer to my first question:
How can I get Photolab to show all pictures there are in the database. If there is no answer to that I have no use of the rest of these filtering options.
Below is a dump showing the other problem I have where Photolab is unable to show even the pictures in the subdirectories it the main folder is selected.
Both these limitations (I haven´t seen a way out of that limitation myself) has so far prevented me from use the filtering tools in Photolab. Would love if someone have a solution.
In PhotoMechanic I would have seen the pictures in both folders - a total of 143 x 2= 286 in stead of the 143 I see in Photolab.
Thanks again for your effort and your help. I would love to be able to effectively cull my images in Photolab since the previews are much better there than in PM Plus. I will be able to use it when culling pictures from a single session but it would also be nice to be able to filter the entire database.
Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
30
I asked MS Bing Copilot how to display ALL pictures in Photolab Picture Library and got this answer:
To display all pictures in the PictureLibrary of DxO PhotoLab, follow these steps:
Open DxO PhotoLab and navigate to the PhotoLibrary tab.
Source Browser: On the left side, you’ll see the Source Browser, which lets you explore folders on your storage devices and projects stored in the DxO PhotoLab database.
Select a Folder: Click on the folder you want to view. The contents of the folder will be displayed in the Image Browser. [Note that DxO PhotoLab only displays images at the root level of the selected folder, not in subfolders](Manage images and metadata in the Library tab – PhotoLab)1.
[Search for Images: Use the search input field at the top of the Source Browser to find specific images or to display all images by leaving the search field empty and pressing Enter](Manage images and metadata in the Library tab – PhotoLab)1.
This answers both my questions and sadly to say this will prevent me from getting a similar “behavior” of the catalog like I have in Capture One and Photo Mechanic.
I think I have to suggest DXO to rethink the design of these basic functions of the catalog. For me it is a “show stopper” that the catalog structure in Photolab do not display images in subfolders if a “parent-folder” is selected. For me using a structure totally dependent on using subfolders, there is no means what so ever today to display all pictures in the database at the same time. I wonder how DXO thought when they designed the present solution? I think it ought to be a rather common demand most users might have after all to be able to display and filter a picture base containing all pictures of the database.
Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
33
… but this filesystem-like browsing system C1 and PM has has nothing at all to do with the filesystem after the filesystem is indexed. Then we have a virtual representation of that filesystem organized and optimized for searches. The same goes for Photolab really. It has no problem at all to index my folder hierarchy of three levels:
Top-folder
Raw-folders
JPG or TIFF -derivates of the RAW
Since my master-files are the RAW + the DOP and the XMP-sidecars, I have several times deleted the PhotoLibrary-database and reindexed a new one with the help of the indexing-system in Photolab just pointing to this Top-folder that holds all picture folders and pictures in the file-system. Do you know what happens when we delete the database and reindex??
Well, all our projects have gone to “Cyberspace’s” grave yard for lost Photolab Projects and also the history of External Searches are gone tobthe same place, since both of these type of data share the same table in Photolabs database. It is just a code that tells them a part.
DXO just have to be able to fix that annoying limitation that both prevent us from applying a search spanning the whole database and not just the folder you happen to have selected and also makes the subfolders pictures open for searches
Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
34
… but that will not change the factc that there is zero pictures in my top folder (just subfolders) when i select my top folder. You cannot apply a filter on an empty folder.
true, but I’m talking about searching as a means to find and display images.
! Search will only work if the photo archive has been indexed (imported, catalogued).
I’m very happy with the current option that only files in the currently selected folder are displayed.
I think they should simply make it a toggleable option whether files in subfolders should be displayed or not…
For my workflow this would be quite contraproductive since I keep all my files in folders and let PhotoLab export my developed photos in a Subfolder called “Export”. If every folder would also display the files in subfolders, suddenly my parent folders containing only my RAW/unedited images would contain my finished edits which would bring chaos to my sytem…
That’s why I do it the other way round: my “normal” picture folder is, for example, “Holiday Hamburg” and the respective subfolder is “RAW”. Always. This also makes exporting easier. The path entered for export is always "…".
1 Like
Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
39
Not good enough for me.
I don´t accept anything else than that even files in subdirectories shall be visible too when navigating the folder structure in Photolab.
The whole idea when culling and viewing is that when I select a RAW-folder (with subdirectories with JPEG-files) is that I can see both ARW and JPEG side by side when I want so and just the JPEG-files when I select a subfolder - just as both PhotoMechanic and Capture One is working.
I´m pretty sure there was a reason when CameraBits designed PhotoMechanic which is the tool most sports and event photographers are using when culling, managing and storing pictures.
Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
40
Since I am using Capture One in parallell with Photolab, that would create a chaos on subfolder level instead in Capture One. I have spent quite a lot of time clearing out those problems. What happened in Capture One when I once had that kind of system was that I got an infinit amount of folders in a long row called “RAW” and “JPEG” without the slightest possibility to see which RAW- or JPEG- folder belonged to which “session”-folder instead.
