I am wondering if there is a way to only see my selected photos in the image browser in PhotoLab7 (Mac) when I’m editing a few selected images.
My workflow that I have going currently is that I am ingesting and captioning my photos using PhotoMechanic and then sending a selection of photos I want to edit to PhotoLab. They open fine in Photolab and if I use the arrow keys I can switch between the images I want to edit, but all the images in the folder are shown in the image browser. I just want to see my selected photos I want to edit. Is this possible?
I looked through the forum and manual but couldn’t find an answer to this any help will be appreciated.
once that picture open in PL… you allow it to read the folder it’s in, so all your pictures are now there and yep, that’s a tide annoying but that’s where all your images are.
easy fix turn around… press F3 (3 little rectangle) which open what ever you have open on your screen then switch back to PM and select the next one.
and after checking on my computer and perhaps for the benefit of other members, I found the following:
When selecting one or two Raw files and choosing “open with” or similar:
Windows Explorer - The whole folder in Photolab
FastStone Image Viewer - Only one file possible at a time, Single file in Photolab
XnViewMP - Selected file/s in Photolab
FastRawViewer - Selected file/s in Photolab
I’ve written that a number of times before and FSIV actually passes them all just in such a way that only the last one “sticks”. If you use “tagging” in XnViewMP the “tagged” images can be selected and passed to DxPL even if they come from multiple directories, if I remember correctly.
Plus there is a limit to the number of images that can be passed which is around
250 - 300 if I remember the results of my test correctly, at least on my Win 10 system.
@J_Boily Although I am a Win 10 user I believe there are similarities between the products. External selections are effectively ‘Projects’ in the database and they remain intact in DxPL(Win) but in either product you can select the images and create a ‘Project’ from them.
You can then ignore the PhotoLibrary images and use the PhotoLibrary ‘Projects’ instead.
So here I am using FastRaw Viewer as a PM substitute and select the images and pass to DxPL
Now use the ‘Projects’ to access the images of interest and you can add and remove from the ‘Project’ at any time. however, the ‘Project’ only exists within the database, lose the database and you lose the ‘Projects’!
At any time you can select all from a project and create related exports but sadly you cannot easily create a ‘Project’ directory containing the image, the DOPs and the xmp sidecar files at the touch of a button!
PS:-
It is also possible to create an hierarchy of projects and the current edits are way over the top and I almost slipped on the weed clinging to the rocks but that is another story (mostly of stupidity given the current pressures on the health service in the U.K.)
A simple solution would be to use a “work in progress” folder; Have only your selected images in that folder - and then that’s all that you would see in PL’s Image Browser.
When images are selected, create a project from this selection (named WIP for example) and so you can work in this WIP project and only see images you want (and you can easily add or remove some images in WIP if needed).
If you create virtual copies when in WIP, they will be automaticaly added to wip, so everything is seemless.
And you can close PL and open it later, WIP will still exist to continu your job (no need to select your images again).
Edit : Oupss. Didn’t see @BHAYT already gave this answer.
Indeed.
Why not begin with what is intended for that in the first place : filtering.
3 possible choices with filtering : picked/rejected tag, color labels and star rating, and combinations of the 3.
Use Colour (Color) Labels but you might need to re-align the colours between the other packages and DxPL, i.e. DxPL does not provide the option to change the colours also suggested by @KeithRJ.
The ‘Picked’/‘Reject’ flag is only a DxPL feature and is held in the DOP and sadly not visible to other software @JoPoV
Use an external selection and pass to DxPL and create a ‘Project’ as suggested by @David_McA and @BHAYT but with limits on the size of the external selection that will work in one pass.
None of the techniques, excluding 4 and 5, are exclusive to DxPL.
Using filtering with 2 and 3 and then creating a ‘Project’ for convenience is one way of “passing” images between an external selection process and DxPL, and other software, without having to create a large selection to be passed directly to DxPL.
For Windows users FSIV is my viewer of choice but the ‘Rating’ is not written to the image metadata, so I also tend to use FSV.
PS:- ‘Projects’ in DxPL are in the database but as small pointers to the image details also in the database. An external selection will take up only the space for the externally selected images in the database (but you cannot pass an unlimited number of images at any one time), as will a ‘Project’ but they are reliant on the continued existence of the database.
‘Rating’ and ‘Colour’ labels with filtering will store details of all images in the database which may or may not be a consideration.
Personally I would use Rating (possibly with colour labels) and then discover the whole directory in DxPL.
Filter and create a ‘Project’ always remembering that the loss of the database will mean the loss of the ‘Projects’. If the ‘Rating’ is maintained, i.e. modified, when/if attempts to create a satisfactory image in DxPL are less successful then the ‘Project’ can always be recreated. Plus a ‘Project’ could easily contain 5* and 4 * and “Red” and … images and be coupled with the ‘Filter’ when reviewing but make it too complicated and reconstructing the ‘Project’ will become difficult because DxO do not provide any way to reconstruct “lost” Projects @Musashi.
I would then take the Filter off because “issues” have been reported (including by me) where a Filter has been left on and images appear to have “vanished”!
