More than 2 photos in Lightroom Survey View

mindspan · Mar 23, 2007

Hi All,
Am really enjoying Lightroom so far... however I am wondering if there is a way to do something that I currently use all the time in Thumbs Plus: have multiple photos open and synced at 100% size so I can quickly see where I blew focus etc. and toast those images.

I can certainly do 2 at a time in the Compare View; however, I often shoot a series of images in a burst and going back comparing 2 images from among 10 that are very close to eachother in content is a pain.

Paul Beiser · Mar 23, 2007

No way that I know of besides compare. You can use Survey mode, but you can only view one of them at a time (but it's easy to switch back and forth) at 100%.

I miss this capability as well.

dmwphoto · Mar 23, 2007

I just got my copy of lightroom today to compare to Aperture. In Aperture I can veiw as many images in the viewer at one time as I can fit to the size I want to see. I will look at this program and see. They both seemed to be very similar programs.

Philippe Roger · Mar 23, 2007

The purpose of the compare function (the X|Y symbol) is to evaluate which of 2 images is the "better" one. Then you can move the better one to the left side (select) and continue your comparison with a different right side (candidate), all with a single click. I find this much more effective than trying to compare say 4 at a time, at 100%.

The thing is, if you are only going to keep one out of a batch of say 10, you only need to move the better one at that time to the select position, until you find a better one still. There is no need to compare the previously rated worse with the latter ones, as the notion of "better" is undoubtedly transitive: is A is better than B and B is better than C, than A is also better than C, as long as you keep using the same criteria for "better"! :wink:

The survey mode can accommodate a larger number of images, but does not offer 100% view. However, if you zoom to 100%, then it's a very quick matter of using the right/left arrows to cycle between the selected group (the survey candidates).

I am starting to really like Lightroom for its Library (and cataloguing) module, a bit less so for the image quality in Develop, compared to NC or NX.

mindspan · Mar 23, 2007

Philippe Roger said:
The thing is, if you are only going to keep one out of a batch of say 10, you only need to move the better one at that time to the select position, until you find a better one still. There is no need to compare the previously rated worse with the latter ones, as the notion of "better" is undoubtedly transitive: is A is better than B and B is better than C, than A is also better than C, as long as you keep using the same criteria for "better"! :wink:

You see, that seems counterintuitive to me as I am often zooming in to 100% to check focus and then hitting F6 in Thumbs Plus to see all the photos fitting in their respective windows to evaluate composition etc. I will often sacrifice a sharper photo if the composition on another is better but it's all a compromise most of the time and I am very nit-picky.

So while I am evaluating a single criteria, e.g. sharpness in compare mode, I would pick the sharpest photo and then have to go back and reevaluate them all for composition etc. Cycling through all the photos to judge against different criteria every time seems time consuming.

It just seems more intuitive to me to have everything open at once so I can evaluate at a glance and then quickly cycle back and forth between 100% and window fit views. Maybe I just need to get used to this new method. I'll give it a shot.
Cheers,
Ray

Kiwi Geoff · Mar 25, 2007

mindspan said:
Another thing I just noticed about Lightroom is that there is no GIF support. While I suppose for photographers this is no problem (and the application is specifically designed to cater to their needs), I have been using it to also compare mock-ups for web design that our design team submits against one another. They sent some GIFs over today... no can do.

That is correct, GIF is not a supported file type. Perhaps you could convert to JPEG in PS?

mindspan · Mar 27, 2007

Kiwi Geoff said:
That is correct, GIF is not a supported file type. Perhaps you could convert to JPEG in PS?

Now I discover that it doesn't support PNG files either... this does seem to be an oversight.

Kiwi Geoff · Mar 28, 2007

Lightroom comes with a list of supported file types in the read me, I think!! There ought to be no surprises at what and what it won't support.

Julien · Mar 28, 2007

I'll play the devil's advocate here when saying that Lightroom's main targets are photographers and most of their files are RAW formats, jpg and tiff. So obviously all are compatible. As for the other formats , why would you need Lightroom to read them ?

I don't mean to be condescending at all btw just curious.

Philippe Roger · Mar 29, 2007

hillrg said:
Hi Phillippe

You are the first person I have heard say they like the library better than develop in Lightroom :biggrin: I understand you are comparing LR to NC/NX. Both modules still need some work, but I think the library needs a lot more. Glad you are enjoying it.

Rory,

I find that the image quality coming out of NC/NX is superior to that of ACR or Lightroom. Perhaps that will change or at least be challenged with ACR4 in CS3... For a quick conversions and adjustments though, I find Lightroom quite capable and certainly enjoy the new curve dialog and the localized color changes. The Library module is quite capable already, IMHO. I am sure it will be improved still, but things like the keyword stamp are really useful...

Btw, have you looked at the Michael Tapes tutorials? http://www.whibalhost.com/_Tutorials/Photoshop_LR/01/index.html

mindspan · Mar 31, 2007

Julien said:
I'll play the devil's advocate here when saying that Lightroom's main targets are photographers and most of their files are RAW formats, jpg and tiff. So obviously all are compatible. As for the other formats , why would you need Lightroom to read them ?

I don't mean to be condescending at all btw just curious.

PNG is a lossless format that supports up to 24 bit files and numerous other features that go beyond the capabilities of JPG and GIF (which is what it was designed to replace)... especially on the web.

Given the application has an entire module devoted to the web, I think the exclusion of PNG was an oversight. Just because an application is targeted at a specific purpose, doesn't mean that folks aren't going to use it for other things, as illustrated in my previous example.

Kiwi Geoff · Apr 2, 2007

I think the point is Ray that I have yet to hear of a .png or .gif coming from a camera. Also in my years of doing photos on a Mac (no web) I haven't had any reason to use them at all.
And all I can say is there will be some good stuff coming up, we are at work again. But ask no questions!!! LOL

Haibane · Apr 2, 2007

mindspan said:
PNG is a lossless format that supports up to 24 bit files and numerous other features that go beyond the capabilities of JPG and GIF (which is what it was designed to replace)... especially on the web.

Given the application has an entire module devoted to the web, I think the exclusion of PNG was an oversight. Just because an application is targeted at a specific purpose, doesn't mean that folks aren't going to use it for other things, as illustrated in my previous example.

they specifically stated, they are not trying to recreate photoshop in any way, png also has layers which are not in normal files. This is meant to use with photoshop not as a supplement. They used to have as many photos as you can fit in compare. wonder why they axed it for compare on release.

Kiwi Geoff · Apr 4, 2007

mindspan said:
Dual monitor support would be pretty high on my list right now... hope someone's working on that :smile:

I can't answer that I'm sorry!!