Topic: 'Images' improvement requests (Read 12354 times)

cncb · « **on:** July 15, 2013, 11:10:45 am »

Since marko seems so confident that Images will get some attention in MC19 I thought I would get a start on a request list:

1) Add to image preview mode (Panes, thumbnail text, ...): http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=75647.msg512950#msg512950
2) Allow for custom text in tooltip: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=77598.0
3) Set a default external editor that is easy to launch

cncb · « **Reply #1 on:** July 18, 2013, 10:50:06 am »

Perhaps marko isn't as confident as I thought since he didn't add to this list.

The upgrade cost is reasonable but can we expect any improvements in the Images area?

Matt · « **Reply #2 on:** July 18, 2013, 10:53:42 am »

If you're not sure, you should wait.

Thanks.

marko · « **Reply #3 on:** July 18, 2013, 01:41:14 pm »

Missed this....

There are no grounds for confidence in this matter, sorry. As you know, the path for each new major version is never discussed, so we just have to keep the faith and believe that it will happen at some point.

leezer3 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 18, 2013, 04:59:15 pm »

Quote from: marko on July 18, 2013, 01:41:14 pm

Missed this....

There are no grounds for confidence in this matter, sorry. As you know, the path for each new major version is never discussed, so we just have to keep the faith and believe that it will happen at some point.

Or keep sending excessive amounts of cupcakes

(Chickens if you're feeling cruel!)

-Leezer-

cncb · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2013, 05:54:49 pm »

Well, I have tried to "keep the faith" by purchasing the upgrade to 19. Hopefully Images can be addressed at some point. Maybe we could shift some of Matt's interest from audio to photography by sending him a nice camera if he doesn't already have one (and by "we" I of course mean someone else

)? My wife has taken nearly 20,000 pictures of the kids already so this area is obviously of great interest to us.

Matt · « **Reply #6 on:** July 24, 2013, 06:04:04 pm »

I've always used MC for all my images. I'm not the world's most demanding user of images, but I have a ton of pictures I've taken, and I'm pretty happy with how MC works.

But if someone has an extra 70D sitting around...

JimH · « **Reply #7 on:** July 24, 2013, 06:25:28 pm »

Teach her how to use the DEL key.

Thanks for your faith.

marko · « **Reply #8 on:** August 08, 2013, 10:08:17 am »

Quote

19.0.16 (7/30/2013)
5. Changed: Removing tags on a JPEG removes the XMP, IPTC, MJMD, and Padding segments (but leaves the EXIF block).

Just adding this here for reference as I'm not sure about it at the moment. I'll try and find the time to check it out but fear a problem may only arise after data loss is discovered.

Adobe have adopted some 'tagging best practices' approach that as far as my limited understanding goes, prevents data duplication. Keywords are not written to IPTC if they are already present in XMP, kind of stuff. jpg files exported from Lightroom contain a lot of data not read by MC, and I'm not sure how important that data might be.

As for requests, can we please get 'shooting time' shifting this time around, where the 'date/time original' EXIF data is updated? Getting day tripping photos into sequential order when taken by three different people on three different cameras, all with different time settings, is a pain.
Most needed for batch operations are "Shift to a new starting time" and "Shift by a set number of HH/MM/SS"

-marko

marko · « **Reply #9 on:** September 16, 2013, 01:26:20 am »

Quote from: cncb on July 18, 2013, 10:50:06 am

Perhaps marko isn't as confident as I thought since he didn't add to this list.

Batch time shifting, with the updated "date / time original" written to the EXIF tag. We all need this so bad it hurts

darichman · « **Reply #10 on:** September 16, 2013, 03:25:26 am »

Quote from: marko on September 16, 2013, 01:26:20 am

Batch time shifting, with the updated "date / time original" written to the EXIF tag. We all need this so bad it hurts

Yes please.

maxxsid · « **Reply #11 on:** September 17, 2013, 05:30:57 pm »

If this ever gets implemented, then, please add "auto-increment" option.
i.e. select a bunch of images, set the starting day/time and the batch would tag the images incrementing seconds/minutes for each subsequent image. (sorta like "auto fill track numbers" in audio)
Helpful for images without day/time tags (e.g. scanned).

I actually just had to do this - the only software I found which allows to do this is a plugin for Light Room.

--max

Quote from: marko on September 16, 2013, 01:26:20 am

Batch time shifting, with the updated "date / time original" written to the EXIF tag. We all need this so bad it hurts

marko · « **Reply #12 on:** September 18, 2013, 12:06:42 am »

AcdSee has this in its batch tools too, they call it set new start time and the others are incrementally set from there using the same time differences as currently exist between the selected file sequence. All clever stuff, and while I dislike leaving MC to perform these tasks (because MC should be able to do them) I'm at least grateful that auto import picks the changes up, erm, automatically. Truthfully, my AcdSee is old, I won't be upgrading, want to uninstall it, but keep it specifically for these jobs, which feels a bit 'sledgehammer to crack a nut' to me!

Almost forgot, I use it for it's "acquire from scanner" feature too as it's a country mile ahead of MC's. I'll add reasons why in due course.

maxxsid · « **Reply #13 on:** September 18, 2013, 12:32:56 am »

I actually tried it the other day and it didn't work (ACDSee Pro 6)..
The thing is, if there no exif info, acdsee doesn't do time shift at all.
And MC doesn't create exif for such files either, it just keeps date/time in the internal database (I believe).

Quote from: marko on September 18, 2013, 12:06:42 am

AcdSee has this in its batch tools too, they call it set new start time and the others are incrementally set from there using the same time differences as currently exist between the selected file sequence. All clever stuff, and while I dislike leaving MC to perform these tasks (because MC should be able to do them) I'm at least grateful that auto import picks the changes up, erm, automatically. Truthfully, my AcdSee is old, I won't be upgrading, want to uninstall it, but keep it specifically for these jobs, which feels a bit 'sledgehammer to crack a nut' to me!

Almost forgot, I use it for it's "acquire from scanner" feature too as it's a country mile ahead of MC's. I'll add reasons why in due course.

darichman · « **Reply #14 on:** September 18, 2013, 04:41:01 pm »

Picasa seems to have a reasonable implementation of this.

raldo · « **Reply #15 on:** September 19, 2013, 01:59:42 pm »

Several years ago I posted what my requirements for a well functioning image cataloger/tagger should look like:
o The date problem which cncb (or was it Darichman?) noted is still present: No exif writeback on date created.
o Determine how to handle duplicate information (between exif, legacy iptc, iptc core): what to do when reading different tags, what to do when writing back to file when tags were changed, etc.
o Implement one-to-one relationship between exif, legacy iptc, iptc core. Example: "Places" in MC is composed imports of three Exif tags
o MC can't write Exif
o Similar tag write behavior to that of mp3. Changing an MC tag immediately triggers writeback to the file.

New issues/requests I'd like to bring up:
o Now that importing of the facetagging standard from Picasa has been implemented, please handle cropping/resizing wrt to this standard. At least issue a warning before cropping is performed if such data is present.
o I'd argue that you should stop using the proprietary JRiver tags as long as exif/iptc tags exist
o A file change triggers tag import.

Bonus eyecandy:
o Improve presentation of Geotagged images in MC: My suggestion would be a new "image view" on the right which displays a map with pegs for all images in the sub catalogs of the current item in focus on the left.

raldo · « **Reply #16 on:** October 04, 2013, 04:49:22 am »

I have an additional request:

Integrity check of photos/videos. Either a menu choice or as a low priority background task.

This would be gold for users with large photo and home video collections. MC counteracting the Second law of thermodynamics, how about that!

I recently had a situation where some images became corrupt. I've kept bacups but because of an an implementation issue in my cloud backup service (Keepvault), older photos (history) weren't preserved. Luckily this was just a small subset of my photos, so no real harm done. I've now changed to Dropbox and I'm subscribing to unlimited file history (Packrat). In addition I regularly make backups locally.

I've discovered that IsEmpty([Thumbnail Offset Small]) is 1 when thumbnails are missing. I've used this regularly on videos by selecting all homevideos and then do a "rebuild thumbnails". There doesn't seem to be a menu selection for rebuilding photo thumbnails, however.

So, would this be a sufficient method of checking the integrity of photos and videos?

Matt · « **Reply #17 on:** October 04, 2013, 07:44:00 am »

Quote from: raldo on October 04, 2013, 04:49:22 am

I have an additional request:

Integrity check of photos/videos. Either a menu choice or as a low priority background task.

This would be gold for users with large photo and home video collections. MC counteracting the Second law of thermodynamics, how about that!

I recently had a situation where some images became corrupt. I've kept bacups but because of an an implementation issue in my cloud backup service (Keepvault), older photos (history) weren't preserved. Luckily this was just a small subset of my photos, so no real harm done. I've now changed to Dropbox and I'm subscribing to unlimited file history (Packrat). In addition I regularly make backups locally.

I've discovered that IsEmpty([Thumbnail Offset Small]) is 1 when thumbnails are missing. I've used this regularly on videos by selecting all homevideos and then do a "rebuild thumbnails". There doesn't seem to be a menu selection for rebuilding photo thumbnails, however.

So, would this be a sufficient method of checking the integrity of photos and videos?

I'm not aware of any checksum system built into JPEG files. That means if the image data portion of the image gets corrupted, there's no good way to know.

I've considered being able to keep a signature (SHA or similar) for each file in the library. For extra credit, it could be a signature of only the media data and not the tag, and the checksum could be saved to the tag. APE files have this already, for example.

However, it's a big project and I'm not sure enough people would appreciate it. It also makes JRiver own the problem of data integrity more than we might like (since bad memory or a failing disk is out of our control).

raldo · « **Reply #18 on:** October 08, 2013, 06:34:36 am »

Quote from: Matt on October 04, 2013, 07:44:00 am

've considered being able to keep a signature (SHA or similar) for each file in the library. For extra credit, it could be a signature of only the media data and not the tag, and the checksum could be saved to the tag. APE files have this already, for example.

Such a system works if the signature is part of the format spec. For images, this would only work as long as MC manipulated the raw data and modified the signature accordingly. For example if you crop an image using an external system then the signature would be wrong.

I do like the idea, though. Maybe you could provide a method of recalculating the signature on a set of files? This could then be used to "fix" the signature when we've done edits in external programs.

+1 on such a feature from me! I've been having a nagging feeling about the 2. law and my files. This would improve things a lot. And it's a sellable feature.

Quote from: Matt on October 04, 2013, 07:44:00 am

However, it's a big project and I'm not sure enough people would appreciate it. It also makes JRiver own the problem of data integrity more than we might like (since bad memory or a failing disk is out of our control).

Well, I don't see how you would "own" the problem as long you help us detect problems with memory, failing disks etc?

I'm currently using MC to keep track of my homevideos/photos by checking the IsMissing flag. This is actually quite nice because I'm able to detect involuntary deletions/moves. I.e. my library checks the integrity of the filesystem up to a certain point.

As an alternative to your suggestion above, use thumbs to check files on another level : If thumbs cannot be generated, then there is a problem with the file.

marko · « **Reply #19 on:** October 10, 2013, 02:41:16 am »

Coincidental or what...

I have a corrupted jpg (see attached image). I'm not sure what's causing these, but I come across one every other month or so. I can pull a good copy out of backup, but even so, it would be great if MC could somehow check for this kind of thing. I've kept the corrupted image file in case it's required.

I also had another look at image acquisition from the scanner via MC. Shortcomings are that it cannot cope with more than one image on the scanner at a time, and there's no way to set a desired filename template, bearing in mind I want a different save location for scanned images and camera imports.

AcdSee allows for specifying a directory, sub-directory, and filename template. So, my sub-directory is the current yyyy-MM-dd, and my filename template is SCN_####.tif
AcdSee allows for a start number to be entered, and actually tracks that from there, so the next time I import from the scanner, it has moved the start counter on by the correct number.

-marko

cncb · « **Reply #20 on:** December 20, 2013, 12:08:20 pm »

Bump.

cncb · « **Reply #21 on:** April 11, 2015, 07:55:52 am »

I added these requests to the "Too Easy" thread but they weren't addressed. These changes would go a long way to improve the usability for MC Images handling for me.

Matt · « **Reply #22 on:** April 11, 2015, 08:03:41 am »

Quote from: cncb on April 11, 2015, 07:55:52 am

I added these requests to the "Too Easy" thread but they weren't addressed. These changes would go a long way to improve the usability for MC Images handling for me.

Could you post the one or two things from above that are most important to you?

JimH · « **Reply #23 on:** April 11, 2015, 08:31:20 am »

Pinch to zoom.

Matt · « **Reply #24 on:** April 11, 2015, 08:34:53 am »

Quote from: JimH on April 11, 2015, 08:31:20 am

Pinch to zoom.

I'm confused about that because the Windows docs say that pinch zoom should send the mouse wheel. And the mouse wheel already zooms.

So it's a bit of a riddle.

cncb · « **Reply #25 on:** April 11, 2015, 09:33:21 am »

Quote from: Matt on April 11, 2015, 08:03:41 am

Could you post the one or two things from above that are most important to you?

#1 is the most important to me. Basically adding Panes, thumbnail text, and right-click context menu to the Preview Mode so that I can do Pane Tagging and editing, and the UI mostly matches the standard grid mode.

Matt · « **Reply #26 on:** April 13, 2015, 09:09:31 am »

Quote from: JimH on April 11, 2015, 08:31:20 am

Pinch to zoom.

Next build pinch zooming should work.

It was a little bit of a puzzle that the system simulates VK_CONTROL being held when it fires the mouse wheel. That caused it to be in switch image mode instead of zoom mode. So to get around that, we'll switch to shift.

Next build:
Changed: Switched the control key to hold for switching images in a slideshow to shift (from control).
NEW: Pinch zooming an image slideshow on a touchscreen works.

maxxsid · « **Reply #27 on:** April 15, 2015, 12:33:28 am »

EXIF writeback, please. Date/Time most importantly.
Thanks!

raldo · « **Reply #28 on:** April 15, 2015, 03:45:30 pm »

Quote from: maxxsid on April 15, 2015, 12:33:28 am

EXIF writeback, please. Date/Time most importantly.
Thanks!

That would be nice.

raldo · « **Reply #29 on:** April 17, 2015, 02:40:12 am »

Quote from: maxxsid on April 15, 2015, 12:33:28 am

EXIF writeback, please. Date/Time most importantly.
Thanks!

It just occurred to me that what I most need wrt. EXIF writeback is actually time shifting of one or more files.

I've been using Picasa for this but I usually need to filter for camera type and only MC can do that.

cncb · « **Reply #30 on:** April 30, 2015, 03:29:07 pm »

I guess I should learn to take a hint but I will try bumping this again.

darichman · « **Reply #31 on:** May 01, 2015, 02:21:23 am »

EXIF writing and date shifting would be a welcome addition! You have my bump too

Just cataloguing a good number of honeymoon photos!!!
You can import the photos into Picasa, date shift the photos, then click "Update library from tags" in MC. Would be nice to do it all from MC tho...

cncb · « **Reply #32 on:** May 01, 2015, 07:01:37 am »

To be clear, I wouldn't mind EXIF writing and date shifting, but what I have been bumping/requesting is the enhancement of the Preview Mode.

cncb · « **Reply #33 on:** June 09, 2015, 11:43:54 am »

Quote from: Matt on April 11, 2015, 08:03:41 am

Could you post the one or two things from above that are most important to you?

Quote from: cncb on April 11, 2015, 09:33:21 am

#1 is the most important to me. Basically adding Panes, thumbnail text, and right-click context menu to the Preview Mode so that I can do Pane Tagging and editing, and the UI mostly matches the standard grid mode.

Did this actually make "the list" or should I just give up?

Matt · « **Reply #34 on:** June 09, 2015, 12:46:36 pm »

Quote from: cncb on April 11, 2015, 09:33:21 am

right-click context menu to the Preview Mode

Preview Mode has a right-click menu.

Edit Image, Resize Image, Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Set as Desktop Background, etc.

Am I missing something?

cncb · « **Reply #35 on:** June 09, 2015, 03:34:58 pm »

Delete and Send To External (for editing) are the big ones missing but there are several more missing from the grid mode context menu.

cncb · « **Reply #36 on:** June 15, 2015, 11:58:51 am »

Could we maybe just get Panes visibility in the Preview Mode for now since I can just make sure the thumbnail strip is visible and can access the full context menu from there?

cncb · « **Reply #37 on:** June 25, 2015, 10:17:30 am »

Pretty please? I have whittled it down to just one request: ability to show Panes (for tagging) when in the Preview Mode.

Matt · « **Reply #38 on:** June 25, 2015, 10:53:29 am »

Coming next build:
NEW: Added the ability to show panes when in image preview mode (Tools > Show Panes).

JimH · « **Reply #39 on:** June 25, 2015, 11:00:08 am »

The "Pretty Please" made all the difference.

I'm sorry we haven't been able to do more lately.

cncb · « **Reply #40 on:** June 25, 2015, 12:34:00 pm »

Thanks!

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Author Topic: 'Images' improvement requests (Read 12354 times)