Culling after a shoot

rutt

After a big shoot (sometimes almost 1k shots for a day of ballet dress rehearsals) I want a quick way to get rid of the junk and find the keepers. What I really really like is to have a full screen image of each shot presented, and then be able to push a different key to either:

1. Keep and move to the next shot, or
2. Delete and move to the next shot, or
3. Back up so I can change my decision about a previous shot.

I wrote a script that did this well under an old version of linux, but it didn't port well to OS X for annoying low level technical reasons.

These days, I use something called CocoViewX which isn't quite perfect because it requires more than one keystroke to mark for deletion and move to the next shot. Also there is no Universal version and it's not the fastest thing in the world. I think the author has moved on to greener pastures.

So, I'm looking for an alternative. Of course, for me, it has to run on OS X, but probably Windows users have an interest as well. I'd love suggestions.

Please remember, I don't want to have to touch the mouse in the course of culling.

Here is another clue. I shoot raw+medium quality jpeg. I cull using the jpegs because every step is much faster and more manageable. Then I use a little script to grab the raws from the card that corresponded to the remaining jpegs.

pathfinder

In the Windows world, I think you can do exactly this with VuePrint, available from www.hamrick.com. As far as I now, it is not available in OS X or Linux. Might run in the new Macs in the XP emulators....

I used VuePrint for years when I used Windows, and I loved this viewer because it was FAST - like instantaneous. It allowed quick delection, and you could see full screen, or as many rows and columns as desired. It was also free back then.

If it was available in OS X I'd still be using it.

I suspect you would enjoy getting to know the author of the software too, John.

JamieC

Don't know if you can get this to run on a Mac, but the KDE Photo Album, (nee KimDaBa) is excellent and has just a cool feature that comes close to what you want. You can, while watching a slideshow, press any key and the picture will be tagged with that key. For instance, you might decide the 'D' key means delete. Later you could have all pictures tagged with D be deleted. And it's scriptable to automate this.

Check it out here http://kphotoalbum.org/ Watch the videos to see what I mean.

jamie

Mongrel

It's a shame...
Chris Breeze doesn't offer a version of BreezeBrowser Pro for MACs.

It does *exactly* what you are looking for and more. I can run through entire folders of say 500 RAW\JPEG mixed shots very quickly-deleting, tagging, and moving them with just a keyboard shortcut or two. Since I started using it I have no need of any other browsing software.

For anyone using the Windows platform looking for this type of software, I highly recommend checking BreezeBrowser out.

Link:

http://www.breezesys.com/index.htm

Nikolai

John,
As I explained in my RAWflow thread, I'm using plain Bridge's slideshow (Ctrl+L) feature to do the culling.
Granted it's not exactly those three strokes you've mentioned, but separate for navigation and taging. Since I'm using both hands (left to tag, right to navigate) it feels like a single stroke to me anyway:-).
The good news - it works in both Windows and Mac worlds :

DavidTO

Try Photo Mechanic.

Also, make sure you do a search on versiontracker.com, so you don't end up being a help vampire.

gus

I open the photo...if its no good i delete it.

pat.kane

I use ThumbsPlus (Windows only, sorry) and it has the capability to do exactly as you're asking, i.e., my fingers never leave the keyboard while I cull a large batch of images with each image at full-screen size. If the image is a keeper, I press ".1", a maybe gets a ".2" and ones to be tossed get a ".3".

The setup to make this work is explained in this post
http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=361025&postcount=2

Regards,
Pat

mercphoto

You're answer is Photo Mechanic, which also has the most intelligent way of dealing with RAW+JPG that I have seen. Try it free for 30 days. I think you will find it worth paying for.

photodoug

gus wrote:

I open the photo...if its no good i delete it.

I operate similarly: I preview...if I like it, I copy it to a subfolder called "edits" and work from there

rutt

David and Bill, thanks. Tried Photomechnic and it's almost perfect, at least as good as CocoViewX and faster more full featured, &etc. I still could wish for a single key "mark and go to next" function, but OK, OK it's no big deal.

pat.kane

mercphoto wrote:

You're answer is Photo Mechanic, which also has the most intelligent way of dealing with RAW+JPG that I have seen. Try it free for 30 days. I think you will find it worth paying for.

Can you elaborate on the RAW+JPG handling?

I've always been turned off by Camera Bits' web site and the lack of information they provide about their product. I know I can download and try the software, but I try to avoid doing so unless I know I'm likely to use it.

As an example, there is discussion about writing IPTC, but what standard (IIM or XMP) and to what types of files (e.g. directly into a Canon RAW file, as a sidecar, other?)?

mercphoto

pat.kane wrote:

Can you elaborate on the RAW+JPG handling?

They will only show you the one thumbnail, unlike Bridge or most other browsers. Why bother the clutter of two thumbnails if it is RAW+JPG? If you tag one you tag the other. If you rename it keeps the same base name for both images. Why Bridge can't do this puzzles the heck out of me, but renaming RAW+JPG in Bridge is an exercise worth not doing. Photo Mechanic just does things right and does things fast. I've given up on Bridge.

Try it.

TomaS

Windows software solution
The very popular and easy to find ACDsee (regular version for $50 and a free demo) does a pretty good job of this. I can cull with a few keystrokes while viewing JPG/NEF, it is very fast, and has a ton of features for organizing (like I have the time:cry), quick editing for web shots, and lots of other stuff.
http://www.acdsee.com/index
They do not seem to have versions for other platforms however