Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I nice easy one for the pundits....

I work through a group of RAWs and get everything 'tickety boo' (a Fredism I think). My white balance is impeccable. My curves are perfectionee. My contrast is sublime. Each frame a tad different but then I am being taught by the masters.

Just before converting I realise I could improve things by altering the DFS on each frame to another setting.

How can I apply the change to DFS without damaging all my cunningly crafted filters?

Tony
London and neighbour of HRH Betty. 

OK and Hello Tony
There are three scenarios.
All the images are to be adjusted by the same amount?
Each image has a different need of adjustment?
Adjust the DFS setting without the need to see a live view?

If they all need a touch of adjusting and all to be adjusted the same amount; put them in the queue.
Open one in the Editor, and make your change.
Then upon closing (DONE), QU will ask to save the filter.
Click the dot to APPLY TO ALL IN THE QUEUE
It will ask whether to add or replace.  ADD

You can also and easily right click on one of a group of selected thumbs. Select Custom Filter.
It will open the filter adjust box where you can adjust the settings one image at a time.

When you click DONE, it will ask if you want to go to the enxt image.


Of course, you could always go back into the Editor, fix one, and then click NEXT.


Hope this helps...

My very best wishes to HRH, and tell her Fred sens a hug.

Fred

Thanks Fred,

Am I not right in thinking that your first suggestion saves the whole filter. So my curve, contrast and other changes to all the other images will get over-written when I ask the system to apply to all in the queue. That is what seems to happen.

I have used your second and third suggestions but they are not what I'd call a batch replace. Yes it is a quick way to replace image by image.

I was hoping for a way of applying that one element of the filter to the rest of the folder. Seems not.

But thanks again.

Tony

Hi Tony,
No not correct, I've checked.
QU asks if you want to replace or add to the filter - choose replace and all the DFS (if you've changed DFS) values will change leaving anything else unchanged.
Terry

Tony,
Iam just getting old.
Terry is right. Click Replace instead of ADD.
Just got them twisted

Fred

Sorry guys that is not what happens here.

All the filters - saturation, levels, etc from the image with the new DFS get transferred to the other items in the queue.

I am using Replace.

I must be doing something else different. How does QU know which item I have changed when I do the edit - so it can only apply that alteration to the rest of the batch?

Lunchtime here GMT.

I'll check back this afternoon.

EDIT - AFTER Lunch.

Two images. One has no DFS and -100 saturation. The second has no DFS and is normally saturated.
Both go to the queue.
I go to the first image and Edit. I add 5 - 100 DFS and click Save.
I opt for all the images in the queue.
I tick Replace.
My second image acquires the new DFS which I want but also the  -100 saturation which I don't want.
What am I doing guys that you are not doing?

Tony

Wait a minute all of you - am I losing my mind??  I have done this for years.  I have dozen prints in the queue. Now I realize I want to sharpen them all the same way.  I add an extra print to the queue - one that I will later remove.  I set the sharpening I want for all of the prints in the queue, but I don't set any other filter values for that one - extra - print.  I then say done and I say ADD.  That sharpening value is then used in all of the prints in the queue.  I then remove the unwanted extra print.  If I were to say replace, it would take that filter - that has only sharpening and nothing else set - and use that for all of the prints in the queue.  But by saying ADD, it uses only the sharpening from that filter and leaves everything else alone.

I do this often enough to know that it works, unless QU has changed since I last did it this past summer.

Mel W.

Mel,

What a great idea. I can see how it works.

I wonder what Fred and Terry were doing to get their suggestion to work?

Anyway, thanks. I have about fifty shots of a man giving a talk at a podium. Each needed a bit of "levels" tweaking - all different. At the end I realised the whole sequence would be improved with an alternative DFS. The thought of re-installing all those levels was so boring that I was prompted to start this thread.

This makes me wonder whether the extra print concept could be used when I want to lift all the RAW fill settings by a couple of notches - avoiding calling up each enlarged RAW image.

Tony

I see the confusion.  Mel's idea works, but only if the images don't already have a DFS value.  If your batch already has a 1/100 DFS and you want to make them all 2/200 while keeping all other settings, there's no way to do that because it only adds filters that don't already exist in some form.  So it won't "overwrite" an existing 1/100 with 2/100: it'll only "add" it if there is no DFS.

Perhaps a new feature to "selective replace" certain settings would be nice to have.  A "selective replace" would just bring up the quick edit (editor without the image showing) with an empty (no) filter.  On that dialog, if you enter 2/100 DFS for example, it'll replace only the DFS in all selected images with 2/100.  Or if you enter -100 saturation, it'll replace all saturation values on the selected images with -100.  Or if you enter 2/100 DFS and -100 saturation, it'll replace both, leaving other values untouched.  So whatever you "touch" gets replaced.  Everything else is left alone.

Mike

Thanks Mike,

Yes. A selective facility would suit my work style brilliantly. As you know I work in large batches. Once I have made my selection I make an initial range of edits and convert the whole lot to jpgs. I then work through those jpgs improving the worst. I then re-run into jpg and some of my originally better attempts have become worse than the ones I just improved. Maybe all they need is an 's curve'. I'd love to be able to apply it without killing all the rest of the filter. So, yes please.

As you are on the thread Mike I'll repeat a request I made back in the days when you first introduces the Fill slider in the RAW conversion. Usually it gets the whole folder/batch pretty well right. However, there might be a dark or light sequence that has fooled the algorithm. I'll love to be able to batch request a few plus or minus notches in the Fill slider without calling up the whole image. I realise there is a batch RAW edit facility but that seems to copy the position of the Fill slider to the other frames. What I'd like to be able to do is to add/subtract a few notches from the algorithm's choice. It would save me a lot of time that is otherwise spent waiting for the RAW cache to be recreated.

Tony

I'm planning to add the ability to copy selected filter parameters to a batch of thumbs so that should take care of it.  For now, with an example like DFS, it can be done:

(1) Select all thumbs for which you want to add a new DFS value.
(2) Right click on any of the selected and choose "Custom Filter".
(3) Click the "Clear" button on the bottom right of the custom filter dialog so you start with an empty filter.
(4) Enter your DFS: for example 1,150.
(5) Click "Done", then "All", then "Add".

This will add the 1/150 DFS to all selected (because that's the only thing in the filter you created) while leaving any other edits alone in those images.

Mike

Thanks Mike,

That sorts me for the moment.

Well done. A great suite of clever tricks.

Tony