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Author Topic: So - here are two simple questions -  (Read 6853 times)
MelW
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« on: July 31, 2015, 10:52:26 PM »

First question has likely been covered in this forum a number of times but I am too dense to remember the answer.  I just returned from a week in the Poconos with wife, two children, their spouses, and seven grandchildren.  So, I have over 3000 pictures, of which maybe 100 or at most 200  will be worth considering as having some value.

Question 1.  I don't want to even start building the raw cache on these - just want extract the jpegs for initial review and rating - how can I do the latter without having the former start?

Question 2.  Can anyone think of a simple scheme for assigning the ratings from a bunch of jpeg files to the raw files of the same name?

Thanks for any ideas

Mel W
Columbia Md.

Never mind question 1 - I see how to do that. (what was I thinking?)
« Last Edit: July 31, 2015, 11:26:17 PM by MelW » Logged
Fred A
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« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2015, 09:39:56 AM »

Quote
Question 2.  Can anyone think of a simple scheme for assigning the ratings from a bunch of jpeg files to the raw files of the same name?

Thanks for any ideas

Hi Mel,

That's a tough one. Been playing here for an hour.
Inside the data base the entry for the rating was a simple version number and a 1 and a 5
That didn't help me.
I tried adding the rating to a Raw manually, and then passing that along to teh selected raws, but that wont work for ratings, only White Balance, exposure etc.
(I'll ask Mike if he wants to add the ratings to the items in that same box.)

Nevertheless,  all that baloney didn't help.
So I think I would put all the RATED jpgs into the ON DECK, in Qimage.
Just select the multiple thumbs, right click and PLACE ON DECK.
With the little blue *left arrow* at the top of the thumbs, and the *green on deck button*I can pop back and forth between the ON DECK queue, and the regular folder.

Now, I can easily match the raw to a jpg, and either rate the raw, or put it in the queue.

Anyone else have an idea.?
Fred

 
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Fred A
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« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2015, 12:15:36 PM »

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Anyone else have an idea.?

How about using Best Shot Selector to find the good ones?

Fred
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admin
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« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2015, 02:07:46 PM »

There are multiple ways to do this but this is how I do it when I have a lot of shots (say more than a couple hundred).  I prefer this method because it requires no change of settings or any extra work:

First, I keep my cache options set to the top radio button in Edit, Preferences, Raw Format Options: cache w/fast thumbnail priority.  That builds thumbs as fast as possible first, before it starts the raw caching.  On a decent/modern system, it can build several hundred thumbs per minute and you can start reviewing the ones at the top as it builds down the list with little or no interruption in reviewing them.  With that option set, I then:

(1) While the thumbs are being built, I just start at the top and begin reviewing the thumbs using Instaview: hover over the thumb and hold the left mouse button (or use the middle mouse button).  Don't try to use full screen view, best shot selector, or other operations that need the full (cached) image: Instaview only needs the thumbnail.

(2) I select all the bad ones that I want to trash: images where I took several shots and one or two obviously have the wrong composition, someone blinked, flash didn't fire, stuff like that.  Keep in mind here though that you are looking at embedded thumbs that show how the camera would develop the image!  So don't throw away images that look like they have poor (particularly low) exposure because QU might fix those automatically when it builds the actual raw!  So if there's a question on exposure and it might be fixable, leave it.  In this stage, if you took several shots like macros and you can't tell which one might be sharpest from only the thumbnail, leave all of them to review after the cache is built.

(3) While I'm reviewing thumbs, it may finish building thumbs and start building the raw cache.  Most of the time I don't even notice it has started on cache but if I do see that it has started cache, I tell myself "So what?"... most people have from 3 to 7 cores that will be doing nothing while I review thumbnails, so why not let them do some work?  If it bothers me that it you might see a slight "lag" (fraction of a second) to scroll the thumbs or use Instaview while the cache is building, I just use "Thumb/Cache Builder" on the top menu and then "Stop Raw Cache Builder".  That'll "quiet it down" and stop the cache builder and you can just continue reviewing using Instaview.

(4) Once I've selected all the obvious bad ones, I usually stop the cache builder if I hadn't done that earlier: "Thumbs/Raw Cache" and "Stop Raw Cache Builder" on the top menu.  No need to keep building cache when I'm about to delete some images.  Then I just press the delete key to send them to the recycle bin and they're gone from the thumbs.  Any thumbs or cache that had already been built for the ones I just deleted get deleted too!  Now I have far fewer thumbs: only the ones that I need to review more closely.

(5) After sending the bad ones to the recycle bin, I just press F5 to refresh the thumbs and it will pick up where it left off building the raw cache it hasn't already built.  The beauty of this method is that it won't have to rebuild any raw cache it worked on while you were reviewing thumbs.  And it'll jump straight to cache building because the thumbs are already built.

(6) Once the raw cache starts building from where it left off, you can start reviewing images in more detail after the little yellow "raw cache building" icon disappears from thumbnails.  If you start at the top, you can review a bunch while it is still building cache for images further down.

Again, this is my preferred method because both the thumb and cache builders are background tasks.  They are designed to do their job in the background, completing tasks while you work without interrupting you, making use of unused CPU power.  Note that the latest couple versions (since about 105) do this more seamlessly than ever before when you set the multithreading options to "Auto" because the thumb and cache builders will use one less CPU than your system has, leaving one CPU for you to do your reviewing work.  For example, on an 8 core system, it uses 7 cores to build thumbs and raw cache, leaving one core for you to perform your (foreground) tasks in QU.
 

The longer way to do it:

(1) I go into Edit, Preferences, Raw Format Options and I click the bottom radio button that tells it to build fast thumbs and not use raw cache.  Answer No to the question about refreshing raws.  Then I download my images and it'll only build thumbnails and it can build those faster than you can review them.

(2) While the thumbs are being built, I just start at the top and begin reviewing the thumbs using Instaview: hover over the thumb and hold the left mouse button (or use the middle mouse button).  Don't try to use full screen view, best shot selector, or other operations that need the full (cached) image: Instaview only needs the thumbnail.

(3) I select all the bad ones that I want to trash: images where I took several shots and one or two obviously have the wrong composition, someone blinked, flash didn't fire, stuff like that.  Keep in mind here though that you are looking at embedded thumbs that show how the camera would develop the image!  So don't throw away images that look like they have poor (particularly low) exposure because QU might fix those automatically when it builds the actual raw!  So if there's a question on exposure and it might be fixable, leave it.  In this stage, if you took several shots like macros and you can't tell which one might be sharpest from only the thumbnail, leave all of them to review after the cache is built.

(4) Once I've selected all the obvious bad ones, I just press the delete key to send them to the recycle bin and they're gone from the thumbs.  Now I have far fewer thumbs: only the ones that I need to review more closely.

(5) Now I go back to Edit, Preferences, Raw Format Options, and select the top radio button to build thumbs and cache.  Answer No again about refreshing raws.

(6) Back on the main window, click View, Refresh Thumbs or press F5.  Do not click Rebuild Thumbs because that will build the thumbs a second time: just use Refresh Thumbs so it'll do nothing but start building the raw cache.

(7) Once the raw cache starts building, you can start reviewing images in more detail after the little yellow "raw cache building" icon disappears from thumbnails.  If you start at the top, you can review a bunch while it is still building cache for images further down.

Regards,
Mike
« Last Edit: August 01, 2015, 02:10:43 PM by admin » Logged
MelW
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« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2015, 02:26:35 PM »

Thanks Fred and Mike - Any of these ideas sounds like a definite improvement over what I have done in the past.  I usually have 3 or 4 ratings levels - Definite Yes, Definite No, and one, sometimes two "maybe" levels.  In the past, I moved the jpegs into folders by rating level, actually printed the list of file names from explorer, then moved the like named raws to a folder to let QU build the cache.  I will definitely try the On Deck, but also really need to look at Mike's work flow which avoids the jpeg issue completely.

Normally not working with this many new images at once.

And Yikes - just came back from downstairs where my QU machine is - I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW QUICKLY QU BUILT 3300 THUMBS - LITERALLY WHILE I WAS TYPING THE ABOVE RESPONSE !!! That is a real game changer for this problem - thanks again

Mel
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MelW
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« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2015, 03:25:35 PM »

FURTHERMORE - This issue is a non-issue.  The last time I had this many new pictures at once, I was still using my seven year old computer.  The machine I have now has an i7-4770.  I turn away from the computer for a few moments and QU has already built raw cache for dozens of photos - it is churning through them like a hot knife through butter. And, yes, I can literally do what Mike says, I can tell from the thumbs the ones that immediately go in the dump bucket - the cache building is not affecting my ability to look at the the thumbs. But I am being careful  - QU consistently comes along and rescues photos where the embedded jpeg is badly under or over-exposed.  It is neat to watch the thumbs refresh as QU builds the cache and the under/over exposures seem to magically correct themselves.

So once again, there I was - like the early 20th century guy who couldn't figure out how to hitch the horses to his new car . . . .
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