No sort by label, bottom bar in sub optimal spot?

Submitted by Ai_Print on Sun, 03/31/2024 - 12:58
Forums: 
General discussion

Hi, I just downloaded and bought Fast Raw Viewer so I can read Hasselblad X2D files for culling purposes. It seems to be the only program of this type that will do that and on my Macbook Pro 16" M3 Max it is doing that very well, so I am happy with the purchase. With over 1.5M images in my archive spanning my 30 years of use of digital, I have been and will still use Photo Mechanic for managing big jobs on other camera types.
 
On the plus side, this app is very customizable and runs well, no hangups on start up and shut down. But there are a few things that I need to address as possible changes. Please forgive me if I am missing the solutions and these issues are actually mute.
 
1. It makes no sense at all to offer rating and label criteria and only be able to sort by rating. I never use rating because the stars are *much* harder to see when working fast, especially on a laptop screen for jobs on location. The the high visibility of colored labels are so much better for fast turn around selects it is not even debatable. Filtering works but is not my first choice for finding selects and rejects. Secondly on the note of sort criteria, there needs to be key command or function key options to toggle these sort criteria, again, all about speed in using a "fast" raw viewer in a real pro setting. 
 
2. As many pro users are Mac users, the bottom bar is in a very poor place when using the cursor to select something down there, it's far too easy to accidentally cause a Mac OS dock icon to animate. Not a single other program I use has the "instrumentation" on the bottom, it is on the sides and or top. It would be a great idea to give users the option of moving that bottom bar to the top, otherwise as it stands for me, it is pretty much useless outside of information viewing only. Sure, you can shrink the workplace window to give some space, but then you shrink the valuable workspace overall. 
 
Also, the ability to change the size of the thumbnails as viewed in grid mode via a slider or key command would be appreciated, the current drop down menu option is just ok.
 
Overall it's a very robust program and that alone is a big time saver. But the above niggles are what will keep me using Photo Mechanic for anything outside of using my Hasselblad X2D. 
 

lexa

Mon, 04/01/2024 - 12:30

Thank you for your feedback!

1) It is difficult to define what sorting by label is. Labels are actually assigned words (which can be overridden in settings), does that mean it needs to be sorted alphabetically? Or we need to assign some numeric value to the label? This sorting is not difficult to do, but it is difficult to give it a meaning that would be the same for everyone (unlike sorting by rating)



2) All bottom bar 'buttons' have corresponding shortcuts (and menu items), you may use (re-assignable) shortcuts for any task.

 

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Alex Tutubalin/FastRawViewer team

Ai_Print

Mon, 04/01/2024 - 13:37

1. It is not difficult at all on other platforms, they all just default to a label sort criteria without any other label info. For example, a color label assigned in Photo Mechanic in Color Class will read as a differentiator in Sort By Label in Adobe Bridge and Sort By Label / Custom in Lightroom. The use of color labels in fast deadline work and production heavy workflows are by far the most efficient since they are easy to see regardless of thumbnail size in grid and certainly in brighter light on screen scenarios. Please facilitate sort by label.
2. Regardless of what is on the bottom bar in terms of actions or shortcuts, the location interferes with the dock on the bottom of the screen in Mac OS. The vast majority of pro apps have the tool / action bars on the top or sides for this reason. Please allow the user to move the bar to the top of the window.
 
Thanks

Ai_Print

Mon, 04/01/2024 - 13:45

To further exapnd on item number 1. I think all you need to do to the code is have sort by label default to sort by color label if no other label sort criteria is present on any of the files. You might be surprised at how many pros shooting heavy workflows will appreciate this. 
 
Either way, thanks for the product as it is and for the fast reply.

lexa

Sun, 04/28/2024 - 09:22

'By label' sort is implemented in FastRawViewer 2.0.9 (now in beta): https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-2-0-9-Beta



The sort order matches the order of colors in the program: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple

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Alex Tutubalin/FastRawViewer team

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