New user - questions & suggestions

[BubbaJon]

Just started evaluating BB Pro and I can definately see why the user base is so rabidly supportive of the product. An awful lot of bang for the buck. I was referred to BB when looking for a program to sift the goodies from the garbage and needed raw support for the 5D - BB is dead on target. The ability to generate html from templates is icing on the cake.
I do have a few usability questions/suggestions. It appears that Chris is very responsive to changes and as a fellow software developer I can understand how difficult that can be - so take these with the grain of salt they deserve. There is also a high likelihood I may have just missed some of the features available - forgive me if this is the case and I would be indebted to have them pointed out to me. I'm just as bad at RTFM as the typicial user ;-)
Usability - why all the ctrl-shift- hotkeys? I'm sure there's a reason but I would have to say that I would prefer not to use all available fingers if possible - I have one that's trained pretty good. Example: ctrl-shft-T to tag an image. Why not just 'T'? See - when I perusing the shots I want to cull I'm using my right hand to work the keys to compare between several shots to pick one with the best expressions (wedding photos usually). I don't want to use both hands just to tag an image. It would seem that BB is intended for this type of use so make the keys that are useful for this purpose simple to invoke.
Many times I need to scrutinize expressions to determine which image to keep. A quick zoom would be *very* helpful. The left mouse button doesn't do squat that I can see and it would be nice if BB allowed you to marquee an area with the mouse and click to magnify that area. I hate to say it but the current magnifier seems pretty lame - especially when it disappears when the picture is changed and must be reinvoked via the menu or ctrl-shift-m.
It would be neat if there were more tagged specific operations. Right now if I'd like to move some tagged images I have to first select tagged then right click move files. It would be expedient to have an option to work with tagged files versus selected.
Now a question: When I go to convert a file and I change the color space from sRGB to AdobeRGB the picture "dims" in the preview. I color manage and wonder if BB uses system profiles to display.
Feature requests (aside from the usability stuff above)
Speaking of convert, is there a way to preview larger and using the post processing options? It would be nice to see for example the effect auto levels is having on teh conversion.
Many times I'll have a long series of shots that are very similar - such as the first dance. Many times I find myself alternating back and forth between a current best image and one that is considered to take it's place. What a pain. It would be nice to have a "freeze" key that would make the current image "stick" in a seperate frame so that it is always at hand for comparison. I could see it operating as follows:
F - freeze picture - another F would release it.
shift-F - release the frozen picture and make the current picture the new frozen image.
Boy would that be nice!

Hope you don't get the opinion I hate BB - it has really captured my interest and is easily faster than what I currently use for my workflow. I'm just always looking to make the job as smooth as possible. I realize that BB caters to many different uses and my purposes are just one set of many.
Thanks!
Jon

[Chris Breeze]

Just started evaluating BB Pro and I can definately see why the user base is so rabidly supportive of the product. An awful lot of bang for the buck. I was referred to BB when looking for a program to sift the goodies from the garbage and needed raw support for the 5D - BB is dead on target. The ability to generate html from templates is icing on the cake.
I do have a few usability questions/suggestions. It appears that Chris is very responsive to changes and as a fellow software developer I can understand how difficult that can be - so take these with the grain of salt they deserve. There is also a high likelihood I may have just missed some of the features available - forgive me if this is the case and I would be indebted to have them pointed out to me. I'm just as bad at RTFM as the typicial user ;-)
Usability - why all the ctrl-shift- hotkeys? I'm sure there's a reason but I would have to say that I would prefer not to use all available fingers if possible - I have one that's trained pretty good. Example: ctrl-shft-T to tag an image. Why not just 'T'? See - when I perusing the shots I want to cull I'm using my right hand to work the keys to compare between several shots to pick one with the best expressions (wedding photos usually).
The problem is Ctrl+T is already allocated to another command (toggling between main and thumbnail views). There aren't enough keys available for every command to have a simple Ctrl+ keyboard accelerator.

I don't want to use both hands just to tag an image. It would seem that BB is intended for this type of use so make the keys that are useful for this purpose simple to invoke. )
You can use spacebar for tagging and 0-5 for ranking in the latest release (this needs to be enabled in preferences).

Many times I need to scrutinize expressions to determine which image to keep. A quick zoom would be *very* helpful. The left mouse button doesn't do squat that I can see and it would be nice if BB allowed you to marquee an area with the mouse and click to magnify that area. I hate to say it but the current magnifier seems pretty lame - especially when it disappears when the picture is changed and must be reinvoked via the menu or ctrl-shift-m.
Sometimes it's would useful to leave it displayed and other times it's a pain because it takes longer to display the next image. I tried it both ways when I was adding this and felt it was better to cancel it when moving to the next image.


It would be neat if there were more tagged specific operations. Right now if I'd like to move some tagged images I have to first select tagged then right click move files. It would be expedient to have an option to work with tagged files versus selected.
I want to avoid duplicating every menu option to have an "apply to tagged" and an "apply to selected" version. Pressing F6 in thumbnail view only selects the tagged images and then allows you to perform operations on the tagged images.


Now a question: When I go to convert a file and I change the color space from sRGB to AdobeRGB the picture "dims" in the preview. I color manage and wonder if BB uses system profiles to display.
Have you enabled color management in BBPro and setup the profiles for your camera in the raw conversion preferences to automatically select sRGB or AdobeRGB profiles? There will inevitably be a small difference switching colorspaces as sRGB and AdobeRGB have different gamuts.


Feature requests (aside from the usability stuff above)
Speaking of convert, is there a way to preview larger and using the post processing options? It would be nice to see for example the effect auto levels is having on teh conversion.
The problem is that performing a full raw conversion for a 100% preview would be very slow.


Many times I'll have a long series of shots that are very similar - such as the first dance. Many times I find myself alternating back and forth between a current best image and one that is considered to take it's place. What a pain. It would be nice to have a "freeze" key that would make the current image "stick" in a seperate frame so that it is always at hand for comparison. I could see it operating as follows:
F - freeze picture - another F would release it.
shift-F - release the frozen picture and make the current picture the new frozen image.
Boy would that be nice!
There is a hold feature in the image comparison window that does just this.


Hope you don't get the opinion I hate BB - it has really captured my interest and is easily faster than what I currently use for my workflow. I'm just always looking to make the job as smooth as possible. I realize that BB caters to many different uses and my purposes are just one set of many.
Thanks!
Jon

[BubbaJon]

The problem is Ctrl+T is already allocated to another command (toggling between main and thumbnail views). There aren't enough keys available for every command to have a simple Ctrl+ keyboard accelerator.

What about just plain old 'T' - no shift, no ctrl - nada?


You can use spacebar for tagging and 0-5 for ranking in the latest release (this needs to be enabled in preferences).

Perfect! I looked for a list of function keys but must have overlooked them - sorry!


Sometimes it's would useful to leave it displayed and other times it's a pain because it takes longer to display the next image. I tried it both ways when I was adding this and felt it was better to cancel it when moving to the next image.

How about my suggestion to use the mouse to marquee, click, zoom?


I want to avoid duplicating every menu option to have an "apply to tagged" and an "apply to selected" version. Pressing F6 in thumbnail view only selects the tagged images and then allows you to perform operations on the tagged images.

I was thinking in terms of a preference like the ranking method you explain. My preference would be to select move/copy operations to tagged images.


Have you enabled color management in BBPro and setup the profiles for your camera in the raw conversion preferences to automatically select sRGB or AdobeRGB profiles? There will inevitably be a small difference switching colorspaces as sRGB and AdobeRGB have different gamuts.

I was thinking in terms of automatic - Phase One Capture asks if it should use the system profile or not. No biggee - just an extra step and you have to remember to change it when the profiles are changed (I recalibrate every 2 weeks).


The problem is that performing a full raw conversion for a 100% preview would be very slow.

Yeah - that would be a pain.


There is a hold feature in the image comparison window that does just this.
Missed that one - I'll have to dig around some more to find it.
Thanks Chris - two of my biggest desires were answered - now I can tag quickly and when I find it - hold and compare. Woo-Hoo! :D
Regards,
Jon

[Chris Breeze]

It's poor UI design to use keys without modifiers as keyboard accelerators as these cause problems if the input focus in an a control which accepts keyboard input. Strictly speaking spacebar and number keys shouldn't be used for tagging and ranking.

Sorry I don't have any plans to use a marquee to mark the zoom area.

There is an option in BBPro's image display preferences to use the default monitor profile for the system. I also calibrate my monitors every few week and it automatically picks up the new profile.

[areve]

It's poor UI design to use keys without modifiers as keyboard accelerators as these cause problems if the input focus in an a control which accepts keyboard input.

Is it really so? Photoshop uses a lot of these shortcut keys without modifiers and it is highly convenient (it really speeds up the work).