Picture viewing?

SlickYamaha · 09-18-2011, 02:59 PM

Hey all. Not sure if this falls under this category, but....
Im looking for something to increase the speed of photo viewing. I do, what im sure most do, go to an event, take say 500 photos, go home, pop in the computer, and start going through one by one, pulling out the best photos and putting them in another folder marked "Picked" or something, then I know those are the photos I keep to P'shop, and the rest are throw aways. I have always shot JPEG, and before it wasnt an issue, they loaded pretty quick, and with one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse, I could go through a few hundred in a very short period. Since I switched to RAW only, It is the most daunting part of the whole process. It not only takes FOREVER just for the previews to load in the viewer, but it also takes about 8 seconds per picture to see a full size of it.
I use the standard Windows 7 file sorting, and view them in Windows Picture viewer.
I know there has to be some kinda software that is optimized to view .DNGs alot faster than the windows software.

So my question is... Little help?

Ubuntu_user · 09-18-2011, 03:40 PM

Lightroom would do wonders for you... Or Aperture if you want to switch to the good stuff (Mac).

**baro-nite** · 09-18-2011, 04:37 PM

Photo Mechanic is supposed to be fast. It ain't cheap.

**dms** · 09-18-2011, 05:50 PM

I use adobe bridge (phoshop/bridge/camera raw). It creates images from each raw file--and once it's done you can (actually as its doing it) apply a star rating: 0 thru 5 (and/or a color rating) to your images, After that you can have it always sort based on the number of stars (or color rating), You can for example view them in slide show and revise ratings as you look at them.

Presume the others do similar--I only use this; but whatever you use you should not need to move them to another folder--or wait to look at the image. (To first build the "good" image from the camera raw may takes a few moments--depending on your computer and no. images.)

SlickYamaha · 09-18-2011, 06:05 PM

Originally posted by dms

I use adobe bridge (phoshop/bridge/camera raw). It creates images from each raw file--and once it's done you can (actually as its doing it) apply a star rating: 0 thru 5 (and/or a color rating) to your images, After that you can have it always sort based on the number of stars (or color rating), You can for example view them in slide show and revise ratings as you look at them.

Presume the others do similar--I only use this; but whatever you use you should not need to move them to another folder--or wait to look at the image. (To first build the "good" image from the camera raw may takes a few moments--depending on your computer and no. images.)

I have used bridge to collect files for mass editing, but never used it as a "viewer". just played around with it, works much better than Windows viewer!

**dms** · 09-18-2011, 07:03 PM

Great.

BTW l found Bruce Fraser's book: "Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2" very helpful for the Bridge aspect--His chapter "Adobe Bridge Your Digital Light Table" is all about how to use bridge in your workflow--nothing fancy--just very well written. I suggest having your local library getting it on interlibrary loan and copying this chapter (likely doesn't matter which version of Bridge you have).

**dms** · 09-18-2011, 07:09 PM

Of course by "copying the chapter" I meant--with pencil and paper, Sorry about that.

reeftool · 09-18-2011, 09:53 PM

I'll chime in for Lightroom also. For just plain viewing, Picasa (free) does a good job and it will open RAW files, PEF and DNG.

**crewl1** · 09-18-2011, 10:41 PM

Another vote for Lightroom. Lets you review and mark photos for deletion easily, then lets you edit the keepers all in the same workflow.

nosliwmit · 09-19-2011, 12:46 AM

You maybe should have mentioned what you're using for a computer... Lightroom 3 on my 2005-vintage Pentium 4 machine is pretty slow with .dng files (well, so is Picasa...). I've learned to start the import process and just walk away (it's a "watched pot never boils" kinda thing for me). When all the photos are finally on the hard drive and in the catalog there is still a little delay from one photo to the next, but it's manageable and there are all sorts of tools for ranking or rating (number of stars, color, "pick" vs. "reject"). I recently changed from 1:1 rendering to Standard and haven't yet adequately tested that. I know it's time for a PC upgrade, but geez how will I ever afford that 15mm Ltd.?

Ubuntu_user · 09-19-2011, 09:22 AM

I've also discovered that if you store your images on an external HD, and use USB 2.0, it is horrendously slow. When I moved to a firewire 800 HD, it made a difference of night and day! Thunderbolt or eSata I imagine would be even better.

SlickYamaha · 09-19-2011, 09:30 AM

Originally posted by nosliwmit

You maybe should have mentioned what you're using for a computer... ?

Sorry, at work now, not sure of all specs, but...
HP Win 7 64
8GB Ram
500GB Hard Drive
Dont know know the processors off the top of my head, but its a pretty quick PC, fast enough to handle photos I would think.

reeftool · 09-19-2011, 10:35 PM

Originally posted by nosliwmit

You maybe should have mentioned what you're using for a computer... Lightroom 3 on my 2005-vintage Pentium 4 machine is pretty slow with .dng files (well, so is Picasa...). I've learned to start the import process and just walk away (it's a "watched pot never boils" kinda thing for me). When all the photos are finally on the hard drive and in the catalog there is still a little delay from one photo to the next, but it's manageable and there are all sorts of tools for ranking or rating (number of stars, color, "pick" vs. "reject"). I recently changed from 1:1 rendering to Standard and haven't yet adequately tested that. I know it's time for a PC upgrade, but geez how will I ever afford that 15mm Ltd.?

I was using a 2002 P4 up until last year. I had added memory, larger hard drives and had pretty much upgraded all I could with it. I built a new one with a AMD X3 and 64 bit Win 7 and what a difference! A couple of weeks ago I purchased a bargain HP laptop at Staples for $349. It's running an AMD X2 Phenom and is just as fast as the desktop. Even a low end dual core box will run circles around that old P4. I know it's difficult to choose whether the lens first or upgrade the computer. The way lens prices have been going up, probably the lens. Computer prices are dropping, at least for now. I spent my tax refund on a DA 15 this spring. I went through a few weeks of agony when I couldn't buy one because they were on backorder everywhere.

wildman · 09-20-2011, 04:55 AM

I have LR3, PS CS5, bridge etc etc plus a mess of other programs to view RAW files.

None works as well for initial selecting and deleting and sorting as ACDsee Pro 4.

Fast, excellent interface and the quality of the display of RAW files is far better than the rest which is important when deciding which are keepers and which are not.

09-18-2011, 02:59 PM	#1
SlickYamaha Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Bel Air MD Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 840	Picture viewing? Hey all. Not sure if this falls under this category, but.... Im looking for something to increase the speed of photo viewing. I do, what im sure most do, go to an event, take say 500 photos, go home, pop in the computer, and start going through one by one, pulling out the best photos and putting them in another folder marked "Picked" or something, then I know those are the photos I keep to P'shop, and the rest are throw aways. I have always shot JPEG, and before it wasnt an issue, they loaded pretty quick, and with one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse, I could go through a few hundred in a very short period. Since I switched to RAW only, It is the most daunting part of the whole process. It not only takes FOREVER just for the previews to load in the viewer, but it also takes about 8 seconds per picture to see a full size of it. I use the standard Windows 7 file sorting, and view them in Windows Picture viewer. I know there has to be some kinda software that is optimized to view .DNGs alot faster than the windows software. So my question is... Little help?

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09-18-2011, 03:40 PM	#2
Ubuntu_user Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,545	Lightroom would do wonders for you... Or Aperture if you want to switch to the good stuff (Mac).

09-18-2011, 04:37 PM	#3
baro-nite Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: North Carolina, USA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 5,294	Photo Mechanic is supposed to be fast. It ain't cheap.

09-18-2011, 05:50 PM	#4
dms Site Supporter Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: New York, NY Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,192	I use adobe bridge (phoshop/bridge/camera raw). It creates images from each raw file--and once it's done you can (actually as its doing it) apply a star rating: 0 thru 5 (and/or a color rating) to your images, After that you can have it always sort based on the number of stars (or color rating), You can for example view them in slide show and revise ratings as you look at them. Presume the others do similar--I only use this; but whatever you use you should not need to move them to another folder--or wait to look at the image. (To first build the "good" image from the camera raw may takes a few moments--depending on your computer and no. images.)

09-18-2011, 06:05 PM	#5
SlickYamaha Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Bel Air MD Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 840 Original Poster	Originally posted by dms I use adobe bridge (phoshop/bridge/camera raw). It creates images from each raw file--and once it's done you can (actually as its doing it) apply a star rating: 0 thru 5 (and/or a color rating) to your images, After that you can have it always sort based on the number of stars (or color rating), You can for example view them in slide show and revise ratings as you look at them. Presume the others do similar--I only use this; but whatever you use you should not need to move them to another folder--or wait to look at the image. (To first build the "good" image from the camera raw may takes a few moments--depending on your computer and no. images.) I have used bridge to collect files for mass editing, but never used it as a "viewer". just played around with it, works much better than Windows viewer!

09-18-2011, 07:03 PM	#6
dms Site Supporter Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: New York, NY Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,192	Great. BTW l found Bruce Fraser's book: "Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2" very helpful for the Bridge aspect--His chapter "Adobe Bridge Your Digital Light Table" is all about how to use bridge in your workflow--nothing fancy--just very well written. I suggest having your local library getting it on interlibrary loan and copying this chapter (likely doesn't matter which version of Bridge you have).

09-18-2011, 07:09 PM	#7
dms Site Supporter Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: New York, NY Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,192	Of course by "copying the chapter" I meant--with pencil and paper, Sorry about that.

09-18-2011, 09:53 PM	#8
reeftool Pentaxian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Upstate New York Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 9,554	I'll chime in for Lightroom also. For just plain viewing, Picasa (free) does a good job and it will open RAW files, PEF and DNG.

09-18-2011, 10:41 PM	#9
crewl1 Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Los Angeles, CA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 9,807	Another vote for Lightroom. Lets you review and mark photos for deletion easily, then lets you edit the keepers all in the same workflow.

09-19-2011, 12:46 AM	#10
nosliwmit Pentaxian Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Pacific Northwest Photos: Gallery Posts: 913	You maybe should have mentioned what you're using for a computer... Lightroom 3 on my 2005-vintage Pentium 4 machine is pretty slow with .dng files (well, so is Picasa...). I've learned to start the import process and just walk away (it's a "watched pot never boils" kinda thing for me). When all the photos are finally on the hard drive and in the catalog there is still a little delay from one photo to the next, but it's manageable and there are all sorts of tools for ranking or rating (number of stars, color, "pick" vs. "reject"). I recently changed from 1:1 rendering to Standard and haven't yet adequately tested that. I know it's time for a PC upgrade, but geez how will I ever afford that 15mm Ltd.?

09-19-2011, 09:22 AM	#11
Ubuntu_user Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,545	I've also discovered that if you store your images on an external HD, and use USB 2.0, it is horrendously slow. When I moved to a firewire 800 HD, it made a difference of night and day! Thunderbolt or eSata I imagine would be even better.

09-19-2011, 09:30 AM	#12
SlickYamaha Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Bel Air MD Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 840 Original Poster	Originally posted by nosliwmit You maybe should have mentioned what you're using for a computer... ? Sorry, at work now, not sure of all specs, but... HP Win 7 64 8GB Ram 500GB Hard Drive Dont know know the processors off the top of my head, but its a pretty quick PC, fast enough to handle photos I would think.

09-19-2011, 10:35 PM	#13
reeftool Pentaxian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Upstate New York Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 9,554	Originally posted by nosliwmit You maybe should have mentioned what you're using for a computer... Lightroom 3 on my 2005-vintage Pentium 4 machine is pretty slow with .dng files (well, so is Picasa...). I've learned to start the import process and just walk away (it's a "watched pot never boils" kinda thing for me). When all the photos are finally on the hard drive and in the catalog there is still a little delay from one photo to the next, but it's manageable and there are all sorts of tools for ranking or rating (number of stars, color, "pick" vs. "reject"). I recently changed from 1:1 rendering to Standard and haven't yet adequately tested that. I know it's time for a PC upgrade, but geez how will I ever afford that 15mm Ltd.? I was using a 2002 P4 up until last year. I had added memory, larger hard drives and had pretty much upgraded all I could with it. I built a new one with a AMD X3 and 64 bit Win 7 and what a difference! A couple of weeks ago I purchased a bargain HP laptop at Staples for $349. It's running an AMD X2 Phenom and is just as fast as the desktop. Even a low end dual core box will run circles around that old P4. I know it's difficult to choose whether the lens first or upgrade the computer. The way lens prices have been going up, probably the lens. Computer prices are dropping, at least for now. I spent my tax refund on a DA 15 this spring. I went through a few weeks of agony when I couldn't buy one because they were on backorder everywhere.

09-20-2011, 04:55 AM	#14
wildman Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Flyover America Posts: 4,469	I have LR3, PS CS5, bridge etc etc plus a mess of other programs to view RAW files. None works as well for initial selecting and deleting and sorting as ACDsee Pro 4. Fast, excellent interface and the quality of the display of RAW files is far better than the rest which is important when deciding which are keepers and which are not.