Culling Photos: BreezeBrowser Pro vs Photo Mechanic

[Teffy]

How would you compare just the culling/weeding-out capabilities of Photo Mechanic vs BreezeBrowser Pro?

Thanks,
Teffy

[FairfieldPhoto]

The biggest advantages I have seen with PM over BB Pro (I do own both) are:

1) PM's handling of sound files attached to JPGs is superior to BB Pro.  BB calls the Windows sound player to play the sound whereas PM has handling of the sound built into the application including short-cuts in all the right places.  I use sound files to organize images by event participant name/number.

2) IPTC interface handling is better/faster.  When I am in IPTC display mode (the mode with the IPTC data on the right and the image on the left), I can blow through 1000-1200 runner photos per hour and put the bib number into one of the IPTC fields, tag the duds with a color code and then use the code replacement feature to drop in competitor name and other information into the IPTC data for subsequent generation on my ordering website.  I find I can just navigate faster since I am coding, culling, weeding, cropping all in one pass.

I purchased BB Pro to get the ability to quickly generate an EOS ordering website after doing all my culling/coding in PM.  With the addition of the Export feature in PM, I have no need for BB anymore except for the situations where I need to put a logo onto a JPG.  Kirk has this feature on the request list for a future version of PM and that point, I can remove BB.

Hope this helps...

-Mike

[JS]

The biggest advantages I have seen with PM over BB Pro (I do own both) are:

2) IPTC interface handling is better/faster.  When I am in IPTC display mode (the mode with the IPTC data on the right and the image on the left), I can blow through 1000-1200 runner photos per hour and put the bib number into one of the IPTC fields, tag the duds with a color code and then use the code replacement feature to drop in competitor name and other information into the IPTC data for subsequent generation on my ordering website.  I find I can just navigate faster since I am coding, culling, weeding, cropping all in one pass.

How You get above mode?
Thanks Johann

[Kirk Baker]

Johann,

The biggest advantages I have seen with PM over BB Pro (I do own both) are:

2) IPTC interface handling is better/faster.  When I am in IPTC display mode (the mode with the IPTC data on the right and the image on the left), I can blow through 1000-1200 runner photos per hour and put the bib number into one of the IPTC fields, tag the duds with a color code and then use the code replacement feature to drop in competitor name and other information into the IPTC data for subsequent generation on my ordering website.  I find I can just navigate faster since I am coding, culling, weeding, cropping all in one pass.

How You get above mode?
Thanks Johann

Click the 'i' button that appears over the thumbnail when you hover your mouse over the thumbnail.  This will bring up the IPTC Info dialog for the image.  IPTC data will be on the left, and a thumbnail will be on the upper-right side.  There are buttons that allow you to advance/retreat through your photos without having to leave the IPTC Info dialog.

-Kirk

[JS]

Thanks Kirk,

I knew this.I was just confused because he wrote about the thumbnail on the left.So I thought I might have missed something.

Johann

[devenh]

2) IPTC interface handling is better/faster.  When I am in IPTC display mode (the mode with the IPTC data on the right and the image on the left), I can blow through 1000-1200 runner photos per hour and put the bib number into one of the IPTC fields, tag the duds with a color code and then use the code replacement feature to drop in competitor name and other information into the IPTC data for subsequent generation on my ordering website.  I find I can just navigate faster since I am coding, culling, weeding, cropping all in one pass.

Mike,

I am curious on how you input the bib number when you have three consecutive shots of the same runner?  Do you input the number three times or do you have a trick to enter the number only once for all three photos?

Deven

[FairfieldPhoto]

Hi!

Sorry I missed the question here.  I didn't mean to ignore you.

I handle multiple runners by putting a "." between the numbers.  I use the decimal point because it is on the numeric keypad and therefore, I don't have to go to the regular keyboard.

I put 001.204.304 in the field when those three runners are in the photos.  Once I am done coding everything, I do a FIND on "." in the IPTC field I am using and move all of those images to a separate folder called "MULTI".  From here, I grab all of the images that have two participants in it and drag it back over the MULTI folder using PM's "Copy Options" so I get an other set of images with "A" after them.  I then drag all the images with three participants in it and drag it again so I have another set of images with "B" after them.  Continue on as much as you need.  I try not to shoot a lot of images of large groups because of the backend work.

I then open up the IPTC data of each file and make sure there is only one participant number in the IPTC field.  Yes, this part is tedious.  Lots of select/delete or select/backspace to get rid of the extra numbers.   In the end, for each photo, I will have multiple copies of the photo image, but each copy will have one participant's race number in it.

I then MOVE them all back to the master folder for the event and then I am ready to use Code Replacement to put participant's names in another ITPC field.

I am open to other ideas on how to streamline this part.

Sorry again for the delay.

-Mike

[devenh]

Mike,

Thanks for the reply.

I probably did not explain my question clearly enough.  I was asking how you handled "three consecutive shots of the same runner," not one shot with three runners.  This is a situation I deal with all the time in ski racing, so I am looking for tips to make this easier.

Deven

[FairfieldPhoto]

My mistake Deven.  I have had a lot of people ask me the three-people-in-a-shot question and I just read your question wrong.

I have two ways to handle the consecutive shot situation.  The first is just to key in the consecutive photos with the same number.  I bought an external USB 10-key key pad and when I am in heads-down keying mode, it faster for me to just key #003 three times.  Last weekend I timed myself at just over 1,400 images per hours with the keypad.  Staying heads down and hands on the keypad (i.e. no mouse, and no regular keyboard), you can just fly with PM 4.5.2.

Now, I do have situations where I will have a long burst (6 or more images) of a participants.  Usually the lead male and/or lead female for running races or motor-drive sequences of high jumpers or long jumpers.  In those situations, I try to find those sequences and do a group select in PM, then do a CTRL+I, and set the IPTC values for the sequence.  Again, if it is just 2-3 images of the same athlete, I would rather stay on the keypad.

So let me ask you, how do you handle the multiple competitors in a single image situation?

-Mike

[devenh]

So let me ask you, how do you handle the multiple competitors in a single image situation?

Simple, I don't 

The only sport I key bib numbers into is ski racing and there is only one competitor per photo.  Other sports, like football, basketball, etc., I often cannot see the number or the number of photos per event is sufficiently small that there is not much to be gained by entering in the number.

** KIRK ALERT ** For multiple images of the same skiier I use a database program I wrote that allows me to enter the bib number in the last photo of the sequence.  When I finish entering the bib numbers, the program can backfill the data.  Once each record has a bib number, I use a code replacement type function to insert the name, team, and time of each racer into the image's IPTC fields.

I would love to see something like this in PM.  Here's how it could work: Pick one or more fields for backfilling, enter data in this field(s) for the last photo in the sequence, then PM could copy (backfill) that data into all the preceeding images with empty field values.

Either this or give me time based stacks (e.g. create a stack for all images taken within a set amount of time from one another) and let me apply IPTC data to all the images in the stack.

Deven