Newbie: Struggling with concepts of Contact Sheet

[mosscliffe]

I have just started using the demo and I am very impressed, especially having messed around with Photoshop Elements 10 and then discovered it changed the creation date of the files !!!

I am trying to work out how best to create a workflow.

Having added photos to a contact sheet, how do I remove them, without deleting them from the hard disk ?

When I add IPTC to a photo, does that immediately update in the original file and leave the creation date as per original file ?

I create a new Contact Sheet - gets named 'untitled' and then I add photos from various locations.  How do I rename that contact sheet ?

How do I remove a Contact Sheet from PM5, as I no longer want to reference it ?

Is there any way I can find duplicate images in a Contact Sheet and hopefully remove them from the sheet, as I have a directory with 40,000+ photos and 7,000+ are duplicates ?

Thanks

[Kirk Baker]

I have just started using the demo and I am very impressed, especially having messed around with Photoshop Elements 10 and then discovered it changed the creation date of the files !!!

I am trying to work out how best to create a workflow.

Having added photos to a contact sheet, how do I remove them, without deleting them from the hard disk ?

Photo Mechanic is browsing your hard drive and is showing you what it contains in a given folder.  Without deleting the files you could assign the files that you don't want to see a color class or a rating and then have Photo Mechanic not show photos with that color class or rating.  The filter widgets are at the lower right corner of your contact sheet window.

When I add IPTC to a photo, does that immediately update in the original file and leave the creation date as per original file ?

Yes, though depending on your settings and the file format, the metadata may be added to an additional file called an XMP sidecar file (a file with the same base name as the image, but with the extension changed to .XMP).

I create a new Contact Sheet - gets named 'untitled' and then I add photos from various locations.  How do I rename that contact sheet ?

You've created a folder.  You can rename it in the Favorites or Navigator by right-clicking on the item and choosing Rename, or you can rename it with your OS (Finder/Windows Explorer.)

How do I remove a Contact Sheet from PM5, as I no longer want to reference it ?

Close the contact sheet tab.

Is there any way I can find duplicate images in a Contact Sheet and hopefully remove them from the sheet, as I have a directory with 40,000+ photos and 7,000+ are duplicates ?

No, not really.  And Photo Mechanic cannot browse a single folder or a set of folders that contain 40,000 images at once.  It is beyond the capacity of the application.

-Kirk