Some sort of visual mark to show when a photograph has been edited

[MelvynKnipe]

Hi all,

I'm new to Photo Mechanic - Our company has moved over from a different image management system and I have a question / request.

When I edit an image in photoshop, and then return back to Photo Mechanic, I would love to be able to see that the image has been edited, with some sort of visual marking.

The reason for this is that often I can be shooting several shots of the same composition and upon returning to PM am unable to see which image I just edited.

I apologise if there is a setting to enable this option - I have looked through all options and have yet to find anything that could do what I am requesting.

Thanks!

[Kirk Baker]

I'm new to Photo Mechanic - Our company has moved over from a different image management system and I have a question / request.

When I edit an image in photoshop, and then return back to Photo Mechanic, I would love to be able to see that the image has been edited, with some sort of visual marking.

The reason for this is that often I can be shooting several shots of the same composition and upon returning to PM am unable to see which image I just edited.

What criteria do you suggest that PM use to determine that Photoshop has edited a file?

-Kirk

[MelvynKnipe]

Hi Kirk, thank you for your quick response!

OK.  Here is the workflow we have been introduced to recently...

I pick my favourite images and mark them as ctrl+1 (pink).  Then I edit those images (if I need to) and once edited, send them via the upload option. Once sent, I mark them as ctrl+5 (green) so that when I return to that assignment in future I know I sent the images.

The problem I have is that, say I have picked several images that are very similar when viewed as thumbnails.  I pick one image, edit it in PS and then close it via saving.  Upon Alt-Tabbing back into PM I look at those several images and can't see which one I edited because the thumbnails still look very similar.  Unless I converted the image to B+W or cropped it square, or did something else obvious, I don't know which image to send out of the several images I originally looked through.

Basically, when I edit an image in bridge (using bridge as a comparison only), I see a little marker on the thumbnail that lets me know I have made changes to the image, and an XML file has been generated.  So visually, I know which image to send by going off the marker on the thumbnail.

Sorry if this is a waffle of a reply, I'm just trying my best to explain my scenario.

Cheers!

[Kirk Baker]

OK.  Here is the workflow we have been introduced to recently...

I pick my favourite images and mark them as ctrl+1 (pink).  Then I edit those images (if I need to) and once edited, send them via the upload option. Once sent, I mark them as ctrl+5 (green) so that when I return to that assignment in future I know I sent the images.

The problem I have is that, say I have picked several images that are very similar when viewed as thumbnails.  I pick one image, edit it in PS and then close it via saving.  Upon Alt-Tabbing back into PM I look at those several images and can't see which one I edited because the thumbnails still look very similar.  Unless I converted the image to B+W or cropped it square, or did something else obvious, I don't know which image to send out of the several images I originally looked through.

Basically, when I edit an image in bridge (using bridge as a comparison only), I see a little marker on the thumbnail that lets me know I have made changes to the image, and an XML file has been generated.  So visually, I know which image to send by going off the marker on the thumbnail.

What I need to know is what criteria is PM supposed to use in order to know that Photoshop (or for that matter any application) has modified your image?  It would be prohibitive to have to scan each image and checksum all of the image's data and then checksum it again and compare the sums on resume of PM.  People would be unhappy with the delay.  So what mechanism be used to determine (quickly) that an image has changed?

-Kirk

[devenh]

The way I've "solved" this issue is through a code replacement that looks at the software variable.  I display the result in the labels of the contact sheet (Edit | Preferences | Contact Sheet).  This works on NEF, jpg, and psd files.

Here is are some sections from my code replacements:

Nikon Transfer 6.2.6 W   *
Nikon Transfer 6.2.7 W   *
Nikon Browser 6.2.7 W   *
Ver.1.00   *
Ver.1.01   *
Ver.1.02   *
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows   CS4
Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows   CS5
Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)   CS6
Capture NX 2.3.2 W   NX2
Capture NX 2.3.1 W   NX2
Capture NX 2.3.0 W   NX2
Capture NX 1.3.3 W   NX
Capture NX 1.3.0 W   NX
ViewNX 1.4 W   VNX
ViewNX 2.0 W   VNX2
ViewNX 2.2 W   VNX2

You'll have to understand how code replacements (CR) work.  Check the PM Help or search through the forums.  Basically the structure of the plain text CR file is "search for value" tab "replacement value".

So for unedited NEF files, the software value returns a text string like "Nikon Transfer 6.2.6 W" if the file was downloaded via Nikon Transfer or "Ver.1.02" when ingested with PM.  In both cases, the file is unedited and I indicate this by replacing this text with an asterisk (*).

If the file has been edited, then the value returned by the software variable is something like "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Capture NX 2.3.2 W", or "ViewNX 2.2 W" which I convert to CS5, NX2, or VNX2, respectively, via code replacements.

The screen shot shows the end result.  The image on the left is unedited and you see an * displayed below it.  The image on the right has been edited in NX2 and you see NX2 displayed.

Deven




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[olidie]

I requested a similar feature some time ago. For me the criteria for a modified image would be the existence of a xmp file. Since I work with nef files I can write my metadata in the file itself and the xmp sidecar only comes into play when changes to the picture have been made by ACR.  In Bridge there's a symbol that indicates if a file has been edited in ACR. I guess it works in a similar way.

@devenh: interesting solution. Thanks!

EDIT: davenh, I tried your solution but it's not really working for me. My problem is that I want to see which original NEF has been edited and therefore has a xmp side car and which is unedited. This does not work with your approach :-(