Photo Mechanic 4.4.3 beta comments

[Kirk Baker]

Using the Beta, Windows XP, NEC DVD -
Trying to burn 3.5g to a DVD and PM shuts itself down after flashing me an error screen (it leaves too quick to read it).

How far into the disc burning process do you get?  Does the Photo Mechanic crash reporter come up, and if so, can you send the report?

What NEC DVD model do you have?  (Actual model numbers from the Device Manager would be helpful.)

Thanks,

-Kirk

[Kirk Baker]

Kirk, is there and way of setting the watermark offset, It's a little too far off the edge of the image for my liking ... could this be user configurable ?

Otherwise it all looks good on XP, I'll try it on the latest Vista build in the next day or so

There is no way to set the offset.  How would you want to specify the offset?  Pixels, inches/cms?

Pixels please Kirk

OK, but if we go with actual measurements, they work equally well with any sized image, even printing, so if you say you always want a 1" border and you have a 360 DPI print, then 360 pixels will be used as the border, and if you have a 100 DPI image, then 100 pixels will be used as the border.

Just going with pixels will produce narrower borders on higher density images...

Now that I have explained that, what would be your choice?

-Kirk

[Andrew MacKay]

Kirk, is there and way of setting the watermark offset, It's a little too far off the edge of the image for my liking ... could this be user configurable ?

Otherwise it all looks good on XP, I'll try it on the latest Vista build in the next day or so

There is no way to set the offset.  How would you want to specify the offset?  Pixels, inches/cms?

Pixels please Kirk

OK, but if we go with actual measurements, they work equally well with any sized image, even printing, so if you say you always want a 1" border and you have a 360 DPI print, then 360 pixels will be used as the border, and if you have a 100 DPI image, then 100 pixels will be used as the border.

Just going with pixels will produce narrower borders on higher density images...

Now that I have explained that, what would be your choice?

-Kirk

Thinking about it a little more I wonder if a percentage would be a better solution, does any one else have any thoughts ?

BTW Kirk, I've just rebuilt this laptop with build 5365 of Vista and so far it looks fine, that previous problem hasn't reapeared.

[Kirk Baker]

Kirk, is there and way of setting the watermark offset, It's a little too far off the edge of the image for my liking ... could this be user configurable ?

Otherwise it all looks good on XP, I'll try it on the latest Vista build in the next day or so

There is no way to set the offset.  How would you want to specify the offset?  Pixels, inches/cms?

Pixels please Kirk

OK, but if we go with actual measurements, they work equally well with any sized image, even printing, so if you say you always want a 1" border and you have a 360 DPI print, then 360 pixels will be used as the border, and if you have a 100 DPI image, then 100 pixels will be used as the border.

Just going with pixels will produce narrower borders on higher density images...

Now that I have explained that, what would be your choice?

Thinking about it a little more I wonder if a percentage would be a better solution, does any one else have any thoughts ?

That could also work fine because it is resolution independent like distance is.  Anyone else care to comment?

BTW Kirk, I've just rebuilt this laptop with build 5365 of Vista and so far it looks fine, that previous problem hasn't reapeared.

That's good to hear.  I figured it was a bug in the Vista beta.

-Kirk

[amclane]

>That could also work fine because it is resolution independent like distance is.  Anyone else care to comment?

I think percentage (for distance from the edge) really does make the most sense but there would also need to be a way to scale the overlaid text/image so that it remains legible for the particular overall image size.

--allan

[Jan]

Hello,
i haven't tested 4.4.3 beta till now, i just want to know if it has the features i would like to see and which have maybe not mentioned in the read me.

1. Deleting Files out of the FTP-Transfer waiting list.

2. Watched Folder, with the function to ingest new files permanently.

Thx

Regards

Philipp Faas

[Kirk Baker]

Hello,
i haven't tested 4.4.3 beta till now, i just want to know if it has the features i would like to see and which have maybe not mentioned in the read me.

1. Deleting Files out of the FTP-Transfer waiting list.

2. Watched Folder, with the function to ingest new files permanently.

#1 will be in the final release.  #2 will not.

-Kirk

[Matt]

Using the Beta, Windows XP, NEC DVD -
Trying to burn 3.5g to a DVD and PM shuts itself down after flashing me an error screen (it leaves too quick to read it).

How far into the disc burning process do you get?  Does the Photo Mechanic crash reporter come up, and if so, can you send the report?

What NEC DVD model do you have?  (Actual model numbers from the Device Manager would be helpful.)

Thanks,
The status dialog reads "Generating disc file layout"  then it crashes.  The PM crash reporter doesn't come up, just the C++ Library window.
As for the model  _NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A.  Going outside of PM and burning the files with NERO/the NEC/ and the disc that was loaded worked fine.
Hope that helps.
Matt

-Kirk

[Primoz]

When I thought there can't be anything more (except my wish for multiple IPTC paste as discussed back on RG forums  ) I found out ftp sending with option to watermark and resize of photos at same time when uploading. Now this makes my life even easier 

But I have one question about this feature. Is there chance to upload same set of photos to two different locations (inside of one ftp), so that real size (unchanged) photos would be uploaded to directory1, and resized and watermarked photos would be uploaded to directory2.

If it doesn't go it's no big deal, since photos should be uploaded twice anyway, so I can first upload real size photos to directory1, and then change settings for ftp and upload resized and watermarked photos to directory2 after that.

But no matter if there's chance for this or not I really wish to thank you for this great feature.

[Kirk Baker]

When I thought there can't be anything more (except my wish for multiple IPTC paste as discussed back on RG forums  ) I found out ftp sending with option to watermark and resize of photos at same time when uploading. Now this makes my life even easier 

But I have one question about this feature. Is there chance to upload same set of photos to two different locations (inside of one ftp), so that real size (unchanged) photos would be uploaded to directory1, and resized and watermarked photos would be uploaded to directory2.

If it doesn't go it's no big deal, since photos should be uploaded twice anyway, so I can first upload real size photos to directory1, and then change settings for ftp and upload resized and watermarked photos to directory2 after that.

There is no way in the interface to specify two folders as destinations so yes, you would have to send them separately.

-Kirk

[Ron Scheffler]

Running OS 10.4.6 on a G5 2.3 DP

Hi Kirk

Watermark: I would like to see a percentage option as well. Trying to figure out the optimal font size takes too much fiddling around. The drop shadow doesn't seem to work properly (as you warned might be the case). It barely offsets and shows through the transparency of the watermark turning it into gray characters (instead of translucent white characters with a shadow offset). Is it possible to include an outer glow option, or outline option, for those times when it's white on white, or similar?

PhotoShelter uploader: Last night used this feature to upload about 150-200 1.5MB JPEGS to PhotoShelter. Worked nicely. One thing the PhotoShelter uploader won't do (or I couldn't figure out how to get it to do so) is access volumes other than the boot volume. Finally I can upload directly from folders on other volumes. But.... I did notice some problems: I couldn't get the delete function to work (to remove files from the queue). Since I had a bunch that I added to the queue at a later time that I wanted to remove, I just waited until the others uploaded and canceled the remaining upload. Upon starting a second upload, I could no longer toggle through the open contact sheets or the open PhotoShelter uploader using the Apple+` (tilde key) combo. The only way to move through open contact sheets was to drag the front one down and click on the one behind (I suppose I could have tried Expose, but didn't think of doing so)... I ended up quitting (or force quitting - don't remember) PM and restarting and everything was fine again. Unfortunately I didn't stop to really observe the problem.
Would it be possible to add an option for the order in which images appear in a newly created archive folder? I.e., based on filename, date added or date edited.

One thing I like to do with the PhotoShelter uploader is run a few copies at one time when uploading large quantities. That way while one is in the "handshake" phase of an upload, the other is usually in the process of uploading an image. Would it be possible to run two instances of the integrated PhotoShelter uploader at one time? I tried and all it did was add the second batch to the existing queue. It's not so critical... I'm just trying to optimize the number of files uploading so that one is uploading while the other is in the "handshake" phase (which in my case seemed to equal the time for the actual upload itself).

FTP: After working on a number of open contact sheets (maybe for an hour or two) and finally selecting a group of about 50 images to ftp, the transmission rate quickly decayed from 70-80 KB/s to practically zero during upload of the first image. It's the first time I've experienced this problem with PM since version 4.3. Back then, if I woke the computer from sleep to edit a contact sheet and transmit via the ftp function, I would get the same drop off. This time the computer never entered a sleep phase. Quitting PM and restarting resulted in no further ftp problems.

And last thing for the time being: Can you persuade Dennis to add a variable for month name that is the abbreviation of the first three letters of the month name (without a period afterwards)? I.e. Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Thanks!

[Kirk Baker]

Watermark: I would like to see a percentage option as well. Trying to figure out the optimal font size takes too much fiddling around. The drop shadow doesn't seem to work properly (as you warned might be the case). It barely offsets and shows through the transparency of the watermark turning it into gray characters (instead of translucent white characters with a shadow offset). Is it possible to include an outer glow option, or outline option, for those times when it's white on white, or similar?

What I meant by the dropshadow not working was in the watermark preview.  What you've described is actually the way it works.  I draw black text first and then draw the translucent text in the color that you have chosen over the top of it.

When you say you would like to see a percentage option as well, do you mean for the border offset or for the size of the font? Or both?

PhotoShelter uploader: Last night used this feature to upload about 150-200 1.5MB JPEGS to PhotoShelter. Worked nicely. One thing the PhotoShelter uploader won't do (or I couldn't figure out how to get it to do so) is access volumes other than the boot volume.

When you say PhotoShelter uploader, are you talking about the feature in Photo Mechanic or are you talking about the standalone app from the PhotoShelter folks?

Finally I can upload directly from folders on other volumes. But.... I did notice some problems: I couldn't get the delete function to work (to remove files from the queue).

The button is there but it is currently non-functional.  It will be implemented in the final version.

Since I had a bunch that I added to the queue at a later time that I wanted to remove, I just waited until the others uploaded and canceled the remaining upload. Upon starting a second upload, I could no longer toggle through the open contact sheets or the open PhotoShelter uploader using the Apple+` (tilde key) combo. The only way to move through open contact sheets was to drag the front one down and click on the one behind (I suppose I could have tried Expose, but didn't think of doing so)... I ended up quitting (or force quitting - don't remember) PM and restarting and everything was fine again. Unfortunately I didn't stop to really observe the problem.

That's odd.  Let me know if you can get a reproducible set of steps together.

Would it be possible to add an option for the order in which images appear in a newly created archive folder? I.e., based on filename, date added or date edited.

They're ordered by the order in which they are uploaded.  Once we add the ability to custom reorder your thumbnails in the contact sheet, you should be able to get what you are looking for, but if you reorder them again in the upload queue then that would change their order again.

One thing I like to do with the PhotoShelter uploader is run a few copies at one time when uploading large quantities. That way while one is in the "handshake" phase of an upload, the other is usually in the process of uploading an image. Would it be possible to run two instances of the integrated PhotoShelter uploader at one time? I tried and all it did was add the second batch to the existing queue. It's not so critical... I'm just trying to optimize the number of files uploading so that one is uploading while the other is in the "handshake" phase (which in my case seemed to equal the time for the actual upload itself).

There is no way to have multiple upload windows via PhotoShelter.

FTP: After working on a number of open contact sheets (maybe for an hour or two) and finally selecting a group of about 50 images to ftp, the transmission rate quickly decayed from 70-80 KB/s to practically zero during upload of the first image. It's the first time I've experienced this problem with PM since version 4.3. Back then, if I woke the computer from sleep to edit a contact sheet and transmit via the ftp function, I would get the same drop off. This time the computer never entered a sleep phase. Quitting PM and restarting resulted in no further ftp problems.

Sounds like the server stopped responding and never returned an error.  So PM was just politely waiting for an acknowledgment.

And last thing for the time being: Can you persuade Dennis to add a variable for month name that is the abbreviation of the first three letters of the month name (without a period afterwards)? I.e. Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

I'll see what I can do.

-Kirk

[Ron Scheffler]

Watermark: I would like to see a percentage option as well.

Should have been more specific - a percentage option for the font size. I.e. 50% = coverage over 50% of the image width.

...Upon starting a second upload, I could no longer toggle through the open contact sheets or the open PhotoShelter uploader using the Apple+` (tilde key) combo. The only way to move through open contact sheets was to drag the front one down and click on the one behind (I suppose I could have tried Expose, but didn't think of doing so)... I ended up quitting (or force quitting - don't remember) PM and restarting and everything was fine again. Unfortunately I didn't stop to really observe the problem.

That's odd.  Let me know if you can get a reproducible set of steps together.

Haven't been able to get it to happen again...

[oryk]

Hallo,

my beta 4.4.3. has epired tonight (Europe time). Is there a new version ?


Oryk

[Kirk Baker]

my beta 4.4.3. has epired tonight (Europe time). Is there a new version ?

We'll get a new one out sometime Monday morning PST.

-Kirk