Photo Mechanic Plus filtering and searching

[bodelange]

I've been playing around with PM 6 Plus and am really considering upgrading to it, for its cataloging capabilities. However, am I missing something, or is it not possible to search and/or filter catalogs based on shutterspeed? Is is missing in the list of searchable fields and does not show up in the Filter items under EXIF either.

[Kirk Baker]

I've been playing around with PM 6 Plus and am really considering upgrading to it, for its cataloging capabilities. However, am I missing something, or is it not possible to search and/or filter catalogs based on shutterspeed? Is is missing in the list of searchable fields and does not show up in the Filter items under EXIF either.

There currently is no searching or filtering on shutter speed.  It could be added.  Can you tell me how that would be useful to you?

-Kirk

[bodelange]

In the same way as searching using aperture or ISO: finding images in my catalogue that are either ‘frozen’ e.g. shutter speed <1/500s or long exposures: shutter speeds > 1/2 s.

[Kirk Baker]

In the same way as searching using aperture or ISO: finding images in my catalogue that are either ‘frozen’ e.g. shutter speed <1/500s or long exposures: shutter speeds > 1/2 s.

OK, thanks.

-Kirk

[sebastianbremen]

Thinking that it was possible to browser/search/filter for *just any* iptc field I started to use many of them. Now I realize that quite some are not in use yet: edit status, category and many more. To anticipate Kirk's question: Well I used those fields in order to give (myself) information about edit status, Categories and so on....is there any iptc field that isn't worth to be taken at least into the search possibility? For the sake of clear arrangments I see the point that you don't want to have all iptc field in the browse and filter menus...

Sebastian

[rjh1007]

Kirk
In my workflow some of the first things I check for after exposure and composition is noise, critical sharpness, bokeh - I can quickly analyze large groups of photos if I could filter and browse on ISO, shutter speed and aperture at a minimum. Focal length, white balance, exposure comp, flash are really important but are not make it or break it for me.  I bought the software because I needed a reliable catalog to replace my slow Capture One catalog - I am really disappointed that this basic exif that I need daily in filtering and browsing my shoots and existing images isn't available.  I unfortunately was paying attention to getting my images and their data into PM+ and didn't look closely at what was available for my workflow as I assumed that the ability to filter, browse and search on most exif data was a given. 

Kirk, is there any way that you can make ISO, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, white balance available for filtering and browsing? Please.

I have imported over 10,000 of my images into PM+ but will hold on the other 100,000+ until I know if the exif will be made available.

Thanks for your consideration

Bob

[Kirk Baker]

Bob,

Please see this post for where to make feature requests: http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=13555.0

-Kirk

[MindsEye]

Kirk
In my workflow some of the first things I check for after exposure and composition is noise, critical sharpness, bokeh - I can quickly analyze large groups of photos if I could filter and browse on ISO, shutter speed and aperture at a minimum. Focal length, white balance, exposure comp, flash are really important but are not make it or break it for me.  I bought the software because I needed a reliable catalog to replace my slow Capture One catalog - I am really disappointed that this basic exif that I need daily in filtering and browsing my shoots and existing images isn't available.  I unfortunately was paying attention to getting my images and their data into PM+ and didn't look closely at what was available for my workflow as I assumed that the ability to filter, browse and search on most exif data was a given. 

Kirk, is there any way that you can make ISO, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, white balance available for filtering and browsing? Please.

I have imported over 10,000 of my images into PM+ but will hold on the other 100,000+ until I know if the exif will be made available.

Thanks for your consideration

Bob

Ditto for me. I am have cataloged nearly 600K images with PM+ but it isn't very useful to me without being able to filter and search exposure data (aperture, ISO, shutter speed, etc.) I use this quite frequently in my Lightroom catalog. I was hoping to dump Adobe but sadly, PM+ doesn't seem to offer filtering, grouping/collections or searching of the most basic (exposure) information.

I not only use these things for my own photography but also post to my blog and publish articles (eg. PetaPixel) I am currently working on an article for publication on options for those who want to dump Adobe.

In a previous post you indicated that you could add this ability to PM Plus. So PLEASE do it.
Thanks,
Joel

[PeterM]

Perhaps a partial solution: Create a custom sort, including {shutter}. Then, in Preferences -> Contact Sheet -> Labels, include a label with {shutter}. One would have to eyeball the change in shutter speed, and this doesn't allow filtering, but they'd be sorted by one (or two) variable(s).

[Kirk Baker]

Joel,

In my workflow some of the first things I check for after exposure and composition is noise, critical sharpness, bokeh - I can quickly analyze large groups of photos if I could filter and browse on ISO, shutter speed and aperture at a minimum. Focal length, white balance, exposure comp, flash are really important but are not make it or break it for me.  I bought the software because I needed a reliable catalog to replace my slow Capture One catalog - I am really disappointed that this basic exif that I need daily in filtering and browsing my shoots and existing images isn't available.  I unfortunately was paying attention to getting my images and their data into PM+ and didn't look closely at what was available for my workflow as I assumed that the ability to filter, browse and search on most exif data was a given. 

Ditto for me. I am have cataloged nearly 600K images with PM+ but it isn't very useful to me without being able to filter and search exposure data (aperture, ISO, shutter speed, etc.) I use this quite frequently in my Lightroom catalog. I was hoping to dump Adobe but sadly, PM+ doesn't seem to offer filtering, grouping/collections or searching of the most basic (exposure) information.

Search can search aperture and ISO currently.  Filtering can be done by adding a "Custom Search" stage to your filter and using the same Search query.  Shutter speed, exposure compensation, focal length, flash, and white balance are not currently indexed.

https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001077464-using-the-filter-tool-in-photo-mechanic-plus

Photo Mechanic Plus has an entire tab in the Organizer devoted to Collections.  https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001078321-collections-in-photo-mechanic-plus

I know this doesn't address all of the concerns, but the above capabilities are present in Photo Mechanic Plus.

-Kirk

[charly5]

The filter system is for me the most important feature of photomechanic plus and the main reason to buy it. The filter system is the only reason why I still use LR 6 for cataloging my photos.

There should be no limit for the filter criteria. Let the user decide what is important for him.

Take a closer look at Lightroom 6 (very old) and its capability regarding filters. PM needs to be competitive here.

I used many different cameras and lenses over the last 20 years. I want to filter images I made on a specific year or camera body or zoom or focal range of that zoom etc. pp.- I also want to see which ISO or aperture or shutter speed were used most often with the filtered images or filter just by those criteria and see a statistic about it. Even daytime of the shot is interesting to see in combination with camera model etc. Do I use camera x more often at low light than camera y etc.

Filter criteria are the best way to learn our user behaviour, check which camera we really use often and become better photographers by seeing concentrated what we did do when with what in which circumstances and the outcome of this.

Just open up the filter system for all these criteria. It is not a big deal to implement it but the added value for the end user and therefore number of switchers to PM+ will be significant.

A catalogue without a good filter system is like a car without wheels.