Comparing Photos

[Malachai]

There's a lot I truly love about Photo Mechanic, but I'm struggling to compare photos.  The specific use case is that I have hundreds of family photos in multiple folders.  Most are identified, some are not.  I'd like to pull up an indentified photo in one window, and then somehow cycle through unidentified photos in the second window to look for similarities/matches.  The nature of the task means I'm pulling new photos into both windows fairly frequently.   

1. The photos are in different folders. I understand I can open two or more folders into the same Contact Sheet, but then I have dozens or hundreds of photos that I have to manually scroll through to look for candidates to compare.  Is there a better way to do this?

2. I'd like to compare more than two photos at a time. I see forum messages going back to 2007 saying that's not possible. Is that still the case?

Apologies if this has been asked before. I haven't been able to find an answer on the forums.  I'd appreciate any workflow suggestions anyone has. 

Thanks. 

Malachai

[Kirk Baker]

Malachai,

There's a lot I truly love about Photo Mechanic, but I'm struggling to compare photos.  The specific use case is that I have hundreds of family photos in multiple folders.  Most are identified, some are not.  I'd like to pull up an indentified photo in one window, and then somehow cycle through unidentified photos in the second window to look for similarities/matches.  The nature of the task means I'm pulling new photos into both windows fairly frequently.   

1. The photos are in different folders. I understand I can open two or more folders into the same Contact Sheet, but then I have dozens or hundreds of photos that I have to manually scroll through to look for candidates to compare.  Is there a better way to do this?

Open the two folders into a single contact sheet and sort by capture time.  I expect that they'll line up fairly nicely this way (unless somehow the capture times of the similar photos are way off).  You may be able to spot similar photos this way directly in the Contact Sheet.  You can always increase the size of the thumbnails if that would help.

2. I'd like to compare more than two photos at a time. I see forum messages going back to 2007 saying that's not possible. Is that still the case?

You can indeed compare two images side-by-side or above and below.  The preview pane with keyboard focus (click into it) will change when the arrow keys are pressed or when you click on another thumbnail in the thumbnail gallery.  The toolbar has three icon buttons for switching between the three views.

HTH,

-Kirk

[Bob Russell]

When I’m looking for duplicates in multiple folders, I prefer to have 2 contact sheet windows opened in a side by side configuration. This allows you to scroll through each contact sheet without affecting your position in the other.

 To open a second contact sheet window using a Mac, then go to the File menu and select the New Window option at the top or you can use the Command-Shift-n shortcut. Now open the second folder of images to compare against the other folder. Keep in mind that you can’t open the same folder in multiple contact sheet windows.

If you have a PC, then start by opening both of the folders as contact sheets. I like having at least 4 columns shown with some space before I separate the folder tabs at the top. Now click and drag the right folder tab to the right edge of the contact sheet window. When the mouse is over the scrollbar, a frame will appear around the right half of the contact sheet. Let go of the mouse and now you will have 2 independent contact sheets in the same window.

Each contact sheet will let you Preview an image but you can only preview from one contact sheet or the other. You can’t have two Preview windows opened at the same time.

HTH,

—Bob

[Malachai]

Kirk and Bob - thanks for the responses.

Kirk - It doesn't help to combine photos into a single contact sheet and then sort by capture date - the capture dates could be anytime in the past 20 years.  The core problem is that there isn't anything about any of the photos that would allow me to group them.  They have different capture dates, different folders, different names, came from different families, etc. 

And I think you're saying I can compare two images side by side, but I'm looking to compare 3, 4 or more images side by side or in a single screen.

Bob - If I understand what you're saying, I can open two contact sheets, but I can only preview one at a time. I don't think that addresses the issue of being able to see two or more photos from different folders side by side. 

Let me know if I'm misunderstanding anything.  But my takeaway so far is that I can only compare two photos at a time, and only if they're in the same contact sheet. 

Thanks.

[Bob Russell]

There is one other option you can try for comparing 2 images in different contact sheets. In one contact sheet, open the Preview window and zoom to 100% in the area of interest using the Command-click option. The Z key will toggle the zoom on and off.  Now go to the other contact sheet and enable the Loupe tool using the z shortcut. Click and hold on a thumbnail to show a 100% view in the other area of the contact sheet. If the thumbnail you click and hold on is in the top row, then there will be more area for the zoomed image.

HTH,

—Bob

[Robert Edwards Media]

Hi Malachai, is the objective to:

1) find & delete true duplicate images across a file system?
2) find & cull similar images down to a single select, or small subset?
3) both

Also, how many photos are in the photo set, approximately?