...this from the official Photo Mechanic manual:
Whilst the Contact Sheet window is good for getting an overview of a collection
of images, the Preview window is where the critical editing can be done. The image
can be viewed at 100% for focus checking and images can still be tagged and classed
as usual.
With the full set of palettes displayed you can see at a glance the histogram for
exposure, the focus (using the Z key to toggle Zoom) and other images in the collection
in the Thumb Gallery at the bottom to give an overview of the collection.
Using the arrow keys to step through images is fast and intuitive and using the F key
to toggle full screen mode combines well with the Z to quickly check focus.
The 2-Up mode is useful for comparing very similar images, such as a sequence of
portraits where expression differences can be quite subtle. You can toggle between
2-Up side by side and 2-Up one image over the other by using the H and V keys.
This allows you to use one mode for landscape orientation images and the other for
portrait mode images.
The image that is changed when using the arrow keys is the one that is currently
‘in focus’ - click on one or other of the images to bring it into focus so that the
info palettes reflect that image. Using the arrow keys will change this image, but
leave the other behind. In this way you could work through a sequence of portraits
keeping one as a current favourite, and stepping though others to see if a better one
appears.
Zoom and Lock In the 2-Up view, with the images Zoomed in (Z key), pressing the L key will
lock the two images together so that when you drag one image around in the view
window, the other one will move with it. This is very useful for comparing two very
similar images critically.
Hint: Align the images first, using the Hand tool, before locking them.
The G key adds a subtle editing function first identified and requested by photographer
Greg Gorman. It works like this, using a portrait session as an example:
Using the 2-Up (H) mode in Full Screen mode (F), choose the first shot, change
focus to the second half of the preview and step through the other images using the
arrow keys. Only the second image will change, to image 2, 3, 4 etc, the first image
in the non-focus window will stay the same. What we are doing is viewing Image 1
side by side with Images 2,3,4,5, etc.
Now, if we find an image which is better than Image 1 we can press the G key to
swap the image in the focused window to the un-focused window, replacing the
initial favourite with a new favourite. Continue to use the arrow key to view more
images and the new favourite will remain in the other window.
By doing this we can very quickly find the best shot by continuing to press the
G key when we see a shot that is better than the one we have ‘reserved’. Once we
have finished going through the whole shoot we should have a preferred image in
one window and the last image in the set in the other window. Return focus to the
preferred image by clicking on it once and then close the Preview window. This preferred
image will now be seen highlighted in the Contact Sheet display. You might
wish to Tag it first, or set its Color Class to Winner.
As you go through the images you could even Tag all the ones that were considered
possible ‘hero’ shots so that when you have finished, not only will you have one ‘best’
shot but all the ones you considered will be Tagged so you can go back and press F3
to see them all and make sure that your choice was the best one.
