Author Topic: "New image organizer feedback wanted" (Read 37314 times)

40hz · « **Reply #25 on:** November 28, 2009, 01:53 PM »

40hz,
I'm interested in the problems you had with Search 4.0.
-StCroixSkipper (November 28, 2009, 01:08 PM)

Search anomalies and excessive CPU usage.

Attempted an uninstall and reinstall at Microsoft's recommendation. Search uninstalled, but refused to be reinstalled using either standalone or via update afterwards. Once I flat-lined the drive and restored a clean copy of barebones Win XP Pro followed by a new install of Search via update, everything worked fine for about a month. Then CPU use started shooting up again.

Went back an forth with Microsoft several times on various issues following that but ultimately got nowhere.

In the end I abandoned Search since I'm very organized with my files to begin with - and Search wasn't bringing enough to the party for the hassles it created on my machine. Truth is, I can usually lay my hands on whatever I'm looking for pretty quickly without needing to search for things. Nowadays, use Everything as a fallback on those rare occasions when I do actually need such a tool.

I've gone over to Win7 for day to day use anyway so I'm not going continue to bother with XP for this app. The only reason I loaded OverExposure onto this particular box is because I'm still using it as a test machine until I work up the energy to wipe and set it up for Win7.

We'll be bringing new Win7 test machines online next week so I'll be sure to give OverExposure a shot on one of those.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #26 on:** November 28, 2009, 05:04 PM »

I can take out the search code in one version so that OverExposure will work on XP without Windows Search but there won't be any search capability. But you could provide feedback on the other aspects...

Anyone interested in a version that runs on XP without search?

rgdot · « **Reply #27 on:** November 28, 2009, 06:11 PM »

I would be, if possible it would be great

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #28 on:** November 30, 2009, 01:04 PM »

Here is a copy of OverExposure with Search Disabled. It should work on XP machines without Search 4.0 installed. I haven't tried it on XP without Search 4.0, all of my XP machines have XP.

If it doesn't work, let me know and I'll fix it.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #29 on:** November 30, 2009, 01:05 PM »

Sorry, All my machines have Search 4.0 installed.

rgdot · « **Reply #30 on:** November 30, 2009, 01:15 PM »

Very initial look. XP and search related error gone, thanx. Love the hover preview and info.

Not sure if it was mentioned (have to re-read thread and your posts) or even if it is desirable. One thing I really like is that ability to get a 'flat view'. Images in all sub folders also loaded on the right hand side when a folder is clicked on.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #31 on:** November 30, 2009, 03:15 PM »

The reason I don't show all the photos in all subfolders is memory. I have 4000 photos in some folders. If I had folders several levels deep each with 4000 photos, I'd run out of memory and the response would degrade. I opted to only show the photos in a folder to keep memory usage down.

The other feedback I've gotten on Photo Gallery, which does show all the photos in all the subdirectories, is that they have a hard time finding which directory any given file is in.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #32 on:** November 30, 2009, 03:24 PM »

This is the latest copy. It has Search enabled so it requires Search 4.0 to be installed.

1. It now asks if you want to change the name of the photo file using the directory name as a prefix. It allows you to check a checkbox to prevent the message from showing up again. To reset the rename options, right click on a folder.

2. It allows you to right click on a thumbnail in the preview pane and select either edit or delete so you don't have double click on a thumbnail to go to the fullsized photo pane to edit or delete an image file.

3. You can not only move files you can copy files by holding down the control key.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #33 on:** December 04, 2009, 04:28 PM »

The activity on this thread has died down some. I'd like to keep it going. I've looked at Del.icio.us and taken some ideas from them I'd like to incorporate in OverExposure. Here is what I have in mind...

1. Del.icio.us shows the 'tags', keywords in OverExposure with the bookmarks and they are clickable. In OverExposure's case I'd have to display the keywords with the thumbnails so you could click on a tag of a thumbnail and you get all of the images that have that keyword.

2. I also like the edit tags feature of Del.icio.us bookmark. I think I am going to modify the right click context menu and allow you to edit the keywords from the thumbnail preview pane.

3. Del.icio.us also shows you some statistics like how many images have a given tag, the top ten tags, ...

4. When editing tags, it has an auto complete feature.

All of these features I think are interesting. Any thoughts? If there is interest, I'll implement them so we can really see how we feel about them.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #34 on:** December 04, 2009, 05:04 PM »

I also have this idea for the thumbnail preview pane.

Now you can see the thumbnails of the image files you find in a directory. As the mouse flies over a thumbnail, I bring up a window with a larger better quality image with some of the metadata displayed.

What if I changed it so that when the mouse flies over the thumbnail, I bring up a window that overlays the thumbnail with the metadata with clickable keywords. The overlay would be partially transparent so you could see the image underneath. I could also put the context menu items in this window. It would make the thumbnail preview pane less jumpy.

I could make the thumbnails a little higher quality so that you could enlarge them without the loss of quality.

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #35 on:** December 04, 2009, 05:09 PM »

Skipper, I hope the momentum continues, because it looks like you're doing a great job.

I'm very interested in what you're doing. I haven't jumped in yet because, like a few others, I don't have MS search running. But I do intend to install it and limit it to just indexing images, just so I can try this.

One problem with MS Search, at least in years past, is that it didn't want to index network drives. I keep most of my archive on a shared drive so wife can see them too. So that would be a showstopper for me, unless that limitation has improved.

Also, the issue with re-encoding an image every time the metadata is changed is a showstopper.

I'd like to see more to enable workflow. In particular, I'd like to see a simple way to send a photo to any of a set of external apps of my choice. That is, one F key to send to a RAW processor, another F key to send it to an editor. Of course those apps should be editable (RAW Therapee and PaintShopPro in my case). And for bonus points, let it send a whole batch of photos to the RAW processor, if the app supports lists of some sort.

What if I changed it so that when the mouse flies over the thumbnail, I bring up a window ...
-StCroixSkipper (December 04, 2009, 05:04 PM)

That sounds pretty cool.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #36 on:** December 04, 2009, 05:15 PM »

Another idea I have is to make each thumbnail the thumbnail preview pane like a little window with a 'Maximize' button in the top left corner. When you hit the maximize button, I would display the fullsize picture with all of the metadata... Much like double clicking on a thumbnail now.

JohnFredC · « **Reply #37 on:** December 09, 2009, 09:02 PM »

I may have been to the exact spot in those photos. Looks like Mendanhall glacier in Alaska...

GHammer · « **Reply #38 on:** December 10, 2009, 12:20 AM »

I'd certainly give it a try if the recode jpg issue was solved.
It sound like what I'm looking for, currently a Live Photo user.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #39 on:** December 10, 2009, 09:37 AM »

JohnFredC,
Yes it some of the pictures are of the Mendanhall Glacier...

GHammer,
I agree. I need an encoder that takes the raw image pixels with the changed metadata and creates a new jpg file without munging the image pixels.

In the past I've written the metadata to an alternate stream on the jpg so I could update the metadata and not even open the jpg. But then I had to write my own search engine and database (which I did) or write another filter for the Desktop Search Engine Indexer. But then I lost the metadata when I uploaded images to the net.

I'm researching ways to modify the metadata and saving the new metadata without recompressing the image data.

I can access the stream of raw image data. What I would like is an encoder that takes the updated metadata and a stream of the raw image data and creates a new jpg file from the two without recompressing the image data.

How are the other apps solving this problem?

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #40 on:** December 10, 2009, 10:22 AM »

I've written the metadata to an alternate stream on the jpg so I could update the metadata and not even open the jpg.
-StCroixSkipper (December 10, 2009, 09:37 AM)

That will only work for NTFS, right? I keep my image archive on a NAS device, which I don't think supports that.

There certainly exist libraries out that that can update the metadata in situ.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #41 on:** December 10, 2009, 10:56 AM »

Alternate streams only work on NTFS partitions, correct. That is one reason I abandoned alternate streams.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #42 on:** December 10, 2009, 10:57 AM »

I'm looking at and for libraries that can update image metadata in situ.

JavaJones · « **Reply #43 on:** December 10, 2009, 04:42 PM »

Have you looked at either of the image libraries I mentioned earlier? GFL SDK from the maker of XnView and FreeImage. I'm not certain, but I would think there might be at least part of a solution there. GFL SDK is from the makers of XnView which I know can do EXIF modification without re-encoding.

- Oshyan

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #44 on:** December 10, 2009, 04:58 PM »

I'm looking at and for libraries that can update image metadata in situ.
-StCroixSkipper (December 10, 2009, 10:57 AM)

A quick look around CodeProject has at least a few such libraries.

ExifLibrary for .NET: ...You can save the Exif metadata with the image using the Save method of the class. The writer will replace the APP1 section of the original image with the modified metadata.

EXIF tag Editor for JPG images: ...First of all, I must say that there are very good articles (here on codeProject) dealing with EXIF tag reading:
* EXIFextractor library to extract EXIF information by Asim Goheer
* Cexif by Davide Pizzolato
and some others explaining EXIF tag writing:
* The ExifWorks class by Michal Altair Valasek
But as it happens most of the time, I needed a small app that would allow me to update a specific EXIF tag, and I wanted it done in C# (for learning purposes). After reading the previous articles and some other references carefully, I decided to go ahead and write a binary to solve my problems.

grapeshot · « **Reply #45 on:** December 23, 2009, 04:59 PM »

This looks like just the ticket for me. Among my computers I also have a Mac, with the much vaunted iPhoto. I loathe that software and find it to be way too bloated for my needs. (Even thinking about firing it on just to do a quick run through to find a photo from, say, two years ago gives me the heebie jeebies.) I have been afraid to try other picture organizers because I'm afraid they'll be just as bloated. Like 40hz, I keep my files on my computers fairly well organized, so finding a specific photo on my Windows machines isn't usually a lot of trouble. (It's a lot more troublesome for me on my Mac, and I've nearly abandoned using it for any kind of photo storage.)

My primary computer is an XP machine, and I hesitate to install Windows Search, which sounds like a whole lotta trouble for something that I don't really need, but I've installed the non-search version and have started trying it out. So far I like it. (Like 40hz, I use Everything as a fallback on those occasions when I can't find something.)

I have a dumb question, though. Would it work on Vista?

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #46 on:** December 23, 2009, 07:51 PM »

I developed it on Vista. It runs on both Vista and Windows 7.

I plan to make some more changes over the holidays.

For instance, I'm going to allow you to drag and drop photos in the preview pane so you can use it like the old 35mm light table sorter. I'm thinking that if you move pictures around, I'll add a sequence number to the metadata so you can sort on the sequence number or the DateTaken.

StCroixSkipper · « **Reply #47 on:** December 23, 2009, 07:53 PM »

I've added a help section and expose links to GIMP, GIMP Tutorials, etc.