Thanks for introducing Photo Mechanic, Dan, I started using it only a couple of days ago, but already know that it will be part of my work flow. I was happy to learn that PM can be customized to make it more useful for your own work. For example, I do a lot of website work and end up with originals, psd, and jpg files that all look the same in thumbnail size. But PM lets me add "labels" that (automatically) show pixel dimensions and file size - so that I can easily distinguish the images. And color coding to show what stage of processing each image is in. When I first looked at the meta data panels, I saw a zillion fields that I would never use. But it turns out that you can hide fields that you don't use and cut that intimidating panel down to just what you need. So keep customizations in mind when you try it.
Rick, thanks for the comment. Yes, it's amazing how much customization can be done with Photo Mechanic. It really is a powerful program that can help you be more efficient with just about every single aspect of your workflow. Even with over 15 years of experience with Photo Mechanic, I'm still discovering new features!
Dear Dan! Thank you very much for your respons and sure, help! I highly value so quick responsiveness! Actually it is very simple if digging deeper in :)) Now, I really enjoy PHM app :) All the best Dan!Respect :)
You're most welcome, Janis! Sometimes it is a simple fix, but you just need to know where to dig. Glad I could help. What kinds of photography do you like to do?
Great video! I started using Photo Mechanic about one year ago. It's such a great software to view, sort and rank images. Shooting Fuji JPEGs and using PM has allowed me to stop using Lightroom almost completely. What a relief! I think I will now upgrade to PM Plus based on your video. Glad to see the trick to open editing software without moving the images in the few instances where I want to use LR.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, Photo Mechanic is awesome software, indeed. And one of the great things about the program is that it handles RAW+JPEG seamlessly, if you find yourself shooting in that format with your Fuji. I've been running my PM+ catalog for almost three weeks now with absolutely no problems. What Fuji do you use and what do you like to photograph?
@@DanBaileyPhoto Oh! Boy, too many! But I've been consolidating on the X-Pro3 in recent months and shooting mostly street, architecture and landscape. I do shoot JPEG + RAW all the time, but import only JPEGs. I almost never use the RAWs except for in-camera tweaks (i.e. to generate a new JPEG). I store the RAWs only on SD cards, until I run out of empty cards. I'll never be a pro, so permanent storage of RAWs is overkill for me. But it's good to know that I can keep JPEG and RAW pairs in PM, because creating a separate archive for RAWs is a pain. Is it possible to convert Fuji RAWs through Iridient from PM and then switch to LR for editing? I have a permanent copy of LR6 and I don't trust it's conversion of RAF filles.
As I don't like to switch between apps all the time, I'm now working fully in Capture One (after years of LR and trying/buying all the alternatives). One monitor with the browser, one with the editor. The catalogue, sorting and filtering is different from what you showed us in Photo Mechanic, but perfectly usable once you get the hang of it. And since you can upgrade to Pro from the Fuji version of C1, it wasn't as expensive as it appeared on first sight (look out for promotion codes and special sales!). The customizability is exceptional regarding keyboard shortcuts and layout of the tools and windows. Nothing I miss from LR - there will even be a superb dehaze filter in the upcoming version. The learning curve for C1 is a bit steep, though (the first time I tried it, I hated the UX and UI ...).
Thanks for your comment. Yes, Capture One does have a fully integrated catalog system that works quite well. It's modeled after iView MediaPro, which was the best catalog system around about 15 years ago. That was pre-LR, and it worked extremely well. Phase One bought the software a few years ago and used the technology to build their catalog system for C1. And yes, C1 does have a very steep learning curve, but it's an amazingly capable and powerful program. I've used C1 many times over the years, although I never got around to fully migrating my entire library to C1, simply because of my love for Photo Mechanic. If it weren't for PM, I would probably use C1 as my main image software.
How do you add photos to the catalog? Did I miss how you create at catalog and then add photos to it? I have used a older version of PM so this is the newest ground I need to learn.
Hi Doug. Here is the page that explains how you can create and add photos to your catalog:Z docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001078324-introduction-to-photo-mechanic-plus-catalogs#:~:text=Adding%20Images%20to%20a%20Catalog Hope this answers your question.
Thank you for overall introduction of PMPlus. But I have a Question, important for me. I am looking at during the presentation that your background of PMP is black! How did you get a black background /interface? Because it is essential for me. Thank you in advance!
Janis, inside the Preferences dialog box, select "Contact Sheet," which is the second page. At the bottom of that page you'll see a section where you can change the colors of your interface. Hope that helps!
After having processed images, saved them in the same destination I want to see in Photo Mechanic how the images look after processing. I only see pre-processed images.
Thanks for your comment. Photo Mechanic is only looking at folders, so if the new processed images are in there, Then they will show up in the PM window. Sometimes it takes a bit of time for the folder to refresh, but usually less than a minute.
Great pair of videos Dan to get me comfortable with features in PM6. Question: I use CaptureOne 21... I want to continue using PM6 to cull my photos by tagging them... how do I take just the tagged photos from PM6 and import them into CaptureOne? Do I have to create a dedicated folder for them?
Ted, thanks for the comment. I don't think that C1 will read the PM tags, but it may read the star and color ratings. If not, then yes, the next easiest solution is to upload to C1 and create a separate folder or session for your favs that you tag in PM. Hope that helps.
Thanks, Dan. I've just become familiar with the save as dialog. I used a percentage, but I notice you did 1000x1000, but your images came out as portrait or landscape like the originals. In Lightroom, I either use a short side or long side spec depending on what I am using them for. How does this work in PM?
Hey Darryl, thanks for your comment. With the save dialog in PM, you have four options: 1. No Scaling (full size), 2. "To fit", which is the same as specifying the "long end" in Lightroom, 3. Percentage, or 4. To Custom Width/Length. This is also like "long end", unless your W/L numbers don't match the actual image dimensions. In this case, it will save using the smaller number as your long end and resize the other side accordingly. I usually use "To Fit" which again, is similar to Lightroom's "Long End" option. Hope that clears things up!
Can you import a Lightroom catalog into Photo Mechanic Plus, so you can use PMP as your main catalog? I still have LR6 and need to upgrade my OS and LR6 will no longer work. I have started using Capture One as my editor.
Steve, you can’t import the LR catalog per se, but yes, you can import your entire library of images into PM+ and use that as your catalog instead of LR. Visit this page to see the instructions on how to do this: docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001164127-how-do-you-import-catalogs-from-adobe-lightroom-
Great tutorial! I have a question though! I often use Photo Mechanic to preview thousands of images at a time, from a wedding, for example. I choose the ones I want to keep by making them Purple. Once I do that, I select color class Purple, and drag them into the folder on my hard drive that I will later fully edit in Lightroom. However, I've run into an issue where it seems I cannot drag/copy as many photos as I've selected into my desired folder. So I've had to manually select my Purple images several at a time to copy/drag to the folder, which is quite time-consuming and frustrating!! Is there a limit on how many images that can be dragged/copied to a folder? Would this frustration be eliminated by using the panel you mentioned where you can move or copy to a folder? Thanks so much!!
Stephanie, thanks for your comment! I don't know of any limitation for copying/dragging photos from inside Photo Mechanic to another folder on your hard drive. I usually use the select copy/move method and I've never had an issue. How many photos are we talking about? Hundreds? Over a thousand? If you're dragging, then it seems like the limitation is the computer Finder?OS that's doing the work, so maybe that's the thing which is hanging up the process. So yes, you might be better off using the copy/move command, (On the Mac, Command Y brings up this menu.) Let me know if this works.
@@DanBaileyPhoto Hi Dan! Finally tried your method of using the dialogue box to copy/move images, and it works! So glad I found your video! Now I don't have to worry about copy/drag limits! Thanks so much!!
Hi Dan, thanks for the vids mate. I am a bit lost though on one aspect that you talk of towards end of vid. I also use PMplus and Capture One 12 on Windows. When I go to edit an image from PM into CO, it opens up all of the pix in that folder in a 'session', however does have the one I wanted selected. It does not open up that 'ingest' dialogue box you talk about and 'import to current location' that you have selected. You then talk about saving that edited image. Does this mean I have to go through and make sure all the process recipie is right then the output location and finally process the image????? Does this all make any sense lol ??
Scott, I don't have an active C1 install on my computer, but I'll try to help. It is my understanding that with Capture One, you can either run the program via the Catalog, with Sessions, or with both. It sounds like you are running in Sessions mode. I guess in theory, you could create a Session that's dedicated to Fuji uploads and processing. From what I understand, with a Session, C1 is always looking at your folders, so don't necessarily need to use the import dialog to add photos to a sessions, you can simply copy photos from Photo Mechanic, (or directly drag them) into the "Capture" folder of your session, and they'll automatically be added to your session. I hope that makes sense. Here is a video that explains catalogs and sessions: learn.captureone.com/webinars/catalogs-sessions/ let me know if all of this answers your question.
Thanks for your good videos Dan. As a Fuji fan, I am using Capture One Pro since 4 years now in catalog mode. I have a lot of pictures with keywords. Is there a way to import the pictures in Photo Mechanic with all the metadata including the keywords and or the stars, etc? Should I work only in session mode if I wish to use PM?
Richard, thanks for your comment. As long as Capture One actually writes/save the metadata to your image files, the Photo Mechanic should have no trouble reading that info. And yes, I think that if you're using PM as your main catalog and C1 as your processing program, then it makes sense to use Sessions. That way, you can organize your image collections into different categories, shoots, locations, etc...
I enjoyed the videos. I am using a trial version now but it isn't the later version with the catalog. I am not sure how to use it yet. I have just been saving photos on a hard drive. Presently, I am also trying to learn Capture One as I find Photoshop too hard. But Capture one isn't that much easier. I hope you do a video sometime of your workflow -- how you save photos over time. How did you do the watermark you used in the video? I like to be able to use it as you did in PM. I am going to try to do what you did and save photos to Flickr to see how that works.
Tom, thanks for your comment. Everyone has their own method of saving/cataloging their photos. I do my catalog based on subjects with master category folders like Aviation, Biking, Hiking, Landscapes, Travel, etc.., and subfolders for more specific subject types, locations, seasons, dates, etc... and I save the entire catalog to a dedicated external RAID drive. When I process photos, I usually save the edited copy back to the save folder as the original, but often save copies in a "selects" folder. For my watermark, I created a text file in Photoshop of my Dan Bailey Photo logo/name, then saved it as a PNG file. Then, in Photo Mechanic, under the watermark button, at the bottom, I selected that image file, and specified left bottom corner with about 50% opacity. The key is saving a PNG, so the text frame becomes transparent, otherwise you'd have a white box surrounding the text. Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Thanks Dan, for introducing PM(P), but ... when I resize original photos in 'Save Photos as ...' to 700px wide, with a Watermark, than the size (in KB) of that photos is three times bigger than when I resize those photos (with Watermark) in Preview on my iMac. For the rest the photos that are resized in Preview are exact the same as the resized photos in PM. What can be the cause of this huge difference. (I post the resized 700px wide photos on my WordPress, so that I don't waste to much KB's.) (Excuse me if my English is not perfect. My native language is Dutch, as I live in the Netherlands.)
Thanks for your comment. I have the same workflow, I also save images at 700px for use on my blog. With Photo Mechanic, I've found that you can go fairly low with the quality slider in Save window, and still get excellent results with your saved photos. I keep mind around 70%, but have gone even lower, and find that 90-100% gives you way bigger files, but not that much more quality, especially at that relatively small blog size. I recommend experimenting to see how low you can go to maximize image quality and file size.
@@DanBaileyPhoto Hello Dan, thank you for your reply. I will give it a try. As you are the expert, I think that my try will be a success. All the best, Hans.
@@DanBaileyPhoto Well Dan, perhaps you did try that also, but I slid the quality slider to 0%, and the result is a still visible photo! Very few KBs, indeed, but still a good quality photo. You are a professional photographer, so you will know what happens when the slider is slid to the extreme left side. I have no idea. With 0%, I expected 'a black hole', but nothing like that! All the best, Hans.
That's good to know! Photo Mechanic's compression algorithms have improved over the years. It's amazing how good 0% actually looks. There's noticeable degradation, but not as much as you would think. It's still a usable photo. Even 25% looks very good. So yes, you now know that you have a lot of leeway for saving your images inside PM!
Nice series on Plus, Dan! I always enjoy your articles and videos, particularly as I am a Fuji user. Random question for you - what is your flow for producing the nice green-screened inset of yourself in these videos? Do you use an all-in-one approach such as Camtasia, or do you create separate screen-capture and “talking head” vids, then combine them in a separate video editor? Cheers and keep up the good work!
Thanks for the comment, I'm glad you're enjoying my channel. 👍 I use Final Cut Pro for all of my video editing. For the videos like this, where I'm boxed in, I put the green screen behind my desk chair and film myself with with the iPhone while I'm talking though the computer stuff. Then, I match the clips together in the FCPX timeline, resize the clips of me talking and have it overlay on top of the screen capture movies. Does that make sense?
@@DanBaileyPhoto Thank you Dan, and that absolutely makes sense. I also use FCPX, but because putting the various pieces together is more tedious than an all-in-one effort I was curious about your approach. I appreciate your taking time to respond!
Yes, it can take time, but once you get comfortable with the program and get a workflow down, you can repeat it quickly and dramatically reduce your production time.
Thanks for the videos. I have been using Capture One Pro 20 and Photo Mechanic 6 for a long time, but I wanted a better solution for the catalogs. I bought PM+ and the speed of the catalog is impressive. What is not quite so good is the editing workflow. I'm used to making different clones and then just outputting them for the client, or for the web. These virtual copies take up almost no extra space. With Photo Mechanic 6, photos never went back in. Now, changes need to be reflected in the PM+ catalog. The only way I can see see the changes is by outputting JPG's (to the output folder of the session). But then is there a way for PM+ to automatically add these new JPG images? I have to go back and manually scan the folders again which is a real pain.
Ian, I'm not quite clear on your workflow and the specific issue that you're having. What do you mean when you say that "with Photo Mechanic 6 the photos never went back it." Could you please clarify? While the Photo Mechanic browser will automatically read and see new photos that are added to a specific folder, you need to manually import new photos into the catalog. There are a couple ways to do that. The easiest is to view the folder in the browser section, then select the new copies that were added and Right click to find "Include in Catalog." Hope that helps.
@@DanBaileyPhoto My workflow was Memory Card > PM6 (culling, rating, and metadata) > Geotag Photos 2 (add GPS data)> PM6 reverse geocode > Capture One Session (one for each month) > Capture One Catalog. PM6 was only used once. Now instead of the last step to Capture One Catalog, the edits need to be reflected in PM+. I wish this process was automatic and didn’t require the production of JPGS and the need to click “Include in Catalog.” Photo Mechanic is great software, but it could be ground breaking. Camera Bits seem intent on just serving the small community that use it rather than take on the big boys. It is crying out for one feature (the task that everyone hates) auto keywords. The technology is here, but a few, small companies charge a premium for it. The photography business is under attack from smartphones and is losing the fight. Did you try typing in a search term into Apple photos? It can find content without the need to add keywords(try searching for bike, or green in Apple photos on your phone). Photo Mechanic has one blatantly obvious advantage, speed. Beyond that it is overly complicated for the average user. I really wish that I worked for Camera Bits. I would craft PM+ (or a version of it) into a thing of beauty that does the things that most people want. Wow, long reply, sorry :)
Ian, sorry for the long delay in replying, I didn't see your latest post. Yes, Photo Mechanic is awesome, but I can definitely see that it can be a little complicated for a casual user. It does have a pretty simple interface, and I think that the documentation and the actual settings inside the menus can be easily navigated, but perhaps it could be made into a more streamlined solution. Give them a call and present your ideas! That said, every company is trying to do exactly that, and nobody has come up with the perfect application of beauty that works for every single person. I do think that Luminar is doing a really good job in this regard, but it can't compete with the performance of PM... at least not yet. And yes, the auto keyboarding thing is defiantly taking hold. I've been really impressed with how it works on my iPhone. We'll see if other companies start using this technology soon.
Thanks for a great video. Made me try out PM and working really well. As you I am also using Luminar for editing. In video you mention that you can see edits in PM. How do you do that without saving edits to a new file? One great thing with PM is that you ad metadata already at ingest. Moving to Luninar all that info seems to get lost. How do you handle that? Hope for some insights.
Thanks for your comment, Thomas. It is possible to see your LR or Photoshop edits inside Photo Mechanic by using Adobe's DNG Converter, which is a free utility app. Then you enable RAW Rendering inside PM's preference pane, as seen here: docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48000361383-rendering-raw-files-on-photo-mechanic-with-adobe-dng-converter Regarding metadata, you need to make sure you actually save your metadata to the files inside Lightroom, (command save), and then Photo Mechanic will read them. Since Luminar doesn't really have a metadata feature yet, you won't be able to see any PM metadata inside there yet, and since Luminar uses a proprietary processing engine, you won't be able to see your Luminar RAW edits inside PM. The best way to get around this is to save an edited copy of the file back to the original folder. If named properly, it should live right next to the original RAW file inside your PM catalog. And, you can always go back to Luminar and make changes. Hope this answers your questions.
@@DanBaileyPhoto Thanks for your input. Was afraid that it would difficult to get a perfect workflow with Lumiar AI. Will try the workaround as you suggest and then add all the metadata in the edited file. I Hope Skylum will ad features to make it smoother or else maybe it is time to switch to Lightroom.
Thanks, Dan! I've been waiting for a substitute catalog for LR6, got Capture One for the Fuji RAW processing but didn't like the catalog and/or sessions setup for my 500k images, so decided to wait for Photo Mechanic to get its catalog out of beta. Right after you sent the email (thanks!) that it finally is available, I watched your videos (thanks again!) and saw how it could work with processing RAWs in Capture 1 and processing either RAW or TIFF in Luminar/Nik/PS etc, and I ordered PM6+. What I do not see is how to ingest by date of the image capture. I looked in the Wiki to see if I could find it. Please help! I simply want to ingest so images go into folders automatically created by the date the image was captured. And when another card is ingested, it will create a new folder by date for dates not previously ingested, while moving the images that were taken by already-created dates added into already-created folders of the date the image was captured. Basic function in LR6. Where can I set this up in PM6+? Please!! Thanks, Nancy
All I could find was automatically ingesting to a folder with today's date, i.e., the date ingested, not the date the image was captured. There must be a way. Thanks, Nancy
I am very happy to report that I made this work. I'll leave the question in case anyone else has the same question. I found the 'Variables' button bottom left where 'date,shot' which gave me '{date}' in the Folder Name field, which I also used in the checked 'Rename Ingested Photos As' field, followed by filename. {date}{filename}. I successfully imported files into folders by date. Then took some sample pictures on the same SD card and ingested only the new images into a new folder once I checked 'Incremental Ingest: copy new files only.' I then took a couple more images on the same SD card and it ingested only the new images that were added into the folder of the correct date. Whew. Next is to figure if I can rename the folders later, appending a short description of what's in the dated folder. Yes! I did that easily. However, the files I ingested today successfully put in folders by date captured have today's ingest date as a 'parent.' Need to figure how to get rid of that added hierarchy other than moving the folders one-by-one and then deleting today's now-empty folder. Doable, but should be unnecessary. I'll look for a way to ingest so the ingest date does not end up in the hierarchy. Thank you, Nancy
Hi Nancy, thanks for your comment. I'm as excited about PM+ as you are! With the new version of PM+, there's "Ingest," which is how you import images onto your computer from a memory card, or other folders on your computer, and then there's importing image into your catalog, which you can do a few different ways under the Catalog menu. Regarding your question, the main Ingest dialog box, there are a number of different ways you can organize your images, using the Copy Photos tab and the Variables tab to create specific sorting options. I see that you were able to figure this out in your later comments, so, I'll jump down there and continue my answer.
Nancy, the Variables button does allow you to do some pretty advanced sorting and labeling in just about every step of the process within Photo Mechanic. For your particular issue, it sounds like you found a good working method, to create folders by date, and then do a Rename for the ingested images to add a filename to your ingested images. Finally, using the Incremental Ingest and then doing a few different imports to make sure that all of your images are brought into the correct folders. Good for you for figuring that out. 👍 I would have helped you sooner, but for some reason, CZcams flagged your comments as likely spam, and I only just found them. Regarding the other issue of changing your folder hierarchy, I think the best and fastest way to do this is to manually move images (Command Y) inside the browser side of Photo Mechanic and create a new folder hierarchy that way. Another possible solution would be to import everting into one folder, then inside the Browser window of Photo Mechanic, use the "Sort by Capture Time" option, then select and rename batches of images by date, and then move them to new folders from there. This might ultimately be an easier solution. Let me know what you think.
Thanks for introducing Photo Mechanic, Dan, I started using it only a couple of days ago, but already know that it will be part of my work flow. I was happy to learn that PM can be customized to make it more useful for your own work. For example, I do a lot of website work and end up with originals, psd, and jpg files that all look the same in thumbnail size. But PM lets me add "labels" that (automatically) show pixel dimensions and file size - so that I can easily distinguish the images. And color coding to show what stage of processing each image is in. When I first looked at the meta data panels, I saw a zillion fields that I would never use. But it turns out that you can hide fields that you don't use and cut that intimidating panel down to just what you need. So keep customizations in mind when you try it.
Rick, thanks for the comment. Yes, it's amazing how much customization can be done with Photo Mechanic. It really is a powerful program that can help you be more efficient with just about every single aspect of your workflow. Even with over 15 years of experience with Photo Mechanic, I'm still discovering new features!
Dear Dan! Thank you very much for your respons and sure, help! I highly value so quick responsiveness! Actually it is very simple if digging deeper in :)) Now, I really enjoy PHM app :) All the best Dan!Respect :)
You're most welcome, Janis! Sometimes it is a simple fix, but you just need to know where to dig. Glad I could help. What kinds of photography do you like to do?
Great video! I started using Photo Mechanic about one year ago. It's such a great software to view, sort and rank images. Shooting Fuji JPEGs and using PM has allowed me to stop using Lightroom almost completely. What a relief! I think I will now upgrade to PM Plus based on your video. Glad to see the trick to open editing software without moving the images in the few instances where I want to use LR.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, Photo Mechanic is awesome software, indeed. And one of the great things about the program is that it handles RAW+JPEG seamlessly, if you find yourself shooting in that format with your Fuji. I've been running my PM+ catalog for almost three weeks now with absolutely no problems.
What Fuji do you use and what do you like to photograph?
@@DanBaileyPhoto Oh! Boy, too many! But I've been consolidating on the X-Pro3 in recent months and shooting mostly street, architecture and landscape. I do shoot JPEG + RAW all the time, but import only JPEGs. I almost never use the RAWs except for in-camera tweaks (i.e. to generate a new JPEG). I store the RAWs only on SD cards, until I run out of empty cards. I'll never be a pro, so permanent storage of RAWs is overkill for me. But it's good to know that I can keep JPEG and RAW pairs in PM, because creating a separate archive for RAWs is a pain. Is it possible to convert Fuji RAWs through Iridient from PM and then switch to LR for editing? I have a permanent copy of LR6 and I don't trust it's conversion of RAF filles.
As I don't like to switch between apps all the time, I'm now working fully in Capture One (after years of LR and trying/buying all the alternatives). One monitor with the browser, one with the editor. The catalogue, sorting and filtering is different from what you showed us in Photo Mechanic, but perfectly usable once you get the hang of it. And since you can upgrade to Pro from the Fuji version of C1, it wasn't as expensive as it appeared on first sight (look out for promotion codes and special sales!). The customizability is exceptional regarding keyboard shortcuts and layout of the tools and windows. Nothing I miss from LR - there will even be a superb dehaze filter in the upcoming version. The learning curve for C1 is a bit steep, though (the first time I tried it, I hated the UX and UI ...).
Thanks for your comment. Yes, Capture One does have a fully integrated catalog system that works quite well. It's modeled after iView MediaPro, which was the best catalog system around about 15 years ago. That was pre-LR, and it worked extremely well. Phase One bought the software a few years ago and used the technology to build their catalog system for C1.
And yes, C1 does have a very steep learning curve, but it's an amazingly capable and powerful program. I've used C1 many times over the years, although I never got around to fully migrating my entire library to C1, simply because of my love for Photo Mechanic. If it weren't for PM, I would probably use C1 as my main image software.
How do you add photos to the catalog? Did I miss how you create at catalog and then add photos to it? I have used a older version of PM so this is the newest ground I need to learn.
Hi Doug. Here is the page that explains how you can create and add photos to your catalog:Z docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001078324-introduction-to-photo-mechanic-plus-catalogs#:~:text=Adding%20Images%20to%20a%20Catalog
Hope this answers your question.
Thanks!
You're welcome, and thanks for your support!
Thank you for overall introduction of PMPlus. But I have a Question, important for me. I am looking at during the presentation that your background of PMP is black! How did you get a black background /interface? Because it is essential for me. Thank you in advance!
Janis, inside the Preferences dialog box, select "Contact Sheet," which is the second page. At the bottom of that page you'll see a section where you can change the colors of your interface. Hope that helps!
After having processed images, saved them in the same destination I want to see in Photo Mechanic how the images look after processing. I only see pre-processed images.
Thanks for your comment. Photo Mechanic is only looking at folders, so if the new processed images are in there, Then they will show up in the PM window. Sometimes it takes a bit of time for the folder to refresh, but usually less than a minute.
thank you for this video
You're welcome, I'm glad you found it to be helpful.
Great pair of videos Dan to get me comfortable with features in PM6.
Question: I use CaptureOne 21... I want to continue using PM6 to cull my photos by tagging them... how do I take just the tagged photos from PM6 and import them into CaptureOne? Do I have to create a dedicated folder for them?
Ted, thanks for the comment. I don't think that C1 will read the PM tags, but it may read the star and color ratings. If not, then yes, the next easiest solution is to upload to C1 and create a separate folder or session for your favs that you tag in PM. Hope that helps.
Thanks, Dan. I've just become familiar with the save as dialog. I used a percentage, but I notice you did 1000x1000, but your images came out as portrait or landscape like the originals. In Lightroom, I either use a short side or long side spec depending on what I am using them for. How does this work in PM?
Hey Darryl, thanks for your comment. With the save dialog in PM, you have four options: 1. No Scaling (full size), 2. "To fit", which is the same as specifying the "long end" in Lightroom, 3. Percentage, or 4. To Custom Width/Length. This is also like "long end", unless your W/L numbers don't match the actual image dimensions. In this case, it will save using the smaller number as your long end and resize the other side accordingly.
I usually use "To Fit" which again, is similar to Lightroom's "Long End" option. Hope that clears things up!
Can you import a Lightroom catalog into Photo Mechanic Plus, so you can use PMP as your main catalog? I still have LR6 and need to upgrade my OS and LR6 will no longer work. I have started using Capture One as my editor.
Steve, you can’t import the LR catalog per se, but yes, you can import your entire library of images into PM+ and use that as your catalog instead of LR. Visit this page to see the instructions on how to do this: docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001164127-how-do-you-import-catalogs-from-adobe-lightroom-
Great tutorial! I have a question though! I often use Photo Mechanic to preview thousands of images at a time, from a wedding, for example. I choose the ones I want to keep by making them Purple. Once I do that, I select color class Purple, and drag them into the folder on my hard drive that I will later fully edit in Lightroom. However, I've run into an issue where it seems I cannot drag/copy as many photos as I've selected into my desired folder. So I've had to manually select my Purple images several at a time to copy/drag to the folder, which is quite time-consuming and frustrating!! Is there a limit on how many images that can be dragged/copied to a folder? Would this frustration be eliminated by using the panel you mentioned where you can move or copy to a folder? Thanks so much!!
Stephanie, thanks for your comment! I don't know of any limitation for copying/dragging photos from inside Photo Mechanic to another folder on your hard drive. I usually use the select copy/move method and I've never had an issue. How many photos are we talking about? Hundreds? Over a thousand? If you're dragging, then it seems like the limitation is the computer Finder?OS that's doing the work, so maybe that's the thing which is hanging up the process. So yes, you might be better off using the copy/move command, (On the Mac, Command Y brings up this menu.) Let me know if this works.
@@DanBaileyPhoto Hi Dan! Finally tried your method of using the dialogue box to copy/move images, and it works! So glad I found your video! Now I don't have to worry about copy/drag limits! Thanks so much!!
Hi Dan, thanks for the vids mate. I am a bit lost though on one aspect that you talk of towards end of vid. I also use PMplus and Capture One 12 on Windows. When I go to edit an image from PM into CO, it opens up all of the pix in that folder in a 'session', however does have the one I wanted selected. It does not open up that 'ingest' dialogue box you talk about and 'import to current location' that you have selected. You then talk about saving that edited image. Does this mean I have to go through and make sure all the process recipie is right then the output location and finally process the image????? Does this all make any sense lol ??
Scott, I don't have an active C1 install on my computer, but I'll try to help. It is my understanding that with Capture One, you can either run the program via the Catalog, with Sessions, or with both. It sounds like you are running in Sessions mode. I guess in theory, you could create a Session that's dedicated to Fuji uploads and processing.
From what I understand, with a Session, C1 is always looking at your folders, so don't necessarily need to use the import dialog to add photos to a sessions, you can simply copy photos from Photo Mechanic, (or directly drag them) into the "Capture" folder of your session, and they'll automatically be added to your session. I hope that makes sense. Here is a video that explains catalogs and sessions: learn.captureone.com/webinars/catalogs-sessions/ let me know if all of this answers your question.
Thanks for your good videos Dan. As a Fuji fan, I am using Capture One Pro since 4 years now in catalog mode. I have a lot of pictures with keywords. Is there a way to import the pictures in Photo Mechanic with all the metadata including the keywords and or the stars, etc? Should I work only in session mode if I wish to use PM?
Richard, thanks for your comment. As long as Capture One actually writes/save the metadata to your image files, the Photo Mechanic should have no trouble reading that info. And yes, I think that if you're using PM as your main catalog and C1 as your processing program, then it makes sense to use Sessions. That way, you can organize your image collections into different categories, shoots, locations, etc...
I enjoyed the videos. I am using a trial version now but it isn't the later version with the catalog. I am not sure how to use it yet. I have just been saving photos on a hard drive. Presently, I am also trying to learn Capture One as I find Photoshop too hard. But Capture one isn't that much easier. I hope you do a video sometime of your workflow -- how you save photos over time. How did you do the watermark you used in the video? I like to be able to use it as you did in PM. I am going to try to do what you did and save photos to Flickr to see how that works.
Tom, thanks for your comment. Everyone has their own method of saving/cataloging their photos. I do my catalog based on subjects with master category folders like Aviation, Biking, Hiking, Landscapes, Travel, etc.., and subfolders for more specific subject types, locations, seasons, dates, etc... and I save the entire catalog to a dedicated external RAID drive. When I process photos, I usually save the edited copy back to the save folder as the original, but often save copies in a "selects" folder.
For my watermark, I created a text file in Photoshop of my Dan Bailey Photo logo/name, then saved it as a PNG file. Then, in Photo Mechanic, under the watermark button, at the bottom, I selected that image file, and specified left bottom corner with about 50% opacity. The key is saving a PNG, so the text frame becomes transparent, otherwise you'd have a white box surrounding the text.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Thanks Dan, for introducing PM(P), but ... when I resize original photos in 'Save Photos as ...' to 700px wide, with a Watermark, than the size (in KB) of that photos is three times bigger than when I resize those photos (with Watermark) in Preview on my iMac. For the rest the photos that are resized in Preview are exact the same as the resized photos in PM. What can be the cause of this huge difference. (I post the resized 700px wide photos on my WordPress, so that I don't waste to much KB's.) (Excuse me if my English is not perfect. My native language is Dutch, as I live in the Netherlands.)
Thanks for your comment. I have the same workflow, I also save images at 700px for use on my blog. With Photo Mechanic, I've found that you can go fairly low with the quality slider in Save window, and still get excellent results with your saved photos. I keep mind around 70%, but have gone even lower, and find that 90-100% gives you way bigger files, but not that much more quality, especially at that relatively small blog size. I recommend experimenting to see how low you can go to maximize image quality and file size.
@@DanBaileyPhoto Hello Dan, thank you for your reply. I will give it a try. As you are the expert, I think that my try will be a success. All the best, Hans.
You're welcome, Hans. Good luck!
@@DanBaileyPhoto Well Dan, perhaps you did try that also, but I slid the quality slider to 0%, and the result is a still visible photo! Very few KBs, indeed, but still a good quality photo. You are a professional photographer, so you will know what happens when the slider is slid to the extreme left side. I have no idea. With 0%, I expected 'a black hole', but nothing like that! All the best, Hans.
That's good to know! Photo Mechanic's compression algorithms have improved over the years. It's amazing how good 0% actually looks. There's noticeable degradation, but not as much as you would think. It's still a usable photo. Even 25% looks very good. So yes, you now know that you have a lot of leeway for saving your images inside PM!
Nice series on Plus, Dan! I always enjoy your articles and videos, particularly as I am a Fuji user. Random question for you - what is your flow for producing the nice green-screened inset of yourself in these videos? Do you use an all-in-one approach such as Camtasia, or do you create separate screen-capture and “talking head” vids, then combine them in a separate video editor? Cheers and keep up the good work!
Thanks for the comment, I'm glad you're enjoying my channel. 👍 I use Final Cut Pro for all of my video editing. For the videos like this, where I'm boxed in, I put the green screen behind my desk chair and film myself with with the iPhone while I'm talking though the computer stuff. Then, I match the clips together in the FCPX timeline, resize the clips of me talking and have it overlay on top of the screen capture movies. Does that make sense?
@@DanBaileyPhoto Thank you Dan, and that absolutely makes sense. I also use FCPX, but because putting the various pieces together is more tedious than an all-in-one effort I was curious about your approach. I appreciate your taking time to respond!
Yes, it can take time, but once you get comfortable with the program and get a workflow down, you can repeat it quickly and dramatically reduce your production time.
Thanks for the videos. I have been using Capture One Pro 20 and Photo Mechanic 6 for a long time, but I wanted a better solution for the catalogs. I bought PM+ and the speed of the catalog is impressive.
What is not quite so good is the editing workflow. I'm used to making different clones and then just outputting them for the client, or for the web. These virtual copies take up almost no extra space.
With Photo Mechanic 6, photos never went back in. Now, changes need to be reflected in the PM+ catalog. The only way I can see see the changes is by outputting JPG's (to the output folder of the session). But then is there a way for PM+ to automatically add these new JPG images? I have to go back and manually scan the folders again which is a real pain.
Ian, I'm not quite clear on your workflow and the specific issue that you're having. What do you mean when you say that "with Photo Mechanic 6 the photos never went back it." Could you please clarify?
While the Photo Mechanic browser will automatically read and see new photos that are added to a specific folder, you need to manually import new photos into the catalog. There are a couple ways to do that. The easiest is to view the folder in the browser section, then select the new copies that were added and Right click to find "Include in Catalog."
Hope that helps.
@@DanBaileyPhoto My workflow was Memory Card > PM6 (culling, rating, and metadata) > Geotag Photos 2 (add GPS data)> PM6 reverse geocode > Capture One Session (one for each month) > Capture One Catalog. PM6 was only used once.
Now instead of the last step to Capture One Catalog, the edits need to be reflected in PM+. I wish this process was automatic and didn’t require the production of JPGS and the need to click “Include in Catalog.”
Photo Mechanic is great software, but it could be ground breaking. Camera Bits seem intent on just serving the small community that use it rather than take on the big boys.
It is crying out for one feature (the task that everyone hates) auto keywords. The technology is here, but a few, small companies charge a premium for it.
The photography business is under attack from smartphones and is losing the fight. Did you try typing in a search term into Apple photos? It can find content without the need to add keywords(try searching for bike, or green in Apple photos on your phone).
Photo Mechanic has one blatantly obvious advantage, speed. Beyond that it is overly complicated for the average user.
I really wish that I worked for Camera Bits. I would craft PM+ (or a version of it) into a thing of beauty that does the things that most people want.
Wow, long reply, sorry :)
Ian, sorry for the long delay in replying, I didn't see your latest post. Yes, Photo Mechanic is awesome, but I can definitely see that it can be a little complicated for a casual user. It does have a pretty simple interface, and I think that the documentation and the actual settings inside the menus can be easily navigated, but perhaps it could be made into a more streamlined solution. Give them a call and present your ideas!
That said, every company is trying to do exactly that, and nobody has come up with the perfect application of beauty that works for every single person. I do think that Luminar is doing a really good job in this regard, but it can't compete with the performance of PM... at least not yet.
And yes, the auto keyboarding thing is defiantly taking hold. I've been really impressed with how it works on my iPhone. We'll see if other companies start using this technology soon.
Thanks for a great video. Made me try out PM and working really well. As you I am also using Luminar for editing. In video you mention that you can see edits in PM. How do you do that without saving edits to a new file? One great thing with PM is that you ad metadata already at ingest. Moving to Luninar all that info seems to get lost. How do you handle that? Hope for some insights.
Thanks for your comment, Thomas. It is possible to see your LR or Photoshop edits inside Photo Mechanic by using Adobe's DNG Converter, which is a free utility app. Then you enable RAW Rendering inside PM's preference pane, as seen here: docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48000361383-rendering-raw-files-on-photo-mechanic-with-adobe-dng-converter
Regarding metadata, you need to make sure you actually save your metadata to the files inside Lightroom, (command save), and then Photo Mechanic will read them. Since Luminar doesn't really have a metadata feature yet, you won't be able to see any PM metadata inside there yet, and since Luminar uses a proprietary processing engine, you won't be able to see your Luminar RAW edits inside PM.
The best way to get around this is to save an edited copy of the file back to the original folder. If named properly, it should live right next to the original RAW file inside your PM catalog. And, you can always go back to Luminar and make changes.
Hope this answers your questions.
@@DanBaileyPhoto Thanks for your input. Was afraid that it would difficult to get a perfect workflow with Lumiar AI. Will try the workaround as you suggest and then add all the metadata in the edited file. I Hope Skylum will ad features to make it smoother or else maybe it is time to switch to Lightroom.
Yes, Skylum keeps adding features to Luminar, so I'm sure at one point they'll integrate more robust metadata capabilities.
Thanks, Dan! I've been waiting for a substitute catalog for LR6, got Capture One for the Fuji RAW processing but didn't like the catalog and/or sessions setup for my 500k images, so decided to wait for Photo Mechanic to get its catalog out of beta. Right after you sent the email (thanks!) that it finally is available, I watched your videos (thanks again!) and saw how it could work with processing RAWs in Capture 1 and processing either RAW or TIFF in Luminar/Nik/PS etc, and I ordered PM6+. What I do not see is how to ingest by date of the image capture. I looked in the Wiki to see if I could find it. Please help! I simply want to ingest so images go into folders automatically created by the date the image was captured. And when another card is ingested, it will create a new folder by date for dates not previously ingested, while moving the images that were taken by already-created dates added into already-created folders of the date the image was captured. Basic function in LR6. Where can I set this up in PM6+? Please!! Thanks, Nancy
All I could find was automatically ingesting to a folder with today's date, i.e., the date ingested, not the date the image was captured. There must be a way. Thanks, Nancy
I am very happy to report that I made this work. I'll leave the question in case anyone else has the same question. I found the 'Variables' button bottom left where 'date,shot' which gave me '{date}' in the Folder Name field, which I also used in the checked 'Rename Ingested Photos As' field, followed by filename. {date}{filename}. I successfully imported files into folders by date. Then took some sample pictures on the same SD card and ingested only the new images into a new folder once I checked 'Incremental Ingest: copy new files only.' I then took a couple more images on the same SD card and it ingested only the new images that were added into the folder of the correct date. Whew.
Next is to figure if I can rename the folders later, appending a short description of what's in the dated folder. Yes! I did that easily.
However, the files I ingested today successfully put in folders by date captured have today's ingest date as a 'parent.' Need to figure how to get rid of that added hierarchy other than moving the folders one-by-one and then deleting today's now-empty folder. Doable, but should be unnecessary. I'll look for a way to ingest so the ingest date does not end up in the hierarchy.
Thank you, Nancy
Hi Nancy, thanks for your comment. I'm as excited about PM+ as you are! With the new version of PM+, there's "Ingest," which is how you import images onto your computer from a memory card, or other folders on your computer, and then there's importing image into your catalog, which you can do a few different ways under the Catalog menu.
Regarding your question, the main Ingest dialog box, there are a number of different ways you can organize your images, using the Copy Photos tab and the Variables tab to create specific sorting options. I see that you were able to figure this out in your later comments, so, I'll jump down there and continue my answer.
Nancy, the Variables button does allow you to do some pretty advanced sorting and labeling in just about every step of the process within Photo Mechanic. For your particular issue, it sounds like you found a good working method, to create folders by date, and then do a Rename for the ingested images to add a filename to your ingested images.
Finally, using the Incremental Ingest and then doing a few different imports to make sure that all of your images are brought into the correct folders. Good for you for figuring that out. 👍 I would have helped you sooner, but for some reason, CZcams flagged your comments as likely spam, and I only just found them.
Regarding the other issue of changing your folder hierarchy, I think the best and fastest way to do this is to manually move images (Command Y) inside the browser side of Photo Mechanic and create a new folder hierarchy that way.
Another possible solution would be to import everting into one folder, then inside the Browser window of Photo Mechanic, use the "Sort by Capture Time" option, then select and rename batches of images by date, and then move them to new folders from there. This might ultimately be an easier solution. Let me know what you think.
Thanks!
How long have you been using Photo Mechanic?