19 comments/suggestions

[mikkon@nm-sol.com]

While processing my photo library with cam2pc, I found the following problems:

1. Enhance / Crop&Borders: Cam2pc should remember the last crop rectangle. Now it takes several clicks to start cropping a new image. Alternatively, the crop rectangle could start a the largest possible rectangle positioned top-left (this is how I usually start cropping).

2. Better support for saving modified images over the existing image (I create backups of my original files, after which I want to work only on a single instance of a file - the backup should never be needed barring some mistakes). Cam2pc should be configurable to omit the "_edited" suffix from the filename, and to save automatically without prompting for filename.

3. When cropping, and I press Enter, I get the annoying "Crop befor saving" question. This dialog should at least have the "Do not ask again" checkbox!

4. JPEG Quality setting should be possible to set somewhere else (or asked only at the beginning of a session). Perhaps in the Miscellaneous options area? My goal is to be able to process my images as quickly as possible: Shift+E, Crop&Borders, move crop rectangle, Enter. Ideally, this should save the images and bring me back to the full-screen view with the newly saved picture showing there. One confirmation after the last Enter would still be bearable.

5. When enhancing from Picture Viewer (Shift+E), the viewer should update after I save the image with the same filename. This way I would see the enhanced picture in full screen (I usually do the enhancing in a smaller dialog). This is important to see the real effect of a crop operation.


The above items are important because they make working on my photos slower. I think now I worked slower with cam2pc than what I did with PhotoShop earlier.

The following items are not so important, but just something that popped into my head while using cam2pc.

6. Crop&Borders: Separate the current Aspect Ratio selection into two controls: Aspect Ratio and Orientation. I always use 4x6, but sometimes I have to switch between portrait/landscape. This would be easier with a single checkbox.

7. "Adjust selection to allow lossless cropping": Show the adjusted rectangle in the preview image.

8. "Show Selection" button doesn't work in Crop mode. It seems to position the selection rectangle in its original position. I have no idea why this would be useful.

9. Add more documentation on what Auto Levels and Auto Colors actually do! I mean technical documentation for those who understand what RGB means.

10. I tried Auto Levels on a few of my pictures, and it looks like it changes the color-channels separately. I think PhotoShop's AutoLevels function does the same thing. I have always wondered why so because changing the color channels separately may screw up the picture completely. Why not adjust all channels at the same rate? I usually do this manually in PhotoShop's Levels window by using the RGB channel (all colors at the same time) and adjusting the Input Levels slider. I think this process would be easy to automate, and it would work without undesired color-shifts. Is Auto Colors supposed to change colors?

11. Let the user make some choices regarding the Auto Levels and Auto Color options. Now I used Auto Color on a large number of photos, but on some it would make the color-balance look bad. It might have been possible to fix this by telling Auto Color to not be so heavy-handed with the image. For example, I could have changed a level (0..100) to 25. Of course, there are lots of different adjustments that could be added to cam2pc, but I think that a simple level setting would be both easy to implement and very powerful.

12. Hotkeys to all controls... The Enhance dialog seems to be short of hotkeys. At least the tools (Quick Fixes .. Crop&Borders) should have hotkeys, as well as the quick fix function buttons. I work fastest if I can use the keyboard as much as possible.

13. Crop window: The Image size displayed inside the cropping rectangle sometimes makes cropping difficult if there is some important detail of the photo left under it. I don't think the size (in pixels) is important at all, so it could be displayed in a less visible position, for example below the picture.

14. When creating contact sheets (GREAT feature, by the way), it would be nice to be able to add frames around the pictures. Yes, I know I could generate framed pictures separately and then create a contact sheet from them, but it would be easier if the border options were directly in the Create Contact Sheets dialog...

15. Font size in contact sheets behaves strangely. I created a 2000x3000 JPG contact sheet with Verdana font. With normal sizes (16 or 24) the text was very small on the generated sheet. In the preview box it looked about the right size. Only with a font size of 72 I was able to get a decent-looking text. I think the problem is related to the sheet dimensions: there is no place to say what the width/height of the sheet is! If the font size is specified in points, cam2pc probably assumes some sheet size. To solve this, there should be either a DPI setting for the sheet, or the font size could be specified in pixels rather than points.

16. Cannot move the image in the After tab of the Enhance dialog when in Red Eye Removal mode. Also, the selection rectangle changes position when the zoom factor is changed.

17. Image Browser doesn't retain its scroll-position when deleting files. Steps to reproduce: Scroll down in the Image Browser. Double-click an image to view it. Delete the image by pressing DEL. When cam2pc returns to the Image Browser, the list is scrolled to the top. It should be at the same position where I clicked the image to view it (putting focus on the next image). This caused a major annoyance when I was reviewing my photos in Image Browser, comparing some of them in the Image Viewer and then deleting one.

18. Ctrl+A in Album list selects all images from the Browser, not from the Album.

19. Would be nice to be able to modify the EXIF fields of several files at once. For example, I could add myself into the Artist field of a bunch of images. Now I have to use the EXIF Comment field for this. Also, would be nice to add my own EXIF fields (Category, Place, etc).

[nabocorp]

Hello,

thanks for all this feedback! We will look into this for the next version.

One remark though : "I worked slower with cam2pc than what I did with PhotoShop earlier". I think this is quite normal. The first part only deals with image retouching and I think it is quite normal that Photoshop is better for this :D cam2pc is not designed for this.

There are already been some discussions about this and how the Enhance image should evolve... There is no definite answer to this!

Regards,
nabocorp

[mikkon@nm-sol.com]

One remark though : "I worked slower with cam2pc than what I did with PhotoShop earlier". I think this is quite normal. The first part only deals with image retouching and I think it is quite normal that Photoshop is better for this :D cam2pc is not designed for this.

Hmm, my understanding is that cam2pc has very limited retouching options so that it allows me to do that retouching as fast and easy as possible. That is, the options made available by cam2pm should allow me to work faster than if I used the same options with PhotoShop!

Some of my suggestions were new features for the cam2pc retouching capabilities (Auto-Levels improvements, for example). However, I think it is more important to make the existing options as easy to use as possible. This is where the power of cam2pc lies: if the simple retouching is all I need, I should be able to do it much faster with cam2pc than by using PhotoShop. If I need the advanced features, I will, of course, turn to PhotoShop.