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Workflow issue -CO hides which adjustments applied

David Brown
Here is a workflow issue I have encountered:

1. Add a tool to any tool tab and make some adjustments with that tool.
2. Next, move to a different photo on which to work.
3. The tool added to the tool tab in step 1 is still present, but as I'm not going to use it very often, I remove it from the tool tab.
4. Now, go back to the photo from step 1. While the adjustment from that tool you added in step 1 is still being applied to the photo, the tool itself no longer present in the tool tab. As a result, I am not informed by CO that that particular adjustment has been applied. If I enable the tool again, it does retain the prior settings.

I find this to be a significant issue. I would much prefer that when selecting a photo, all the tools that I have applied to that photo would appear in the tool tabs. The current behavior of CO can "hide" the fact that I have applied a particular tool - one could consider that it's very close to not being non-destructive editing.

I would very much like to see this issue resolved. I'm also wondering if other users struggle with it as well, and if anyone has any clever workarounds. One solution would be to always leave open any tool I have ever enabled on any photo, but that has many obvious problems.
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Comments

8 comments

Date Votes
  • Ian Wilson
    Moderator
    Top Commenter
    I disagree with the way that you would like the software to work. I would much rather have the same tools available on the same tool tab without it varying according to which image is selected. What would you expect to happen, for instance, if you had two images selected, one of which had made use of, say, the HDR tool and one of which had not? It's better in my view to have all the tools you use available on a tool tab somewhere, and once you have got a layout you like, stick to it. (Though you can save a particular set up as a separate workspace and then use that workspace when you want to.)

    I would also prefer to have a tool always found on a particular tab - so if I want the HDR tool, I know it will be on the exposure tab.

    If you don't want to see a tool you can use the turn button (or whatever the little flippy triangle thing is called) to reduce it to no more than a title.

    Also there is nothing to stop you adding a tool to more than one tab, and/or creating extra custom tabs with selections of tools you like. There is in fact a built in Quick tab, which I don't use, but you could add or remove any tools you like to that as well as creating your own custom tabs.

    Ian
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  • RichardT
    I agree with Ian. I definitely do not want tools being automatically shown or hidden when selecting different images.

    Richard
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  • OddS.
    [quote="David Brown" wrote:
    ...the tool itself no longer present in the tool tab.


    I will side with Ian and Richard, no "smart" changes to my tool tabs, please.

    Would a list of all tools used on an image solve your problem? What about calling up a tools-used-list by hovering the mouse cursor over the list-like "image edited" icon at the lower right corner of a thumbnail?
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  • Phillip Bond
    [quote="OddS" wrote:
    [quote="David Brown" wrote:
    ...the tool itself no longer present in the tool tab.


    Would a list of all tools used on an image solve your problem?


    Although I also would prefer my tool layout changing based on image selected, I do think the OP has a good point -- at least a point with which I agree. I think there does need to be some way of clearly seeing what tools have been applied to each image.

    (If one such way already exists please tell me.)
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  • David Brown
    For what it's worth, I would like to clarify what I wrote in the original post. I said "I would much prefer that when selecting a photo, all the tools that I have applied to that photo would appear in the tool tabs." This implies that all tools I applied would appear in all the tool tabs. What I intended is: I would much prefer that when selecting a photo, all tools I applied would appear in the tool tab to which I added them. In other words, only the tools used in a particular photo that do not appear in the users default tool tab would be added by CaptureOne, and only to the tool tab to which I had added it when it was used on the photo in question.

    To answer Ian's question about how this would function if two photos were selected in the browser - it would function as it does now in that CaptureOne would should you the tools and adjustments for the primary photo. You also mentioned concern that tools would somehow not always be located on the same tool tab, which would not be the case in the scenario I suggested. Your suggestion advising "sticking to a layout" as a solution to not being able to rely on CO to show all adjustments is to create a custom tool tab containing every single tool to ensure that all are shown for each photo; the problems with this are, presumably, obvious.
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  • HansB
    [quote="David Brown" wrote:
    ...
    3. The tool added to the tool tab in step 1 is still present, but as I'm not going to use it very often, I remove it from the tool tab.
    4. Now, go back to the photo from step 1. While the adjustment from that tool you added in step 1 is still being applied to the photo, the tool itself no longer present in the tool tab.
    ...


    About the title: CO doesn't hide which adjustments applied. It's about the tool. And you removed it yourself. You know you used it on some images, right?

    I'm with RichardT, OddS and Ian3: CO shall not change the way I set up my tool tabs. It's a matter of having a reproducible workflow.

    [quote="PhilBond" wrote:
    ...
    I think there does need to be some way of clearly seeing what tools have been applied to each image.

    (If one such way already exists please tell me.)


    If you want to see which are applied to an image, you can do so. Select the image, copy the adjustments, open the 'Adjustments Clipboard'. It lists all possible adjustments and marks all applied.

    [quote="David Brown" wrote:
    ...
    Your suggestion advising "sticking to a layout" as a solution to not being able to rely on CO to show all adjustments is to create a custom tool tab containing every single tool to ensure that all are shown for each photo; the problems with this are, presumably, obvious.


    I still don't see an issue CO needs to solve here. It's the user's choice to add and remove tools. And if a user chooses to remove a tool he used on an image, now, he removes it. So it's up to the user to put it back.
    But you can file a feature request for the extra tool tab showing all tools applied to the current image in a single tab.


    Regards,
    Hans
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  • David Brown
    HansB: the title I used is correct; CO hid the tool. Here is the situation: while working on an image I add a tool, then make adjustments with the tool. Once I am done with that image, I move on to another image; I do not close the tool in question before doing so. While working on other images, I close the tool in question. At some time, I return to the first image. CO no longer shows the tool that I had left open when I last used the image. CO "hid" the tool.

    I had tried using the adjustments clipboard to see what adjustments had been applied to an image, as you suggested. However, in addition to interrupting the workflow in so far as requiring switching to another tool tab to look at adjustments followed by switching back to the tool tab to work on the adjustments, it does not work for local adjustments. The adjustment only shows that local adjustments have been applied, not which tools were used.

    So I agree with your statement about having a reproduceable workflow. I want CO to reproduce the set of tools I used on an image. I don't want to try to rely on my memory, as you suggested. I want CO to tell me what I've done to an image. Obviously, we have different priorities for a desired workflow. You evidently want the focus to be on which tools are on a given tool tab, even if that results in an incomplete set of tools. I want the focus to be on the image and the adjustments I applied.
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  • meanwhile
    HansB: the title I used is correct; CO hid the tool. Here is the situation: while working on an image I add a tool, then make adjustments with the tool. Once I am done with that image, I move on to another image; I do not close the tool in question before doing so. While working on other images, I close the tool in question. At some time, I return to the first image. CO no longer shows the tool that I had left open when I last used the image. CO "hid" the tool.


    You removed it from the tool tab. Tools are not image contextual, nor should they be. Tools are global. You removed it.
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