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Any way to lock adjustments ?

John Doe
Hi!

Is there a way to "lock" the adjustments I've made to a picture?

Say I've adjusted the exposure, white balance, etc. and I want to prevent any further accidental changes (yep I'm a clumsy person). Is there a way to tell Capture One to "put a padlock" on this picture?

Thx.
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Comments

23 comments

Date Votes
  • Michael Sonshine
    [quote="John Doe" wrote:
    Hi!
    Is there a way to "lock" the adjustments I've made to a picture?

    I am not aware of any way to lock the adjustments for a single image but if you keep a separate catalog for each group of images (rather than a single master catalog) you could, of course, copy the catalog to someplace safe and I assume that loading it at some later date would present you with the same adjustments you had when you copied it, regardless of any further changes with another catalog. I assume you could also mark the catalog as unwritable and that should prevent any further changes to the images in that catalog, but that would lock all of the images, not just one.

    But that is a very interesting idea and I can see how it could be helpful.
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  • John Doe
    Guess I should file a feature request, then. 😊

    Thx for your reply.
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  • paintbox
    You could save the pic as a Tiff or jpeg, "baking in" all adjustments. Then, pull it back into the catalog. If you make any unwanted adjustments to the Tiff, just reset all adjustments for that pic.
    But yeah, locking an image would be pretty cool.
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  • SFA
    Create a variant that is not the number 1 variant. You then have to open thing sup to get to the partly protected one.

    Of course both variants might be the same. So you can carry one and create more variants, etc.

    I can think of a number of complications - mostly administrative - that might be issues for a straight "Lock" concept - especially if it was to be implemented at the variant level. For practical purposes I suspect that is where people would want it if the idea makes it to the wild. It may be a lot more work than it would appear to be. These things often are.


    Grant
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  • John Doe
    I'm afraid I don't really get what you mean.
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  • SFA
    Jimmy or me?
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  • John Doe
    [quote="SFA" wrote:
    Create a variant that is not the number 1 variant. You then have to open thing sup to get to the partly protected one.

    Of course both variants might be the same. So you can carry one and create more variants, etc.

    This I don't get.

    I can think of a number of complications - mostly administrative - that might be issues for a straight "Lock" concept - especially if it was to be implemented at the variant level. For practical purposes I suspect that is where people would want it if the idea makes it to the wild. It may be a lot more work than it would appear to be. These things often are.

    I don't really understand why it would be difficult to implement…
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  • SFA
    Haveyou looked at Variant edits of an image?

    If not then you should it's a great feature.

    If you have consider that you can create a variant and then leave it as is and move on to another variant. It's not a LOCK but does allow you to leave the variant unmolested.

    It's easier to avoid accidental changes if you have alternative versions (variants) to work with.
    You can stack variants and unstack them.

    If you stack them only the variant that you have set to be Number One will be visible and subject to edits. So others are protected at that point. It you unstack them then all are accessible as if they are individual images. You can promote and demote them to position them where you want them in the stack - giving some degree of control to keep edits safe although not locked.


    As for coding a lock ... every process, especially those that can be applied in batch mode, would need to understand what to do if they came across a locked here may be many different rules and in a full spec. many different views about what should be allowed to happen.

    Write and implement half the spec, that the mass of users feel "ought" to be available and cue a flood of "I can't believe that this or that was not included ...." posts.

    Consider, in the light of variants, whether the lock should be at variant level?

    Do locks apply to Metadata updates?

    What about deletes? Can you override a lock to delete?

    If you want to clone a locked variant should you be allowed to without unlocking it first (easier to write the rules if not) or should you be allowed to clone it complete with the lock in place? Or should a copy unlock a cloned variant?

    If you want to copy and past settings from a variant that is locked should the lock status be one of the settings copied to the clipboard?

    If you have a locked image in a catalogue that you are upgrading having installed a new release of C1 - does the lock disallow an automatic update to the processing engine?

    Just a few examples of the sorts of things that the developers would need to consider, decide rules and add lines of code for. Sometime the simplest things can become very labour intensive and require a lot more testing than might be imagined on the basis of an idea.

    Alternatively there may be an easy way to achieve it ....

    Still, put the idea forward and see how much support it gets.

    Personally I can see the potential benefits but having worked now with 2 applications that are very similar, C1 being one of them, for some years I don't often find myself forgetting about the need for a little caution when diving into an edit. Habit makes the process less error prone and the use of variants helps that. But I am also rarely entirely finished with an image so a few random tweaks by accident would not be the end of the world for me. So it's probably not a feature I could get excited about, though I can see why others might.


    Grant
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  • RichardT
    I would like the facility to be able to lock individual variants so that they can't be adjusted without unlocking them.

    As a (retired) software developer, I don't think this would be very complex to implement.

    Richard
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  • John Doe
    [quote="SFA" wrote:
    Haveyou looked at Variant edits of an image?

    If not then you should it's a great feature.

    If you have consider that you can create a variant and then leave it as is and move on to another variant. It's not a LOCK but does allow you to leave the variant unmolested.

    It's easier to avoid accidental changes if you have alternative versions (variants) to work with.
    You can stack variants and unstack them.

    If you stack them only the variant that you have set to be Number One will be visible and subject to edits. So others are protected at that point. It you unstack them then all are accessible as if they are individual images. You can promote and demote them to position them where you want them in the stack - giving some degree of control to keep edits safe although not locked.

    OK, but the thing is I want to prevent accidental changes, i.e. unvoluntary changes I /might not notice/. So using variants won't help: I might still accidentally modify a setting without noticing.

    Consider, in the light of variants, whether the lock should be at variant level?

    Do locks apply to Metadata updates?

    What about deletes? Can you override a lock to delete?

    […]


    Well I guess it could work more or less like the possibility to lock a user file in the Finder.
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  • SFA
    [quote="John Doe" wrote:
    [quote="SFA" wrote:
    Haveyou looked at Variant edits of an image?

    If not then you should it's a great feature.

    If you have consider that you can create a variant and then leave it as is and move on to another variant. It's not a LOCK but does allow you to leave the variant unmolested.

    It's easier to avoid accidental changes if you have alternative versions (variants) to work with.
    You can stack variants and unstack them.

    If you stack them only the variant that you have set to be Number One will be visible and subject to edits. So others are protected at that point. It you unstack them then all are accessible as if they are individual images. You can promote and demote them to position them where you want them in the stack - giving some degree of control to keep edits safe although not locked.

    OK, but the thing is I want to prevent accidental changes, i.e. unvoluntary changes I /might not notice/. So using variants won't help: I might still accidentally modify a setting without noticing.

    Consider, in the light of variants, whether the lock should be at variant level?

    Do locks apply to Metadata updates?

    What about deletes? Can you override a lock to delete?

    […]


    Well I guess it could work more or less like the possibility to lock a user file in the Finder.


    You might also inadvertently unlock an edit and make a change without realising.

    Perhaps the answer is an auto-lock whereby everything is automatically locked after each edit - a sequence of variants - so that you can always go back to a previous state. The overhead, in terms of file size and disk storage requirements, would be tiny by modern standards. Just a perpetual history file really.


    Grant
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  • John Doe
    You might also inadvertently unlock an edit and make a change without realising.

    Can't see how. The way I see it, there would be an alert dialog or a warning of some sort, or at the very least the unlock switch would only be accessible from a submenu, so that it couldn't be triggered inadvertently. In the Finder you need to invoke the info panel to lock/unlock a file.

    Perhaps the answer is an auto-lock whereby everything is automatically locked after each edit - a sequence of variants - so that you can always go back to a previous state.

    I don't think I would like an auto-lock feature; I'd be perfectly happy with the majority of my pictures still being freely adjustable. An auto-lock feature would only get in the way.

    Really, the best analogy I can think of is the lock/unlock feature in the Finder.

    Or maybe you were thinking of a "Clone & Lock Variant" menu item, in addition to the current "New Variant" and "Clone Variant"? Wouldn't be bad, indeed.
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  • BeO
    Top Commenter
    Does anyone know what pick variant, promote variant and demote variant exactly do? Only changing the order in the stack?

    Can't find anything in the Online help

    Thanks
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  • SFA
    [quote="BeO" wrote:
    Does anyone know what pick variant, promote variant and demote variant exactly do? Only changing the order in the stack?

    Can't find anything in the Online help

    Thanks


    Pick variant makes it instant No. 1

    Promote and demote move the current selected variant up or down the stack.


    Grant
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  • BeO
    Top Commenter
    Thanks Grant, now it is obvious.
    I initially thought there would be more magic behind it.

    Cheers,
    Enlightend BeO 💡 😊
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  • SFA
    [quote="BeO" wrote:
    Thanks Grant, now it is obvious.
    I initially thought there would be more magic behind it.

    Cheers,
    Enlightend BeO 💡 😊


    It has the feel of something that was quite a big feature once, some time ago, but has now been swamped by more interesting things despite being still perfectly valid functionality.


    It happens to us all eventually - well, maybe no the "being a big feature" part.


    Grant
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  • Michael Sonshine
    [quote="RichardT" wrote:
    I would like the facility to be able to lock individual variants so that they can't be adjusted without unlocking them.

    As a (retired) software developer, I don't think this would be very complex to implement.

    Richard

    I am sure each image adjustment settings are simply an instance of a class. Simply supply a bit as a flag and some code to prevent access to the adjustments. What could be easier?
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  • RichardT
    [quote="MikeFromMesa" wrote:
    [quote="RichardT" wrote:
    I would like the facility to be able to lock individual variants so that they can't be adjusted without unlocking them.

    As a (retired) software developer, I don't think this would be very complex to implement.

    Richard

    I am sure each image adjustment settings are simply an instance of a class. Simply supply a bit as a flag and some code to prevent access to the adjustments. What could be easier?


    Also, Capture One already has the concept of uneditable images which it labels as read-only, for example those that are deemed too small.
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  • Michael Sonshine
    [quote="RichardT" wrote:

    Also, Capture One already has the concept of uneditable images which it labels as read-only, for example those that are deemed too small.

    Well, if the code is already in there to ignore editing on some images, it should be even easier.
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  • peter Frings
    I believe that this is not a bad idea. Instead of locking an image based on it's size (whose idea was that, anyway?), let the user lock it.

    I'd also suggest some sort of auto-lock: if you have edited an image, C1 could lock it after a certain time of inactivity on the image; or lock it after processing it. That would of course be something you could switch on or of (in the Preferences).

    Locked images cannot be altered in anyway, nor deleted. Adding/moving it to other albums or folders is allowed. I believe that the scenarios are quite limited and the handling can be well defined.

    Have you made an "official" request for this?

    Cheers,
    Peter.
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  • John Doe
    [quote="peter.f" wrote:
    Have you made an "official" request for this?

    Not yet. Being a bit lazy these days, but I will. 😊

    Thx for your reply. 😊
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  • John Doe
    Done. 😊

    I've just filed the following feature request. Feel free to ask the same if you think it would be a useful feature. I guess the more people ask, the best chance we get to have it included in a future release.

    Case number 213144

    *** FEATURE REQUEST ***

    -> Possibility to lock a variant so as to prevent accidental changes <-

    As explained in the user forum: viewtopic.php?f=61&t=22195

    It would be great if there was a way to "lock" the adjustments you've made to a picture.

    Say I've adjusted the exposure, white balance, etc. and I want to prevent any further accidental changes: would be great to be able to "put a padlock" on this picture.

    Hope you'll add this feature in a future release.

    All the best,
    John Doe
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  • John Doe
    My feature request was acknowledged by Phase One this morning. 😊
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