When a photographer uses eog -- some observations
- From: DigiSus <info digisus info>
- To: eog-list gnome org
- Subject: When a photographer uses eog -- some observations
- Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:53:44 +0200
Dear developers
From a recent photo weekend workshop I needed to browse, select, delete
and sort >2000 photos. I thought it might be interesting to developers
to learn about my experiences when doing this with eog 2.22.2 (ubuntu
Hardy Heron).
First of all, it is possible to handle large amounts of photos with eog.
:-)
But some tasks could be more efficient and some tasks are not (yet)
possible. My observations are strictly from an end-user point of view as
I am a hardcore user and not a developer. Sorry, the email got so long
and thanks for bearing with me. :-)
1) The ever-recurring task is to look at each photo (in fullscreen,
sometimes 1:1 view) in a folder and decide about deleting it or moving
it to another folder. Currently, eog provides only the deleting option
with an irritating confirmation question:
- A preference tick box to suppress the confirmation question after
deletion would save a click with each deletion. That is many clicks. ;-)
- Two ideas for implementing a sorting possibility: Either (a) let
photos be marked (with 'M') and when user leaves F11 mode, s/he can move
all marked photos to a specified folder. Or, (b) allow drag&drop from
the collection pane to move a photo into another folder.
(Now, I delete the photos and get them out of the trash can afterwards
and put them into separate folder. It is an ugly workaround to be able
to stay in F11 mode all the time and save 3x as many clicks...)
2) Going to next/prev image. I read that the mouse wheel for going
next/prev was removed, but I do not know why and whether it is possible
to get it back. It would be very helpful.
Another elegant and visually appealing way could be: When the mouse
touches the right or left border of the screen (in F11 mode), the
next/prev photo is shown.
3) In F11 mode, I can zoom in/out of a photo or see it in 1:1 or
windows-fit size. Unfortunately, this setting is not remembered when I
go the next/prev photo. So, I have to zoom again... Maybe, make it a
preference tickbox to remember zoom setting or not.
4) The image collection pane and EXIF information are essential features
for this work and I am glad eog provides them. But the properties/EXIF
window takes too muich screen space which I need for the image. And it
is overloaded/confusing. Could something similar to the Ctrl-i feature
from gthumbs be implemented that shows the image/EXIF information in a
small box -while- in F11 mode? I put the properties button in the icon
bar but it does not show during F11. This way, I see no way to see EXIF
data during F11 mode...?
5) As to the EXIF information itself: There is no need to write down all
the words "aperture value", "exposure time", etc. because the values
(f/3.2 or 1/125) speak for themselves.
Here is a use case proposal to think about: When the user presses "i" in
F11 mode, a small semi-transparent box with two lines of text should
appear (and stay with subsequent photos) showing image information. In
preferences, the user can select how much information should be shown: 1
or 2 lines. Pressing "i" again switches off the info box.
Example:
(1st line)
P416724.jpg - (13/437) - 2736x3648 pixels - 3.2MB
(2nd line, optional)
f/5.6 - 1/250s - 85mm - ISO 100 - 05.07.2008 17:13
BTW: The value currently given as "Focal length" is not what
photographers expect to see. They need the value in [mm] given under
Details|Camera|FocalLenghtIn35mmFilm.
6) Judging photos has a lot to do with aestethics. It would be helpful
if eog would support that by being in the background as much as possible.
Good start: In F11 mode, the background around the photo is black. But
the image collection bar is system grey as is the top icon bar.
- Could the pane have black background as well around the thumbnails, so
that only the thumbnails are visible?
- Could a small/middle/big sizing of thumbnails made in the preferences?
7) Often, adjacent photos need to be compared. Could a 2-up or even 4-up
view in F11 mode be implemented that show 2 simultanesouly next to each
other or even 4 in the four quadrants of the screen? (Next/prev would
then mean moving 2 or 4 photos at once.)
8) Having a GUI preference to choose where the collection pane should be
shown (bottom top left right) would be helpful. For example, sometimes
the pane makes sense to be at the bottom, but sometimes more efficient
use of the screen space for the photo makes sense and then the pane
should be vertical on one side.
9) The last two are not crucial but may win over many people who work
visually:
9a) Could we have a smoother scrolling in the image collection pane?
Perhaps it could be done with the mouse hovering over the pane? Moving
far to the right scrolls fast forward, more to the middle scrolls
slower. (think iPod scrolling...)
9b) slideshow. To have it look professional (e.g., when showing photos
to a larger audience with music in the background, etc.) it would be
nice to have fading between the photos, in 3 variants: Fade via black,
fade via white, fade directly into next photo.
Alright, I thank you for reading all this and I hope this feedback is
useful to you. I would be glad to help with further input/feedback/spec
if needed or if you have questions to what I wrote...
Thanks & best regards,
Marcus
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