Feature Request: Multiple ‘versions’ from same raw file please

[TN Args]

OK I am having a great deal of fun with my 7 day trial. Nitro is looking like it could be my go-to editor. I really enjoy many aspects of the experience.

Question/Feature Request: I very often need to make (and keep) more than one version (set of edits) from the same raw file. For example, different crops. Or a colour and a monochrome edit. Or several different LUT variations, as well as the ‘clean’ edited version that I used to make the LUT versions. Or all of the above, all from the one raw file, with no need to export image files. At the moment I don’t see this feature in Nitro?

Darktable can do this, and I love it to death. With Nitro also using XMP sidecar files, I get the impression that this feature could be feasible. I would be so grateful to see that!

This is how it works with Darktable:-
– All the ‘versions’ (different instruction sets) for a particular image are saved in the one single sidecar file for the raw image.
– Each ‘version’ can be given a name or label.
– Each ‘version’ appears in the Viewer as an image, side by side, just like separate image files would appear.
– Clicking on a ‘version’ in the Viewer causes the Editor to open with that version loaded and ready to further edit. Or, if thumbnail strip is turned on in Editor, click on one of the other versions in the strip, to open that version.
– Suggestion: in Nitro, a suitable place to create, name, save, and access a VERSIONS feature for each raw file, could be under the Presets tab, with its own subheading alongside PRESETS and LUTS.

Nik, I hope this has captured your interest, because it would be a great feature for Nitro that I am sure many users would appreciate. The way Nitro is built to use XMP sidecar files makes this sort of feature fantastic and efficient, because all the versions don’t require full size saved image files.

cheers
Grant

PS I could share to you a Darktable XMP sidecar file, that has several versions of the master image saved therein, if that helps.

[Nik Bhatt]

Thanks for the suggestion, Grant. Multiple versions for an image is already on the list of features I plan to add at some point (the app / XMP data format already understands the concept, but only one version is currently supported). I have not determine how it will work in the UI, so I appreciate your ideas.

[Joachim Jundt]

It would be nice if the different versions from on RAW could receive different ratings, too, but if name and label could be different, that’s already good.

[TN Args]

Here is an example from Darktable.

This screenshot is of the Viewer (aka lighttable) showing three versions of file _A7R9054.ARW. Each has a different star rating and appears as an image in the Viewer table.

This screenshot is of the Editor (aka darktable), showing each version on the left with its own label, named by me.

I was wrong to say that Darktable stores multiple edits in one sidecar file. Each edit has its own sidecar file. Successive edit sidecar files are named filename_01, filename_02 etc.

Here are the three Darktable sidecar files for the three versions of the above-mentioned image.
1
2
3

Hope this is useful.

cheers

[Nik Bhatt]

Thanks for sharing that.

• This reply was modified 9 months ago by Nik Bhatt.

[TN Args]

You might want to download any that interest you…I forgot to mention it is in a temporary cloud folder. cheers

[Nik Bhatt]

I would design my own UI and such, so I don’t need the images or files.

[sslupsky]

I think Photomator does this. You might have a look at their UI for ideas.

[John Perry]

Multiple versions would be good to have, especially as I quite often want to explore and hold a B&W version of the picture without trashing the colour version…

So one thought that _seems_ to work is to make a symbolic link of the original raw file with a recognisable but slightly different name. Nitro seems to see this OK and proceeds to construct an XMP with the name of the symbol-link. This saves on having a copy of the (sizeable) raw file, but admittedly is a bit manual and not an elegant solution.

My question is whether I am building a nightmare for the future by playing it this way?

[Andrew Macnaughton]

I remember this from Aperture, where I used it frequently. I would use this feature a great deal. It gets my vote to be on your roadmap.

[Nik Bhatt]

If your volume is formatted with APFS, you can just duplicate the file in the Finder. APFS will not use any additional disk space in that case (unless you directly modify the file, which Nitro does not do). Then you can make different edits. That is more stable than using an alias or soft link.

[Pito Salas]

I loved that feature in Aperture too! +1

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