Suggestions for applying presets

[Tim van der Leeuw]

Hi,

RAW Power has a number of presets which can be applied to a RAW file. These are great, and it’s great that multiple presets can be applied on top of each other, but what’s not clear is:
1. Which presets have already been applied
2. If the order of applying presets matters
3. If it matters if presets are applied multiple times

With a few changes to the UI, this can perhaps be improved.

If in the tool palette on the right there’s a list of applied presets (or other edits/adjustments), as a history, then one can instantly see what has already been applied. The list can also allow for removing any adjustments or presets (by removing from the list), or reordering (if that makes any difference).
The current kludge of holding the “option” key can then be done away with.

How do you feel about this?

Kind regards,

–Tim

[Nik Bhatt]

Hi Tim,

I can see that the way presets work may be confusing, especially if they work differently in each app. This is how they work in RAW Power:
1) the order doesn’t matter
2) it doesn’t matter if you apply them multiple times.

That’s because presets are not much more than an automated way of setting up adjustments. The order that adjustments are applied is fixed (unlike Photoshop with its layers), so whether you apply A+B or B+A, you get the same result (there are some edge cases around automatic adjustments, but in general the order you apply presets is irrelevant).

All that really matters is the Add vs. Replace. Add will combine the preset with the existing adjustments, while Replace removes the existing adjustments in favor of the preset.

A history would provide insight into what operations were performed, that’s true. It’s something I have considered. History usually ends up containing an overwhelming amount of data, so it’s never been something I have found very useful in general (though it is useful on occasion).

However, history would not eliminate add vs. replace because those are different ways of applying presets.

[Tim van der Leeuw]

If the history records every movement of every slider as a new history-entry, yes then it will become very confusing very quickly. But the history can consolidate what is done in a single adjustment-type as soon as you move to another adjustment. It doesn’t have to be a complete undo-history. 😉
Then from the history, you can quickly see what adjustments have been made and delete one to see the effect (and hopefully use “undo” to re-apply it 😉 ).

Alternatively, for the presets, how about making this a menu with checkmarks that allow one to see which of the presets have been applied?

Or is that not feasible within the way the program processes those presets?

[Nik Bhatt]

It’s not simple for the app to determine which presets are currently applied. Not impossible, but not simple – it would have to look at each preset and then look at the current state of the adjustments to see what was still valid (for example, if you apply the Red Filter Black and White Preset, but then change the amount of red, the preset is not still applied – I guess (?)). This is how Auto Enhance works – it compares the current adjustment slider positions to the ones set by Auto Enhance. If they are the same, then the auto enhance button lights up.

[Author]

Posts