Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

[AfPhoto/Win] Open multiple images in proper order?


Recommended Posts

I'm doing some final touches on a concert shoot (over 160 photos). I'm opening 30-50 files at once and strive to achieve a uniform look across all images in terms of brightness, contrast etc.

Unfortunately AfPhoto opens the files in a completely chaotic order. Is there a setting i've missed? Is this a bug?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, sveto said:

Is there a setting i've missed? Is this a bug?

No, and no.

Serif have acknowledged it is an area that could be improved. For now, though, the tabs are populated in the order that the files finish loading, and in a multi-processed environment opening several files simultaneously that depends on many OS- and hardware-dependent factors.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see. Thanks!

It shouldn't matter in what order the files finish loading. It's common sense to sort the tabs in proper order (can be sorted after loading). Every program does it in proper order. Very strange, and a bit disappointing.

I'll probably leave a topic in the requests forum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/10/2019 at 4:08 PM, sveto said:

It shouldn't matter in what order the files finish loading.

Actually it can matter quite a bit in a multithreaded processing environment, at least if efficient use of computer resources is important.

It is not too hard to see why if you consider that in Affinity a new window or tab has to be created for each file, so if the app does not wait for enough of the the file's data to be loaded (which in Affinity is not necessarily all the data in the file) it would have to set aside resources for each file without knowing how much memory & other resources each of them actually will require. Basically, it would have to guess about that, & both too small & too large guesses can have significant negative effects on performance.

The only way to avoid that I can think of is to wait until enough data is loaded from each file before creating windows or tabs for any of them, a behavior I suspect most Affinity users would not like.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to wonder then: Why is Photoshop faster in opening multiple files, and it still opens all files in the proper order? I don't think your arguments holds.

Opening 27 PSDs at once, while program is already open, w- open command from context menu. I replicated those results a second time, after a reboot.

Affinity Photo: 28 seconds.

Photoshop CS6: 11 seconds.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, sveto said:

I have to wonder then: Why is Photoshop faster in opening multiple files, and it still opens all files in the proper order? I don't think your arguments holds.

Try opening lots of files in Photoshop on a system with a slow CPU & not a lot of memory. Admittedly, I have not tried that on a Mac for years, but back then I had time for a nap before the beachball spinner vanished & it was ready to do anything.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So are you saying that Affinity Photo is optimized for slow computers with low memory? I'd like to see an official source on that, because honestly it doesn't make sense to me. I thought that Serif is targeting professionals (alike) with the Affinity Suite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, sveto said:

So are you saying that Affinity Photo is optimized for slow computers with low memory?

No, but I am saying memory efficiency & optimal use of a computer's other resources are important, including for professionals.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But shouldn't the software make use of a faster computer when it's available? You're making it sound like Affinity Photo does not.

Because there still remains the issue that Af.Photo loads multiple files almost 3 times slower than Photoshop CS6 on my machine, which is not particularly fast (16GB RAM, i7 6700k CPU, Seagate 5600rpm drive for the files).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, sveto said:

But shouldn't the software make use of a faster computer when it's available? You're making it sound like Affinity Photo does not.

Because there still remains the issue that Af.Photo loads multiple files almost 3 times slower than Photoshop CS6 on my machine, which is not particularly fast (16GB RAM, i7 6700k CPU, Seagate 5600rpm drive for the files).

Affinity does make use of faster hardware when it is available. However, there is more to it than just how fast an app can open files. For example, Affinity uses mipmaps to increase pan & zoom performance once a file is open. It takes time & resources to generate them but that pays off in better performance once the files are open.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your only solutions at this time are (as far as I know):

  1. Use different software; or
  2. Open the files one at a time; or
  3. Open in smaller numbers, and reorder the tabs manually after the files are opened.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like quite the overhead. Strange that this issue is not more widespread. I wonder how other pros (weddings, concerts, events etc) keep their jobs consistent. They probably don't use Affinity, LOL...

But i've been thinking: for now, i could try to do #3 with all serial shots, and open the rest at once (where the order is not important).

Thanks for the help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I agree entirely with SVETO on this, it is so annoying that images open in a chaotic order, I compare a photo with the next one so I can delete the worst & keep the best. when they are not in order this is a pain, especially with wedding photography where you have to do this 100's of time 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

I did not see this thread until after I posted in the resource area, a solution should be possible with a windows batch file to open a list in alphabetical order. I will put my ancient windows hat on and try and create one when I blow the dust off my windows 10 relic.
 

 

 

My dad always told me, a bad workman always blames their tools….

Just waiting for Ronny Pickering…..

Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher 1.10 and 2.4 on macOS Sonoma 14 on M1 Mac Mini 16GB 1TB
Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher 1.10 and 2.4 on Windows 10 Pro. Deceased
Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher 2.4 on M1 iPad Pro 11” on iPadOS 17.4 
 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AffinityForiPad

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AffinityPhoto/

The hardest link to find https://affinity.help

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Paul Mudditt said:

... a solution should be possible with a windows batch file to open a list in alphabetical order.

The same thing probably could be done using AppleScript on a Mac, but a potential problem for either one is how to handle situations where one or more of the files takes a very long time to open, or will not open at all for some reason.

Edited by R C-R
fixed typo

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

The default delay is 500ms (half a second), which should be enough for most files. But if the files are bigger, the delay most probably needs to be increased.

Does this utility include any provision for a file that will not open for some reason, like because it is corrupted or from a later beta version or whatever?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Lagarto said:

There might be a way to read the delay for the sleep command e.g. from a file within the app bundle...

I wonder if there is some way to tell if AP has successfully opened the file from within the script. If so, then the script could just wait for confirmation that the file has opened before trying to open the next file. I played around a bit with this idea using AppleScript but could not figure out how to get AP to tell the script if the file had been opened or not.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

But the point is that Affinity Photo does not seem to arrange the opened images in order even if they were passed using any arbitrary delay, since as soon as the tabs get crowded, any new image can be loaded amidst the existing tab order (whether loaded manually or programmatically, and even when loading via menu command).

FWIW, I tried loading 8 afphoto files into AP Mac using your APhotoOpener.app & all but one loaded in the desired order. There was nothing special I could tell about it -- it was neither the largest nor smallest file in the selection nor was its layer structure significantly more or less complex than any of the others.

However, with those 8 open in tabs, I started opening more afphoto files manually using File > Open, & even after I had a dozen total open, the manually opened ones were added to the tabs (or to the popup file selector when there were too many for them all to fit) in the desired tab order, at the end of the tabs.

But after that, clicking on any of the ones in the popup file selector moved that file to the leftmost tab position, & 'bumped' the rightmost one into the popup selector. That sort of makes sense -- the current tab should always be shown so the user knows which one is being worked on.

So all things considered, I don't think there is any way to make this foolproof, even before hitting the 10 tab limit.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Lagarto, I just noticed one other issue with your APhotoOpener.app: if I drag two .afphoto files onto it & one is named identically to the other except for "copy" at the end, only the first one opens and bizarrely a third duplicate file is added to the folder with the same name but with "copy 2" in place of "copy."

I have no clue why that happens but I only noticed it after I noticed I had 5 duplicates, each with a 'copy x' suffix for the same file. Weird!

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.