Support RAW+JPEG image pairs

[obsidianeagle076]

Most cameras can write images to disk as RAW+JPEG pairs, and for professional applications shooting RAW+JPEG is standard for a variety of reasons. To handle RAW+JPEG images, the software should display the pair as "one image," writing metadata into both the JPEG and an XMP sidecar file for the RAW.

[jim-easterbrook]

I did consider this during the development of Photini, but decided against it. Image regions would be a problem, as raw files are usually larger than the corresponding JPEG. And if someone crops the JPEG (e.g. with GIMP) but doesn't change the file name then Photini wouldn't know they are no longer the same image.

I always select raw and jpeg images in the Photini image selector then set metadata for both at the same time. I suppose it might be possible to automatically select both if the raw is clicked, but not vice versa so the jpeg only can be selected e.g. for upload.

[obsidianeagle076]

Usually the image size in pixels is the same, though it is possible to configure many cameras to write low-res JPEG and high-res RAW files. Other software often addresses these images by "grouping" or "stacking" RAW+JPEG pairs. If necessary, the user can un-group or un-stack the files, to work on them individually.

[jim-easterbrook]

Many of the raw formats I've looked at, such as the .CR2 files from my Canon EOS100 are slightly larger than the JPEG, to allow the red and blue images to be resized during chromatic aberration correction.

If I'd designed Photini from the beginning to stack images like this then I'd have found workarounds for where the raw and jpeg have different metadata (e.g. the processed date). At this stage I'm not going to change how it works. I think it would be too confusing.

[obsidianeagle076]

If I'd designed Photini from the beginning to stack images like this then I'd have found workarounds for where the raw and jpeg have different metadata (e.g. the processed date). At this stage I'm not going to change how it works. I think it would be too confusing.

As far as I know everyone just groups by filename. Same filename base, one JPEG, one RAW? group it. Being able to batch apply image regions is useful in general. RAW+JPEG is just one case. Let's say I want to select all images in the folder, and crop them in a specific way, because they were all shot locked-off on a tripod and the composition didn't change. Now if for some reason you are batch applying a crop rectangle, and the software notices that one or more images has a different size. How to handle that? Options: - blindly apply the rectangle anyway, without notifying the user, hope it works - ask the user what to do - refuse to do anything, maybe notify the user that images are different size This applies to RAW+JPEG, obviously, but also many other cases.

[jim-easterbrook]

As I said, I'm not going to change how Photini works in this respect. This discussion is closed.