Image Display "Link RAW+JPG" but not DNG?

[cppcodeguru]

Hello,

I found the option Link RAW+JPG files to display only one image for both files,
but I have DNG+JPG+THM+XMP files in my folder (produced by ImageIngester)
so it would be nice to Link DNG+JPG files too.

It seems anyway that if I enabled "Link RAW+JPG" option and have THM+XMP files too, that these files are also linked, because if I delete a linked picture, these files are deleted also, why not DNG files?

Andreas.

[Chris Breeze]

There is a potential conflict here: if a folder contains a native raw file, a DNG file and a JPEG of the same name it can't treat this as a raw+JPEG pair.

[cppcodeguru]

Why is this a conflict? XMP, THM even TXT files are handled the same way, why not DNG?

[Chris Breeze]

Because XMP, THM and TXT files are associated files where you always want the same actions applied as to the main (raw) file. This isn't true of DNG files.

[matyst]

Chris, I do not really understand your last statement why DNG could not be linked to JPEGs, could you elaborate?
I am still trying to find optimal RAW workflow and if BBPro linked DNG+JPEGs, it would be a great incentive to buy.

IMHO there are good reasons to link RAW+DNG+JPEG together; for example let's say I could convert my Canon CR2s to DNGs while ingesting with Downloader Pro and add some IPTC/XMP data; with the new Downloader 2.0 I will get unchanged CR2, XMP sidecar for CR2, and DNG and JPEG both with embedded IPTC/XMP info. Now if I add any other info, I would like it to be added to all files; the same applies when I want to delete a given photo.

Or let's say that during dowloading I move CR2 and JPEG files to different subfolders using {E} token in Downloader; at the same time CR2s are converted to DNGs, and DNGs are placed in the same directory as JPEGs. Then I archive CR2s just in case, and treat DNGs as my main RAW format to work on. It is obvious I would like DNGs being linked to JPEG in this situation.

Or even the better solution would be to link all files with the same base name but different extension. For example, one could start with DNG file, have intermediate PSD or TIFF file after conversion, and final output JPEG file. Then they could all be treated as unit for copy/move/deletions and annotations (if a given format allows).

Would it be possible to implement it ?

Tomasz

[Chris Breeze]

It's tricky to know how best to handle this because DNG files are different from other files. Cameras have been able to write raw+JPEG files for some time now and so it makes sense to link raw+JPEG files in BBPro. DNG files used to be only created from raw files but now some cameras can write DNG files directly and can shoot DNG+JPEG. From the perspective of BBPro linking images this means that sometimes DNG files are the main files with linked JPEGs and sometimes there is also the original raw file.
e.g. you could have:
1) Raw+JPEG
2) DNG+JPEG
3) Raw+DNG+JPEG

The tricky one to handle is #3. Displaying this as two thumbnails - a Raw+JPEG and a DNG+JPEG - wouldn't work very well because deleting one pair would leave the other pair without its JPEG image. Representing it as a new thumbnail type Raw+DNG+JPEG would be tricky to handle in BBPro and could be confusing to the user. Maybe it would make sense for the JPEG to be linked to the DNG if available otherwise it would link to the raw file.

[matyst]

Chris, thank you for replying.
Or one more possibility would be an option in preferences to choose which one (native RAW or DNG) to link with JPEG if both DNG and RAW are present.

Is there a chance that any of these solutions will be implemented in future releases?

Tomasz

[Chris Breeze]

I took a look at it on Friday and I think the best way is to link the JPEG to the DNG if present otherwise link it to the raw file. I will include this in the next release.

[FotoTravis]

While on the subject of DNG files, will any future version of BBP allow for DNG RAW conversion? Just wondering.

Travis