New release of Snapselect from Macphun

If you bought Snapselect on the App Store after reading the initial and followup Quick Looks, be advised that V1.1 is out.  Your Mac may not be set to auto update and if not, you definitely want this update in your machine.  As they promised, the folks at Macphun have improved the user interface, particularly to help serious photographers and editors who want to use Snapselect in conjunction with Lightroom or Aperture.  If you have not bought it yet, today might be the day.  Do note that like all Macphun software, it is Mac only. I ran into some snags getting it to see images inside folders inside my existing Lightroom catalog, but getting to images in folders or on a card was no problem at all.  I was able to read folders from my Lightroom catalog with a different set of images.  So the issue could have been something to do with the first set being images from a Canon EOS-M.   You can also browse by Collection, a tool that I use all the time, but be aware that with this release Snapselect can only deal with top level collections, not collections stored inside Collection Sets.  While I find this inconvenient, I think it is fair to recall that Snapselect is designed to cull before you go through the whole import and collection building process.

I am not sure which RAW converter Snapselect is using, I suspect it may be the OS X native one.  What I found interesting is that Snapselect was able to open folders and browse images including EXIF and histogram for Hasselblad's proprietary 3FR RAW format.  Photo Mechanic cannot do that and neither can the DXO tools.

Loading of an example folder of 500+ images took just over one minute, including the analysis phase.  The "similar" function is very effective.  I used a folder from a recent hockey game shoot and was very impressed by how the software gathered like images together as there were numerous burst mode sets of breakaways or glove saves.   The timeline view shows the images as they were captured, but as I noted in the third 7D Mk II review, the save sequence with the SD card looks like last frame in the burst first, instead of first to last.

It's also handy to be able to group shots into time intervals.  I used the default example of 5 minute blocks and it really simplifies the edit process.  You only need to know two keys Z is a pick, X is a reject.  This is very quick but inconsistent with the Lightroom Pick/Reject keyset.  I don't see these as reassignable at this point.

While there are other options such as a the much richer and much more expensive Photo Mechanic, Snapselect could very well be the culling program for the majority.  It is fast, easy to use and benefits from the talents of the Macphun developers.  If you shoot more than 100 images in a session, you need a culling tool and at $25, this is perfect, but buy it while it is on sale for $14.99 and you really cannot lose.

Followup on Snapselect Quick Look

I am always appreciative when a representative of the company making a product I take a look at makes the time to respond.  Kevin of Macphun sent a quick comment to yesterday's quick look and I wanted to share his thoughts with all of you, particularly his clarification of how Snapselect DOES integrate with Lightroom.  I missed this and really appreciate the opportunity to learn. Here are Kevin's thoughts direct from his reply..

1. It actually works well as a nice companion to Lightroom. You simply open up your LR catalog in Snapselect (as an image source vs. opening a folder), then any selects / rejects are automatically reflected back in Lightroom in two new Collections – Snapselect Picks and Snapselect Rejects. Opening up either of these Collections enables you to then do anything to the images that you would customarily do in LR (e.g. tag, keyword, edit, delete, etc.)

2. Can you do the culling process in LR? Of course (e.g. via flags, stars or keywords). Where Snapselect shines however is greatly speeding up that task by analyzing and presenting you with neat groups of similar images – then you’re laser-focused on culling *those* before turning attention to the unique images from your session.

You can read the other elements of what Kevin had to say in the Comments section, mostly they add on his thanks for the article and how his own workflow has changed.

This is one of the many reasons I like the people and products from Macphun.  They are directly engaged with the customer and are not some faceless corp-droid, not to name any G companies.

New from Macphun - Snapselect

The very nice folks at Macphun are announcing a new photo sorting application.  Like all their software it is Mac only and like some of their software it is sold only the Apple App Store.  It's on limited time sale for $14.99 and sadly you cannot buy it through my affiliate link, only through the App Store.  So let's check out what it does and why it is sold the way it is.As you may be aware, Macphun was built by a bunch of really talented folks who had been originally at Nik Software before it was acquired by Google.  Most of the really brilliant Nik apps and plugins were built involving the people now at Macphun. Macphun has three tiers of apps.   The first tier is the seemingly bottomless pit of mobile device applications.  We know that one of the drivers for Google to buy Nik was the amazing Snapseed.  Well Macphun still does smartphone apps, specifically Color Strokes, FX Studio, Perfect Photo and Vintagio.  They are very good smartphone installed apps.  I don't cover that marketplace but you can read the reviews and the pricing is excellent.

The second tier is the consumer market, where the apps are sold only on the App Store.  It is here that we find the first set of Mac OS X apps like Tonality, Colorstrokes, FX Photo Studio, Snapheal, Intensify,  and Lost Photos.  These are all standalone apps with good functionality at competitive standalone app prices.  This is where Snapselect lives as well.

Lastly are the Pro apps, meant for the more serious photographer / editor.  This is where we find the Pro versions of some of the consumer apps.  They work standalone as well as as plugins to Lightroom and Photoshop.  More features, tighter integrations, more demanding use cases.

Ok, Snapselect.

We've all been in the situation where we have hundreds or thousands of images to go through to cull out the keepers.  The usual route has been to import them to Lightroom or copy all the files to disk and then go through them one by one using some method to select the junk and delete it right away and perhaps at the same time to do some ranking for future work using some other flag system.  Pros have typically resorted to the brilliant and very expensive Photo Mechanic.  Snapselect aims to do this at the consumer level.  Now let's be clear that comparing Snapselect to Photo Mechanic is unfair to both offerings, they are not even in the same species.

With Snapselect you open all the images on the card or hard drive and go through them using a click metaphor to decide what you are going to keep or trash.  Snapselect also uses algorithms to group duplicate or "like" images together, so if you shot 76 photos of the cougar at the zoo, it plunks them all together to make the sorting easier.

Once you've gleaned the images, you can move them to specific folders on your hard disk or push them directly to social media like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

The theory then is that you could then import the keepers into your photo management application from the folders and start to work on them.  Snapselect reviews suggest that it works with Lightroom but doesn't really.  I'm not surprised.  A Snapselect Pro (which may appear) might do that more effectively but I really don't see this as an app for the sophisticated photographer / editor.  Got a zillion images from your smartphone to sort through?  That's the fit for Snapselect, or really any use case where you don't do serious photo management.

Research says it is 2-3 seconds per RAW image to render the previews to make the keep/delete decision.  I can get that kind of performance out of Lightroom.  I can also use the X key in Lightroom to flag a photo for deletion then quickly from the menu delete all so marked images.  If I want blazing culling speed, I will use Photo Mechanic.  Lightroom has improved render performance in the last couple of releases, and while it is nowhere near the speed of Photo Mechanic, delivers RAW performance akin to Snapselect, so if you are already a Lightroom user, why add more complexity?

So if you shoot mostly JPEGs and don't do any kind of automated photo management (meaning you manually build folder hierarchy on your drives), have a tendency not to cull and end up consuming storage, this app is for you.  If you are already committed to a management application and know how to leverage its own culling process, this may be too simplistic and too hard to integrate into your workflow.

Good for Macphun continuing to build interesting software.

FIRST LOOK : Macphun Tonality and Tonality Pro

I try to keep up with what's new in editing and post processing offerings.  When I first saw the offerings from Macphun, I was underwhelmed, but in the last six months we have seen significant enhancements in their offerings including Intensify Pro, Snapheal Pro and Focus Pro.  Unlike other vendors who put software into a suite and offer a bundle, Macphun Software goes the individual product route.  It's good because you only get what you want, but if you find yourself liking what they do, it could end up costing you more than a suite.  Macphun is getting pretty close to that point with the release of Tonality.  In fairness they do have a bundle, but that doesn't help those who've been loyal from the beginning and bought products as released.Tonality (and Tonality Pro) are another in a limited but wonderful specialization in black and white conversion.  I've talked about Silver Efex Pro 2 from Nik and Perfect Black and White from OnOne. The team at Macphun is comprised of many of the original (pre-Google-gobble) Nik Software folks.  Thus, you know that they know their way around photography and their way around a Macintosh.  One of the criticisms levelled at Macphun is that their software is Macintosh only.  Having spent a large part of my life at a software company, I've seen what happens when a small focused team gets stretched too far across more platforms than they can reasonably cover.  It's not good for anyone, and fortunately for me, and people like me, Macphun chooses (for the moment) not to overextend themselves beyond the Macintosh.

Tonality Pro (pictured) has the standard look and feel of a Macphun app.  A nice large working window on the left and scrolling menu / function bar on the right.  There are disclosure triangles to collapse sections to increase ease of use ( a la Lightroom) and all the expected functionality in a black and white conversion tool.  Macphun puts heavy emphasis on UI sometimes referred to as User Interface but also known as Usablity Index.  Having done seminars on Intensify Pro and Snapheal Pro, I've seen the ramp time to being comfortable being shorter for new users than some competitive offerings.  What is also good is that as a user develops skill, there is not a beginner wall to run into,  Macphun software has functionality that advanced users want and will use.

Like OnOne, but unlike Nik, Macphun supports Layers natively in their apps.  This makes the non-pro versions pretty useful for people without Photoshop.  The software doesn't have the scope and scale of Photoshop layers, but is quicker to learn and for many, easier to understand.

The Tone controls are similar to those found in Lightroom.  There are master exposure and contrast controls, including what Tonality calls Smart Contrast, then individual controls for Shadows, Midtones, Highlights, Blacks and Whites.   One could look at this as a simplified Zone system offering five zones instead of eleven.

The next section is Clarity and Structure.  Here's where Tonality starts to step out ahead.  In addition to macroscopic Clarity, there are also individual controls for general Structure and Micro Structure.  As details are a big part of the Black and White movement in general, these enhancements are very welcome.

Most all B&W converters bring the ability to apply a digital colour filter as we did when shooting black and white film.  Tonality not only brings the filters, you can control both the Luminance and Saturation of the filter.  I particularly like how intuitive this presentation is.  You can do this in other software, including natively in Lightroom, but I think the Tonality model is much easier to understand for new users.

Next you can choose to Split Tone, with separate density controls for Highlights and Shadows as is expected in a split tone or duotone control.  These features are not widely used in any software but when done well can really add significant interest.

There is a separate control specifically for Glow, a very nice feature as anyone who has come to love Nik's Glamour Glow will tell you.

There is also a blur control, that you can manage radially, similar to what is Lightroom, Photoshop and other software.  Again the UI is kept simple and understandable.

Next up is Texture.  Many photographers love the ability to overlay a texture to drive a mood, and this usually involves sourcing a texture and then a trip to Photoshop to apply a new layer with the texture and then working with the blend mode, and opacity to get the look you want.  Tonality brings it all to you simply in a module.  24 sample textures are included and you can of course load your own.  Blend modes are limited to Normal, Multiple, Soft Light, Overlay and Screen so Photoshop gives you more options, but I've heard from educators as sophisticated as Scott Kelby that these are the ones 99% of folks will ever need.

As one would expect, there is a Vignette and a Grain control.  They have the expected features and are easy to use.

There is also a Photoframe feature similar to the tool in Perfect Photo Suite but with only eleven choices.  Certainly sufficient to get started and the user has control over frame width.

The final individual control is Opacity to control the overall density of the combined settings.

Tonality also provides a substantial set of Presets to start with to use directly or as building blocks to your image.  Because there is the capacity for Layers, you can apply multiple Presets.  One might think that there is only one set of Presets called Basics because of the orientation of the disclosure triangle.  This is not correct as the number of Preset sets includes Basic, Architectural, Film Emulation, Portrait, Dramatic, Outdoor, Street, Vintage, Toning and HDR.  There is also a block for user created presets as well as a Favourites bucket.

Looking along the top bar we see the usual open, save, share, zoom and undo tools.  There is also an eyeball to quickly switch preview modes, a very nice cropping tool and help.  On the upper right there are Histogram, Paint (like painting on an inverse mask) with the expected size, opacity, feather, softness and brush type choices, Erase (paint on the mask), and a Graduated Filter tool.

In my test image (below) I found a limit of eight layers when used as a plugin from Lightroom.  I also discovered that the crop tool is not there when used as a plugin and I think that it should be for the simple reason that if you apply a photo frame and then want to change the crop, well you will lose your photo frame.  It's nitpicking but that's my observation.

The default return format is TIFF which will compress all the layers created in Tonality Pro when round-tripped from Lightroom.  You can also set the format to PSD, but the default setting in Tonality Pro is to flatten all the layers for the return, so if your expectation is to be able to hop in and out, and tweak layers after the fact, forget that.  It's disappointing that this so.  I could not find a preferences option not to flatten and did not find anything on this in the otherwise excellent online guide and tutorials.  Hopefully the Macphun folks will read this and consider it a feature request, or if it's already there, point out to this user how to do it.

Macphun does produce very good tutorial offerings in the form of videos and online guides.  Not all links resolve everything right now, but this will improve over time based on past experience.

When you mouse over the histogram a hidden feature appears that I really like, this is the Zone System overlay.  It shows hashes in your photo for each zone as you mouse down the scale.  Sadly there is no function I could find to change the colour of the hashmarks as grey on black and white is not particularly user friendly.  Perhaps this could be done in an update.

Should You Buy It?

For many folks, plugins are like candy, there are never enough.  At $60, the Pro version is not stupid money, but considering everything you get for $150 in the Nik suite, some would (ok have) argued against the spend.  I do a lot of work in black and white and while these days, I do most of it using The Digital Zone System from new friend Blake Rudis, the spend was worth it to me for speedy options. I really like that I can work in layers and manage the opacity of each layer, and that I have rich masking tools in the product.  It has a very usable interface and the learning curve is not steep at all.   There are items that are significant "missings" for me, but these may not be the same for everyone.  If you don't own a black and white conversion and editing tool, and don't want to learn to do all this work manually in Lightroom or Photoshop, Tonality Pro is a really good bet.  Now if you don't need this to be a plugin, can live with five instead of eight layers and don't care about blend modes, zone systems and colour bleed capability, you can get regular Tonality through the App Store for $20.   For lots of people, that could be more than enough.

Support The Photo Video Guy by purchasing Tonality Pro through my site

Tonality Pro