P: A better search/find in the library module (Library Filter)

It would be very nice if we could search by exposure level (Not exposure Bias), by histogram.

Right now, I have a thousand images to edit, and I wanted to seach only the under-exposed, so I could apply the right adjustments at once. The same for over-exposed. (And/or for pictures that look-alike. As google does with the image search)

I've searched google but couldnt find any plugin that does it. Neither anyone talking about it... 😞

+1 star ;-)

And another recent addition: Metadata Extensions (free, by me).

It's kind-of-an odd-ball - you have to select which items are of interest up front (since having all enabled would be a large drain on cpu) - supports having selected (non-exif) metadata items available for Lr-standard/built-in lib filters and smart collections, e.g. stack position, folder path, aspect ratio...............

And also: Space Urchin (free by me), which is even more of an odd-ball than Metadata Extensions, but can be very convenient (especially if you have spaces in your metadata, but even if not..).

And don't forget: AnySource by John Ellis - searching for folders and collections is still searching ;-}.

There is also John Beardsworth's ListView, which supports metadata filtering and sorted results (beware of potential conflict with other plugins).

Have we missed any?

Me? I use most of them, depending on circumstance.

* I use ExifMeta (without XMP option enabled) - once source metadata is in catalog, it never changes, and so this plugin drains ~0 cpu cycles after initially writing metadata to catalog.
* I use DevMeta because I frequently want to filter/search based on develop settings. It requires a big chunk of the CPU (since it kicks in every time you change anything - kinda like auto-save XMP feature), but I've got some to spare..
* I enable selected Metadata Extension options for frequently used items.
* I use Space Urchin if I simply want to consider spaces to be part of search term and metadata being searched (or want to use pattern matching), in a library text filter. (I also have a few "dynamix-enhanced" smart collections).
* I use AnyFilter for one-time or infrequent queries - it's *very* handy (and reliable).
* I don't use Search, Replace, & Transfer, nor ListView, since neither is reliable when also using plugins that do background catalog updates (like Metadata Extensions, DevMeta, ExifMeta, ... ) - John Beardsworth is aware of this problem and so may have fixed it by now - dunno.
* I don't use jf's Extended Search only because I didn't learn about it until after my needs were covered.
* I rarely use jf's Data Explorer - it's a great plugin, but again: my needs were (and still are) already covered by the above-mentioned. Dunno about reliability, but Jefffrey has promptly fixed every bug I've reported, so not to worry..).

Rob

Another plugin for enhanced search: Data Explorer, which lets you group photos by 150 different criteria. http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-good...

I hope, even if Adobe implements a search UI "confined to an iddy-biddy space" that there is also an option to use a full-sized dialog box, with all options presented.., instead of the "rubik's cube" UI design which has become so popular (e.g. Windows search facility)

I guess I'm just old-fashioned...

I like the base idea of this request that a better search is needed. I think this feature request could be tightened up and more focused to alleviate confusion. It seems as though two separate topics are being requested here.

My 2¢; Best full featured open search I have seen is Windows 7 folder search bar, it is simple, quick to type a search string into, and extremely powerful when paired with a knowledge of nearly never ending commands that can be passed into it.

Thanks for a great summary John

I second that request!

The Any Filter plugin lets you match against the month, day of month, day of week, and time of day.

I would like to be able to use Smart Collections to show only images that have been Stacked. I use stacks to manage my images that need to be merged for HDR and Panorama's and being able to create a Smart Collection that would show only the images that are Stacked would be great. Also, please show them stacked not unstacked.

Thanks,

Robert

As of LR3, only the "Capture Date" field is available for use in a Smart collection rule. I'd love to see:

- "Capture Month": i.e., a field matching only the month, whatever the day or year is. I try to always keyword a photo with the *name* of the month it was taken in. It makes my life much easier with respect to 3rd party websites and external APIs (faster than looking at the EXIF), and I can look for photos that were taken specifically in autumn for example. Right now, my smart collection rule "No April" that test if a photo needs to be "fixed" because its "Capture Date" is in April but it doesn't have the April keyword is *humongous*; I have to pile "Capture Date is in the range 2011-04-01 to 2011-04-31", "Capture Date is in the range 2010-04-01 to 2010-04-31", "Capture Date is in the range 2009-04-01 to 2009-04-31", etc back to 10 years in the past under a "Any of the following are true". Clumsy, and slow. My "Mislabeled April" is equally fun, the same huge list going back 10 years, and test if any of the keyword contains January, February, March, etc. all months except April.

- Capture Time: same principle, only match against the time, not the date. It could be used with "Capture Month" to create a smart collection of all the photos taken during "Golden hour" for example (around sunset/sunrise).

Thanks