Skip to main content
areohbee
areohbee
Legend
September 13, 2011
Open for Voting

P: SDK: stack ops

  • September 13, 2011
  • 16 replies
  • 1245 views

1st choice would be a complete set of stack ops, but my present need is just to be able to expand a stack so a photo can be selected that's under another. Another solution to my immediate need (and some others) would be to have the 'setSelectedPhotos' method always expand stacks as necessary *and* make active whatever source is needed to make the specified photo(s) selected (at least as an option...).

    16 replies

    A
    anonymous4212
    Participating Frequently
    October 28, 2024

    Also voicing my support for this feature. I have just switched to a RAW+JPEG workflow and I cannot believe how ineffective the stacking options are in Lightroom. Auto-Stack by Capture Time is stacking more than 2 photos together in many cases.

     

    I am trying to write a plugin to simply stack photos that have the same filename - so simple! But it seems I can't, because the SDK doesn't allow me to create stacks, despite developers asking for this 13 years ago...

     

    Please, please have a look at this feature Adobe!

    S
    SzurszewskiJ
    Participant
    March 14, 2024

    I would really benefit from having stacking functions added to the SDK, and I suspect others would too. It's not uncommon to have 3-5 versions of a photo, where each DNG or TIFF version was created by a different plugin (first I run the photo through a perspective correction plugin which creates a new file, then I run that through a B&W conversion plugin, which creates another new file, etc.) I would love to be able to automatically stack all of these version of the same photo together, based on the same file name root. But failing that, providing access to stacking functions in the SDK would at least allow me (or someone else) to write a Lua plugin to do something like this. Or maybe if stacking was available in the SDK, developers of the plugins I mentioned above would add an option to stack their new file with the source file, much like there is a stacking option in the Enhance dialog when using AI Denoise. 

      T
      thomas5CED
      Inspiring
      January 28, 2024

      Is there any update on this? The auto stacking features in lightroom are quite limited and scripting support would really help here (Which company wouldn't like the community implementing missing features for them?). I don't care that much about modifying UI related stack operations (expand/collapse), but I am more intersted in insert/remove/create functionality. This can probably be done with 2 functions like stackAfterPhoto(a, b) (adds a photo b to the stack of a after a, or creates a new stack consisting of a and b) and a function removePhotoFromStack.

        dzigakaiser
        dzigakaiser
        Known Participant
        May 1, 2020
        Ah, I misunderstood then. I also see right now that it's actually not tormenting the drive when stacking but LR takes a very long time writing the info to the database. I am gonna open a new thread for this, though, to find out if this can be optimized somehow:) Thanks for your help so far!
        Creating worlds for screen and paper - also offering photo resources and HDRIs on www.dziga.com
        johnrellis
        johnrellis
        Legend
        May 1, 2020
        "I actually didn't know LR writes stacking information into the metadata but that explains why simple grouping/stacking takes so long on houndreds of files and torments the drive they are on."

        The stacking gets written to the catalog file but not to the metadata stored inside photo files or their sidecars.  So something else is tormenting your disks.
        dzigakaiser
        dzigakaiser
        Known Participant
        May 1, 2020
        Thank you! That might come in very handy.

        For now, lacking this information, I worked around it by creating a collection for the panorama images first and then retrieving the collection and then all member photos from my selection.

        I actually didn't know LR writes stacking information into the metadata but that explains why simple grouping/stacking takes so long on houndreds of files and torments the drive they are on. ^¬^
        Creating worlds for screen and paper - also offering photo resources and HDRIs on www.dziga.com
        johnrellis
        johnrellis
        Legend
        May 1, 2020
        "I think if Adobe made an effort to open up the scripting possibilities a bit more (maybe even introducing other languages) their product palette would greatly increase in value for professional production. Some of the subscription money could be spent there instead of changing old and working features into buggy tools ;)"

        Absolutely agree. But since LR 4, Adobe has put very little effort into the SDK. There are many feature requests on this forum to provide inexplicably missing SDK features that would significantly enhance the capabilities of plugins.
        johnrellis
        johnrellis
        Legend
        May 1, 2020
        The SDK does provides stacking information for folders but not for collections, but it won't let you modify stacking. See the documentation for these keys to photo:getRawMetadata(): countStackInFolderMembers, stackInFoldermembers, isInStackInFolder, stckInFolderIsCollapsed, stackPositionInFolder, topOfStackInFolderContainingPhoto.
        dzigakaiser
        dzigakaiser
        Known Participant
        May 1, 2020
        I will also revive this 9 year old topic and add my +1

        In addition, or most important to me, would be the possibility to have a photo/photos selected and get their stack and then all photos inside this stack via Lua. 

        It is a real bummer that there doesn't seem to be a way to get stack information via script.

        If someone knows a way for the functionality above, please feel free to let me know.

        I think if Adobe made an effort to open up the scripting possibilities a bit more (maybe even introducing other languages) their product palette would greatly increase in value for professional production. Some of the subscription money could be spent there instead of changing old and working features into buggy tools 😉

        Take care,
        Dziga
        Creating worlds for screen and paper - also offering photo resources and HDRIs on www.dziga.com
        F
        FeedbackCommunityMember
        Inspiring
        May 19, 2019
        I need this feature for my HDR workflow. I stack every HDR series. But the time stack tool isn that perfect. Merge to much or less pictures, so I need to check every stack again.
        I simply want 0/-/+1 HDR Stacking. Could simply develop a script for myself, but I can't stack the founded images in a stack because of missing SDK methods.

        Rob Cole already make good suggestions of the required features. You have nearly all of them already in the context menu. Just open them to the SDK. Thanks!
        Show more replies
        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
        Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices