Camera Raw Navigation / Skip Images with Arrow Keys

[Eschweiler.photographer]

Hey Guys!

Can you tell me if i can update to CR13 - i had to do a downgrade BECAUSE I NEED TO SKIP IMAGES with the ARROW KEYS! Did they change that again? If not I really have to think about another Raw Converter where i can crop and skip Images really fast. Crop & Skip, Crop & Skip and so on. How about Phase One or any other product? Can anyone give some advice? 

Thanks, Christian

[Mohit Goyal]

Hi there,

We're sorry for the trouble. Could you please provide a video for this issue? Also, what platform you are on now (Windows/Mac)? We have released ACR 13.0.1 update today to fix some issues on macOS.

Thanks,

Mohit 

[Eschweiler.photographer]

Hi Mohit, well no, i can't because that would mean that i'd have to upgrade first and then maybe find out that it still won't work for me. Its not an "Issue" anyways. In CR 11.x i could skip pictures (navigate) with the arrow keys. Then with some update this wasn't possible anymore. 

[Eschweiler.photographer]

its also not an windows or mac issue - its just the design of the software. if it stays how it is right now, then i'd like to know a workaround thats as quick as skipping the pictures with arrow keys - in CR12.x i had to choose every picture by clicking on it. HORRIBLE! Thats why i'm asking if CR 13 is still that way... Thanks for your help

[Conrad C]

I just tried this out, and although I don’t remember exactly how the arrow keys behaved in earlier versions of Camera Raw, I can see what you mean. But it still seems to be possible, even if it might be different than in the past:

• If no options are active in any panel, you can press the Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys to go from image to image.
• If an option is active in a panel, because you were adjusting something, then the arrow keys are keyboard shortcuts for adjusting that value. Because of that, they can’t be used to go from image to image, at least not the arrow keys alone, read on…

If you want to use the arrow keys to navigate images but they’re editing an active value, you have two options:

• To stop editing a value and switch to using arrow keys for navigating images only, press the Esc key to escape the active option.
• To let the arrow keys do both jobs (edit value AND navigate images), add the Command key (Mac) or Ctrl key (Windows) to the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key when you want to navigate images.

I recommend learning that second option because it has a great productivity advantage: If the cursor is active in a field like Highlights so that you can use the arrow keys to nudge and edit the value, you can then press the Command-Right Arrow/Ctrl-Right Arrow keys to go to the next image, and the same field will remain highlighted for that next image; now you can edit that image’s value with the keyboard and go to the next image with the keyboard. This is a very efficient way to edit many images with the keyboard without touching the mouse (because you can also switch the field you’re editing with Tab or Shift-Tab).

So the way this works is technically a feature, since it lets the arrow keys do double duty for more efficient keyboard-only editing. It’s also consistent with Lightroom Classic, which is how I figured this out. For me those features have been important for efficiently editing batches of raw files with the keyboard.

[Eschweiler.photographer]

Hey Conrad, thanks for that answer, it helped at least a bit. So i can skip Images by pressing command/arrow to navigate. it still brings another problem - if i'm in crop mode i can't quickly touch the slider of any value, like exposure, for example. I have to press b twice to get there. in previous versions i could still edit values while beeing in crop mode. is there any solution for this? 

i have to edit 1000 images per job and this actuell solution still costs a lot of more time, because i have to change mode. if theres no better way doing this, is it maybe the wrong software for my purposes now? is there any other software to crop and edit VERY fast, or how does this work in lightroom for example? do i have control over exposure options while cropping an image? 

Thank you so much for your help?

Christian

[Eschweiler.photographer]

If the cursor is active in a field like Highlights so that you can use the arrow keys to nudge and edit the value, you can then press the Command-Right Arrow/Ctrl-Right Arrow keys to go to the next image, and the same field will remain highlighted for that next image; now you can edit that image’s value with the keyboard and go to the next image with the keyboard.

ok - that does not work. i thought i could do these changes in a second roll, but i can't skip images with command/arrow if a value field is active! it will still be active even if i press and hold command

[Conrad C]

Eschweiler.photographer wrote:

ok - that does not work. i thought i could do these changes in a second roll, but i can't skip images with command/arrow if a value field is active! it will still be active even if i press and hold command

This is what I get. What is shown below is changing the image by pressing Command-Right arrow. As the next image appears, the Exposure field stays highlighted for keyboard editing. The keyboard navigation does loop around from the last image to the first, that’s not just the animated GIF.

This is a separate issue than being able to get to Exposure when in Crop mode; that may not be resolvable in the current version.

[Eschweiler.photographer]

Well, first of all thanks for that detailed explanation! I start to find my workarounds and it works somehow. My left hand is hurting from keeping the little finger and command while cropping, that sucks a little. 🤨

Yet i wonder why you are able to skip an image with cmd/arrow while your exposure field is highlighted. this definitely does not work in my CR13 which updated by it self yesterday, which again SUCKS.

Do you think it is a bug that i currently can't skip images the way that you show in your GIF?

Thanks a lot again, you help a lot. I'll consider trying Lightroom as well as i'll take a look on Phase One.

Greetings from Germany,

Christian

[Conrad C]

Eschweiler.photographer wrote:

another problem - if i'm in crop mode i can't quickly touch the slider of any value

It looks like this is going to be a problem. I looked at an older Camera Raw on an older system I have, and the way it works there is that (as you know) Crop is a tool, not a mode, so the image editing options can be adjusted while you are cropping. But in Camera Raw 13, Crop is a mode, not a tool, so you can’t get to the image editing options because it isn’t in that mode. I’m guessing they did it that way to be able to create more room for crop options. But that means you can either crop or adjust the image, but not both at the same time.

You asked about other software. I spend most of my time in Lightroom Classic, and there the Crop options are in a panel stacked with the other panels below it, so settings such as Exposure are still visible and editable in the middle of a crop. So that’s one option, as long as you don’t mind having to catalog the images in the Lightroom Classic database first, and as long as Lightroom Classic is fast on your computer on a large shoot (experiences on that still seem to vary a lot). I don’t know how other raw processing software handles this.

[Conrad C]

I don’t know if a bug is preventing the field from staying selected for you. If there is a bug, it may be related to our different keyboard layouts since I am in the USA and you are in Germany. In the past there have been keyboard shortcut issues in some applications on different keyboard layouts. But that is speculation, I don’t know for sure.

If this can't be resolved I hope you find the best software for your work, whatever application it is.