How can I create a smart collection of Pixel Shift images ?

[madbrain76]

For the last 6 years, I have been the owner of a Pentax K-1 II DSLR .

When I use the Pixel Shift feature, it records 4 images in a single DNG file.

LRc is able to process these files and combine the 4 exposures, as long as there is no motion.

If there is motion, it is preferable to use an external processor such as Pentax Digital camera utility or RawTherapee.

My problem is that I don't see any way to distinguish which images in my catalog are Pixel Shift, and which are not. I can filter by camera model and file format (I only shoot in DNG anyway), but that does not narrow it down enough.

I checked the metadata of one of my PixelShift files using exiftool. It showed the following field :

[Pentax]        Quality                         : RAW (pixel shift enabled)

Is there any way to create a smart collection that filters based on this metadata ?

I  checked using "all plug-in metadata" for the word "shift" and it didn't match any photo.

[Ian Lyons]

Have a look at Anyfilter by @John R Ellis It's a Lightroom Classic plugin that may do what you're looking for. I've tagged this post for John's attention.

https://johnrellis.com/lightroom/anyfilter-criteria.htm

[madbrain76]

Ian,

Thanks. I checked out AnyFilter. It doesn't appear to allow searching for that specific metadata information yet. I e-mailed John to inquire if I missed something.

[Ian Lyons]

John partcipates on this forum. I'm sure he will followup your email or here on the forum.

[John R Ellis · Accepted solution]

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

@madbrain76, 

The Any Filter documentation only lists explicitly fields from the catalog that LR directly supports. But Any Filter also lets you search any of the thousands of additional fields returned by Exiftool. 

The field you're interested in is stored in the manufacturer-specific MakerNotes:PixelShiftResolution, and you can search for it with Any Filter's ExifTool Field criterion:

(Tip: Click the magnifying glass   to search for field names quickly.)

Since ExifTool can only search about 100 - 200 photos/sec, you can speed up Any Filter's searching of ExifTool Field considerably by restricting the search to a smaller set of photos, e.g. by using the File Type criterion.

Another tip: When using ExifTool to poke around inside a photo, use the options "-a -G".  The -a option will show all the fields from different metadata sections that happen to have the same name, and -G will prefix the name with the metadata section it's coming from, e.g. MakerNotes or EXIF.

[madbrain76]

John,

Thank you very much for your response. With your help, I was able to get the search and filter to work.  just purchased a license. I have a few more questions / comments, which I hope are constructive.

1) Do I always have to initiate the search/filter through the File / plug-in extras menu options ? I was hoping to use the filter as part of a smart collection, or manual search (library filter) without going through that menu. each time. Is this something LRc won't allow due to API limitations ?

2) Your doc talks about using saved filters, but not about how/where to save a filter. The only place I can see where things can be saved is unter the Search menu option. Did i miss something ? It's a little bit confusing to me for it to be located under Search rather than Filter.

3) The exiftool location was not easy to find.

I wish the first line of your post - "[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]" had actually been sent as part of the e-mail I received 😉

I read it in my gmail, and did not see that statement. Maybe it's an Adobe issue. As a result, I looked for quite a while for where the Exiftool might be located. And I would never have found it on my own.

I know it's in the doc, but it's in also in parentheses, and there is no screenshot there like the one you helpfully included here. Just adding that screenshot to the doc would be very helpful.

4) I would also suggest that Exiftool be made a top-menu option, as it is a bit of a catch-all, and I'm guessing it is a frequent use case.

5) It would be beneficial for the drop-down menu options list to to be organized and/or sorted differently. It's hard for me to search the way the menus are designed now.  I see that options are organized logically rather than alphabetically, for example Short edge, Long edge. Perhaps this calls for an extra column - ie. one column for Edge, another column for Long and Short.  Or rename the two options Edge (Long) and Edge (Short) and sort alphabetically, which is far simpler. Just a suggestion that I think would make it more usable.

Thanks again for a very useful plug-in.

[Lumigraphics]

If Anyfilter doesn't work, you could use EXIFTool to search for that tag and write a keyword that could be searched and filtered with Lightroom.

[madbrain76]

Yes, I thought of that, but it's a bit of a pain. If I did that, I would at least want to be able to trigger it for each import, to run it only on newly imported files. I don't see a way to call an external process at import time in LRc, though.

There is also the question of where to store the keywords and how to get LRc to pick up the metadata changes without messing things up, like existing LRc edits.

[Lumigraphics]

There are some easy ways to use EXIFTool with Lightroom but yes if you can get this in a plugin, so much the better. I'm amazed that someone hasn't integrated the two.

[madbrain76]

AnyFilter did, in fact, integrate the two.