Stream Deck for keywording?

[BartonGarrett256]

Has anyone used Stream Deck to keyword or sort in Windows 10 Lightroom?

 Anyone know if LR will accept, and can Stream Deck do actions- can I use it to eliminate the need to use three keystrokes to delete an image from my drive? Now it takes Delete+Left Arrow+Enter.  I do that thousands of times as I winnow out images.  Getting to one key would be a dream come true.

I've got 20,000 images to sort and keyword. 

And having multiple sets of 15 preloaded keywords would be so much faster than the tiny handful Adobe lets me preload.

I  watched their tutorials and a few third party "Hey You Guys" YouTube pieces, none of them were worth a bucket of warm spit. It's mostly used by gamers I guess.

Thanks

[Rob_Cullen]

I cannot answer to "Stream Deck", but I might have suggestions that could be useful-

three keystrokes to delete an image from my drive?

A better method might be to use the "Reject" Flag- it only takes one keypress [X] then at any time later [Ctrl+Backspace] will delete ALL the Rejected files from disk. (Having a Filter active can also 'hide' the rejects as you flag them)

15 preloaded keywords...

Yes Adobe limit us to nine in the Keyword Set panel. I think the reason for this is that when you hold down the [Alt] key you get to use a numeric keyboard (9 keys) to add the keywords (eg. [Alt+1] = 'Bride' in the Wedding set )

My son uses a Stream Deck (but not a frequent Lr user) I will pose the question to him.

Edit: (Do not ask me to explain!)

How to use Stream Deck?  My son's responses-

You can prgram a key to insert a word or phrase when pressed.

You could set up a button as a folder, and when you press it, it shows each of your commonly used keywords.

A button can type in a common copyright message.

[BartonGarrett256]

Thanks!

I am not a big fan of flagging and deleting en masse, not enough visibility for me, too many things could go wrong.  I want to delete one image with one keystroke, only the single image I am looking at. The downside of deleting the wrong image is too big.  One at a time, but quickly, is what I want. 

Keywording in LR is very clunky, it should be easier to customize the menus.  I'd rather see that developed as opposed to iPad apps, I will often work with one PS file larger than the RAM in my iPad, why anyone is keeping a catalog of 100K images in the cloud baffles me.

 I'm hoping to do that customization with Stream Deck. It looks to be pretty straightforward to do in PS, Pr and AE, but I'm not sure about LR. I've got to see if custom shortcuts can be done in LR, or if I can combine keystrokes in Stream Deck. 

Thanks again

[janner17004274]

I am using Lr with stream deck. It is very easy to program shortcuts with hotkeys.

But it doesnt work perfectly.

For example, when I am using shortcut remove and trash photo (cmd opt shift delete), I need still accept removing. 

[Conrad C]

BartonGarrett256 said:

“And having multiple sets of 15 preloaded keywords would be so much faster than the tiny handful Adobe lets me preload.”

I don’t have a Stream Deck, but because Lightroom Classic has keyboard shortcuts for the keyword sets, that’s probably possible by programming keystrokes into the Stream Deck. You might know these already, but in case you don’t, I’m listing them because they’re not well documented:

• To use keys to apply a keyword from the current keyword set, hold down the Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) key and press the number that appears next to the keyword you want to apply. The numbers appear next to the keywords only when Option/Alt is pressed.
• To cycle to the next keyword set, press Option/Alt + 0 (zero).
• To cycle to the previous keyword set, press Option/Alt + Shift + 0.

If you don’t see the buttons I’m talking about, they might be hidden. If so, reveal them by clicking the triangle next to the Keyword Set menu.

In the Keywording panel, the Keyword Set menu lets you create more of your own named keyword sets. I'm not aware of a limit to how many keyword sets you can create. If there isn’t a limit, then the practical limit is the maximum number of keyword sets you are willing to cycle through with keys.

The Lightroom Classic keyword set buttons are laid out like a 10-key number pad, so keyword entry can be very fast and efficient using an extended keyboard’s numeric keypad, which is what I do. To take advantage of the button layout with the Stream Deck, you would assign keystrokes Option/Alt + 1–9 to any 3 x 3 button area of the Stream Deck, and pick two more unused button for the previous set/next set shortcuts. This obviously means you don’t want to use a Stream Deck Mini, because the Mini doesn’t have enough buttons or rows.

By using arrow keys to select images, and the Command+K/Ctrl+K shortcut to enter keywords that are not in a set, you can get a lot of keywording done fast without touching a mouse.

[BartonGarrett256]

Thanks Conrad,

 I was not aware of the Alt+ number trick, that is very helpful. 
Ideally some day Adobe will let us configure the keywording panel, like they do with other toolbars.

I bought a Stream Deck, doing more digging I found it can be programmed to do multiple keystrokes with one button.  My first project will be one button deleting, then I'll move on see what I can do to keywords. This month I've got to triage and keyword 19,000 images, in 130 folders/shoots, one image at a time, shot last year for a pelican survey/book project. 

My current workflow is to set up a folder based on the date of shoot, with a two or three word name identifying the customer and the project, it is a sub-folder of a year-month folder which is a sub-folder of a year folder.

I transfer all images from the card to that folder using Breeze Browser, then do coarse deleting in Breeze Browser. (deletions on CF or SD cards corrupted them, I now use QXD cards and won't risk damaging them testing that) Breeze Browser has one click deleting. I don't clear the card until my next shoot, so I've got a backup, and a little more insurance with the 'doesn't really reformat' protocol in cards.  
Then I import the folder into LR and develop as well as keyword at a batch level.  From there I do more image specific developing and deleting. Now in LR deleting  takes three clicks, and the common error is the image is just removed from LR which is a hassle to fix.  From there depending on how busy I am and specific client or project needs I keyword each image  as required. LR is woefully inadequate in terms of enabling me to customize and speed up the whole process. 

[Conrad C]

How would you want to configure the keywording panel beyond the customization that’s already available (being able to set up your own multiple keyword sets (button grids))? Do you wish there were more buttons in the grid, for example?

[BartonGarrett256]

Just off the top of my head...

Take the bodies working on LRcc (New Coke in my book) and do:

 A way to display keywords on photos in grid or single image view, not in some obscure box away from image.

It should not require three clicks to get out of keywording pasting mode to move on to next image. 

Filmstrip and grid mode should have the same behavior for copying and pasting, now filmstrip only does first selected image, grid does them all, that is at best nonsensical. 

I want to be able to zip out the menu, resize it, and place it elsewhere. Like you can do in PS, AE, Pr, ID.

I want control over the rules it uses to suggest keywords, it appears to be completely random to me.

I want control over how many keywords are in a set.

[BartonGarrett256]

And I want to use an Alexa like format to speak keywords and have them entered as I go. 

[Rob_Cullen]

It should not require three clicks to get out of keywording pasting mode to move on to next image.

[Ctrl+Right Arrow]  moves to next image and keeps the small 'add keywords' panel active.

Program in your Stream Deck?

[Conrad C]

“A way to display keywords on photos in grid or single image view, not in some obscure box away from image…I want to be able to zip out the menu, resize it, and place it elsewhere. Like you can do in PS, AE, Pr, ID.”

Unfortunately, not going to happen any time soon, the fundamental UI of Lightroom Classic is definitely not based on the same panel & workspace model as the other Adobe applications. Lightroom Classic was intentionally designed from the beginning as a departure or rethinking of the editing UI. We don’t all agree with the fixed panel stacks…and yet, so many other raw editing applications now copy it instead of improving on it.

There are signs that Adobe may be starting to relent. If you right-click a Develop panel header, Adobe recently added the Customize Develop Panel command. This lets you rearrange the order of the panels, or hide them. For many years, no customization was possible other than hiding panels, so this is (a tiny bit of) progress.

However, if we ever get to detach panels and move them around in Lightroom Classic, no one knows how many years that will take. I would love to put them on my secondary display as I do in Photoshop.

I don’t find the keyword box obscure because I use it so much that my eye goes there out of habit.

One quirky keywording alterative is to use the metadata Painter tool. If you set it to paint Keywords, then it will apply the current keyword to whatever images you click on. Pressing Shift pops up the current keyword set. However, this shows you only keywords you can apply to an image you click, not keywords already applied to a selected image. But it’s the only way to see keywords somewhere other than in a side panel.

I don’t use this method because I keyword much faster with the all-keyboard steps below.

“It should not require three clicks to get out of keywording pasting mode to move on to next image.”

It doesn't. WobertC already posted the tip: By pressing Ctrl (Command on Mac) and the right or left arrow key, you can switch images while leaving the current field active. This is the basis of how I do speed keywording without touching the mouse:

1. Activate keyword entry field.
2. Start typing, let Lightroom Classic autofill the rest of the keyword if I’ve used it before, press Enter to finish the autofilled keyword. (But do not press Enter again or it will deactivate the field.)
3. Press the comma key to indicate a new keyword in the same field, then repeat step 2.
4. When done, press Ctrl/Command + arrow key to go to previous or next image, and keep typing since the field was kept active.

“Filmstrip and grid mode should have the same behavior for copying and pasting, now filmstrip only does first selected image, grid does them all, that is at best nonsensical.”

Yes…it's nonsensical. I have disliked this behavior for years. Whether an edit affects one image or any should not depend on a subtle difference between viewing modes that I have to stop and think about. If multiple images are selected, it should always affect them all. It’s not clear whether they will ever fix this.

“I want control over the rules it uses to suggest keywords, it appears to be completely random to me.”

Yeah, I haven’t found the suggested keyword list to be useful. I leave it hidden and use my own sets.

“I want control over how many keywords are in a set.”

While it’s technically possible, moving it on from its current design (optimized for 10-key number pad entry) is probably not near the top of the priority list for users or Adobe. Implementing it would probably take both a formal request and rallying enough other users.

If you aren’t already aware, feature requests are submitted, tracked, and responded to on the Lightroom Feedback site. Some of your ideas are probably already in there (here’s one for applying changes to a multiple selection, and other instances of that one can be found there). If they’re already entered, you can see how many people have voted for or discussed individual requests, and if Adobe has responded or posted a status for them, because they often do. Of course, seeing one’s requests in the context of all the others can also show how many other requests and priorities there are across the user base that compete with the ones we personally want.

[BartonGarrett256]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I refuse to  call LR "LR Classic". They can name it whatever they want, whether that sticks is a different matter.  Classic, as a title, in my experience means: end of life approaches.  My files are getting bigger, not smaller, and I don't use my ipad or phone to do Lr, Ps, Pr, Id or Ae work and don't plan to; CC is something I just don't get.

Displaying the keywords with the image in one or more of the modes can't be that difficult, and not doing it is in my opinion stupid. Keep the entry box, but show the output.

I've played with the painter tool and found it clunky.

Autofill is clunky too, for my use if I could change the rules it would be great, but as is no.  I once helped a friend bring a boat through the Panama Canal.  I took my camera, and keyworded the images, like five years ago.  I do a lot of panoramas for client work and have a dozen keywords starting with Pan... every time I enter that with autofill on I get Panama, Panama Canal and I have to click down through that.  I have not keywoded a photo with Panama in five years Adobe, stop suggesting it.  

I work in Ps, Lr, Ae, Pr, Ai, Id and Mu, I am no longer interested in memorizing hundreds of strings of random numbers for each program, which is what shortcuts are.  That's like having two girlfriends, it sounds great in your twenties, but it's really just a pain in the ass.  I assume the future will be voice activated or AI that knows what we are going to need and offers it. 

 I am aware of the feature list, in a previous life I was a product manager, making instruments for genetic research.  In the days before forums I used to spend thousands of dollars to get engineers to trade shows or out to see difficult or important customers.  Now they simply have to read forums.  If the coders and PMs are not checking these forums every day there is no hope. No silver platter from me. 

If you asked a farmer in 1830 what he needed he would tell you a horse that could go 10 hours without rest, not a tractor.  I'm counting on these guys to have some vision.  That said there are a lot more causal photographers than professionals, so there is conflict there.

I live on the SF peninsula, half way between SJ and SF.  I go to the user groups and have been to both locations for talks and one on one user imput sessions.  A year or two ago a PM told me they have something like 40 coders in India working on Lr, so they have not abandoned it yet. 

I went to a Julianne Kost talk in Palo Alto a few months ago, she reminded everyone that she has a fairly complete PDF list of shortcuts for Ps and Lr on her blog, I've been meaning to go download them, that is next.