There has been some discussion recently on how to improve and simplify PhotoFlow’s UI (see here and here), and I have done some re-design work along those lines which ended up with this new type of UI layout:
The cut/copy/paste/delete/load save preset right click menu it’s very useful indeed. Good to be able to manually expand layers’ vertical space too =)
Would be great if the same the panels could be expanded manually to the right
Bellow the layers’ box to the left there’s quite a bit of empty space, I guess that is room to group layers’ expand/shrink toggle. Even so, everything could go further to left and name of layers also closer to the preview checkbox… that would make room for (e.g) more characters when naming the layers.
When opening masks it’s gets cluttered pretty easy mainly 'cause nomenclature and system used. A possible path for a clearer tree map (where am I?) and following this new changes, could be that when you double click on the layers mask, instead of jumping to another room, it could expand the layer down; how many masks are people gonna use? and also it would be very clear which layer you working the mask on. If you have a look to the layout I posted, if there were only 3 tabs above, layers / mask / ??? and the one in which we’re working was to be signaled clearly, that clutter of names above would disappear; just a possibility.
As far as I can sip you implemented the group get-together (layers selected get inside the newly created group) and one click properties access and new layer (orange list) add. Specially these last two make the whole twerking through much more fluid IMO.
{indian voice near the fire} Small steps took the ant before bitting the hero’s nuts. THE PATH IS A PATH. AHO!!!
ALSO
At a first dirty glass eye’s glance - needs heavy layer stacking and a white robe to properly test it (and I’m on a different machinflops) - paths and gradients’ feedback seem more responsive, getting out of the way when/as they should, gooooddd girls
Opinions drifting in the wind - A The values between SOME of the sliders (e.g Raw developer) need a separation of some sort (probably a flie’s inch of the BG darker grey): readeability purposes I guess if nothing else
B - One click access could be implemented with masks too, delimiting the area of layer selection right before the white square… that moby dick {WTF there’s no MD smiley!!!}
Threshold is repeated in the color tab of New Layer
CRASH test re-ordering draging group layer below one of the layers it countains crashes PF, no big deal… is not so much that anybody would do that on purpose but as nasty outcome of user error.
Most important thing, though it w’ont save you from penguin hell (sorry too much b moves)
#T H A N K Y O U#
Thanks. it looks good. I see some small things to report, mostly regarding the width of some controls - it looks like they unnecessarily occupy too much horizontal space (even just by very few pixels) and as a result a horizontal scrollbar is added at the bottom of the box. For example, in the sharpening filter, the ‘undo’ buttons cannot be fully shown and therefore the horizontal slider was added. Things like that seem to be happening with most layers.
Besides that, at first I had some difficulties running both the windows installer and the executable from the bundle. They just stop running immediately without any message. But it looks like I found the problem - Windows SmartScreen. It seems like Photoflow somehow got into the SmartScreen’s blacklist, and due to the Windows blocks its installation/execution. Things went well after I disabled the service using these instructions. I guess it’s required to contact MS to resolve this issue. Probably other users will face this problem too.
Some more work done this evening, fixing the controls width and sliders spacing. Plus the layers list and controls are moved to the right, to match the layout of other editors:
as democracy is a disappointment for left-handed users
Funny thing is that right eye is linked to left cerebral hemisphere; yet recent studies propose that we actually are cactus insane in the membrane {yes Cypress ref}, or that
Instead, the entire creative process– from preparation to incubation to illumination to verification-- consists of many interacting cognitive processes (both conscious and unconscious) and emotions. Depending on the stage of the creative process, and what you’re actually attempting to create, different brain regions are recruited to handle the task.
many of these brain regions work as a team to get the job done, and many recruit structures from both the left and right side of the brain. In recent years, evidence has accumulated suggesting that “cognition results from the dynamic interactions of distributed brain areas operating in large-scale networks
Potatoe peelers, scissors, cheese grators, most computer mice are all horrible… But I don’t see how the position of the panel is effected by your handedness… Or maybe I’ve been brainwashed by the righties.
Seriously though, I think the tool’s positioning differs from person to person. For instance I edit video, mix sound, grade and develop images always with the controls on the left side; as my right eye commands it’s way easier 4 me to read the images if they’re displayed on the left, the bigger the screen, the bigger the impact, to a point that when I work with an ext monitor becomes close to unbearable to have it on the left. Somehow my brain also “knows” that after the image there’s nothing else to “read” so it starts acknowledging the controls and its layout and then uses all remaining resources to read the changes happening on the herd of pixels. Text is opposite, I need it to be on the left side… when I’m reading a book I always read the left side way faster than right side, often I fold it so there’s less quarrel inside my skull
That’s just the practical way I personally found to deal with me own physiological particularities when engaging these kind of technical (repetitive) processes. The interesting thing about the article is that it points out that there’s a refuting going on about the embraced prescriptive brain’s separation, at least in regards to the creative processes. Psssss, took scientists, mathematicians, quantum physic bambis and the whole parade a long time to finally arrive to the same “conclusions” that shamans have since millennia… Picking up a shovel and unearthing Aristotle
BTW the sept and the new UI (not the older) of Photoflow’s builds crashed bad when trying to open the NEF I uploaded for the playraw thingie Checked in a couple OSX machines {noo don’t call me that I’m a rather expensive, very complex, polished design object - shut up!}
Here is an updated package, with the latest UI improvements as well as support for your D700 RAW file (no idea why this got lost on the way…): https://filebin.net/nwmvhsdgwwkq8mj8
As a note for your future development’s plans I’m gonna leave a Lightzone grab here. IMO LZ’s info panel is pretty neat, as it is the way zooming the image has been implemented, with a visual reference (also can be used as navigator) like in Final Cut.
The thing that’s so interesting about LZ’s project is that it has grow slow but clean. Yeah sure, it lacks the sofisticated offer of other editors, the WF (specially the way it handles files and auto-saves them) maybe’s not for everybody and it has only those 12 tools on the screengrab… but there is no clutter, no submenus, no complication or need for search whatsoever and what it has works (proeficiently) well. RPP is another good (extreme) example. What I mean to say is that being and remaining simple, focused and to the point is hard: ask the frogs. I appretiate all the work you’re putting into PF
Checked in a couple OSX machines {noo don’t call me that I’m a rather expensive, very complex, polished design object - shut up!}
