Option to save in original file when launching external editor

Currently, if I understand correctly, before launching an external editor the current image is saved as a TIFF in the user’s Temp folder. It would be more useful at least for me if the image could be (optionally) saved back to the save folder as the raw file from which it was derived.

Why not just use the regular export button? Then you can open with editor.

The point of the open with editor is that you skip saving to disk, as you’re just going to open it in the editor anyway.

As raw files are never changed by RT this behaviour is the only acceptable choice as RT also does not want that an external editor changes the raw file.

Why not just use the regular export button? Then you can open with editor. The point of the open with editor is that you skip saving to disk, as you’re just going to open it in the editor anyway.

Open with editor does save to the disk as TIFF, but it saves in a temp folder and then invokes the external editor passing it the pathname of the file.

Files then accumulate in the temp folder with no information as to what folder they came from and need to be deleted manually. If you want to edit the file again after deleting the temp files, you need to run RT again instead of just re-opening the TIFF file.

The point of open with external editor is to save all the clicks required to navigate to where you want to save the file, then launch the external editor, and then navigate again to the file to open it.

As raw files are never changed by RT this behaviour is the only acceptable choice as RT also does not want that an external editor changes the raw file.

Editing in an external editor does not overwrite the raw file – it saves a copy of the adjusted raw file as a TIFF file. Saving it alongside the raw file makes it easier to find again if you want to re-edit the same file later. This is how DxO and Lightroom work.

I propose this as an option – if you prefer to dump all the TIFF files into a pile in the temp folder, then just don’t select the option. By the way, in Windows, the Appdata folder in which the temp folder is stored is, by default, hidden and awkward to access.

Welcome aboard here…

Your last post makes it clear that you want to save as TIFF, but you want to save the TIFF in the same directory as the raw file. I think you got some answers you weren’t expecting, because you gave this thread the title “Option to save in original file…”, and of course the original file is the raw file! :wink:

I think your request makes sense. If you export a TIFF using the “save current image” button, you get to choose where it is saved. If you implicitly export it by clicking the external editor button, off to temp it goes. The latter choice carries the assumption that you will like what you do in the external editor and the implicitly exported TIFF is thus garbage.

[deleted some rubbish]

By strange coincidence, I have just logged in to request this same ‘save TIFF to same folder as Raw’ behavior. I occasionally want to quick edit a single Raw with follow-on editing in Photoshop. Two reasons for this request:

  1. easy to find TIFF for any re-edit
  2. (most importantly for me) save dialog from Photoshop when exporting jpeg, would default to the correct source folder rather than the temp folder. Currently, navigating from temp to the source folder every time is a pain.

I’m away from my computer, so I can’t test myself what I’m about to say (i.e., if I’m wrong, just ignore me).

As far as I can tell, if you export an image to the same folder as the raw image, they wiil appear next to each other. The procedire would be as follows:

  • edit the export path (read Rawpedia for the different options available), so the exported image falls in the same folder as the raw file
  • process and export the raw image
  • go to the file explorer, select the tiff file and edit with external editor
  • done

If I’m right RT will not create a temporal file from the tiff file and you will get the behaviour you want

Yes, but then you need to edit the export path each time you switch to a new folder of raw files. The whole idea is to streamline the process of editing with an external application.

No, you don’t. As already written, read the documentation. In fact, RawTherapee’s default settings are such that the image will be exported into a sub-folder of the raw folder, so you don’t even need to edit anything.

http://rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/Queue#Queue_Settings
http://rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/Saving_Images

OK, I don’t claim to be an expert on using RT – in fact I am a developer of one of those external applications (www.dl-c.com) and would like to write up some succinct instructions for using RT as a front end to handle opening raw files. As such, RT has a lot to recommend it, but it would be a lot more convenient if you could configure the RT once for the external application. Then when working on raw files, you click a single button to save the current image as a TIFF file in the same folder as the raw file (or in a subfolder if necessary), and then launch the external application, passing the pathname of the TIFF file in the command line. The current command to export to an external application almost does this, but it stores the TIFF file in the Windows temporary folder which does not preserve it or keep it associated with the raw file it came from. If you later want to re-edit the same file and the temporary folder has been cleaned out, you have then lost all the RT settings that created the file as well as the file itself. Of course, there are other ways to do this now, but none of them is nearly as convenient as clicking a single button.

Yes. Sadly currently 3 clicks are needed

Hello. This is the first time I write in this forum. I have just edited few photos with RT. I’m using GIMP as external editor. Once I have finished editing with GIMP I don’t know what I have to do. Should I return the photo to RT in order to add it to the queue (jpeg)? I have tried to return the photo but don’t know if possible. Should I save the photo with GIMP as jpeg? As Tiff? I agree someone could help me. Thanks

It depends on what you want to do… I’d generally try and do all necessary things in RT before exporting to GIMP. From gimp you probably want to save an xcf file, which is gimp’s native format. Then you can export from gimp to jpeg or tiff.

Ok thanks. So I understand that’s not possible to view the changes with GIMP in the RAW file currently opened in RT. Neither return the photo to RT. Just opening the new tiff with RT??

The raw file will never ever be modified by RT. What you see onscreen is the result after applying to the raw file all the changes made with the tools. The settings of the tools to get to those changes are saved in a pp3 with the same name as the raw file, and it’s located just next to the raw file.

When you edit the raw file in GIMP, you don’t edit the raw file itself, but an exported 16-bit tiff file, and if you like what you have done with the image in GIMP, you may wish to export it to jpeg or png, so it saves disk space.

If you are happy saving the GIMP edits into the same tiff file, to see the results in RT you may need to:

  1. go to the Queue tab and edit the Output location address. In Use template write %p1/%f, so your exported images will be saved next to the raw file (even though you didn’t ask for it, RT exports the image in the background when editing in an external editor, so you won’t be wasting your time). This only has to be done once

  2. in the Editor tab, click the Put current image to processing queue button

  3. go to the File browser tab and double click the new tiff image

  4. in the Editor tab select the Neutral processing profile, to make sure you don’t introduce any extra processing to the tif file

  5. click on Edit current image in external editor and the external editor set in Preferences will open your tiff file

  6. after editing the tiff file, save it (with the same filename), and return to RT. Your edits will be shown there

It’s not a one click does it all, but you won’t have to open your OS file browser looking for the exported image in a temp folder.

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ok thanks. Very clear and very kind of you. I will try as soon as possible

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