User Manual Flat View

From CameraBits
Welcome to the User Manual for Photo Mechanic Version 5. This is the classic flat view
that shows the whole thing on one page. If you'd like to see an alphabetical list of main
topics, view the Category page. We hope this is a valuable resource for Photo Mechanic
users. If you have comments or requests for additional information that you'd like to see in
the manual, please leave feedback for us on the Camera Bits forums
(http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=8323) . We're actively looking for ways to
improve this wiki and make it as helpful as possible. Thanks for your patience, and happy
photographing!

- The Camera Bits team

What Is Photo Mechanic?

Photo Mechanic Concepts Contents
Photo Mechanic sets out to be the most useful photo browser on 1 What Is Photo Mechanic?
the market today. It does this by being logical in operation, 1.1 Photo Mechanic
intuitive in use and, most importantly of all, performing its Concepts
functions as quickly as possible. 2 User Interface Conventions
3 Mac and Windows
The other less obvious approach is that Photo Mechanic does not Compatibility
try to be all things to all people. Photo Mechanic is all about 4 Installing Photo Mechanic
efficiently and quickly moving new files onto your computer and 5 Registering Photo Mechanic
then letting you view and edit those images as quickly as possible 5.1 Registration
in whatever manner you wish. Photo Mechanic is flexible and 5.1.1 Deactivation
unobtrusive so that you can get on with your work without 5.1.2 Proxy
having to wait for your computer to catch up or to work its way Settings for
through background operations you may not need. Activation
5.1.3 Trial
Photo Mechanic is not an image editor, it is not a RAW processor 5.1.4 Manual
and it is not a cataloging application. Photo Mechanic is about Activation
importing images, and then viewing and organizing them as 6 File Formats
quickly and efficiently as possible. By concentrating on these 6.1 Recognized File
core tasks it aims to be the best at what it does. Types
6.1.1 Image File
The basic concept of Photo Mechanic is simple. Point the Formats
Navigator to a folder and Photo Mechanic will generate 6.1.2 RAW file
thumbnails of all the images contained in that folder. Right away formats
6.1.3 Movie file
you can start previewing the files individually at full screen and
formats
mark them with various levels of keepability.
7 Getting Started
Right from within Photo Mechanic you can open files into 7 Getting Started
7.1 Congratulations!
dedicated editors like Adobe Photoshop for editing or RAW
7.2 First Use
processing, you can email custom sized JPEGs to a client, you
8 Contact Sheets
can export to a web page gallery, you can rename all the files and
8.1 The Main View
add IPTC copyright data, or all of the above and more. 8.2 View Panes
8.3 Navigator and
The Contact Sheet view is the core of Photo Mechanic and
Favorites
consists of a display of thumbnailed images from a particular 8.4 Tasks
folder. You can create Contact Sheets from more than one folder 8.5 Loupe cursor
and either keep them separate or combine them into one Contact 8.6 Single Images
Sheet view. All recognized file formats in the folder will be 8.7 Multiple Contact
thumbnailed, including RAW files from most current digital Sheets
cameras as well as the open source Adobe Digital Negative 9 Selection Tags and Color
(DNG) format. Classes
9.1 Selecting Images
Each thumbnail can be quickly enlarged into a Preview screen 9.2 Tagging
where each image may be zoomed up to 800% to check critical 9.3 Color Classes
sharpness. Images may be cropped and a right-click context 9.4 Color Class Widget
sensitive menu allows export of the image in various ways, like 9.5 Star Rating Widget
FTP to a server, Email, Save as JPEG, etc. Images may be 9.6 External
viewed 2-up for a side by side comparison when, for example in Compatibility
portraiture, differences between images can be too subtle for a 9.7 Sorting
single image view. 9.8 Finding
9.9 Arrangements
Contact Sheets and Previews are generated as fast as possible 10 Preview Window
with the emphasis being on productivity rather than unnecessary 10.1 Tools
background operations: photographers want to see their images 10.2 Views
right away and Photo Mechanic displays thumbnails from a 10.3 Images Side by
Side
folder in the blink of an eye.
10.4 Info Panel
In addition to viewing images, the other major function of Photo 10.5 Crop Tool
Mechanic is to efficiently move images from an external data 10.5.1 Clearing
Crops
folder, such as a Compact Flash card, onto the users computer.
10.5.2 Crop
Simply copying the files from the card is OK, but Photo Settings
Mechanic adds the ability to perform other operations at the same 10.6 Zoom Panel
time thus saving time later by not having to double handle files. 10.7 Histogram
While files are being downloaded, or Ingested, Photo Mechanic 10.8 Highlights &
can rename them, back them up to a secondary destination and Shadows
edit the metadata of the files to assist in subsequent cataloging. 10.9 Thumb Gallery
10.10 Video Files
Once copied, the ubiquitous Contact Sheet view shows all the 11 Editing
images in an easy to customize manner and provides tools for 11.1 Rotating Photos
sophisticated editing using 9 different Color Classes (1 - 8 and 11.2 Preview and 2-Up
None), 5-Star Ratings, and a Tag check box for each image. Editing
11.3 Greg Gorman Key
Photo Mechanic is the perfect tool for the first two stages in any 11.4 Zoom and Lock
workflow: getting the files onto the computer, and then editing 11.5 Slide Show Edit
them into meaningful sets. Photo Mechanic also allows output of 11.6 Live Slide Show

12 Working With IPTC

files into a variety of formats which can be Saved, made into 12 Working With IPTC
Web Galleries as well as FTPed or emailed via the internet. Metadata
12.1 Concept
12.2 IPTC Stationery
User Interface Conventions Pad
12.3 IPTC Info
Contextual menus: one button mouse/trackpad users on Mac OS 12.4 Keywords
X can hold down the Ctrl key while clicking to display a 12.5 Keywords Panel
contextual menu for the current user interface element. Users 12.6 Structured
with two button (or more) mice can simply click the right button Keywords
to display a contextual menu for the current user interface 12.7 Find and Replace
element. 12.8 Snapshots
13 Image Variables
Throughout the manual various operations will be performed by 13.1 Concept
right-clicking on user interface elements. One button mouse users 13.2 Variable Substring
should instead Ctrl-click on the indicated user interface element. Extraction
13.3 Variables List
13.3.1 Camera or
Mac and Windows Compatibility Image-Specific
13.3.2 APEX
Photo Mechanic operates almost identically on both Apple OS Values
13.3.3 Standard
X and Microsoft WIndows operating systems. The main IPTC Fields
difference between the two are that OS X includes utilities like 13.3.4 Time and
Spotlight Search and RAW Conversion. Also, some of the Date Variables
keyboard shortcuts and modifier keys are different. . 13.3.5 ICC Profile
Variables
Preferences appear the same with minor layout differences and 13.3.6 Special
the absence of the RAW tab on the Windows version. Variables
13.3.7 GPS
Keyboard Shortcuts: The keyboard shortcuts list at the end of the Variables
manual is the Mac list, fortunately all the shortcuts are specified 13.3.8 User
on all the menus themselves so its easy to see what the Windows Variables
equivalent will be. Mostly the differences are the combinations of 13.3.9 Locations
modifier keys: Taken
13.3.10 Client
Variables
13.3.11 Nikon
Picture Control
Settings Variables
13.4 User/Client
Variables
13.5 Info Variable
14 Speeding Up Captioning
14.1 Code Replacement
14.2 Multiple Code
Replacement
14.3 Code Replacement
with Variables
14.4 Advanced Code

Replacement
 Replacement
14.5 More Code
Replacement Ideas
14.6 Code Replacement
FIles
14.7 Autocomplete
14.8 Using
Autocomplete
15 RAW + JPEG
15.1 RAW Rendering
16 Ingesting Images
16.1 Ingest
16.1.1 Source
Directory
Structure
16.1.2 Copy
Photos
Example of OS X vs. Windows shortcuts 16.1.3 Destination
Folder Roots
Option (OS X) and Alt (Windows and OS X) are not really 16.1.4 Filter Files
equivalent. The Option key is the modifier key on the Mac 16.1.5 Apply
IPTC Stationery
Ctrl (OS X) = Ctrl (Windows) and appears like a caret ^ on the Pad to Photos
Mac menus 16.1.6 Rename
Ingested Photos
Shift (OS X) = Shift (Windows). The Shift key is the modifier As
key in the Windows version 16.2 Ingest Tasks
16.3 Live Ingest
Command () has no direct equivalent. In most cases the Ctrl 17 Searching and Finding
key will have the same effect in Windows. For example, a - Photos
click in the Preview window will zoom in, use Ctrl-click on 17.1 Find Photos
17.2 Spotlight Search
Windows for the same result.
(Mac Only)
For the purposes of clarity the key symbol has been used in 17.3 Quick Search
18 Renaming Files
most places in this manual. Windows users please use the Ctrl
19 Copying and Moving
key instead.
Photos
19.1 Copy Photos
Installing Photo Mechanic 20 Miscellaneous Tools
20.1 Playing Sounds
Installing Photo Mechanic on your computer usually involves 20.2 Watermarking
downloading the latest installer from 21 Output
http://www.camerabits.com/downloads. Download the version 21.1 Edit in External
for the operating system on your computer, be it Windows or Editor
21.2 Save As
Apple OS X. Make a note of where your computer downloads
21.2.1 Operations:
the file; It's usually a folder called "Downloads." When the
21.3 Email
download is complete, click on the installer (or double-click as
21.4 Upload Services
appropriate.) 21.5 File Uploader
21.5.1 FTP
In some cases, you may need to install the software while logged
21.5.2 Connection
in as the administrator of your computer. If you have problems 21.5.2 Connection
installing, check that you have proper permissions for your user Settings
account on your computer. 21.5.3 Uploader
Preferences
Important: A standard Photo Mechanic license allows you to use 21.6 PhotoShelter
the program on up to three computers for one single user. If you 21.7 Amazon S3
ever plan to stop using Photo Mechanic on a computer, you must 21.8 Upload Progress
21.9 Upload Status
deactivate Photo Mechanic on that computer so that you do not
Indicators
use up one of your slots inadvertently.
22 Web Galleries and Export
22.1 Export
Registering Photo Mechanic 22.1.1 Select
Template
Registration 22.1.2 Rendering
22.1.3 Page
Section
22.1.4 Table
Section
22.1.5 Text/Links
Section
22.1.6 Images
22.2 Export Text
22.3 Export XML
22.4 HTML Template
Exporter
22.4.1 Overview
Registration for Photo Mechanic is quick and simple. When you 22.4.2 HTML
have downloaded the software and installed it you will be Template
prompted by this screen when you launch the software. Your Controls:
license key will be emailed to you at the time you pay for the full 22.4.3 HTML
license. Simply fill in the details and enter the license key. Templates
Variables
If you bought a license as an individual then you do not need to 23 Burning CD and DVDs
enter anything for Department, just your name, exactly as it 24 GPS Functions
appears in the purchase confirmation email. 24.1 Importing GPS
Coordinates
It is also recommended that you save the registration email 24.2 Setting GPS
somewhere safe in case you need to re-install for any reason. Coordinates
24.3 Visualizing GPS
Your license allows use of Photo Mechanic on up to three Coordinates
different computers as long as they are used by the same person. 24.4 Setting GPS Home
Location
When you click on the Register button, Photo Mechanic will 24.5 Sorting by GPS
attempt to contact the Camera Bits Authentication server to Distance
validate the registration. This is done to prevent widespread use 25 Printing
of pirated license codes. Usually this step will succeed with no 25.1 Printing Contact
further user input required. Sheets
25.2 Printing Proof
Sheets
25.3 Selecting Default

Printer on Windows
Deactivation Printer on Windows
26 JPEG Compression
27 Color Management
(New in Photo Mechanic Version 5 Build 15002 or later)
27.1 Display
Your purchase of Photo Mechanic allows you to install the 27.2 Embed Profile
28 Workflow
program on up to three computers at a time as long as you are the
28.1 Flexibility
sole user. If you are planning to uninstall Photo Mechanic from
28.2 Real World
one of your three computers to add it to another computer, you
Example
must deactivate the license on the computer from which you wish 28.2.1 Weddings
to uninstall. You can deactivate from the Help menu in Photo 28.3 Ingest
Mechanic: 28.4 Editing
28.5 Presenting
29 Command Summary
29.1 File menu
29.2 Edit Menu
29.2.1 Settings
submenu
29.3 Image menu
29.4 View Menu
29.5 Tools menu
29.5.1 Remove
Crops
29.5.2 Update
IPTC/XMP...:
29.5.3 Convert
IPTC Text
Encodings...:
29.5.4 Convert
RAW to DNG...:
29.5.5 Delete
Metadata...:
29.5.6 Revert
TIFF-based RAW
to original:
29.5.7
Mask/Unmask...:
29.5.8 Change
Resolution...:
29.5.9 Embed ICC
Profile into
JPEGs...:
29.5.10 Apply
Rotation to
JPEGs:
29.5.11 Extract
JPEG Previews
from RAW
photos...:
29.5.12 Remap

29.6 Window
 29.6 Window
29.7 Help
30 Preferences
30.1 General Preferences
30.2 Contact Sheet
Preferences
30.3 Files Preferences
30.4 RAW Preferences
(Mac)
30.5 Launching
Preferences
30.6 IPTC/XMP
Preferences
30.7 Maximizing
IPTC/XMP
Compatibility
30.7.1 Adobe
settings
30.7.2 Capture
NX2 settings
30.8 Preview
Preferences
30.9 Caching
Preferences
30.10 Color
Management
Preferences
30.11 Accessibility
Preferences
30.12 AP Preferences
30.13 Exporting
Preferences
30.14 Importing
Preferences
30.15 Resetting
Preferences
30.15.1 On OSX
(Mac)
30.15.2 Windows
31 Toolbar (Mac Only)
31.1 Custom Toolbars
32 Keyboard Shortcuts
32.1 Contact Sheet
Shortcuts
32.2 Preview Window
Shortcuts
32.3 Slide Show
Shortcuts
32.4 IPTC Stationery
Pad Shortcuts

32.5 IPTC Info Shortcuts

 32.5 IPTC Info Shortcuts
32.5.1 Option
Modifier key
32.6 Menu Shortcuts
32.6.1 Application
Menu
32.6.2 File Menu
32.6.3 Edit Menu
32.6.4 Image
Menu
32.6.5 View Menu
32.6.6 Tools Menu
32.6.7 Window
Menu
33 Modifier Key
34 The Extras Folder
34.1 HTML Template
Docs
34.2 PM Context Menu
34.2.1 Installing
the service
34.2.2
Uninstalling the
Service
35 Frequently Asked
Questions
35.1 Why should I
upgrade to Photo
Mechanic Version 5?
35.2 Send Photos to
Photoshop?
35.3 Opening Photos in
Photoshop?
35.4 Upgrading to a
New Version?
35.5 Browsing PSD
Files?
35.6 Purchased After
Demo?
35.7 Expired
Thumbnails?
35.8 Where Did My
Photos Go?
35.9 Ingest Copy Errors?
35.10 Spell Checker
Dictionary?
35.11 Costco Photo
Center Failed
35.12 Clean up Ingest
dialog?

35.13 Check for Updates

 35.13 Check for Updates
annoying?
35.14 Snapshots
location?
35.15 Thumbnails
matching other programs
35.16 Photo Mechanic
and iPhone
35.17 Uninstall Photo
Mechanic?
36 Copyright Info
37 Credits

Note: If you originally purchased and ran Photo Mechanic prior to Version 5 build 15002, the option to
Deactivate may not appear. You can contact customer support (http://www.camerabits.com/contact) for ways to
deactivate unused instances of Photo Mechanic. Currently, you can't deactivate other computers with this
process. You can only deactivate the computer that Photo Mechanic is currently on.

To deactivate this way, you'll need an internet connection. If you can't connect to the internet, it is also possible
to deactivate a computer by creating a Deactivation File and then transferring that file to a computer that is
connected to the internet.

To do this, choose the same Deactivation option as above, but then select "Deactivate Offline"

1 You will need to transfer this "Deactivation File" to a device with internet access (Example via removable
storage drive, memory card/reader, USB cable, etc) 1 From that internet-connected device you'll visit
http://camerabits.com/deactivate 1 Upload your Deactivation file for validation

That's it.

Proxy Settings for Activation

If your computer is behind a firewall and requires the use of a Proxy server then Photo Mechanic can be
configured to use settings contained within a proxy settings file.

First, create a text file named: http-proxy-settings.cfg

Inside the file place the following information (one piece of information per line):

proxy server name or IP address

port number to contact it with
username for the proxy server (if required by that server)
password for the proxy server (if required by that server)

Put the http-proxy-settings.cfg file in the following location:

For Windows 7/8 the location is:

C:\ProgramData\Camera Bits, Inc\Photo Mechanic\

For Windows Vista:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Camera Bits, Inc\Photo Mechanic\

For Windows XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Camera Bits, Inc\ Photo Mechanic\

While it is obvious that entering your username and password into a plain text file is less than secure, the http-
proxy-settings.cfg file only needs to exist long enough for the registration process to complete. Then the file
should be destroyed.

On systems running Mac OS X, use the System Preferences Networking Panels Proxies section to configure
your settings. Be sure to allow Photo Mechanic access to your Keychain so that it may get your complete HTTP
proxy settings automatically.

Trial

New users who have never tried Photo Mechanic can try the full, unrestricted version for free. When you
download and install the program, you can request a trial from the registration dialog. You must be connected to
the internet for Photo Mechanic to activate your free trial. You'll be able to use the program for 30 days to see if
you like it.

Manual Activation

If you're unable to connect to the internet even via proxy, you can still activate as long as you can get to a
different computer or device with internet access, such as a smartphone.

Photo Mechanic will give you the option to generate a "Passport File"
 1. You will need to transfer this passport file to a device with internet access (Example via removable
storage drive, memory card/reader, USB cable, etc)
2. From that internet-connected device you'll visit http://camerabits.com/activate
3. Upload your passport file for validation.
4. Download the validated passport file
5. Transfer the validated passport file back to the original computer.

Then in the registration process, you will upload that validated file to Photo Mechanic to complete registration.

We know this process can be cumbersome, so we highly recommend registering Photo Mechanic while the
computer is connected to the internet.

If you get a message about a "challenge code" you may be on an old version. In that case, update to the latest
version and try again.

File Formats
Recognized File Types

Image File Formats

BMP Windows Bitmap

EPS-TIFF Encapsulated Postscript with TIFF preview
GIF Graphics Interchange Format
JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group
PSD Photoshop (saved in maximum compatibility mode)
PICT Mac Pict format
PNG Portable Network Graphics
TIFF Tagged Image File Format
TGA Targa

RAW file formats

ARW Sony RAW Format

CR2 Canon RAW Format
CRW/THM Canon RAW/THM pair
DNG Digital Negative Format
ERF Epson RAW Format
IIQ Phase One RAW Format
MOS Leaf RAW Format
NEF Nikon RAW Format
ORF Olympus RAW Format
 PEF Pentax RAW Format
RAF Fuji RAW Format
RAW Panasonic/Leica RAW Format
SR2 Sony RAW Format
SRF Sony RAW Format
STI Sinar RAW Format
TIF Canon 1D/1Ds RAW TIFF Format
X3F Sigma RAW Format

Movie file formats

AVI Windows AVI

MOV QuickTime Movie
MPEG MPEG 2 Movie
MPEG4 MPEG 4 Movie

Where a file format is not properly recognized, Photo Mechanic will attempt to retrieve any embedded tiff/jpg
previews. In many cases, such as with digital backs from Phase One, the resulting thumbnail will be very small.
If the Enlarge photos to fit preview and slide show option is set in Preferences > Preview, then Photo
Mechanic will enlarge this preview to fill the window and the image may look "pixellated."

Some file formats may need QuickTime (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/) from Apple to be installed. These
formats are GIF, PICT, BMP and TGA. All movie files need QuickTime to be displayed as thumbs. Macs should
have QuickTime already installed, so this applies to Windows computers only.

Getting Started
Congratulations!
You've installed Photo Mechanic! Get ready for lightning fast browsing, powerful metadata editing, and a
supercharged workflow! Let's get started:

Photo Mechanic is an image browser designed with speed and ease of use in mind. You can call it a photo editor
as well. But unlike other photo editing programs that are designed to work with one photo at a time in order to
edit its pixels, Photo Mechanic is designed to work with groups of photos together in order to manage them.
Professional photo editors who handle lots of photos daily and often under deadline understand this distinction.
Their job involves selecting photos, not selecting pixels.

We've prepared some videos to help you understand the basics of Photo Mechanic. Watch these to kickstart your
Photo Mechanic education.

Video: Understanding Ingest, Preview and Export (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vC3_S6RwZ4)

Video: Preview, Export to Lightroom, and View Changes in Photo Mechanic
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40FjvUnI3WQ)
 Video: How to Search and Upload to a Web Gallery (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEdPe0ykTlQ)

Or if you'd rather dive right in, here are some notes to help you:

First Use
When you launch Photo Mechanic for the first time you will see an empty Contact Sheet window and the main
menu bar at the top of the screen. There are several ways to open a new Contact Sheet.

1. Select File > New Contact Sheet Tab (N) to open a blank Contact Sheet within the main window. Then
drag and drop a folder into the main part of the Contact Sheet. Any images within that folder will be displayed
as a series of thumbnails.

2. Select File > Open Contact Sheet (O) to open an existing folder as a new Contact Sheet. An Open dialog
box will appear so you can navigate to the folder you wish to work with.

3. Drag a folder from the desktop onto the Photo Mechanic icon.

Choose a folder and Photo Mechanic will quickly generate a Contact Sheet of thumbnails for all the image files
in that folder.

You can set up Photo Mechanic to start up in a variety of ways. By default Photo Mechanic starts up with an
empty Contact Sheet window. You can set it to instead present an Open dialog, or you can have it open the last
opened Contact Sheet. This setting can be set in the General tab of the Preferences dialog.

Contact Sheets
This is the main window that you will be using in Photo Mechanic, where you will view all the image files in
your folders.
Images appear as individual thumbnails with the image file name displayed underneath. Hovering the mouse
over an image will reveal up to 4 icons, two for rotation of the thumbnail, one for IPTC Info Display and the
other to trigger the Preview window for more detailed viewing. Rotations are only performed on the display, it
is one of Photo Mechanics basic operating philosophies that, as far as is possible, no changes are made to the
image data in your valuable files.

Below each thumbnail is a small check box to tag the image and a grey strip, the Color Class Bar, which will
change as images are Color Classed or Star Rated in subsequent editing.

Each thumbnail can have up to 3 lines of further {variable} info displayed, much like Tool Tips but displayed
on each thumb. Enable these labels in Preferences under the Contact Sheet Tab.

The Main View

On the Toolbar is a slider to control the size of the thumbs; this is interactive and can also be set to a default size
in Preferences. When you return to a contact sheet after closing it the thumbnail sizes will be as set in
Preferences.

Across the top of the main area window are Tabs, one per open Contact Sheet. Tabs can be selected by clicking
on them or dragged between multiple open windows. This makes is easy to view many Contact Sheets of many
different folders.

Photo Mechanic has context-sensitive menus. Right-clicking (or Ctrl-clicking) on a thumbnail, or selection of
thumbnails, brings up menu of available operations. The same commands can be found in the various menus.

Right-click on a thumbnail to bring up this context sensitive menu. (On a single button mouse use the Ctrl key.)

View Panes
There are various ways to configure the Main View, these can be selected from the main menu under View.

Show/Hide Toolbar toggles on and off the Toolbar under the main menu at the top of the screen. It
contains basic file operation Icons, the Thumbnail Size slider, Sort Options and Color Management
On/Off.

Navigator This is the familiar Folder View for navigation within the directory structure of your computer.
Use this pane to select the folder you wish Photo Mechanic to make a contact sheet from. Double-click to
open the folder as a new Contact Sheet. Option-Double-Click to add a Folder to the currently open
contact sheet

Favorites A very useful pane in which you can set folders as Favorites to speed up navigation. This can
be very useful if a folder is deep down in the directory structure and you need to refer to it often.

Tasks This shows the progress of things like memory card ingest and FTP uploads. If you close your
Ingest progress dialog and need to see it again, you can double-click the progress here.

The Favorites and Navigator can be resized by dragging the splitter bars between the panes. Double-clicking the
splitters will cause them to collapse. Double-clicking a collapsed splitter will cause it to expand to its original
position.
Navigator and Favorites
Folders operate much the same way as they do in other programs but Photo Mechanic adds refinement with the
Favorites and Navigator to allow easy access to commonly used folders.

The Navigator is a view of the familiar hierarchy of folders which can be opened to reach sub-folders etc. By
dragging a folder from Navigator into the Favorites panel you now have essentially a shortcut to that folder
without having to fully negotiate the folder hierarchy.

A good way of working is to have the folders you are working with visible in the Favorites pane, and use them
to copy and move files around.

Dragging a folder into the Contact Sheet area will open it as a Contact Sheet.

You can drag images from the Contact Sheet view onto any folder to move them, or hold the Option key to copy
them instead of moving them.

To remove a Favorite Folder, right-click (Ctrl-click) on it and choose Remove.

There are some other nice refinements to the Favorites and Navigator Panels: Right-click (Ctrl-click) on a
Navigator or Favorite folder to bring up the above menus. In the Mac OS X version of Photo Mechanic, you can
set a color for the Folder to aid in distinguishing them later. You can add a new folder within an existing folder:
the parent folder is then shown with a small triangle to the left of its title to indicate that it can be expanded.

To combine two folders into one Contact Sheet, right-click (Ctrl-click) the folder you want to add in and select
the Open in Current Contact Sheet option. Option-double-click will also open the folder in the current contact
sheet window.

To remember the set of folders you are currently browsing as a Contact Sheet tab use the Remember Folders as
a Favorite... menu item on the File menu. This will allow you to set a name for the set of folders and once
named will cause a Multi-Folder favorite to be created in the Favorites panel.
A newly created Multi-Folder favorite. To open it as a Contact Sheet you can double-click it, or you can use its
contextual menu to open it. You can also rename it or remove it via the contextual menu.

Tasks
This pane in the Contact Sheet will show you the progress of certain tasks that Photo Mechanic is performing,
like multiple memory card ingests, copying files, or FTP uploads, etc. Double-clicking on a progress bar will
open a dedicated progress dialog.

Loupe cursor
Images can be previewed at 100% from the Contact Sheet by using the Loupe cursor. The Cursor Mode
toolbar item indicates which mode the cursor is in. The Cursor Mode can be quickly toggled by pressing the Z
key. The Cursor Mode toolbar item may also be clicked to choose which cursor mode is desired.

Once activated, the Loupe effect is started by clicking and holding the mouse button down on thumbnail of
interest. A moment later (depending on the resolution of the photo and the speed of your system) the largest
available area not obscuring your view of the thumbnail is replaced by the preview of the image. While holding
down the mouse button you can reveal other parts of the image by panning the Zoom outline around the
thumbnail area.
Releasing the mouse button stops the preview and returns to viewing all thumbnails.

Most operations on thumbnails are allowed during Loupe cursor mode including selection, though the area
available for selection is the thumbnails text area since clicking in the thumbnail image area starts previewing
the image. You can still perform inline renaming by double-clicking on the thumbnails filename, set Color
Class, Rating and Tags.

Mac only: If you dont see the Cursor Mode indicator on your toolbar, you can add it by customizing your
toolbar. You can enter customization mode by right-clicking (or Ctrl-clicking) on any empty space in the toolbar
and choosing Customize Toolbar... from the contextual menu that appears.

The Loupe cursor doesnt completely replace the Preview window since it doesnt support cropping or viewing
more than one zoomed image at a time, but it does come in handy.

Single Images
Keyboard shortcuts are a good way to speed up operations and are worth taking the time to learn. When there is
only a single image selected or highlighted in the Contact Sheet window there are certain shortcuts that can be
used:

Arrow keys move the selection around

A Play audio if any. Pressing A again will stop the playback
E Edit photo with external editor application
T Toggle tag
+ or = Tag image
- or _ Untag image
] Rotate Clockwise 90
[ Rotate Counter-Clockwise 90
I Edit IPTC Info
U Upload via FTP
1-8 Set color class
 0 Clear color class
Space bar Preview image

Multiple Contact Sheets

You can have more than one Contact Sheet open at a time. They will appear as tabs at the top of the Contact
Sheet area. You can switch quickly between them by holding down the Control key and pressing the right or left
arrow keys

Selection Tags and Color Classes

Selecting Images
In the Contact Sheet window simply click once on a thumbnail to select it. Notice that the background changes
color when you do this. In Preferences you can customize this to pick a background color that you can quickly
recognize. A good combination to use is light grey for unselected, with black text and dark grey or black with
white text for selected images. The important thing is to be able to tell at a glance which images are selected or
not.

To select multiple images together, hold down the key and click another image. Holding down the Shift key
selects images between your first selected image and a new selected image. Images can be removed from a
selection by clicking on them again while holding down the key. To clear the selection simply click on
another image, outside the images completely or D to Deselect All.

(The effect of the Shift and modifier keys can be swapped in Preferences)

Tagging
A Tagged image is one which has the small checkbox ticked in the lower right of the thumbnail. Tagging is
distinct from Color Class as it is an on/off facility and can be used in parallel with the Color Classes to allow a
huge variety of editing and categorizing strategies.

Keyboard Shortcut
Tag Selection

Mac: +
Windows: Ctrl+

Untag selection
Mac: -
Windows: Ctrl-
See all shortcuts

To Tag an image simply click in the check box or, with a selection of images,+ Tags and - Untags. For a
single image T will toggle the tag.

T selects all tagged images. F3 will filter the view to show Tagged Images only.

Modifier-click on the Tag box in a selection of images to Tag or Untag the whole selection.
Color Classes
One of the fundamental features in Photo Mechanic is the ability to mark images with 8 different color classes
plus None. This allows an Editor to make subtle distinctions between image groups based on whatever criteria
are deemed necessary. For example, a photographer might like to divide images up into Top Shots, Keepers,
Not Sure and Oh dear!. Like everything in Photo Mechanic, Color Classes are fully customizable in
Preferences and so you could use Classes like these if you choose. The Defaults are Winner, Winner Alt,
Superior etc but there is no reason why you cannot use your own Classes, and colors if you like. You can even
chose your own color scheme by clicking on the color swatch in the Preferences screen and picking a new color
for each. Important Note: If you also work with Adobe Lightroom and want to be able to set Color Classes that
show up in LR, please see this note on compatibility settings: Maximizing IPTC/XMP Compatibility

Color class descriptions in Preferences > General

To use the Color Classes simply hit a number key when you have a single image selected and a bar beneath the
thumbnail will change to the appropriate color. If you want to set a color class for a multiple selection, just hold
the key down when you hit the number key.
If you click on the color bar under a thumbnail the Color Classes list will appear for yet another way to set the
Color Class. To apply a Color Class to a selection, use the Modifier key when making the change and the new
class will apply to the whole set.

See Slide Show for another way to use Color Classes.

Color Class Widget

The Color Class Widget can be seen at the bottom right of the Contact
Sheet window. To use it make sure the check box is ticked and then
click on a color box to either display or hide images of that particular
color class. The last box on the right toggles on and off those images
with no set color class. You can click-drag the mouse pointer across all
the boxes to check or uncheck the colored squares.

Using this widget, together with tagging, gives you a huge variety of
ways of sorting out your images to suit your own personal style of
working. Along with Star Ratings, Color Classes are also compatible
with Adobe Bridge and Lightroom.

By turning on only the green Class in the Color Class Widget, only
images with that Color Class will be shown, as seen below. The Color Class Widget

Modifier-click on a Color to show only that Color and again to turn all colors on again. Modifier-click on an off
color to turn that color on and the other colors off. You can even choose to show only those images that have no
Color Class set.

Drag your cursor over the widget to toggle the colors on and off.

To remove all filtering and show all images choose View All from the View menu or press F1. -Ctrl-F1
through -Ctrl-F9 will also filter the Color Classes.

To set a Color Class display default, set the Widget to display the Classes you want, right-click on the Widget
and select Set as Default. Later you can reset the Widget to the new default by right-clicking and choosing
Restore to Default.

Star Rating Widget

Star Ratings work in much the same way as Color Classes, and the combination of the two allows for quite
sophisticated ranking and sorting. One benefit of Star Rating is that it can be read by other applications so a
rated folder of images can be viewed in other apps with the Star Ratings still intact.

The star widget is right next to the color class widget

To set a Rating on a selected image or group of images in the Contact Sheet view use Ctrl-1 to 5 (on OSX) or
Alt-1 to 5 (on Windows) to set the number of stars. On individual thumbnails click the Star Rating you want or
drag the mouse over the stars to increase or decrease the rating.

To display differently rated images you can use the Star Rating Widget to the left of the Color Class Widget and
it operates in all the same way as the Color Class widget. This filters Star Rated images but does not select
them.

To actually select certain Star Ratings,-Option-3, for example, will select all images currently displayed in the
contact sheet with a Star Rating of 3.

To use the mouse to display certain Ratings just click on the Star/Number you wish to show. You can have any,
all or some Ratings displayed, shown by dark or light Star/Numbers. You can drag the mouse over the Stars to
include more ratings.

To set a default, set the Widget to display the Rating that you want, and right-click on the Widget and select Set
as Default. Later you can reset the Widget to the new default by right-clicking and choosing Restore to Default.

The check box to the left of each Widget disables the effects of that Widget, showing all images in the contact
sheet.

Note that the Widgets operate on the current Contact Sheet of displayed images, not necessarily the entire
folder. In other words if you have set the Color Class Widget to show only thumbnails with a Red label, the Star
Rating Widget will then sort Star Rated images within this Red subset.

External Compatibility

Both Color Classes and Star Ratings can be recognized by certain other applications such as Adobe Photoshop
Lightroom and Adobe Bridge. Star Ratings can also be exchanged with Microsoft Expression Media.

The Star Ratings work immediately between apps as long as, in Preferences/Files, this option is set:

Add tag, color class, and rating to ITPC/XMP: For All Photos

Color Classes will be recognized by apps if the text label for each class is exactly the same in each app. You can
edit the default Photo Mechanic labels in Preferences/ General. It doesnt matter what the Color Classes are
labelled, just that the labels must be the same in all apps.

It is also a good idea to edit the actual colors themselves to give consistency throughout the various apps.
Lightroom and Adobe Bridge use the same color sets and these cannot be directly edited, only the labels. Photo
Mechanic allows editing of the colors so it makes sense to make sure it is set to the Adobe default of red,
yellow, green blue and purple.

This is how the General Preferences might be set in Photo Mechanic:

The General Preferences screen

Adobe Bridge: Color Class labels can be edited in Preferences/Labels, and there are only 5 to use. These
will correspond to the Color Classes in Photo Mechanic which have the exact same text labels. The other
three will not show up in Bridge and can be used for Photo Mechanic-specific sorting and editing.

Lightroom: Five Color Class labels can be edited in the Library mode under Metadata/Color Label
Set/Edit. Type in new labels and click Change to lock in the new labels.

For Color Classes and Ratings to show up in other applications, Lightroom must be set to write metadata
changes to the original files automatically - to set this option look under Metadata / Save Metadata, or to do it
automatically, look in File/Catalog Settings and check the Automatically write changes into XMP checkbox.
You must also use XMP sidecar files with your RAW files when working with Adobe products. Click here to see
the best Adobe-compatible IPTC4XMP settings.

Microsoft Expression Media: Star Ratings work fine, and color labels will work properly if you set the
Synchronize Color Class with IPTC/XMP Urgency field checkbox.

Remember to Synch the new ratings (Action/Synch Annotations) back to the original files after you have made
changes otherwise the new Color Classes and Star Ratings will not be read by other apps since they initially
only exist in the Expression Media database. Expression Media does not write metadata to the original files
unless told to.

Capture NX2 (Nikon): Star Ratings work fine, and color labels will work properly if you set the
Synchronize Color Class with IPTC/XMP Urgency field checkbox. You must also embed IPTC4XMP in
your TIFF-based RAW files (NEFs.)

Sorting
Much of the sorting that can be done in Photo Mechanic is done using Star Ratings, Color Classes and Tags,
these are explained in detail in the Selections section.

Photographers are used to spreading transparencies on a light box and gradually dividing them up into sets such
as Keepers, Not Sure and Wastebin. Photo Mechanic uses a more sophisticated version of much the same
method by assigning images with a Color Class to designate its worthiness. Classes can be set individually or en
masse and each Class can be displayed on its own, or with any other Classes. In fact the number of ways in
which the images can be sorted and displayed is really only limited by your own imagination and workflow
requirements.

Tagging is a simple way of sorting your images, they are either tagged or not. You can display all tagged
images, all untagged images or all of them together. For a quick edit simply click the tag box on all the images
you like and then hit F3 to display Tagged Only. At this point you might choose to Select All (A) and FTP
(U) the whole set as small preview JPEGs to a client.

Other tools for Sorting include the Sort by menu on the Contact Sheet Toolbar.

There are presets to sort by, plus a custom option which allows sorting by any variable, and even by a secondary
criteria. This means you could display the files by file type, file size, even by ISO setting.
 Set sort order from the main menubar

Finding
Keyboard Shortcut
Find
Mac: -F
Windows: Ctrl-F
See all shortcuts

Sorting and Finding are two sides of the same coin in that they both allow the user to make selections and view
images based on certain criteria. Photo Mechanic allows two types of filtering: Sorting with Color Classes, Star
Ratings and Tags, plus Find.
The Find command in the Edit menu allows searches to be made based on any information contained in the file,
be it the file name or part of the file name, as well as any IPTC data encoded in the file itself. For example you
could filter your images based on the Category contained in the IPTC data of your files (which you might have
set during Ingest). The Find results become the active selection in the Contact Sheet, which you could then
Tag or Class as needed.

Type in the string you wish to search for, paying special attention to case and spelling.

Use the Find: popup menu to choose how your search term(s) are handled. There two choices: Any of the
words and All of the words. Use any of the words when you want to enter multiple terms and you dont care
if an image contains all of the words. Use all of the words when you want to find photos that contain all of the
words youve entered.

Use the In: popup menu to choose what the Find panel is allowed to search. If you just want to narrow your
selection, set the popup menu to Selected photos. If you want to create a new selection from the entire Contact
Sheet, set the popup menu to All photos.

Use the two checkboxes following the Searching: text to choose what metadata you wish to consider. Use the
Case sensitive search checkbox to make your matches more exact.

Use the Show/Hide IPTCbutton to show or hide the dozens of IPTC-related checkboxes. If youve got them
setup the way you want them then hiding them will make the panel much smaller, allowing you to see more of
your results.

Set individual IPTC checkboxes to choose what fields you do or do not wish to search. Only checked items will
be searched. Use the All button to quickly set all IPTC checkboxes on. Use the None button to quickly clear
the IPTC checkboxes.

Finally click on the Find button to begin the find operation. The progress bar to the left of the Find button lets
you know how far along the find operation is. Once complete, the photos that end up selected will have met
your Find criteria.

If you end up doing a lot of the same find operations repeatedly, use the Snapshot button to the left of the
progress bar to save and restore your Find criteria.

See Find/Replace for details on finding and replacing data. See Spotlight Search for details on how to search
outside of a Contact Sheet for images with specific criteria.

Arrangements
Contact Sheet thumbs may be arranged in any arbitrary sequence you choose simply by dragging them around
the screen. This brings computer software closer to the lightbox paradigm whereby you can sort your images
as though they were transparencies on an actual lightbox.

Arrangements can even be made across multiple folders if the folders are open in the same contact sheet.

Arrangements can be saved with the folder(s) simply by dragging thumbnails into new positions. Each time this
is done the Arrangement will be saved. The Sort popup menu in the tool bar will now update to Arrangement
so that the particular order that you have arranged the images can be retrieved. This holds for multiple folders
opened into one contact sheet. It's best to use the Remember Folders command on the File menu to save the
folders combination as a Favorite for later use.

In the Contact Sheet tab of the Preferences dialog there is an option to set whether you have to be in an
Arrangement Sort to be able to move the images around.

Preview Window
Keyboard Shortcut
Open Preview Window

Mac: -R
Windows: Ctrl-R
See all shortcuts
In addition to the Contact Sheet view, Photo Mechanic can display one or two images at a time for closer
scrutiny when editing. The image can be viewed zoomed up to 800% to check critical focus or chromatic
aberration. Various information about each image can be displayed alongside each image, or the image can be
viewed on its own in full screen mode. New in Photo Mechanic 5: The Preview window can remain open while
you work in a Contact Sheet. This is especially useful for large displays or with multiple displays.

To Preview an image simply double click on its thumbnail in the Contact Sheet window or click the magnifying
glass icon at the lower right of the thumb when the mouse is hovered over it. There are three distinct Preview
window styles. Each can have the various information panels toggled on or off making a total of six
combinations of views. The views can be selected from the toolbar at the top of the screen.
Tools
These tools in the Preview Window operate on the photo that you're currently looking at. Here's what each tool
does:

You can customize which buttons appear and in what order they are by right-clicking or ctrl-clicking in an
empty area of the toolbar and selecting "Customize Toolbar."

Views

Views of the Preview Window

You can customize the Preview window's view with the buttons near the top of the window.

1. View One Photo.

2. View Two Photos, side by side for comparison.
3. View Two Photos, one over the other.
4. Toggle thumbstrip along the side or along the bottom
5. Restore Panes
6. Full View

Each view can be used full-screen or with the info panels and thumbs list displayed. The info displays can be
sized by click-dragging the splitter at the edge of their frames. They can be collapsed by double clicking the
splitter between the frames.
Images Side by Side
Keyboard Shortcut
Single Image:
O
Side-by-side:
H
Over and under:
V
Toggle Full Screen or Info Palettes:
F
Toggle Focus between previews:
Tab
See all shortcuts

Here are two photos displayed over and under for comparison. The H key and V key toggle between a side-
by-side layout and an over-and-under layout. Return to a single image view using the O key.

Two Photos side by side for comparison, with Info displayed: click once on either image to bring it to focus
with respect to the Information displayed in the Histogram etc. Tab will toggle focus between the images.

Info Panel
The Info Panel in the Preview window shows EXIF and IPTC information for each image such as date, ISO
used, aperture etc. The list can be made longer or shorter by clicking on the plus and minus signs at the top right
of the Info panel.

You can also customize which info is displayed, and the order of display, by using the Set Info Text command
on the Settings submenu on the Edit menu. Edit this list to change the sequence of variables displayed in the
Info Panel as well as the fields displayed. See Info Variables.

You can also use the Snapshot icon to save different Info Panel configurations and switch quickly between them.
 The Info Panel and the Crop tool are found in the Preview window
Control the information that's displayed under Edit > Settings > Set Info Text...

Crop Tool
Keyboard Shortcut
Crop Tool
X
See all shortcuts
Below the Info Panel is the Crop tool which allows part of the image to be cropped when the image is saved,
uploaded or otherwise exported. This is a non-destructive crop, which means the original file is unaffected when
the cropped version is exported.

Click the Crop icon button to activate or deactivate the Crop Tool. Use this to define a crop area by click-
dragging in the main preview window, just like in other image editing software. Once defined, the Crop area can
be repositioned - the Crop tool changes to a Hand when the mouse cursor is within the defined crop area - click-
drag to reposition the defined crop area. Clicking outside the area will start a new crop. The cursor will change
to a Rotate tool when near the corners of the crop area. This allows you to rotate the image if it needs some
straightening. Holding down shift while rotating makes it snap to 45-degree angles. See the Crop Tool in action
here: Crop Tool Example

Clearing Crops

When viewing a cropped image in the Preview Window, you can clear the crop by pressing Shift-X (Windows)
or Option-X (OS X)

Crop Settings

For more options, click the Settings button in the Crop panel.
 Shield area checkbox controls whether the area outside of the crop is darkened. This helps you visualize
what the actual crop will look like.

Show Grid overlay gives you a grid to help in straightening and composing the crop.

Show Crop center crosshair allows you to turn the center on or off as needed.

Crop Shape The crop area can be constrained in proportion. The numbers refer to proportions rather than
units, i.e. a 3:2 proportion will keep the crop the same shape as a 35mm format image.

The crop will remain with the image and will be displayed in the normal Contact Sheet view so you can always
see which images have crops set. When images are Saved As or Exported to HTML etc, the crop can be applied
to the resulting image. In relevant dialog boxes there are Apply Crop check boxes so you can have the choice of
cropping, or not, during that operation.

Click the Remove button to reset the image to its original state. Clicking Save will keep the settings on your
clipboard and allow you to Paste the same crop settings on other images as long as the info is on your clipboard
(.i.e. as long as you don't copy anything else). You can save Snapshots of constrained crop settings which can be
a great time saver if you commonly use a number of standard crop ratios.

Zoom Panel
Keyboard Shortcut
Toggle Zoom
Z
Zoom in
+
Zoom out
-
Lock
L
Zoom detail
(Mac) -click in the photo
(PC) Ctrl-click
Pan
Opt-arrow keys
Fast Pan
Opt-Shift-arrow keys
Toggle display of blown highlights
B
Toggle display of blocked shadows
N
See all shortcuts

Checking the Zoom checkbox applies whatever zoom setting has been chosen on the zoom slider bar. (For
example, illustrated below, the zoom is set to 2x or 200%.) The Zoom slider has increments from 25% to 800%
but the most useful ones are 100% and 50% for checking critical sharpness when editing.

The Hand tool is active when the mouse is over the image - left-click/drag
to move the image around. Also, use the Option-arrow keys to move the
image or the Option-Shift-arrow keys to move it in bigger steps.

The mouse wheel can also be set in Preferences to Zoom or bring up next
image.

Lock Scrolling is used when viewing two zoomed-in images in either of

the comparison modes. Checking this box locks the two images together
Scroll down in the Info panel to
see the Zoom slider
when moving either one with the hand tool. This is useful for very close
comparison of two similar images when you need to examine the same
part of both images in great detail. Lock Scrolling also zooms both images
in sync. To use this function, set the Preview window to one of its compare modes (horizontal or vertical) then
zoom in and align your images to show similar details. Then enable the Lock Scrolling function by either
clicking on the Lock scrolling checkbox or by pressing the L key. Now both images will pan around together
when you drag either of them around with the mouse or by using the Option-arrow keys.

If you -click on a particular detail of the image in the Preview window it will zoom to whatever percent size
is currently set on the slider, centered on the spot you clicked on. -click again will zoom back out.

Histogram
Displays the Histogram information for the image which is currently
displayed/ highlighted in the preview window.

All three RGB colors are shown overlaying each other and where they
overlap the composite color is shown. White is the region where all three
colors overlap, yellow for red and green, cyan for blue and green and
magenta for red and blue.

Highlights & Shadows

Use these controls to highlight areas on the image in the Preview window
where the highlights or shadows have no detail. It is off by default. You
can also turn these on and off using the 'N' (shadows) and 'B' (highlights)
Found at the bottom of the
keyboard shortcuts.
scrolling Info panel of the Preview
window
Thumb Gallery
A Note about the thumbnails displayed as a filmstrip at the bottom of the Preview window: This section of the
screen gets its background and highlighted colors from the Preferences used for Contact Sheets - see Here for
details. The Set color shows which of the thumbs displayed in the Preview filmstrip is the one currently
highlighted in the Contact Sheet view. (By default, it's light yellow)

To the left of the Film Strip are two gadgets - All and Selected. If you have a multiple selection active in the
Contact Sheet View, using the Selected tab here will restrict the Preview window to showing only those images.
The Arrow keys will step through only the Selected images. Using the All tab will then include all images in the
Contact Sheet View whether selected or not.

Video Files
Video files can be viewed and even played in the Preview window (Mac Only). You can choose which frame of
the video file is used as the preview thumbnail by navigating to the desired frame with the video playback
controls, then Ctrl-clicking on the video and selecting "Set as Poster Frame." You can save the current video
frame by selecting File > Save Photo As. If you select a poster frame for a video, that is the photo that will be
saved if you select multiple video thumbnails and then saving.
Editing
Rotating Photos
Keyboard Shortcut
Rotate
While in a Contact Sheet
Mac: [ or]
Windows: Ctrl-[ or Ctrl-]
While in a Preview
(Mac & Windows) [ or ]
See all shortcuts

Rotations are only performed visually: the original image is not rotated and will appear as shot if opened in
an external editor. This is called soft-rotation and is in line with Photo Mechanics policy of never altering the
original image data in any way. While the image files EXIF orientation will be updated, the image data is not
rotated or modified in any way.

Some cameras have a sensor for camera orientation which writes an orientation tag into the EXIF metadata of
the image file. Photo Mechanic can work with this and such images will appear the correct orientation in the
Contact Sheet and Preview displays.

To rotate an image in the Contact Sheet view you can choose from the following methods.

1. Click on the thumb to select it and choose Image / Rotate Photos from the menu. This is a slow way to work,
but it is useful for large selections of photos.

2. Hovering the mouse over a thumbnail will cause icons to appear in the corners of the thumb. The two arrows
in the top corners can be used to quickly rotate the thumb.

3. Use the keyboard shortcuts on selected thumbs - [ or ]. These are the square bracket keys, [ for rotate
left, or Counter Clockwise and ] for rotate right, or Clockwise - hold down the key when using them.

4. To rotate a multiple photos in a selection, make the selection as usual and either use the keyboard shortcuts
above or click on the arrow on one of the thumbnails while holding down the modifier key. If you dont use the
modifier key only the thumbnail that you are clicking on will rotate.

In the Preview Display, images may be rotated using the icons on the menu bar or, better still, by using the
square bracket keys again, but this time without the key.

Preview and 2-Up Editing

While the Contact Sheet window is good for getting an overview of a collection of images, the Preview window
is where critical editing can be done. The image can be viewed at 100% for focus checking and images can still
be tagged, classed, and rated as usual.

With the full set of palettes displayed you can see at a glance the histogram for exposure, the focus (using the Z
key to toggle zoom) and other images in the collection in the Thumb Gallery at the bottom to give an overview
of the collection. Using the arrow keys to step through images is fast and intuitive and using the F key to toggle
full screen mode combines well with the Z key to quickly check focus.

The 2-Up mode is useful for comparing very similar images, such as a sequence of portraits where expression
differences can be quite subtle. You can toggle between 2-Up side by side and 2-Up one image over the other by
using the H and V keys. This allows you to use one mode for landscape orientation images and the other for
portrait mode images.

The image that is changed when using the arrow keys is the one that is currently in focus - click on one or
other of the images to bring it into focus so that the info palettes reflect that image. Using the arrow keys will
change this image, but leave the other behind. In this way you could work through a sequence of portraits
keeping one as a current favorite, and stepping though others to see if a better one appears. The focused image
also has an aqua box drawn around it to help see which is in focus.

Greg Gorman Key

The G key adds a subtle editing function first identified and requested by photographer Greg Gorman. It works
like this, using a portrait session as an example: Using the 2-Up (H) mode in Full Screen mode (F), choose the
first shot, change focus to the second half of the preview and step through the other images using the arrow
keys. Only the second image will change, to image 2, 3, 4 etc, the first image in the non-focus window will stay
the same. What we are doing is viewing Image 1 side by side with Images 2,3,4,5, etc.

Now, if we find an image which is better than Image 1 we can press the G key to swap the image in the focused
window to the un-focused window, replacing the initial favorite with a new favorite. Continue to use the arrow
key to view more images and the new favorite will remain in the other window.
By doing this we can very quickly find the best shot by continuing to press the G key when we see a shot that is
better than the one we have reserved. Once we have finished going through the whole shoot we should have a
preferred image in one window and the last image in the set in the other window. Return focus to the preferred
image by clicking on it once and then close the Preview window. This preferred image will now be seen
highlighted in the Contact Sheet display. You might wish to Tag it first, set its Color Class to Winner, or give it a
rating.

As you go through the images you could even Tag all the ones that were considered possible hero shots so that
when you have finished, not only will you have one best shot but all the ones you considered will be Tagged so
you can go back and press F3 to see them all and make sure that your choice was the best one.

Zoom and Lock

In the 2-Up view, with the images zoomed in (Z key), pressing the L key will lock the two images together so
that when you drag one image around in the view window, the other one will move with it. This is very useful
for comparing two very similar images critically.

Hint: Align the images first, using the Hand tool, before locking them.

Slide Show Edit

Keyboard Shortcut
Slide Show

Mac: -L
Windows: Ctrl-L
See all shortcuts

Another powerful way to edit your images in the current contact sheet is to display a Slide Show and mark the
images as they are displayed. You can use the normal keyboard shortcuts for setting a color class or tagging the
images as they are shown. If the Slide Show is set to manual it is easy for a group of editors to work their way
through a collection and make a collective decision before moving onto the next image.

The Slide Show operates on the current selection of images so if you want to show them all, use A (or Ctrl-A
in Windows) to select them all first.

* Render Text - Check this to add captions to the Slide Show. The text can be typed in the text box and will be
shown on each slide formatted in the font and color selected from the Font and Color Panels. A sample caption
is displayed. For best results set the number of lines to 2 so there is some space between the caption and the next
image.

For more sophisticated captions you can use Variables to create the rendered text from IPTC info, date, camera
model etc.

Fade speed - Set the speed of the transition

Fade color - Change the background color between slides.

Wait for Space Bar / Show Each Image for __ Seconds - You have the choice to have the Slide Show
progress automatically, or wait for you to press the space bar to advance the slides.
 Loop until cancel - Keep playing Slide Show until Esc pressed.

Randomly shuffle photo playback - Play random slides from among the
ones you've selected.

Apply Crop - If a crop has been set in Preview then checking this box will
apply it to the displayed image.

When the Slide Show is playing you can use the keyboard shortcuts to
control the playback as well as Tagging (+) or setting Color Classes (1-
8,0) for each image. The D key dismisses the image from the show (and
the selection) so when you return to the Contact Sheet you will see that
only the remaining images continue to be selected.

Get to Slide Show Settings Live Slide Show

quickly with -L on a Mac
Keyboard Shortcut
Live Slide Show

Mac: -Shift-L
Windows: Ctrl-Shift-L
See all shortcuts

Live Slide Show is much the same as the normal slide show except that it watches a folder to see if a new file
is added. This new file is automatically added to the slide show, so the show gets longer as new files are copied
in. This can be especially useful during tethered shooting, or during a long import of many files.

Use the Redisplay previously shown photos after __ seconds of inactivity check box to cause the Live Slide
Show to start showing the first photos again after a desired amount of time since the last new photo was
displayed. If unchecked, Photo Mechanic will wait indefinitely for new photos to arrive. Setting the Shuffle
display order check box will cause the redisplayed photos to be show in random order.

Working With IPTC Metadata

Concept
The industry standard for photographic captions and keywords is IPTC (http://www.iptc.org/) metadata. Photo
Mechanic is designed to give you ultimate control in how this information gets added to your photos. These
tools are meant to help you do this quickly, accurately, and efficiently.

IPTC Stationery Pad

Keyboard Shortcut
IPTC Stationery Pad

Mac: -I
Windows: Ctrl-I
See all shortcuts
Captioning a group of images is very simple using the IPTC Stationery Pad. The Stationery Pad can be applied
to single images or a selection of images making it perfect for adding information to whole sets of images at one
time.

To use the Stationery Pad in this way, make a selection of images in the Contact Sheet and then open the IPTC
Stationery Pad under Image / IPTC Stationery Pad on the main menu bar.

Type your data into the various fields and make sure the checkbox to the left of each field you wish to apply is
checked. If unchecked, that field will not be applied. If you have a set of data that you use regularly, like a list of
Photographers, Cities or States, you can set up a custom dropdown list for all of the fields in the IPTC
Stationery Pad. Next to each field is a dropdown list arrow which will open an Edit option when first clicked.
Click on Edit to bring up a word list dialog where you can enter any number of items and add them to the list.

This menu allows you to select from a list rather than type in the same words each time. One other benefit from
this approach is that all the spellings will be the same as well as the case. Even slight misspellings will throw off
a search so using the drop down lists is a good way to ensure consistency.

Next to each field in the IPTC Stationery Pad is a dropdown menu. Click on the Edit option to bring up the Edit
IPTC List dialog where you can type in new entries and hit Return/ Enter to add them to the list.
 Adding items to IPTC Lists

It is good practice to set up as much of this as you can in advance, and to export the data and keep a backup. If
you have whole sets of data that you use on a regular basis, you can save the entire Stationery Pad to be loaded
later. Use the Snapshot button to save the current data to use again later.

Normally the IPTC data is added to files by replacement of existing data but this may not always be desirable.
You can append data to Keywords, Caption and Caption Writers fields by checking the Plus (+) sign next to
the field. This will then append the data rather than replacing whatever is there already.

Hint: It's a good idea to add a space at the beginning of appended text so that the last and first text characters do
not run into one another.

Holding down the modifier key causes the Clear button to change to an Options button. Click this to set
options for which data fields are cleared and which are kept unchanged when you use the Clear button.
 Using the Modifier key gives you options on which IPTC fields to
clear

Job: Quickly access User/Client variables from this button

Sequence: The {seqn} variable allows you to add an increasing number to certain fields. Set the start of the
sequence here. (Learn more about Image Variables)

To see a description of many IPTC fields, see the IPTC Variables Map

IPTC Info
This dialog complements the capabilities of the IPTC Stationery Pad by adding a thumbnail view to the selected
image and the ability to step through a selection of images without having to return to the Contact Sheet view.
You can get to it quickly by hitting the 'I' key, That's 'I' as in Imagine.
Keyboard Shortcut
Prev-No Save
Mac: -Shift-{
Windows: Ctrl-Shift-[
Prev-Save
Mac: -[
Windows: Ctrl-[
Next-No Save
Mac: -Shift-]
Windows: Ctrl-Shift-]
Next-Save
Mac: -]
Windows: Ctrl-]
Upload-Next-Save
Mac: -U
Windows: Ctrl-U
Copy Data
Mac: -Shift-C
Windows: Ctrl-Shift-C
Paste Data
Mac: -Shift-V
Windows: Ctrl-Shift-V
See all shortcuts
Most of this dialog operates much like the normal IPTC Stationery Pad with the difference being this applies
only to one image at a time. All fields can include Variables and there is a Snapshot button to save commonly
used data sets.

In the top right of the dialog, under the thumbnail, are seven buttons:

Left Arrow: Move to previous image, without making changes

Right Arrow: Move to next image without making changes

Save & Left Arrow: Apply IPTC changes and move to previous image

Save & Right Arrow: Apply IPTC changes and move to next image
 Save, Upload & Right Arrow: Apply IPTC changes and open the Upload dialog, then move to the next
image

Copy: Copies the currently displayed IPTC data to the clipboard

Paste: Pastes any IPTC data from the clipboard to the current image

Note: No changes will be made to a file unless the OK button is pressed or either of the Save arrows are used.

The modifier key adds functionality to the Clear, Apply Stationery and OK buttons.

Options: Changes which fields are Cleared

Copy to Stationery: Copies whatever data is set in this dialog to the IPTC Stationery Pad

Eval: Click this button to see how any Variables are resolved

Hold down the modifier and Ctrl key and the Apply Stationery button changes to Apply to Selected. If you
have a selection active in the Contact Sheet window then this will apply the current metadata to those images,
much like the IPTC Stationery Pad does. All non-empty fields will be applied.

Keywords
Keywords play an important part in any archiving setup and Photo Mechanic adds some extra functionality to
this field in both IPTC Stationery Pad and IPTC Info.

Clicking on the dropdown arrow on the Keywords field of the IPTC Stationery Pad or IPTC Info window and
clicking on Edit Keywords... brings up the IPTC Keywords dialog where you can set up a Master list of
Keywords and select out of it the ones you want to use. By using the Snapshot button you can set up sets of
keywords related to different subjects or jobs.

Adding Keywords can help finding photos later on

You can add, delete, or change keywords from your master keywords list. Note: Changing a keyword in the
Master keyword list does not change the keywords on previously-saved photos. It only changes the entry in the
list. If you wish to change a keyword that has already been applied to multiple images, you can use Find and
Replace.

After setting up the Keywords list you can select them from the dropdown list next to the Keywords field in the
IPTC Stationery Pad and IPTC Info display.

Use the additional Snapshot buttons to save either the Current or Master lists for later use.

Keywords Panel
Keyboard Shortcut
Keywords Panel

Mac: -K
Windows: Ctrl-K
See all shortcuts

Another way to keyword an image or a set of images is by using the Keywords Panel.
You can access this panel by choosing the Keywords Panel... command on the Image
menu.

This panel operates on selected photos and can be used interactively with the current
Contact Sheet. Select some photos and then use the Keywords Panel to apply keywords
to the selected photos.

Multiple sets of keywords may be saved and loaded from the Snapshot button. If you
want to make a new subset of a list of keywords, you can Command-click the individual
keywords to select them, then use the Snaphshot from selected button to create a new
set.

Add, Delete, and Change buttons work just like they do in the Keywords Dialog.

Load from Master loads the current set of master keywords (used above in the
Keywords Dialog on its right hand column) replacing the current set of keywords.

Save to Master saves the current set of keywords over the master keywords list as used above in the
Keywords Dialog on its right hand column.

Applying: text field may be edited directly to change keywords or quickly add in a keyword that you
dont want to add to your keyword list. Just add keywords separated by a comma or a semi-colon
(depending on your IPTC/XMP Preferences.)

Then to apply the set of keywords listed in the Applying: text field, click on the Apply to selected photos
button. The keywords will be applied according to the popup menu just above the button. The choices in that
popup menu are When applying, append keywords which only adds keywords, and When applying, replace
keywords which deletes any current keywords each selected photo has before adding the keywords.

Structured Keywords
Keyboard Shortcut
Structured Keywords

Mac: -Opt-K
Windows: Ctrl-Shift-K
See all shortcuts
Beyond the basic functionality of a simple linear keyword list is the concept of controlled vocabulary and a
hierarchy of keywords. There are two different Structured Keyword tools, one is a floating panel which can
remain open and the other is accessed through the IPTC/Info Dialogs. Both have similar functionality, the slight
differences being how the keywords are finally applied to images.

The main Structured Keywords Panel is accessed on the menu bar through Image / Structured Keywords Panel.

Organize Keywords into a structured hierarchy

Photo Mechanic comes with a basic vocabulary which is intended as a starting point and to illustrate the concept
of nested keywords. Each keyword can be a parent, sibling or child word, forming a hierarchy of words from
broad categories like Animals, to more detailed child words like Birds and on to even more detailed words
like 48 Spotted Pardalote.

Animals and Plants would be sibling words and would appear alphabetically in the same panel. Each column
to the right lists children of a highlighted parent word. The grey triangle to the right of a word indicates that it
has Child words in the next column.

Grey words denote Categories, normal type words are Keywords and bold words are synonyms of the
currently highlighted keyword.

Keywords can be added to files either singly or as the whole path which includes all the parent words. The
preview field displays what the path will be; click on Add Keyword to add the last word in the list to the
Collection panel or on Add Path to add the whole string of words. If you wish to use a path as a single keyword
entity, use the Separator option by checking the Use separator between keywords in path checkbox.
There is a search function for keywords, type in the word (or sub-string) and click Find. If there are more than
one result the Next and Previous buttons are activated.

To save time when using large lists of searched for keywords there is an option to present the results in a list
rather than the Next/Previous method. Hold down the modifier key and the Find button will change to
Options. Click the button to select how many results should be displayed in one list dialog.

Apply to: adds the words to either the Keywords field or the Caption field of the IPTC metadata.

Append: adds new keywords to any already in the field. Note : if this box is unchecked Photo Mechanic
will replace any existing keywords.

Double-click: there are 4 options for when you double click on a Keyword.

Apply path to selected: applies the whole keyword path directly to selected images.

Apply keyword to selected: applies the keyword directly to selected images.

Apply collection to selected: applies the keyword directly to selected images.

Adds Path: adds the path to the collection panel above.

Adds Keyword: adds the keyword to the collection panel above.

Synonyms: options to exclude synonyms, to add synonyms only at the end of the path or all along the
path.

Add Path: adds the path of the selected keyword to the Collection panel. Add Keyword : adds the
selected keyword to the Collection panel.

Synonyms are different words with identical or similar meanings. It is useful to include these words in keyword
list because you can never be certain whether a searcher might type in, for example, beast or beasts. Searches
are literal in the sense that a search for beast will not show results that only have the term beasts.

In this way many different groups of keywords can be assembled into a Collection of keywords which can then
be applied en masse to selected images using the Apply buttons in the bottom right hand corner.

This is a very powerful tool and there are many ways to use it to add keywords to your images. The exact
method used will depend on your own workflow and how much detail you need from your keywords.

The other Structured keywords tool, seen below, is accessed through the IPTC Info dialogs by clicking the
arrow next to the Keywords field. The main difference is that the keyword Collection is applied to the keywords
field of the IPTC dialog when Apply is clicked, thus the Apply to dropdown and the three lower Apply
buttons become redundant and are not included in the dialog. All other functions are identical.
 The simplified Structured Keywords dialog found in the IPTC Info
panel

If you want to create your own controlled vocabularies they can be created from scratch by right-clicking in the
columns and selecting Create Child or Create Sibling etc. You can Import text files using the Load and Merge
buttons, and edited lists can be saved using the Save button. Saving and sharing lists is a good idea when
multiple users are adding keywords so that all words are consistent across users and all spelling are the same.

Save: allows you to Save the current database to a file of your choosing. You dont need to use Save
unless you want to export the database to another system or share it with a friend. PM always saves the
database internally for you as you make changes to it.

Load: allows you to completely replace the current database with the file youre loading.

Merge: allows you pull in only the items in the new database that dont already exist in the current
database. This is useful for people who update their database on their machines but subscribe to a
standard database (like the Controlled Vocabulary database) and want to get the latest version but dont
want to lose their own additions.

Vocabulary File Format: It must be a text file encoded in UTF-8 which means it is fully Unicode compatible
and supports any language. There are plenty of free text editors for both Mac OS X and Windows that can read
and write UTF-8. The layout of the file is simply a tab-delimited set of words with special wrapper characters
that determine the type of item the word is. Simple items (keyword items) have no wrapper character at all.
Category items (items used for organizational purposes only and are not part of the hierarchical path) are
wrapped in [ and ]. Synonym items (items that are synonymous with their sibling item) are wrapped in {
and }. The easiest way to see this in action is to Save out the built-in structured keywords to a new file and
then open it up in a text editor and see for yourself.

Commercial lists can be purchased from sources like David Riecks Controlled Vocabulary website :
http://www.controlledvocabulary.com
You can also manage the keywords from within the Structured Keywords interface.
Just right-click on an existing term and the contextual menu will appear.

Rename: Allows you to rename the text of an item.

Create child item: Adds a new item that will have the current item as its parent.
This new item should be a more specific term than the current item.

Create Synonym: Creates a child item that is synonymous with the parent item.

Create sibling item: Creates an item that is at the same level as the current item.

Set type to Synonym/Category: Changes the type of the current item.

Delete the current item and any children underneath it.

Find and Replace

Keyboard Shortcut
Find and Replace

Mac: -Shift-F
Windows: Ctrl-Shift-F
See all shortcuts
Find and Replace is a powerful way to make broad changes to the IPTC data in your images. Photo Mechanic
can search through the metadata in the currently opened Contact Sheet looking for a defined string. For each one
it finds, Photo Mechanic can replace that string with another one.

The Find and Replace panel is under the Edit menu or use -Shift-F to open it.
Type in the string you wish to search for, paying special attention to case and spelling.

You can toggle off the case sensitivity using this checkbox.

Fill in the Replace With box with the text you wish to insert and choose the fields within which you wish to
search.

It is important to note that all instances of the string will be replaced, so use the check boxes to limit the search
to the fields you wish to search.

You can also choose between All Photos in the current Contact Sheet view or just the currently Selected
Photos.

Click the All button to check all the IPTC Field boxes together or None to uncheck them all.

Click on Replace to start the Find and Replace operation.

Snapshots
On all of the most commonly used dialog boxes you will see a small Lightning symbol this is the Snapshot
button and it is used to make a quick copy of the dialogs current settings. Click on the button and you will be
prompted for a save name and it is best to use something meaningful here.

In future, when you click this button, not only will you see a Save option but also a list of all the previous
Snapshots relevant to that particular dialog box. Selecting a named item will load the Snapshot, restoring the
settings.

The Save As dialog is a great place to use this you could set up two different Snapshots, one for large web
images and one for small thumbnail web images. Run the dialog twice over a selection, using each Snapshot and
you have very quickly generated a set of images for the Web. This is very similar to the Export option, but like
many things in Photo Mechanic, there are different ways to do many things and it is up to the user to determine
which best suits his or her needs.

Snapshots can be managed by modifier-clicking on the named entry in the snapshot list. This brings up the
Finder opened to the folder where the Snapshots are saved.

In the Finder, you can copy, rename and delete the snapshot files if you would like. When you return to Photo
Mechanic, the snapshot menu will be updated.

Image Variables
Concept
The concept of variables is a simple but powerful one. A Variable is simply a symbolic representation of
metadata contained within the photos themselves.

For example: {filename} is a Variable and is simply the actual file name of a particular photo. Each photo will
of course have a different name so we use the Variable {filename} to refer to whatever the filename happens to
be. The convention used in Photo Mechanic is to enclose the variable name in curly brackets like this { }.

There are a great many different Variables and some even have subtle variations: Consider a file named
ABC123.jpg

{filename} or {file} = ABC123.jpg

{filenamebase} or {fbas} = ABC123

This could be very useful for creating a printed contact sheet because you could use the Variable {fbas} to label
each image so that it would print the file name only, without the file extension, for a more professional look.

Variables are commonly used during the Ingest renaming process to generate new filenames so that certain data
contained in each file can be used to derive a new filename. It would be possible to use
{datesort}_{frame4}_{user} to make a filename based on the date of capture in a YYYYMMDD format plus
the 4 digit frame number plus the name of the camera owner (if defined in the menu of your camera).

So, a shot taken on Jan 1st, 2006 and originally named _Y123456.CR2 would be renamed to
20060101_3456_nick.CR2 which is easy to sort on date order and clearly names the photographer, while
keeping the unique file number from the camera.

Any combination of Variables is possible and Photo Mechanic makes it easy to customize your file naming in
any way you see fit depending on the job at hand.

Variables can be used in many different places in Photo Mechanic, mainly in Ingesting, Renaming, Copying,
FTPing, Exporting, the Info Panel (Preview window), the IPTC Stationery Pad, Printing, Save As and in Slide
Show captions. When variables are available for use there will be a Variables button in the dialog box. Clicking
this brings up a Variables list. To enter a variable in a field you can either type it in using the { } symbols or,
simply double-click on the Variable you want in the list and it will be inserted into whichever field was active in
the dialog box.

Note that highlighting a Variable in the list will reveal a brief description in the pane at the top of the list.

Client/User Variables enable you to define Variables for jobnames, clients, your business name, even phone
numbers and email addresses.

Variable Substring Extraction

Substring extraction can be used to extract a range of characters from an image variable so they can be used as
normal variables in other fields throughout Photo Mechanic.

The format is: {variable:index,count:conversion} or {variable:index:conversion}

In either case, <:conversion> is optional.

<index> Sets the point in the string at which the operation starts - zero (0) will include all characters, 1 will
ignore the first character etc. This value can be positive or negative. Negative numbers count back from the end
of the string, positive numbers count from the beginning.

<count> to extract <count> characters from <index>. <count> may be positive or negative. If <count> is
negative then it trims off |<count>| characters from the end of the string. <count> may also be omitted altogether
which indicates extracting the substring from <index> position to the end of the string. <conversion> may be
one of the following types or may be omitted altogether:

lc perform lower-case conversion of all applicable characters

UC perform upper-case conversion of all applicable characters
PC perform Proper Name case conversion

Here are some examples:

Lets say we have a file named DSC_1234.JPG

So the variable for {filename} would yield DSC_1234.JPG and {filenamebase} would be DSC_1234

Then to extract substrings from this:

{filenamebase:0,3} yields: DSC

{filenamebase:-4,4} yields: 1234
{filenamebase:-4} yields: 1234
{filenamebase:2,3} yields: C_1
{filenamebase:0:lc} yields: dsc_1234
{filenamebase:0:PC} yields: Dsc_1234
{filename:0,-4} yields: DSC_1234

Variables List
Types of Variables

Camera or Image-specific
APEX Values
Standard IPTC Fields (Also: See the IPTC Variables Map)
Time and Date
ICC Profile
Special
GPS
Location taken
User
Client
Nikon Picture Control settings

Camera or Image-Specific

actuations, act Number of shutter actuations for the camera.

aperture, f Aperture setting of photo. (from the EXIF data)
aspect, aspt Aspect Ratio of photo
aspectcrop, aspc Aspect Ratio of cropped photo
brightness, brit,
Brightness of photo in APEX units. This is exposure value minus film sensitivity value
bv
bytes, byte The uncompressed image size of the photo
colormode,
The color mode set in the camera
cmod
colorclass, color,
Name of color class for photo
colr
colorclasscolor,
HTML color value of color class for photo
clrc
colorclassval,
Numeric value of color class for photo
colorval, clrv
comment, cmnt The comment (written by some cameras)
comp Exposure compensation set by camera
corrupt, crpt Number of invalid extra bytes in a JPEG
cropheight, yc Height of a crop
cropwidth, xc Width of a crop
Exposure value in APEX units. This is a combination of aperture and shutter speed (or
ev
ISO and scene brightness)
Exposure value in APEX units, relative to ISO 100. E.g. at ISO 200, this would be {ev}
ev100
-1
filename, file Filename of photo with the extension
filenamebase,
Filename of photo without the extension
fbas
filesize, size File size of the photo
firmware, firm Firmware version of camera that took photo
flash, flsh Flash used
flashcomp, fcmp Flash exposure compensation
focusmode,
Focus mode of camera
focus, fmod
folder, fldr The folder name for a photo (e.g. the current contact sheet)
foldernum, fldn The folder number for a photo (e.g. first three digits of DCIM folder)
folderpath, fpth The full folder path for a photo (e.g. the current contact sheet)
frame, fnum Frame number of photo
frame4, fnm4 Frame number of photo, last 4 digits
hascrop, hc Value will be 'True' if there is a crop set for this image
height, h, y Height of image in pixels (prior to any rotation drawn by Photo Mechanic)
id Either owner (Canon) or comment (Nikon)
iso ISO (ASA) setting of photo
lens Focal length of lens in mm. This isnt a 35mm equivalent for non-SLR cameras
lens35, 35mm Equivalent 35mm focal length of lens in mm
lenstype, lt Type of lens used
Variable to report the lens number for certain Canon and Sigma lenses. (This can be
lenstypenum,
used to create a code replacement for translating a lens ID into a more descriptive
ltnm
string)
lightsource, lsrc Light source
make Make of camera that took photo
mediatype, mtyp Media type (e.g. still, video)
meteringmode,
Metering mode set in camera
mmod
model, modl Model of camera that took photo.
owner, ownr Cameras owner (if defined; same as user)
parentfolderpath,
The full folder path to the parent folder of the folder of the photo (i.e. 2 levels up)
pfpt
path The full path name of the photo
Total number of pixels (width * height) for photo, displayed as an exponential multiplier
pixels, pxls
(ex. 4.1M)
First three characters of file name, excluding any leading _ character from AdobeRGB
prefix, prfx
photos
printsize, psiz Print size in inches or cms (depends on photo)
printsizecms,
Print size in cms
pscm
printsizeinches,
Print size in inches
psin
program, mode,
Cameras program mode for photo
prgm
quality, qlty Compression quality for camera JPEGs
rating, stars, rate Star rating of photo
rawplusjpeg, r+j If photo is part of a RAW+JPEG pair then the result is 1, otherwise it is 0.
resolution, res Resolution of file
resolutioncms,
Resolution is pixels per cm
rscm
resolutioninches,
Resolution in pixels per inch
rsin
rotation, rot Rotation drawn by Photo Mechanic
serialnum, serial,
Serial number of camera that took photo
snum
sharpness, shrp Sharpness setting in camera for JPEG and TIFF files
shutter, ss Shutter speed setting of photo, from EXIF data
 software, soft Software that produced the photo
sound, snd Sound file attached
tag Tagged state of image (either 1 or 0)
tonecomp, tone Tone compensation (contrast) of photo
type Image type (e.g. JPEG)
uniqueid, uniq Unique 32 char ID written by some cameras
user Cameras user (if defined; same as owner)
width, w, x Width of image in pixels (prior to any rotation drawn by Photo Mechanic)
whitebalance,
White balance of photo as set by camera or host software
white, baln
whitemode,
White balance mode (AUTO or MANUAL)
whim

APEX Values

Some cameras record APEX exposure values for each photo (Additive system of Photographic EXposure).
(Learn more about APEX on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APEX_system) ) Photo Mechanic will
store the APEX values in these variables. In cases where the APEX values for Av and Tv are not recorded,
Photo Mechanic will calculate them from existing camera settings for exposure time and f-number if possible.

If a camera writes the {tv} and {av} and {bv} values (Exif 0x9201, 0x9202, 0x9203) then they will be
displayed directly. If a camera only writes the older Exif tags for Exposure Time and F Number, then PM will
compute the {tv}, {av}, and {bv} APEX values from the camera settings.

The {sv} APEX value will always be computed based on ISO.

(Ev = Av + Tv = Bv + Sv)

av APEX aperture value

bv APEX brightness value
Exposure value in APEX units. This is a combination of aperture and shutter speed (or ISO and
ev
scene brightness)
ev100 Exposure value in APEX units, relative to ISO 100. E.g. at ISO 200, this would be {ev} - 1
sv APEX ISO speed value (a.k.a. sensitivity value)
tv APEX time value

Standard IPTC Fields

assignment, assn JobMinder assignment number (if defined)

byline, name IPTC Byline (Photographer) field
caption, capt IPTC Caption field
captionwriter, cwrt IPTC Caption Writer field
category, cat IPTC Category field
city IPTC City field
citytaken, cttk IPTC City where the image was taken from field
contactaddress, ciad Contact Info Address
contactcity, cicy Contact Info City
contactstate, cist Contact Info State
contactzip, cizp Contact Info ZIP Code
contactcountry, cicn Contact Info Country
contactemail, ciem Contact Info Email
contactphone, ciph Contact Info Phone
contactweb, ciwb Contact Info Web URL
copyright, copy IPTC Copyright field
copyrighturl, curl IPTC URL field
country, cnty IPTC Country field
countrytaken, cntk IPTC Country taken
countrycode, ccod IPTC Country Code field
countrycodetaken, cctk IPTC Country Code taken
credit, cred IPTC Credit field
editstatus, edit IPTC Edit Status field
genre, gene XMP Intellectual Genre field
headline, head IPTC Headline field
instructions, inst IPTC Special Instructions field
iptcampm, iap IPTC day half (AM or PM)
iptcdate, idat IPTC Date field (YYYYMMDD)
iptcday, iday IPTC day (1, 2, 3 .. 31)
iptcday0, idy0 IPTC day zero padded (01, 02, 03 .. 31)
iptcdow, idow IPTC day of week (Sunday, Monday, etc)
iptcdow3, idw3 IPTC day of week abbreviated (Sun, Mon, etc)
iptchour, ihr IPTC 12 hour format (1, 2, 3 .. 12)
iptchour0, ihr0 IPTC 12 hour format zero padded (01, 02, 03 .. 12)
iptchour24, ih24 IPTC 24 hour format zero padded (01, 02, 03 .. 23)
iptcminute, imin IPTC minute (00 .. 59)
iptcmonth, imn IPTC month (1, 2, 3 .. 12)
iptcmonth0, imn0 IPTC month zero padded (01, 02, 03 .. 12)
iptcmonthname, imnn IPTC month name ( January, February, etc)
iptcmonthname3 IPTC month name abbreviated ( Jan, Feb, etc)
iptcmonthnameap IPTC month name abbreviated for AP ( Jan., Feb., etc)
iptcsecond, isec IPTC second (00 .. 59)
iptctime, itim IPTC Time field (HHMMSS+0800)
iptcyear2, iyr2 IPTC year (2 digits)
iptcyear4, iyr4 IPTC year (4 digits)
keywords, keyw IPTC Keywords field
location, loc IPTC Sublocation field
locationtaken, lctk IPTC sublocation taken field
object, objt IPTC Object name field
photog, phtg IPTC Byline field
province, prov IPTC State / Province field
scene, scen IPTC Scene field
slug IPTC Object name field
source, srce IPTC Source field
sourcetype, srct Digital source type
state, stat IPTC State / Province field
statetaken, sttk IPTC State where the image was taken from field
subject, subj IPTC Subject field
suppcat1, sup1 IPTC Supplemental category field 1
suppcat2, sup2 IPTC Supplemental category field 2
suppcat3, sup3 IPTC Supplemental category field 3
title, titl IPTC Byline Title field
transref, tref IPTC Transmission Reference field
urgency, urgc IPTC Urgency field
usage, usag XMP Rights Usage field
worldregiontaken, wrtk World region taken

Time and Date Variables

ampm Capture day half (AM or PM)

Capture date of photo according to camera or file creation time. The format is the
date, shot
same as the Date & Time control panels short date setting
Capture date of photo according to camera or file creation time in military format
datemil, datm
(ddMONyy
Capture date of photo according to camera or file creation time. This can be used for
datesort, dats
sorting since the format is always YYYYMMDD
day Capture day of photo according to camera or file creation time (1, 2, 3 .. 31)
day0 Capture day zero padded of photo according to camera or file creation time (01, 02,
 03 .. 31)
Capture day of week of photo according to camera or file creation time (Sunday,
dow
Monday, etc)
Capture day of week (abbreviated) of photo according to camera or file creation time
dow3
(Sun, Mon, etc)
hour Capture 12 hour format (1, 2, 3 .. 12)
hour0, hr0 Capture 12 hour format zero padded (01, 02, 03 .. 12)
hour24, h24 Capture 24 hour format zero padded (01, 02, 03 .. 23)
minute, min Capture minute (00 .. 59)
month, mn Capture month according to camera or file creation time (1, 2, 3 .. 12)
month0, mn0 Capture month zero padded according to camera or file creation time (01, 02, 03 .. 12
monthname, mnn Capture month name ( January, February, etc)
monthname3, mnn3 Capture month name abbreviated ( Jan, Feb, etc)
monthnameap,
Capture month name abbreviated for AP (Jan., Feb., etc)
mnap
now Current time. See the Date & Time control panel for formatting
nowampm, nap Current day half (AM or PM)
nowhour, nhr Current 12 hour format (1, 2, 3 .. 12)
nowhour0, nhr0 Current 12 hour format zero padded (01, 02, 03 .. 12)
nowhour24, nh24 Current 24 hour format zero padded (01, 02, 03 .. 23)
nowminute, nmin Current minute (00 .. 59)
nowsecond, nsec Current second (00 .. 59)
Current time. This can be used for sorting since the format is always HHMMSS in
nowsort, nows
24-hour format
Current time including 1/100 of a second. This can be used for sorting since the
nowsortlong, nwsl
format is always HHMMSSss in 24-hour format
nowsubsecond,
Current subsecond (00 .. 99)
nsub
second, sec Capture second (00 .. 59)
subsecond, ssec Capture sub-second (for cameras that support this)
time Capture time of photo according to camera or file creation time
timesort, tims Capture time of photo according to camera
timesortlong, tmsl Capture time of photo according to camera (long format)
Current date. The format is the same as the Date & Time control panels short date
today, tday
setting
todayday, tdy Current day (1, 2, 3 .. 31)
todayday0, tdy0 Current day zero padded (01, 02, 03 .. 31)
todaydow, tdow Current day of week (Sunday, Monday, etc)
 todaydow3, tdw3 Current day of week abbreviated (Sun, Mon, etc)
todaymil, tdym Current date in military format (ddMONyy)
todaymonth, tmn Current month (1, 2, 3 .. 12)
todaymonth0, tmn0 Current zero padded month (01, 02, 03 .. 12)
todaymonthname,
Current month name ( January, February, etc)
tmnn
todaymonthname3,
Current month name abbreviated ( Jan, Feb, etc)
tmn3
todaymonthnameap,
Current month name abbreviated for AP (Jan., Feb., etc)
tmap
todaysort, tdys Current date. This can be used for sorting since the format is always YYYYMMD
todayyear2, tyr2 Current two digit year (e.g. 97, 04)
todayyear4, tyr4 Current four digit year (e.g 1997, 2004)
Tomorrows date. The format is the same as the Date & Time control panels short
tomorrow, tmrw
date setting
wiredate, wdat Evaluates to {iptcdow}, {iptcmonthnameap} {iptcday}, {iptcyear4}
year2, yr2 Capture year (2 digits) according to camera or file creation time
year4, yr4 Capture year (4 digits) according to camera or file creation time
Yesterdays date. The format is the same as the Date &Time control panels short
yesterday, ystd
date setting

ICC Profile Variables

gamma, gama The gamma of the photo

icc The name of the ICC profile for a photo
prrx The red x coordinate of the primaries
prry The red y coordinate of the primaries
prgx The green x coordinate of the primaries
prgy The green y coordinate of the primaries
prbx The blue x coordinate of the primaries
prby The blue y coordinate of the primaries
wpx The x coordinate of the white point
wpy The y coordinate of the white point

Special Variables

index, indx Index of the photo being processed

Current value of ingest sequence number. This is incremented for each disk being
ingestseq, iseq
ingested
nl Inserts a new-line (CR) character
page Current page number during printing or exporting of HTML
rand10 A random number from 01 to 10
rand100 A random number from 001 to 100
rand1000 A random number from 0001 to 1000
sequence, seqn, Current value of sequence variable. This will automatically be incremented for the
auto next photo
tab Inserts a tab character
total, totl Total number of photos being processed

GPS Variables

altitude, galt GPS altitude in meters

bearingfrom, bfrm Bearing from photo to home in degrees
bearingto, brto Bearing to photo from home in degrees
distance, dist Distance from photo to home in users units
gpsdate, gdat GPS date (UTC) as YYYY:MM:DD
gpsdatum, gdtm GPS map datum
gpsdif, gdif GPS differential correction applied (no or yes)
gpsdir, gdir GPS image direction (0-359 degrees)
gpddirref, gdrf GPS image direction reference (true or magnetic)
gpsdop, gdop GPS degree of data precision
gpsmode, gmod GPS dimension mode (2 or 3)
gpsstatus, gsta GPS status (A=acquiring, V=valid)
gpstime, gtim GPS time (UTC) as HH:MM:SS
gpsversion, gver GPS version
latitude, glat GPS latitude
longitude, glon GPS longitude
satellites, gsat GPS satellites
speed, gspd GPS speed
track, gtrk GPS track (0-359 degrees)

User Variables

jobname, job Current Job name

username, urna User name
usercompany, urco User Company/Name
useraddress, ura1 User Street Address
 useraddress2, ura2 User Secondary Address
usercity, urcy User City
userstate,urst User State
userzip, urzip User zip Code
usercountry, urcn User Country
userphone, urph User Phone Number
usermobile, urmb User Mobile Number
userweb, urwb User Website URL
useremail, urem User Email address
usercustom1, urc1 User Custom Field 1
usercustom2, urc2 User Custom Field 2
usercustom3, urc3 User Custom Field 3

Locations Taken

citytaken, cttk||City the image was taken in statetaken, sttk||State the image was taken in countrytaken,
cntk||Country the image was taken in countrycodetaken, cctk||Country Code taken in worldregiontaken,
wrtk||World region the image was taken in

locationtaken, lctk Sublocation taken

Client Variables

clientname, clna Client name

clientcompany, clco Client Company/Name
clientaddress, cla1 Client Street Address
clientaddress2, cla2 Client Secondary Address
clientcity, clcy Client City
clientstate,clst Client State
clientzip, clzip Client zip Code
clientcountry, uscn Client Country
clientphone, clph Client Phone Number
clientmobile, clmb Client Mobile Number
clientweb, clwb Clients Website URL
clientemail, clem Client Email address
clientcustom1, clc1 Client Custom Field 1
clientcustom2, clc2 Client Custom Field 2
clientcustom3, clc3 Client Custom Field 3
Nikon Picture Control Settings Variables

pcnm Picture Control Name

pcad Picture Control Adjustment
pcqa Picture Control Quick Adjust
pcsh Picture Control Sharpness
pccn Picture Control Contrast
pcbr Picture Control Brightness
pcsa Picture Control Saturation
pchu Picture Control Hue Adjustment
pcfe Picture Control Filter Effect
pcte Picture Control Toning Effect
pcts Picture Control Toning Saturation

User/Client Variables
The User / Client Variables dialog is useful when working on different
jobs and with different clients when you wish to make sure images are
easily trackable. By defining these variables you can use any of this data
in the same way as normal variables. User/Client Variables are found at
the bottom of the normal Variables pop out list.

If you have a group of regular clients you could fill in this form for each
one, using the Snapshot button to save each set of data. Each time you do
a job for a client you can reload the form in two clicks by clicking the
Snapshot button again and selecting the client from the list. This will
populate all the fields as you last saved them.

Having done that you can now use the variables to, for instance, create
folder names based on the clients company name or more powerfully, to
add data into the IPTC Stationery Pad. Inserting {clientname}
{clientcompany} and {clientphone} into, say, the Special Instructions
field will tag all the files with your clients name, company and phone number.

Think of User Variables as user-defined text strings that save having to repeatedly enter identical info about you
or your clients.

You can get to this dialog by using the Set User/Client Variables... command on the Edit menu, or while in the
Ingest dialog by clicking on the Job... button.

Info Variable
If you right-click (Ctrl-click) on a thumbnail you can display Image Info.

This is a sub-menu showing all sorts of information about that particular image. This information also shows up
as a mouse-hover tooltip if they are enabled under the View Menu.

Selecting the Show Info Tooltips option in the View Menu causes all the Info Text to display when the mouse is
hovered over a thumbnail.

The information that is displayed can be customized using the Edit/Set Info Text menu option.

To edit this list simply select and delete the Variables you dont want. You can add new Variables by opening the
Variables drawer and double-clicking the Variable you want to add. The insertion point for a new Variable will
be wherever the cursor is flashing in the Set Info dialog.

The sequence of information displayed in the Image Info popup is the same as the sequence set in this dialog.
You can edit this list by adding and deleting variables.

You can also treat this dialog just like a text editor using the normal Cut, Paste and Copy options, and you can
even type directly into the box if you want certain text strings to show up in every image.
Speeding Up Captioning
Captioning photos is a very worthwhile and even essential task for making your photos more valuable. But it
can be time consuming. Good use of the IPTC Stationery Pad to create captions that have common information
is a way to speed up this process. Photo Mechanic offers two other features that can help you speed up your
captioning. The first feature is called Code Replacement and the second feature is called Autocomplete.

Code Replacement
Code Replacement is a feature which speeds up captioning of often-used terms or names like those used in
sports photography, but can be used as a method of shorthand for any type of photography.

To use Code Replacement, you must prepare a UTF-8 text file in 'tab-separated format. You can use any text
editor to generate the text file. The format of the text file is simple. It is comprised of two or more columns,
the first being the Code and the second through last being the Replacements. These columns are separated
by a tab character. Using just spaces won't work. Ideally, you want your codes to be as short as possible while
being completely unique.

Here's a simple example Code Replacement text file used for Basketball (Detroit Dunkers and Chattanooga
Choo-Choos):

CC8 Dain Bramage

CC17 Rick Perkins
CC43 Brian Calloway
CC13 Dennis George
CC11 Darrin Green
CC2 Aaron Barnum
...
DD41 Stanislav Zarubezhanin
DD43 Paul Kroyd
DD24 Ken Pierce
DD44 Brian Socoletto
DD55 Wally Flannenbaum
DD13 Victor Zenfliende
...

Some of the players names are difficult to spell correctly, even if you are familiar with them. Code
Replacement makes this problem a thing of the past. All you have to do is get the spelling right once: during the
creation of the Code Replacement text file. Once you have created your text file, you need to tell Photo
Mechanic to use it for Code Replacement.

Edit > Settings > Set Code Replacements

This is where you can define which files contain Code replacement data - and there can be more than one. You
select multiple Code Replacement files at once in the file selection dialog by holding down the Shift key. Where
multiple codes exist, the most recently loaded replacement will take preference.

Once your text files are loaded, you can use Code Replacement to speed up your captioning.

Continuing our basketball example, lets say you shoot a game where the Chattanooga Choo-Choos play the
Detroit Dunkers. Later after Ingesting your images you begin to individually caption the keepers and want to
identify the players in each of the photos.

Example: you have a picture with Dain Bramage (CC8) breaking past Stanislav Zarubezhanin (DD41) and you
can visibly see their jersey numbers in the thumbnail preview of the IPTC Info dialog. You just type in your
codes for each player, surrounded by the \ character which tells Photo Mechanic to look up the codes and enter
their replacements. Photo Mechanic instantly looks up the replacement text and enters it in place of the \code\
and automatically places the cursor at the end of the replacement so that you can continue typing in the rest of
your text.

Code Replacement can help make your captions more accurate and can save time as well: just choose a system
of mnemonics to help you remember your codes and the pictures themselves will help you derive the codes. In
our example we chose CC as an abbreviation for the Chattanooga Choo-Choos and DD as an abbreviation for
the Detroit Dunkers. When captioning, we can see that the two players are on the Choo-Choos and the
Dunkers, so we can derive the codes from their jersey numbers (8 and 41), giving us CC8 and DD41.

Multiple Code Replacement

Code Replacement also supports multiple replacements for a code. The additional replacements just follow the
first replacement with a tab character between each additional replacement. Here is an example:

code replacement replacement #2 replacement #3

In order to use the alternate replacements you need to add the field selector which is the pound sign # followed
by the number of the replacement you want to select. For instance with the above example one would use
\code#2\ to select the second replacement which would result in replacement #2 being entered in the text.
While you can enter #1 to get the first replacement, it is not necessary. Code Replacement will work with either
method.

Comments are also supported and must either start at the beginning of a line or be the last column on a line.
Comments start with two forward slashes like so:

// this is a comment for the whole line

code replacement // this is a comment for the rest of the line

Code Replacement with Variables

Code Replacement can be paired with the use of variables to add indirection to the look up of a replacement for
a code. For instance if you wanted to use the variable {monthname} but you wanted it to be translated to a
different language from English, say Spanish, you could create a Code Replacement file that looks like this:
(Note, there is one TAB between items in each column)

January Enero
February Febrero
March Marzo
April Abril
May Mayo
June Junio
July Julio
August Agosto
September Septiembre
October Octubre
November Noviembre
December Diciembre

So if you now use \{monthname}\ and the current month in English would be July then the Spanish replacement
would become Julio. Another example of using variables in Code Replacement would be to make sequences of
often-used variables entered more quickly. For instance if you often used the set of variables {day}
{monthname} {year4} in your captions you could create an entry in your Code Replacement file that looks like
this: mydate {day} {monthname} {year4} Then instead of typing in all of those variables or entering the date
manually, you would just enter: \mydate\ and your photos date information would be replaced. Code
Replacement can be used any time you have commonly entered terms that you tire of entering each time. Code
Replacement works in every text field of the IPTC Info and IPTC Stationery dialogs.

Advanced Code Replacement

You can combine multiple Code Replacements with variables to discover huge gains in timesaving. Here is a
theoretical example: Imagine a scenario where you have a team of 4 photographers covering an event, say a
music festival with 4 stages over a a period of a few days, and you're downloading all their photos from
different days into a single contact sheet. If you take some time beforehand to set up a code replacement file
using variables, you can save yourself a ton of time. You can differentiate the images from each photographer
by using the serial number of their camera. Here is an example code replacement file that lists the serial number
of each camera along the name of each photographer, which stage they are covering, and the name of the
performing artist, all separated with tabs, along with a simple single code replacement for the name of the music
festival.

So now even though you have photos from different photographers shooting different subjects in different
locations on different dates, you can put a single caption in the IPTC Caption field for all photos from that
shoot.

\{serialnum}#3\ performs on the \{serialnum}#2\ at the \bmf\ on {monthname3} {day}, {year4}. Photo by staff phot

Now all the photos from Jimmy's camera will have this as a caption:

David Crowie performs on the Montana Stage at the Big Music Festival presented by Trustworthy Motors on
Jan 6, 2013. Photo by staff photographer Jimmy Bits

While all the photos from Rita's camera will have this as a caption:

Taylor Sleaux performs on the Colorado Stage at the Big Music Festival presented by Trustworthy Motors on
Jan 4, 2013. Photo by staff photographer Rita Reflex
Now suppose that at the last minute, Trustworthy Motors pulls out of their sponsorship and are replaced by
Guzzleade energy drink. You can simply change the one line in your code replacement file and reapply it to your
photos and you're set.

More Code Replacement Ideas

Code Replacement can be used in any of the fields of the IPTC Stationery Pad. This means it can help speed up
things like Keywording. For example, if you are a Wedding photographer who archives files with keywords to
be able to find them later, you could set up a Code Replacement file that covers your common keyword fields

familyname Davis
groomname Dave Davis
bridename Jane Jensen
motherofbride Dorothy
motherofgroom Diane
bestman Bert Baker
maidofhonor Betsy Bouffant

Then you could keep a saved IPTC Stationery Pad that you plan to reuse with keyword field that contains items
like \familyname\ and \maidofhonor\ etc. You could then keep the same Stationery Pad and just edit your Code
Replacement file before or after each shoot to match the members of that wedding.

You can also use Code Replacement to adjust the way Variables work. For example, using the {lt} variable for
"lens type" will insert something like "EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM" If you prefer a shorter description for that
variable, you could set up Code Replacement file with this line:

EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM 24-105mm f/4L IS

and then use \{lt}\ in your Stationery Pad to insert the new shorter value. And since you can load multiple Code
Replacement files, you can keep this one in the list all the time even as you swap out other Code Replacement
files.

Code Replacement FIles

A common mistake when first working with Code Replacements is to make files that don't have the right
formatting to work with Photo Mechanic. It is imperative that you create a file in plain next without any rich
text or HTML formatting. Programs like Microsoft Word or TextEdit can sometimes change your formatting
without warning. We recommend using a text editor that makes it easy to create plain text files. Free examples
of these are Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) for Windows or TextWrangler
(http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/) for the Mac, but these are not the only options.

Also, we repeat that it's crucial that you place one TAB between each column in your Code Replacement file.
Using multiple spaces instead of a Tab will not work. Advanced users working with complex Code Replacement
files can even use a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel to keep track of them, and then export that file
as "Tab Delimited Text" format for use in Photo Mechanic.
Autocomplete
Another method for speeding up captioning is Autocomplete which is a realtime word completion feature that
can use lists of words in a text file that you create, words from the IPTC field lists, or even {variables}.
Autocomplete is off by default, but you can enable it with the Set Autocomplete... menu item on the
Settings submenu found in the Edit menu. This command brings up the following dialog.

You can enable and disable using words from each of the sources by checking or unchecking the checkbox to
the left of each of the sources. You can enable or disable the feature entirely by setting the Enable
Autocomplete checkbox appropriately. The last checkbox, titled When editing IPTC fields, only allow
completions from the fields own list when set makes it so that none of the other sources will be considered
even if they are enabled. Instead only the list of words or phrases in the popup menu to the right of the IPTC
field that youre editing will be looked at for completing words youre typing.

When creating your own text file for Autocomplete, make sure that you enter one word (or phrase) per line and
that you save out the text file in the UTF-8 encoding if any of the letters youve entered have accents on them or
are written in a non-Roman script such as Japanese (Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji).

Using Autocomplete
Autocomplete is easy to use. Just type like you normally do and when Autocomplete senses that youre entering
the first few letters of one of its words or phrases, it finds the first alphabetical match and completes the word.
Here, a user has entered the three letters Por into the IPTC Stationery Pads City field and Autocomplete has
found the cities named Portland and Portsmouth in its list. "Portland" is alphabetically first, so it is the first
choice:

From this point, If you wanted Portland, you can press the TAB key to accept the match and move on. (If you
need to type more into the field than just "Portland" you can use your keyboard's right-arrow key to accept the
match and stay in that field. Or, if you wanted Portsmouth, you can click your keyboard's down arrow to select
Portsmouth and then TAB to select and move on.

Alternately, if you don't want to hunt for the down arrow, you can keep typing letters until your choice is the
only one remaining, and then hit TAB and go.
This feature is meant to save time, so use whatever method is faster for your fingers.

Previous versions of Photo Mechanic were limited to single words for Autocomplete, but it now can handle
longer phrases as well. For example, if you have a line in your text file like

At the corner of forever

And if your settings are to Autocomplete after two letters, simply typing "At" in a field will give you the full
phrase option:

The IPTC Stationery Pad, Code Replacement, and Autocomplete are features that strive to make captioning
many photos as quick and efficient as possible.

RAW + JPEG
Certain digital cameras are able to shoot both RAW and JPEG images at the
same time. This means that there are two identical images saved to the card, Keyboard Shortcut
one saved as a JPEG and one saved as a RAW file. Both will have the same
base file name. Photo Mechanic is able to display these files in two ways: Toggle Combined
RAW+JPEG:
1. Both files are displayed as a single combined thumbnail.
2. Both files are displayed as two separate thumbnails J
See all shortcuts
This can be selected in Preferences in the Contact Sheet tab where there is an option to Combine RAW+JPEG
into a single thumbnail. The same setting can be made in the View menu. If unchecked, there will be two
thumbs with identical file names, just different file extensions.
Also, in Preferences/Launching, there is a radio button to choose which of the pair is edited in an external editor
when only one combined thumb is displayed.

RAW+JPEG treats both images the same for the following actions:

Tagging
Soft rotation
Color Class
IPTC Captioning: by default, the caption from the JPEG is used as a source, but when saved, the caption
is written to both files if possible
Renaming
Photoshelter (with specific options [you can choose to send both, just the JPEG, or just the RAW file])
Copy (with specific options [you can choose to copy both, just the JPEG, or just the RAW file])
FTP (with specific options [you can choose to send both, just the JPEG, or just the RAW file]).

In the following actions, the JPEG is used as a proxy for the RAW file:

Send photos as email

Printing
HTML export
Preview generation
Slide Show generation
Cropping
Text export
XML export
Variables expansion
 Find
Find and Replace: but when fields are replaced and the IPTC record is updated, the RAW file is updated if
possible.

Using the JPEG as a proxy file means that Photo Mechanic does not have to parse the RAW file itself, which is
outside the scope of the software. It uses the JPEG data for all the above transformations and exports. Using a
JPEG Proxy is like using a full resolution version of the RAW file, without having to actually process it.

RAW Rendering
Mac OS X 10.4 and later includes a RAW file processing facility. Photo Mechanic can take advantage of this
and now includes an option to use RAW rendering to create Output such as Web Galleries, Save As, Emails etc.

This will often give better color than using the embedded previews but at the expense of longer processing
times. The Preferences Dialog above has options to use available JPEG files for Contact Sheets and Previews to
speed up the display of images.

Using embedded JPEG previews in this way may result in differing colors between the Previews and the final
output depending on the RAW processing settings.

Ingesting Images
Ingest
Keyboard Shortcut
Ingest Images

Mac: -G
Windows: Ctrl-G
See all shortcuts
This is one of the core components of Photo Mechanic, bringing the contents of a flash card onto your computer
in a logical way and, at the same time, performing certain other useful tasks.

Ingest can copy the files from the card, flatten the somewhat inconvenient directory structure of the card,
rename the files to your specification, add IPTC information to each file and create a mirrored backup folder.
The renaming and IPTC functions can include user-specified Variables so you can customize your file naming in
a huge variety of ways.

Source Paths: Shows a list of the possible sources for the ingest, usually a camera card but could be any folder.

Ingest Disks or Ingest Folders Radio Buttons: Use Ingest Disks when reading off a memory card reader.
Select Ingest Folders to ingest from a particular Folder rather than a whole Volume.

Auto Ingest When this is checked, Photo Mechanic will automatically ingest files from the selected folder or
disk. Note: If you'd like Photo Mechanic to start ingesting photos as soon as you plug a memory card in, you
must also go to Preferences > General and set the option for On mount of Camera Disk to "Show Ingest
Dialog." Photo Mechanic will remind you of this when enabling this setting.

Note: This will use all the settings from the Ingest dialog box, including IPTC Stationery Pad if you have that s

Incremental Ingest: Copy new photos only checkbox: Photo Mechanic will keep track of all photos
previously downloaded and will only download photos that have not been downloaded before. If you reformat
your card in your camera, then all photos shot since the format will be downloaded.
Source Directory Structure

These are options in how to handle sources that have folders or directories.

Ignore: Ignores the folder structure and copies all image files into the same destination. This is good for
copying all images off camera cards, regardless of how they are arranged on the card itself.

Example: A camera card might contain a folder named DCIM, which in turn contains a series of folders named
canon101, canon102, canon103 etc. Each folder will contain up to 100 images. Using the ignore Folders setting
will copy all files from all folders into one single Destination folder.

Keep Separate Source Folder Names Only: This is a little more complex but removes the DCIM folder
and keeps images grouped within the second level folders if there are more than one.

Example 1 : A card with a DCIM folder containing 1 folder (canon101) which itself contains images would
result in those images being copied to a single destination folder. The DCIM and canon101 folders are removed.

Example 2 : A card with a DCIM folder containing 2 or more folders (canon101, canon102, etc.) each
containing images would result in all the canonxxx folders being preserved in the destination folder.

In a nutshell, this option removes the DCIM folder and keeps images grouped in the same folders as on the card.
If there is only one folder, this is removed. If there is more than one, all of them are preserved.

'* Preserve All Source Directories:' Simply keeps the card directory structure the same as on the card, within the
Destination directory.

Copy Photos

These options tell Photo Mechanic how to set up the folder into which the files will be copied.

Directly into the folder specified as the Primary Destination (and Secondary Destination, if selected).

Into a Dated Folder within the specified Destination Folder. The date used will be the current system
date, i.e. todays date.

Into Folder with Name specified in the box which will appear below if this option is chosen. Type a
name for the new folder in the box below and this will be reflected in the Primary Destination Path text
near the bottom of the dialog box. Note that Variables may be used to create the names of folders. If you
want to create folders within folders, separate the variables with forward slashes /. For instance if you
want to have a folder for each year and then inside it a folder for each month and then inside that a folder
for each job, you would enter the following into the Folder Name text field: {year4}/{month0}/{job}

Into Dated Folder then folder with name: This is a combination of the previous two options and will
result in a named folder within a folder named with todays date. This option has been available for some
time, but its effect can be reproduced more flexibly by using Variables like in the previous paragraph.

There is an option to auto-increment a folder suffix for named folders. This adds a specified number after the
folder name and increments it by one each time the Ingest is run. This will keep the files on different camera
cards separate by placing them in a series of folders with the same name but a numeric suffix i.e. JimmyPics01,
JimmyPics02 etc.

Destination Folder Roots

Note: Destination folder fields support relative path expressions, (Example: ../local/folder)

Primary Destination: Choose where the folders and/or images will be copied to by clicking the button
and selecting a destination.

Secondary Destination: (Optional) Check the box and this option will become active. Choose a
destination where exact copies of all the files copied to the Primary destination will be made. This creates
a mirror backup of the files as they are Ingested.

Filter Files

This option lets you control which files are Ingested. Sometimes you may only want only RAW, or only locked
images, or some combination. You can choose Locked and/or Unlocked plus RAW and/or JPEGs.

Apply IPTC Stationery Pad to Photos

When this option is checked, the IPTC Stationery Pad will be applied to each image as it is ingested. . By
setting up the Pad before Ingesting, you can make sure all the files are captioned, copyrighted, credited etc. as
they are copied. See IPTC Stationery Pad for more details on Batch Captioning.

Click the IPTC Stationery Pad button to open the Pad where you can set your metadata choices.

Use Local IPTC Stationery: If this is checked the data entered into the IPTC Stationery Pad that opens
when you click on the IPTC Stationery Pad button above will only be applied to the Ingested images and
will remain there for the next Ingest. This is very useful if the data added to Ingested images needs to be
identical from one Ingest session to the next.

Use Global IPTC Stationery: If this is checked the IPTC Stationery Pad that opens when you click on
the IPTC Stationery Pad button above will be the main Pad.

Rename Ingested Photos As

If this option is unchecked, all files will copy with the file names set by the camera, for example
IMG_2345.CRW. Check the box to apply the full power of Image Variables to rename the files to more
descriptive names with dates, locations, or other customizations that you control.

Click on the Variables button at the lower left of the Ingest Dialog to open the Variables list. Now, by double-
clicking on the Variable that you want you can insert it into the Rename box. This saves typing it in and you can
be sure the spelling is correct.

Here the variable {seqn} has been added to a text string, DNG, which has been typed directly into the Rename
box. This will result in a series of files named DNG1, DNG2, DNG3 etc. You could use {date} to include the
date the image was shot, or {user} to add your own name to the file.
Example: Entering this into the rename box:

new_york_{user}_{date}_{seqn}

would result in the ingested files being renamed like this:

new_york_jimmy_02142013_0001.jpg
new_york_jimmy_02142013_0002.jpg
new_york_jimmy_02142013_0003.jpg

Set Sequence Variable: Use this button to set the number at which the sequence should start. You can
add letters or Variables before the number and you can save this to use in other Ingest operations. Type in
the sequence you want to use and then click on the triangle at the right of the text field. Click Add and
then the next time you use this option, that sequence will be there to select.

It's important to note that the Sequence number is sticky between sessions so the Ingest function will always
pick up where it left off. If you ingest 238 images in a session, then the next session will start with 239 as the
Sequence number - unless you reset it.

Hint: Use 001 or 0001 instead of 1 as the beginning number. Leading zeros mean that there are more unique
numbers to increment. A single digit has only 9 possible values, while a 3 digit one has 999.

In many dialogs with a Set {seqn} Variable button, holding down the modifier key changes the button to
Reset. Click this to reset the sequence variable without opening the dialog box above. The number of digits is
maintained so 456 will reset to 001.

Open Contact Sheet during Ingest: Select whether to open a new Contact Sheet for the folder into
which the files are being ingested or whether to open an new Contact Sheet after all the files are ingested.
Opening the Contact Sheet during ingest works well because since Photo Mechanic is so quick at making
thumbnails, by the time the Ingest is complete, all the files will be ready for viewing. You can also
perform editing operations such as Tagging, Previewing etc. on any thumb that has appeared so you can
get on with editing while files are still being Ingested.

Unmount Source Disk after Ingest: this unmounts the card after it has finished ingesting so you can
safely remove the card from the card reader.

Erase Source Disk(s) after Ingest: this erases all files that have been ingested after the entire ingest
completes successfully. WARNING: This is a dangerous option to enable since the original photos on the
camera memory card will be erased after being copied. Even though the photos will not be erased unless
all of the files are copied without error, Camera Bits recommends that you at least briefly inspect the files
on your destination hard disk after ingesting to verify for sure that the photos were successfully copied.
 Then we recommend that you format your memory cards in the camera before you begin shooting, unless
you intend on doing an incremental ingest later on.

Ingest Tasks
During Ingest an Ingest Tasks dialog appears showing the progress of the Ingest. Subsequent Ingests add a
Ingest Task to the dialog so that you can keep track of multiple downloads.

Thus if you have 5 cards to download, once there are 5 bars completed you will know that you have Ingested all
5 of the cards. Also, if you Ingest 5 cards simultaneously with multiple card readers you will be able to see the
progress of all downloads at a glance.

Each Ingest Task is color coded. Green means that the Ingest completed with no errors. Red means that the
Ingest completed with errors. Yellow means that the Ingest is in progress.

There is only one Messages area at the bottom of the window which is shared among all of the Ingest tasks.
When you click on an Ingest Task, it will become selected and its messages will fill the Messages area.

Use the Clean up button to remove any completed tasks. Use the Abort button to stop the currently selected
Ingest Task.

If you ever close the Ingest Tasks window and want to see it again, you can show it again from the Window
menu.

Live Ingest
Live Ingest works like Ingest in that it copies images to one or more destination folders. But Live Ingest is
different in that it can monitor one or more paths for new files and will process them as they appear. This is
useful for shooting wirelessly or tethered. You could have a wi-fi enabled Flash card in your camera set to
transfer photos to a folder on your computer. Live Ingest will ingest your photos as they appear on your
computer.
Live Ingest can ingest both JPEG and RAW files produced by cameras. When using Live Ingest with RAW files,
Photo Mechanic tries to determine when the RAW file has completed its transfer by waiting for the file to stop
changing in size. If you have a very fast connection from the camera to the computer you can decrease this wait
time, but 30 seconds is a good general waiting period.

When shooting RAW+JPEG it is suggested to set the checkbox titled Wait for RAW+JPEG pairs when {seqn}
is used as it will make sure that the same sequence number is used for both files. If no sequence number is used
then the RAW and JPEG files will be processed as soon as they are safe to copy without waiting for the other
file of the pair to arrive.

Tip: For maximum speed when working with Live Ingest, consider ingesting only the JPEG for quick review.
You can do this and add color codes and ratings to the JPEG, and then ingest the RAW versions later. To transfer
the color class to the RAW versions, follow these steps"

1. Put the two sets of files into the same folder (easiest unless you have restrictions)
2. Open that up in a Contact Sheet
3. Make sure your RAW and JPEG files are shown as a single item by setting Combined RAW+JPEG from
the View menu
4. Select all (-A)
5. Use the Update IPTC/XMP command on the Tools menu. Choose to Read IPTC/XMP from JPEG.
6. Click Update.

Multiple separate Live Ingests may be active at any one time. Just open the Live Ingest dialog again from the
File menu after you Start a Live Ingest. If using the {seqn] variable during concurrent ingests, know that only
the sequence number in use by the first Live Ingest will be kept persistent.

Live Ingest can copy photos to up to three separate locations, performing different operations on each
destination. Use the popup menu in the Destination Processing section of the dialog to setup the three different
destinations. The Secondary and Tertiary destinations need the Enable checkbox set in order to make them
active.
The IPTC Stationery Pad is local to each Live Ingest process and if applied, the same IPTC Stationery Pad is
applied to each destination. The sequence variable is also local to each Live Ingest process and will be the same
value for each Live Ingest destination.

After each photo is copied to all destinations, it is deleted from the source location.

The Live Ingest process continues to monitor for new files in each of its sources until it is terminated. Live
Ingest monitors folder hierarchies three levels deep, in case your camera creates new folders in the destination
folder.

Searching and Finding Photos

Photo Mechanic offers a number of ways to locate photos that you may be looking for. It's important to
understand the differences between them:

The "Find" feature is for locating files in whatever Contact Sheet is currently open in Photo Mechanic. "Find"
will not show you photos that are not already part of an open Contact Sheet.

The "Search" feature (also known as "Spotlight Search") is only available in Mac OS X 10.4 (and later) and
can help you find files on your computer even if they are not in an open Contact Sheet.

The "Quick Search" can do either of these (on OS X) and operates from the search box in the upper right
corner.

Let's take a look at each of these:

Find Photos
Keyboard Shortcut
Find

Mac: -F
Windows: Ctrl-F
See all shortcuts

Find photos within the current Contact Sheet with the Find function.

Photo Mechanic allows the user to search through the photos in the current Contact Sheet looking for specified
metadata within either Selected Photos or All Photos.

Photos which match the set criteria will form a new selection in the Contact Sheet view when the search is
completed.
You can search in the metadata or in the file name for multiple words with an AND/OR option. You can choose
which metadata fields to search and you can search through the current selection or the whole contact sheet.

For example, you could search the current Contact Sheet for all photos taken by particular photographers by
checking the IPTC data box, typing the name (unchecking case sensitive) and clicking on Find. This will select
all the images in the current Contact Sheet taken by that photographer. Very useful when editing photos from
events where more than one photographer worked.

The Find dialogs can be left open since they are not modal dialogs which need to be dismissed before
proceeding to other tasks. You can type in new search criteria and click Find as many times as you like. The
found images will simply be highlighted in the current Contact Sheet view.

Spotlight Search (Mac Only)

Keyboard Shortcut
Spotlight Search (Mac Only)
Mac: -Opt-F
See all shortcuts
Mac OS X 10.4 (and later) has a facility called Spotlight which catalogs all the files on your computer to allow
faster and more sophisticated searches.

For sophisticated searches on your computer use Edit/Search which will bring up this dialog:
You can set Spotlight to search in any metadata field using the first popup menu, and you can set how it searches
in the second popup menu (default : contains).

Contains: The searched field text string contains the text string typed into the text box, but need not be
exactly the same to return a result.

E.g. Filename Contains Any yosemite, glacier, yellowstone will find any image which has the text strings
yosemite or glacier or yellowstone anywhere in the filename.

Begins with: looks for text strings which start with the defined string. Ends with: looks for text strings
which end with the defined string.

Is: looks for text strings which are exactly the same as the defined string. In the example above, there is a
secondary search criteria set by clicking the plus sign to the right of the first row. This adds a second row
just like the first which is treated as an AND statement. In other words both criteria must be met for a
result to be returned. In this case Caption contains Sydney. Therefore only files with a NSW
somewhere in the filename AND Sydney in the Caption field will be returned as a result.

Any, All, Exact: controls how text strings are matched. Any allows any of the words separated by
commas or semi-colons to match. All specifies that all of the words separated by commas of semi-colons
must match the field being searched. Exact matches the string exactly as typed, including any punctuation.

These tools allow quite sophisticated searches when combined in this way. Additional search criteria rows can
be added by clicking the plus sign at the right of the row. Unwanted search criteria rows can be removed by
clicking the minus sign at the right of the row.

Searches can be limited to specific hard drives or even folders on individual hard drives by using the Limit
searches to specific locations: checkbox and the list below it along with the set of buttons to the right of the
locations list box. Use the + button to add a folder or drive, the - button to remove a selected path, and the x
button to clear the list entirely. If you dont want to remove the paths but you want to search all drives on your
system, you can simply uncheck the Limit searches to specific locations: checkbox temporarily. To limit
searches again to the set of paths listed, just set the checkbox again.

Results of searches can be opened into a new contact sheet or into the currently opened one by selecting your
choice from the Put search results into: popup menu.

Searches can be saved by typing in a name into the Name field at the bottom of the dialog and clicking Add to
Favorites. This search will now appear as a folder icon (with a gearwheel badge) in the Favorites panel of the
Contact Sheet view.

Double-clicking the saved search label will execute it within the current contact sheet window. Right-click
(Ctrl-click) on the Search label in the Favorites panel to bring up more options:

Execute Search: Applies this search criteria and results are shown in current Contact Sheet.

Execute Search in New Contact Sheet: Applies this search criteria and results are shown in a new
Contact Sheet.

Edit Search: Brings up the Spotlight Search dialog with the current settings displayed so you can edit
them.

Saved searches are useful for keeping track of photos that meet a certain criteria and since they are
dynamic, they can keep up with changes to the set of photos on your system. For instance if you want to
keep track of the photos you have shot in the last week, then you can start a new search, change the
criteria to Captured and then set the second popup menu to This week. Save the search by adding it to
Favorites with the name This Week and then any time you want to see the photos you have shot within
the last seven days, just double-click on This Week in the Favorites and Spotlight will find all of the
photos you shot over the past week. If you execute the search again next week, you will see a different set
of photos than you see today. You can use this to keep track of photos shot between a range of dates,
photos shot over the last year, photos shot by a particular photographer, or photos shot in a particular
country.

You can combine several criteria to make very specific searches. For example, you could create a search that
finds the photos shot by a particular photographer in the last week.

One note about Spotlight searches and speed: while most searches are very quick to complete, searches
involving file attributes like filename, size and type can be very slow because the filesystem is consulted for this
data instead of the Spotlight metadata database. If you want to have the fastest searches possible then omit
criteria that uses the filesystem for the search.

Quick Search
At the top right of the Contact Sheet view is the Quick Search tool, simply type in a text string and Spotlight
will search the filesystem and display any thumbnails that meet the criteria. Clicking on the Magnifying Glass
button in the inner left of the text field will present a menu for controlling the Quick Search:

Use the list of Recent Searches to search for terms youve searched for before. The Clear menu item removes
all items from the list of Recent Searches. The Only Search Contact Sheet Items menu item allows you search
only the folder(s) in the current Contact Sheet for the words youve entered instead of searching your entire
filesystem.

If youve performed a Quick Search and had it set to Only Search Contact Sheet Items and you wish go back
to seeing the original contents of the Contact Sheet, then you can either click the circle with an X in it to
cancel the search, or hit the Esc key while the cursor is active in the Quick Search field, or you can press -.
(period) while in the Contact Sheet. Any of these methods will cancel the Quick Search and return the Contact
Sheet to viewing its original set of folders.

Renaming Files
Keyboard Shortcut
Rename Files

Mac: -M
Windows: Ctrl-M
See all shortcuts
Photo Mechanic provides a full renaming facility based on Variables, much like the Ingest function. There is a
Variables drawer to insert variables easily into the Rename string box, simply double-click on the variable to
insert it into the box.

In the screenshot below, files will be renamed as previewed under 6 photos to rename and the current
Sequence number is also shown. Renaming can be done on single images or any selection.
The Variables drawer provides a means of entering the variable into the rename string simply by double-clicking
on it.

See Ingest for some additional renaming examples.

Note: For simple renaming you can double-click on the file name in the Contact Sheet view and simply type in
a new name. Hit Esc if you make a mistake and the file name will be restored.

Copying and Moving Photos

Copy Photos
Keyboard Shortcut
Copy Photo

Mac: -Y
Windows: Ctrl-Y
See all shortcuts
Copies or moves selected photos to a specified destination folder. To copy one selected photo you can use the
right-click context menu and choose Copy Photo... You can also use drag and drop to copy or move photos by
dragging a selection of photos to the Favorites or Navigator, or even another application like the Finder (Mac)
or Windows Explorer (Windows).
To copy a multiple selection of photos use Copy Photos... command on the File menu or the keyboard shortcut
Y.

RAW+JPEG Handling: If the selected images include any RAW+JPEG pairs then you can choose to
copy them as a pair, JPEG only or RAW only.

Apply IPTC Stationery: Applies the current IPTC Stationery Pad to the images as they are copied.

Move Photos: This option moves the image as opposed to copying the image. The original is deleted.
Note that the Copy button changes to Move and the title of the dialog window changes to Move
Options

Always clear Move photos option when showing this dialog: If you always want this dialog to revert
to a Copy dialog at each use, then check this option. Having this option on will cause the Move photos
option to be unchecked the next time you use this dialog.

Copy WAV files: Copies any WAV files that are associated with the selected images.

Rename Copied Images As : Renames the images as they are copied using the normal Rename functions.
Checking this box will activate the renaming text box with all the power of Variables to create new names for
the copied files.

Destination: This box contains four options on where your files are going to be placed:
Original folder: Copies files back to the same folder as the original file. If filename collisions
occur then the new files will be renamed according to your renaming resolution choice.
Create subfolder: Creates a subfolder in the same folder where the original file resides. You can
use variables to create the name of your subfolder. For example, to add the date to the folder name,
you can add {date}
Copy to this folder: Copies files to the base path plus an additional (optional) subfolder. You can
use variables to create the name of your subfolder
Always pick destination: Allows you to choose where the files are copied/ moved to each time you
perform the copy/move operation.

Open destination as Contact Sheet: Creates a new Contact Sheet tab of the destination folder as the files
are copied or moved.

Miscellaneous Tools
Playing Sounds
Keyboard Shortcut
Play Sound in Preview

A
See all shortcuts
Some digital cameras are able to record short voice messages with each photo or on particular photos. This can
be useful as a note taking device for later on. The sound is digitized and is written to a .WAV file with the same
file name as the photo it is associated with.

In the Preview display pressing the A key will play any sounds associated with the Previewed image. Pressing A
again toggles off the playback. This also works in the Contact Sheet window when a single image is selected.

Of course this facility only works if you have a computer capable of playing sounds and if there is a sound
associated with the image file. A small loudspeaker icon will be displayed in the preview window if there is a
sound to be played. Clicking on the icon plays the sound, both in the Preview window and the Contact Sheet
window. You can also play sounds in the IPTC Info dialog.

Watermarking
When outputting photos it is often useful to overlay a watermark for copyright or identification purposes. The
Watermarking dialog allows you to place watermarks over images generated by the following features: Save As,
Export, Printing Proofs, Upload and Send Photos via Email. Each of these dialogs has a Watermark... button
that will allow you to customize the watermark for that output. Next to the button is a check box that toggles the
rendering of the watermark.

You can use Image Variables if you like and when the watermark is rendered on the image, the metadata for the
source image will be used to create the text of the watermark.

The Position controls let you choose one of nine different locations for your watermark to appear. The
Dimensions controls allow you to define the size of the watermark as a percentage of the final output image size
or in pixel dimensions. Inset refers to a border around the image, and Width and Height determine the size of the
box that the text will be rendered into. There is no control for font size since in a batch operation one font size
may not be the proper size across all images in the batch. The watermark renderer will use the largest font
possible to fill the text into the box without undue word-wrapping

The Image Logo section of the Watermarking dialog renders an image as an overlay over your photo. You
should use either the TIFF or PNG format for your image and preserve transparency so that your logo blends
nicely onto your photo.

The Draw image logo checkbox enables or disables the rendering of your image logo onto your photo. The
opacity slider controls how transparent you want your logo to appear when drawn onto your photo. Moving the
slider completely to the right will make your logo appear very solid, and moving the slider completely to the left
will make your logo invisible. The Position grid of checkboxes controls where your logo will appear. Choosing
only the center position allows additional Scale options.

to fit area scales the image to fit into the area of the grid selected. If the logo is too large for the grid area, it
will be scaled down until it fits inside the grid area. Think of this grid area as a tic-tac-toe board.

only if too large scales the logo to fit across your entire photo and only performs scaling if the logo is larger
than the photo. This is useful if you want to have a transparent logo that spans across the entire photo.

allow overscan performs no scaling whatsoever and allows the image logo to be larger than the photo itself.
This is useful if you want to create an image logo that you always want to completely cover every part of your
photo.

Output
Edit in External Editor
Keyboard Shortcut
Open in External Editor

E
See all shortcuts

Photo Mechanic integrates easily with image editors such as Adobe Photoshop.
Any image, or selection of
images, may be opened into your choice of Editor for further work and any changes made and saved will be
reflected in the thumbnail in the Contact Sheet display.

Before using this function you need to define your external editor in Preferences / Launching.

There are several ways to open an image into an external editor:

[SIDEBAR context menu on thumbnail]

1. Select an image or group of images and choose Image / Edit Photos from the main menu. The external
editor with be launched if it is not already active and the selected images will be opened.
2. Use the keyboard shortcut,E.
3. Right click on the selected image(s) and choose Edit Selected photos. (You will also see an option Edit
Photo which just opens the one image that you right clicked on even if there are multiple images selected.
It is easy to mistake these two options and wonder why only one image opened.)
4. You can also Drag and Drop images and image selections directly from Photo Mechanic into an open
Image Editor, even if it is not the one defined in Preferences as the default editor.
5. There is a further option, only available with a right-click, that allows you to select different external
editors to use to open images. In the right-click context menu you will see Edit Photo with and Edit
Selected Photos with. Highlighting these options will show a submenu menu with all the different image
editors you have assigned in Preferences / Launching / Set. See Launching Preferences for details.

Save As
Keyboard Shortcut
Save As

Mac: -S
Windows: Ctrl-S
See all shortcuts
Photo Mechanic does not need to use an External Editor to perform certain useful workflow related functions.
The Save As function directly provides the facility to Save an image, or selection of images, into another
format, another size and another destination.

One of the most useful ways to use the Save As function is for web image generation. Regardless of the file size
of the original Photo Mechanic can take the image, resize it to a specified size, add IPTC information and save it
to a new folder as a JPEG. This can be done on a single image but the ability to perform this operation on a
selection of images from the Contact Sheet view is very powerful.

Save As can be called from the main menu under File / Save Photos As, by using the keyboard shortcuts or by
right-clicking on the selected image and choosing Save Photo As. Note that this last option only applies to the
single image which is right-clicked on, not a selection of images - use the shortcut or the menu to Save As for a
selection of images.

Image Type: Choose your output file type, if JPEG you can select the quality level. High is for minimal
compression and Low is for high compression, see JPEG Compression for how this compares to
Photoshops settings.

Cropping: If a Crop has been defined for an image, checking this box will apply it when the file is saved.

Scaling: To Fit is for when you want an image to fit inside a specified pixel or cm dimension, whether it
is oriented horizontal or landscape. To Percentage sizes the image to the specified percentage size, e.g.
50% would result in an image half as high and half as long as the original and 200% would double the
linear image dimensions.

Resolution: Sets the pixels per inch of the saved file.

Operations:

Apply IPTC Stationery: adds whatever is currently set on the IPTC Stationery Pad to all the selected
images. As always, the Stationery Pad can make use of Variables and Snapshots.

Preserve EXIF Info: Includes as much EXIF Info as the original file contains. Copy WAV Files: Copies
any WAV files associated with each file.

Rename: Uses the standard Photo Mechanic renaming tools to generate new names. See Renaming.

Destination: This box contains four options on where your files are going to be placed:
Original folder: Saves files back to the same folder as the original file. If filename collisions occur
then the new files will be renamed according to your renaming resolution choice.
Create subfolder: Creates a subfolder in the same folder where the original file resides. You can
use variables to create the name of your subfolder.
Copy to this folder: Saves files to the base path plus an additional (optional) subfolder. You can
use variables to create the name of your subfolder
Always pick destination: Allows you to choose where the files are saved to each time you perform
the Save As operation.

Open destination as Contact Sheet: Opens the destination folder as a new Contact Sheet tab if it is not already
open.

Email
Keyboard Shortcut
Email

Shift--E
See all shortcuts

Photo Mechanic can attach selected images to email messages, which is useful for sending images to clients for
approval. It would be difficult to send the original image file so Photo Mechanic offers options to resize and
compress the image before it is sent.

The Send Photos via Email function is accessible via the main menu under File / Send photos via Email or by
using the keyboard shortcut Shift--E.

It is also available through the right-click (option-click) context menu but only applies to the image actually
clicked on.
Like many Photo Mechanic functions, Variables can make life easier and they can be inserted into the Subject
line or the Body of the email. If you use the one image per email option you could insert the variable
{filename} into the subject line so the email has the file name of the attached file in the subject line and which
makes it easier for the recipient to identify which image is in which email without having to open the emails
itself.

If you want to send the original photos, use Full size, JPEG quality at maximum, uncheck Convert to sRGB,
Apply crop, Sharpen and Watermark, and set the source to JPEG.

Upload Services
The Uploader dialog allows you to transmit photos from your computer to various upload services like FTP,
SFTP, PhotoShelter, etc. Use the Selected Uploader: popup menu to choose the service you want to upload
photos to. The Uploader dialog has its own Preferences dialog whose settings pertain to all uploader templates.
These settings control Upload Stall Detection and Concurent Uploads. Upload Stall Detection is a feature
where the Uploader detects lack of progress in an upload and brings up a warning dialog so that you can
monitor your internet connection. The Upload Stall Detection can be set to wait anywhere from 45 seconds to
320 seconds before warning you, or it can be disabled entirely by unchecking the Wait checkbox. The Allow
concurrent uploads enables the uploader to send more than one file simultaneously which can improve upload
speeds significantly as long as you have a high bandwidth connection to the internet. You can disable this
feature by unchecking that checkbox.

Here is a list of services in the Uploader dialog:

Amazon S3
DF Studio LINK
ExposureManager
FTP and SFTP
Flickr
Gallery 2
PhotoDeck v 1.4
PhotoShelter
SmugMug
Zenfolio

For notes on specific services, read on below.

File Uploader
Keyboard Shortcut
FTP photos as...

Mac: -U
Windows: Ctrl-U
See all shortcuts

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is a standard method of transmitting files from your computer to a
server via the internet when you know the address of the receiving server. It is a great way to send images for
approval by a client and is more robust than using Email attachments which might cause problems with big files
on the receiving server.
Trigger the FTP function for a selection of images by using File / FTP Photos As or using the keyboard shortcut
U. (For a single image in the Contact Sheet view, the keyboard shortcut is just U.) This will bring up the
Uploader dialog (with the FTP template selected) which is very similar in operation to the Save As dialog where
you can resize, compress and rename images.

Transmit: This area of the dialog determines what you wish to transmit.

Original Photos: checking this radio button will activate the dropdown box for which file you wish to send if
there is a RAW+JPEG pair. For single files this will transmit the original file with no changes to size or
compression. All other options will grey out. Saved as JPEG: This activates the compression and resizing
options. Use the slider to set the compression amount, lower quality equates to smaller files.

Cropping: Check this box to apply Cropping if it has been set previously.

Scaling: Choose No Scaling to keep the file the original size. To Fit Box reduces the image size to fit
within specified pixel dimensions while keeping the same proportions. Percentage reduces the image to
the specified percent size, 50% would be half the width and half the height.

Resolution: Resets the pixels per inch to a specified amount. This might be 240ppi for inkjet printing or
300ppi for offset printing. This has no effect on images displayed in web browsers.

Operations: This area determines what is done to the file names and the metadata as they are transmitted.

Apply IPTC Stationery Pad: Applies the IPTC Stationery Pad to each image as it is transmitted, like
during the Ingest function. See IPTC Stationery Pad for more details.
 Preserve EXIF Info where possible: Keeps relevant EXIF and IPTC data with the files when Photo
Mechanic creates new JPEGs.

Rename As: Allows renaming of files as they are transmitted. See Rename for more details.

Save Copy of Transmitted Photos: Check this box to save a copy of all transmitted images in either a
subdirectory of the current folder or in a specified folder elsewhere. Useful to keep a track of exactly what
you have transmitted to whom.

Connection Settings

For FTP to work you need to specify the FTP server name or IP address of the server so Photo Mechanic can log
onto the target server, authenticate its connection with a logon name and password and then transmit the file to
the correct folder on the target server. Click on the Connections button at the top of the Uploader dialog.

FTP Connection Setting Name: You can give a name to the settings for a particular connection. For example, if
you FTP files on a regular basis to certain clients you might use the clients name in the Connection name i.e.
ABC Advertising Connection. This name will appear as an option in the Connection box in the Destination
FTP Server options on the main Uploader dialog - see previous page.

New: Click this button to clear all the fields to enter a new connection setting.

Delete: Deletes the currently displayed connection.

FTP Server Name or Address: enter the name of the server that the files will be transmitted to. This can
be a normal top level URL like www.abc_advertising.com or an actual server name like ftp.server-
web.com. Only enter the top level name here, not the folder the file should be transmitted to, and leave
off ftp://.

Login: The Login name for the server. You may have to ask the client for this. Password: The password
for the login name. You may have to ask the client for

this.

Port: Leave set to 21 unless you have a good reason to change it, Port 21 is the default setting expected
by most servers.

Passive Connection: Check this box, unless the Network Admin tells you otherwise.

Anonymous Login: Should be left unchecked unless you are connection to a server that allows
anonymous login.

Destination Folder: This is where you specify the folder on the target server that you wish the files to be
transmitted to. If you need to specify a sub-folder use a forward slash (/) like this: images/new. The folder
you need to transmit to will often be specified by the client.

Copy Photos: This gives you the option to create a new folder in the destination folder, either based on
the date or a specified name, or both. Useful if you are transmitting sets of images that need to be kept
separated on the server.

Click OK to return to the main Uploader dialog and you will see the Connection Name displayed in the
Connection popup menu and to the right, the full destination path for the transmitted files.

If a file is transmitted and there is a file with the same name on the destination server you can choose what you
would like to happen from the If a file already exists... drop down box.

1. Replace overwrites the server file with the transmitted file

2. Rename the transmitted file before uploading
3. Rename the file on the server, keeping the transmitted file name the same

Once all these settings have been made, click the Send button to transmit the selected files. All of the settings
are sticky so if you come back to the Uploader dialog later all of the settings will be the same.

If you hold down the modifier key when choosing FTP As, the whole dialog box will be bypassed quickly and
the last settings will be used. This offers a convenient way to transmit files if you use one FTP destination
regularly or just wish to queue up some more photos into a current FTP session.

Uploader Preferences

In this dialog, you can change the way the Uploader behaves. In some cases, you may be sending to an FTP host
that doesn't like more than one connection at a time. In that case, you could disable "Allow concurrent uploads"
here.

PhotoShelter
With the PhotoShelter template you can securely upload photos to your PhotoShelter account from within Photo
Mechanic. PhotoShelter is a service useful for backing up your photos and for providing them for sale to
prospective clients. IPTC caption data that you enter into your photos in Photo Mechanic will be preserved and
will be searchable by people using PhotoShelter. Even the tag checkbox setting on each photo is recognized by
PhotoShelter. The PhotoShelter template allows you to upload to existing Archives, or you can create new ones
during upload. This integration even supports multiuser collaboration with PhotoShelter accounts that support it.
The PhotoShelter template is based upon the FTP template and most of its interface should look familiar. The
major differences are account related. Instead of FTP Connections Settings, you have PhotoShelter Connection
Settings.

One other difference that is found in the PhotoShelter template is the lack of a destination path that is instead
represented by an Archive Folder: combo menu and a New Archive Folder... button. The Archive Folder popup
menu shows you the possible destination archives that your photos can be uploaded into, and the New Archive
Folder button allows you to create new archive folders. Clicking on the New Archive Folder button brings up
the following dialog that allows you to choose the Parent Archive folder for creating your new archive folder:

Use the Parent Archive popup menu to choose the archive you want to be the parent of your new archive. If you
want to create a top-level archive, choose the item at the top of the list titled **ROOT**. Enter your New
Archive Name in the text field and then click on the Create button. PhotoShelter will then create the new
archive and the dialog will close. The Archive Folder popup menu will now display your newly created
Archives name.

Also, if you want to quickly create a new archive folder and you want it to be a top-level archive you can just
type the name into the Archive Folder: combo menu. The new archive will be created when the photos are
uploaded. You can also press the New Archive Folder... button to create the folder before you start the upload if
you wish, but this extra step is unnecessary.

Now you can adjust the rest of the parameters and begin uploading your photos.

The remaining Uploader templates work in very much the same way as both the FTP and PhotoShelter
templates do and should for the most part be self explanatory. Please be familiar with the terminology used by
the service youre using. The Uploader templates are written to use the same terminology as is used on the
individual services they work with.

Amazon S3
When uploading photos to an Amazon S3 account, it may only work if you use the location bucket for US-
Standard. Trying to use more precise location bucket may result in your files not being uploaded.
Upload Progress
Once files have begun the upload process, the Upload Progress window will appear, listing all of the files in the
upload queue:

You can use the Upload Progress window to track the progress of your uploads. It is here that you can also
Cancel the entire upload operation (files already uploaded will not be removed), and handle any errors that
may occur during the upload process. You can minimize the window to the Dock (or the TaskBar on Windows)
by clicking on the minimize icon in the titlebar.

Upload Status Indicators

Another way to monitor the progress of uploading files is by looking for the Upload Status Indicators on the
thumbnails in the Contact Sheet. They appear in the upper right corner of each queued thumbnail:

A blank rectangle indicates that the photo has been queued, but hasnt been sent yet. A yellow rectangle
indicates that the photo is being uploaded. A green rectangle indicates that the upload is complete. A red
rectangle indicates that a failure of some sort has occurred while uploading the photo. Viewing the Upload
Progress window would now be in order.
RAW+JPEG mode images will show up to two indicators when uploading both the RAW photo and JPEG
photo. The upper indicator shows the progress of the JPEG and the lower indicator shows the progress of the
RAW file.

Web Galleries and Export

Export
The Export option creates a full set of files from a selection of images. With this command you can make a web
gallery with all the internal links already set up. This can be posted directly to a web site and can be very useful
to show a client proofs from a shoot, quickly and easily. The web pages are fully customizable with respect to
colors, type faces etc, and Variables can be used to add metadata into the layouts.

Select Template

Photo Mechanic now includes a variety of Flash templates in addition to the PM Classic as described below.
Each is slightly different and the main Export dialog will only allow you to choose customizations applicable to
the chosen template. The dialog changes to reflect this but in general, the uses of the labels remains the same
from one template to the next. Export Text and Export XML options are at the bottom of the list.

Rendering

JPEG Quality: set the slider to an appropriate amount, 6 or 7 is a good compromise between size and
quality

Subsample Chroma: removes some chroma information reducing file size still further and the expense of
color quality

Sharpen Images: applies sharpening to the exported images - recommended.

Convert to sRGB Colorspace: converts to the sRGB colorspace which will show images to their best
advantage when viewed in non-ICC profile aware applications like many web browsers. Recommended
unless you know for certain the images are to be viewed in a color managed application.

Use Original File names for Images: exported images keep the original file names.

Open in Browser: when the export is completed the finished gallery will automatically open in your web
browser for checking.

Page Section

HTML Title Tag: This field is used to define the text in the top line of a Web

browser, also used by many search engines to locate information. Banner: Add a logo or banner image to the top
of each index page.

Banner2: Add a logo or banner image to the top of each large image page.

Banner Width and Height: Controls the width and height of the banner image displayed on each page.
This should be the same width and height as the image used.

Title and Title 2: Type in a title or use Variables to generate a title. The variable {page} adds a page
number to each page of thumbnails. In the screenshot above the title of each page would be the name of
the folder containing the images followed by 'Page 1'. Any subsequent pages would be the same with
'Page 2, Page 3, Page 4' etc.'

Columns and Rows: Set how you would like the thumbnails to be arranged, how many columns and how
many rows per page. This determines how many images will be on each page and thus how many pages
will be generated.

Background: Choose a background color for each page or choose a background image to be used.

Table Section

Table Width: Sets the width of the table containing the rows and columns. The

value may be given as a number of pixels or as a percentage.

Left and Right Margin: Specify the left and right margin area between the table's outer edge and
browser window.

Cell Spacing: The amount of thickness, in pixels, of the walls surrounding each image cell in the table.

Table Color / None: The color, or absence of color inside the table. Text/Links Section Set the colors of
the various page elements.

Text/Links Section

Here's where you can set the colors of the various page elements.

Title: is equivalent to the 'cb_title' HTML tag

Title2: is equivalent to the 'cb_title2' HTML tag

 Caption: is equivalent to the 'text' HTML tag

Link: is the same as the 'link' HTML tag

Visited: is the equivalent to the 'vlink' HTML tag.

Home Page: enter the name of your webpage.

Home URL: enter your main webpage address (<http://www.xyz.com>www.xyz. com). Include Page
Links: includes Previous and Next links.

Include All Index Link: includes a link back up to the main index on each large image page.

Max Height / Max Width: Set the size of the thumbnails. They will be fitted inside the pixel dimensions
without altering the aspect ratio, much like the 'Fit in Box' options in other export dialogs.

Frame Color / Frame Thickness: Set the color and thickness of the frame surrounding each thumbnail
cell.

Images

Max Height / Max Width: Set the size of the large images. They will be fitted

inside the pixel dimensions without altering the aspect ratio, much like the 'Fit in Box' options in other export
dialogs.

Frame Color / Frame Thickness: Set the color and thickness of the frame surrounding each image cell.

Preserve EXIF: includes camera EXIF info in the exported images. Preserve IPTC: includes IPTC
metadata in the exported images.

Watermarking: When checked will place watermarks over images generated in the gallery.

Include a link beneath the image: Adds a link underneath each image that users can click on to view or
download the original file.

Link Name: enter the name of the link.

Link URL: enter your image Web address.

Export Text
Among the various Web Gallery templates are the Text and XML Export templates.
Use Variables to choose which metadata fields to export and separate them with a Tab to distinguish between the
fields in the text file. You can use the {tab} variable instead of inserting Tab characters if you wish.

Many external applications such as spreadsheets and databases can import TAB delimited text files. Word
processors can do 'mailmerges' based on TAB delimited text files so you could use this option to generate labels
for 35mm slides based on variables (for instance: {Category} and {Name}).

Save as One/Individual Files: This option sets whether the export creates one text file containing all the
metadata or a series of individual files, one per image.

Export XML
The XML Exporter template allows you to export metadata to an XML format for use in applications that can
work with the eXtensible Markup Language format.

HTML Template Exporter

The HTML Template Exporter is different from all other Exporter templates in that it processes HTML that you
create in order to generate a Web gallery. The HTML Template Exporter uses some simple markup features to
allow you to create your own customized Web galleries. In order to start working with the HTML Template
Exporter, you need to tell Photo Mechanic where you're storing your HTML templates. You do this in the Files
tab of the Preferences dialog. Click on the Choose... button across from the field labeled "Location of user
HTML templates:" and use the folder picker dialog to choose the folder where you're going to create your
HTML templates. Inside this folder is where you place your HTML template folders.

Overview

The HTML Template Exporter generates web pages from user-supplied HTML templates. A user HTML
template is a folder with specially marked-up HTML and CSS files, an optional assets folder, and an optional
user interface file.

At the minimum, a user HTML template folder must have the following layout:

example_template/
index.html (this is the main page where thumbnail grids are generated)
preview.html (this is the page used to show previews)
The user HTML template folder may also contain a CSS file used for styles in both index.html and
preview.html:

styles.css

Additional image, sound, and flash assets needed by a user HTML template should be stored in an assets folder:

assets/
shadow.gif

The assets folder will be copied verbatim with no processing to the output destination.

User-defined controls are described in a file named:

ui.rb (this file describes the user interface for the template)

A fully-featured user template folder would have the following layout:

example_template/
index.html
preview.html
styles.css
ui.rb

See the HTML Template Controls section below for more details on the various controls that can be specified.

Template HTML is standard HTML or XHTML (recommended) with special markup. All Photo Mechanic
variables may be used to extract data from your images and put that data on web pages. In addition, there are a
number of Template HTML-only variables that are used to help template authors produce effective HTML
pages.

See the HTML Templates Variables section below for more details on the Template HTML-only variables that
may be used to markup HTML templates.

Simple Example for index.html

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transition

<html>
<head>
<title>{folder} | Page {page}</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" medi
<body>
<h1>{folder}</h1> <h2>{job}</h2>
<p class="nav">{index_links}</p> <table>
{table_row_start}<tr>
{table_col_start}<td align="center">{thumbnail_link}<p>{filename}</p></td>{table_col_end}
</tr>{table_row_end} </table>
<p>Made with Photo Mechanic | {dow}, {monthname} {day}, {year4}</p>
</body>
</html>
Simple Example for preview.html

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transition

<html>
<head>
<title>{folder}</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media
<body>
<h1>{folder}</h1>
<h2>{job}</h2>
<p class="nav">{preview_links} | Image {idx} of {count}</p> <p>{preview_link}</p>
<p>{caption}<br />{filename}</p>
<p class="credit">Made with Photo Mechanic | {monthname} {day}, {year4}</p>
</body>
</html>

Stylesheet processing differs from HTML processing in that the use of {variables} requires placing a '#' in front
of the {variable}, like so:

#{variable}

This is necessary because each style declaration requires a beginning '{' and an ending '}' already and this would
cause issues for the parser. Remember to use variables in styles.css with a leading '#'.

Simple Example for styles.css

body {
margin-left:0px;
margin-right:0px;
margin-top:0px;
background-color:#{background_color};
} padding:20px;
p {color:#{text_color};
font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
} font-size:14px
h1 {color:#{text_color}; font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
} font-size:24px
h2 {color:#{text_color}; font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
} font-size:18px
.nav {
color:#{nav_text_color};
font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
} font-size:12px
.nav a:link {
color:#{nav_link_color};
} text-decoration:none;
.nav a:visited {
color:#{nav_link_color};
font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
text-decoration:none;
} font-size:12px
.nav a:hover {
color:#{nav_hover_color};
} text-decoration:underline
.nav a:active {
color:#{nav_text_color};
} text-decoration:underline
Simple Example for ui.rb

colorbutton(:background_color, "Background color:", :value=>"000000")

colorbutton(:text_color, "Text color:", :value=>"A0A0A0")
colorbutton(:nav_text_color, "Nav text color:", :value=>"183F00")
colorbutton(:nav_link_color, "Nav link color:", :value=>"99A700")
colorbutton(:nav_hover_color, "Nav hover color:", :value=>"FFFFFF")

Notice that each color button has a name and that those names are used in the styles.css file (above) to provide
user control over the colors used on the pages.

This concludes the Simple Example. If you placed the four files (index.html, preview.html, styles.css, and ui.rb)
into a folder named "Simple Example" inside the folder you chose to be the location of your user HTML
templates folder then the HTML Template Exporter will now show your "Simple Example" in its list of
available HTML templates.

HTML Template Controls:

There are four HTML Template controls that may be used to customize your template:

colorbutton
fontcombo
spinedit
textfield

Any of these controls may appear in your ui.rb file and in any order. The controls will be created in the order
that they appear in your ui.rb file.

colorbutton(varname, label, attributes={})

This creates a color picker preceded by a static text label (label) with variable name varname, and optional
attributes.

Value of the control in the HTML template can be accessed by using {varname}

Value of the control in the styles.css file can be accessed by using #{varname}

colorbutton(:text_color, "Text Color:", :value=>"FFFFFF")

fontcombo(varname, label, attributes={})

Creates a font menu preceded by a static text label (label) with variable name varname, and optional attributes.

Value of the control in the html template can be accessed by using {varname}

Value of the control in the styles.css file can be accessed by using #{varname}

fontcombo(:font_name, "Font:", :selected=>"Arial")

spinedit(varname, label, attributes={})

Creates a text field and spin control preceded by a static text label (label) with variable name varname, and
optional attributes.

Value of the control in the html template can be accessed by using {varname}

Value of the control in the styles.css file can be accessed by using #{varname}

spinedit(:font_size, "Font Size:", :value=>8, :formatter=>"unsigned", :min=>8, :max=>72)

textfield(varname, label, attributes={})

Creates a text field preceded by a static text label (label) with variable name varname, and optional attributes.

Value of the control in the html template can be accessed by using {varname}

Value of the control in the styles.css file can be accessed by using #{varname}

textfield(:author, "Author Name:", :value=>"{username}")

HTML Templates Variables

The following variables are used only in the HTML Template Exporter template. You can still use the normal
set of variables used elsewhere in Photo Mechanic.

{count} Returns the number of images being processed. Example:

{count}
=> 23

{idx} Returns the current thumbnail index or preview index. Example:

{idx}
=> 3

{index_links} Generates a set of links useful for navigation from an index page. If no page_indx is
provided then the index navigation links are generated for the index page being processed. Example:

{index_links}
=> <a href="index.html">Previous</a> <a href="index3.html">Next</a>
<a href="index.html">1</a> 2 <a href="index3.html">3</a>

You can achieve your own specific layout by creating your own links using {index_page_previous_path} and
{index_page_next_path}

{index_page_next_path} Returns the path of the next index page for the current index page. If there is
 only one index page then an empty string is returned.

Example:

{index_page_next_path}
=> index3.html

{index_page_path} Returns the path of the index page that the current preview page came from. Example:

{index_page_path}
=> index2.html

{index_page_previous_path} Returns the path of the previous index page for the current index page. If
there is only one index page then an empty string is returned. Example:

{index_page_previous_path}
=> index.html

{page} Returns the page number being processed for index or preview pages. Example:

{page}
=> 7

{page_count} Returns the total number of index pages. Example:

{page_count}
=> 8

{preview_height} Returns the height of the scaled preview at {idx} or if no parameter provided, the
preview used in the preview page being processed. Example:

{preview_height}
=> 600

{preview_link} Generates an image tag for the current preview image, suitable for use when processing
preview.html only.

Example:

{preview_link}
=> <img src="images/filename.JPG" alt="filename.JPG" border="0" width="800" height="600" />

You can create your own preview image tag by using {preview_path}, {filename}, {preview_width}, and
{preview_height}

{preview_links} Generates a set of links useful for navigation from a preview page. If no preview_indx is
 provided then the preview navigation links are generated for the preview page being processed. Example:

{preview_links}
=> <a href="preview1.html">Previous</a> <a href="index.html">Index</a> <a href="preview3.html">Next</a>

You can achieve your own specific layout by creating your own links using {preview_page_previous_path},
{preview_page_next_path} and {index_page_path}

{preview_max_height} Returns the maximum value the user entered into the Preview's Max. Height field.
Example:

{preview_max_height}
=> 600

{preview_max_width} Returns the maximum value the user entered into the Preview's Max. Width field.
Example:

{preview_max_width}
=> 800

{preview_page_next_path} Returns the path to the next preview page (or the starting preview page if the
current preview page is the ending preview page). Example:

{preview_page_next_path}
=> preview3.html

{preview_page_path} Returns the path to the {idx} preview page (or the preview currently being
processed). Example:

{preview_page_path}
=> preview1.html

{preview_page_previous_path} Returns the path to the previous preview page (or the ending preview
page if the current preview page is the starting preview page). Example:

{preview_page_previous_path}
=> preview1.html

{preview_path} Returns the path to the indx preview image (or the preview currently being processed).
Example:

{preview_path}
=> images/filename.JPG
 {preview_text} Returns the text the user entered into the Preview's Title field. Example:

{preview_text}
=> {caption}

{preview_width} Returns the width of the scaled preview at {idx} or if no parameter provided, the
preview used in the preview page being processed. Example:

{preview_width}
=> 800

{table_row_start} Marks the beginning of an indexed page layout. Most commonly this is used right
before a TR tag but can be used with DIV and SPAN as well.

When expanded, the HTML between {table_row_start} and {table_row_end} will be repeated
{thumbnail_rows} times or until the index page runs out of images.

<table>
{table_row_start}<tr>
{table_col_start}<td class="tt" align="center">{thumbnail_link}<p>{filesize}</p></td>{table_col_e
</tr>{table_row_end}
</table>

{table_col_start} Marks the beginning of a thumbnail layout. Most commonly this is used right before a
TD tag but can be used with DIV, SPAN, and A as well.

When expanded, the HTML between {table_col_start} and {table_col_end} will be repeated
{thumbnail_columns} times or until the index page runs out of images.

<table>
{table_row_start}<tr>
{table_col_start}<td class="tt" align="center">{thumbnail_link}<p>{filesize}</p></td>{table_col_e
</tr>{table_row_end}
</table>

{table_col_end} Marks the ending of a thumbnail layout. Most commonly this is used right after a </td> tag but
can be used with </div>, </span>, and </a> as well. When expanded,the HTML between {table_col_start} and
{table_col_end} will be repeated {thumbnail_columns} times or until the index page runs out of images.

<table>
{table_row_start}<tr>
{table_col_start}<td class="tt" align="center">{thumbnail_link}<p>{filesize}</p></td>{table_col_e
</tr>{table_row_end}
</table>

{table_row_end} Marks the ending of an indexed page layout. Most commonly this is used right after a
 </tr> tag but can be used with </div> and </span> as well.

When expanded, the HTML between {table_row_start} and {table_row_end} will be repeated
{thumbnail_rows} times or until the index page runs out of images.

<table>
{table_row_start}<tr>
{table_col_start}<td class="tt" align="center">{thumbnail_link}<p>{filesize}</p></td>{table_col_e
</tr>{table_row_end}
</table>

{thumbnail_columns} Returns the number of columns entered by the user in the Thumbnail's Columns
field. Example:

{thumbnail_columns}
=> 3

{thumbnail_height} Returns the height of the scaled thumbnail at {idx} or if no parameter provided, the
thumbnail used in the table cell being processed. Example:

{thumbnail_height}
=> 112

{thumbnail_link} Generates a link to the {idx} preview (or current table cell) with an image tag for the
{idx} thumbnail (or current table cell). Example:

{thumbnail_link}
=> <a href="preview1.html"><img src="thumbs/IMG_1.JPG" alt="" width="128" height="112" border="0" /></a>

You can create your own thumbnail/preview links by using {preview_page_path}, {thumbnail_path},
{thumbnail_width} and {thumbnail_height}.

{thumbnail_max_height} Returns the maximum value the user entered into the Thumbnail's Max. Height
field. Example:

{thumbnail_max_height}
=> 128

{thumbnail_max_width} Returns the maximum value the user entered into the Thumbnail's Max. Width
field. Example:

{thumbnail_max_width}
=> 128

{thumbnail_path} Returns the path to the {idx} thumbnail image (or the thumbnail currently being
processed). Example:
{thumbnail_path}
=> thumbs/IMG_1.JPG

{thumbnail_rows} Returns the number of rows entered by the user in the Thumbnail's Rows field.
Example:

{thumbnail_rows}
=> 4

{thumbnail_text} Returns the text the user entered into the Thumbnail's Title field. Example:

{thumbnail_text}
=> {filenamebase}

{thumbnail_width} Returns the width of the scaled thumbnail at indx or if no parameter provided, the
thumbnail used in the table cell being processed. Example:

{thumbnail_width}
=> 128

{word_index} Returns the word "Index". Example:

{word_index}
=> Index

{word_next} Returns the word "Next". Example:

{word_next}
=> Next

{word_previous} Returns the word "Previous". Example:

{word_previous}
=> Previous

Note that when you use a variable that returns a string of text, you'll need to add quotes around the variable
expansion so that your HTML has the text enclosed in quotes.

Burning CD and DVDs

Keyboard Shortcut
Burn to Disc
Mac: -B
Windows: Ctrl-B
See all shortcuts
Photo Mechanic takes care of your backup needs by burning images to CD/DVD, across multiple disks and with
all the power of Variables, Renaming, etc.

Make a selection of images and choose File/Burn Photos to Disk or use the keyboard shortcut B.

RAW+JPEG Handling: If the selected images include any RAW+JPEG pairs then you can choose to
burn them as a pair, JPEG only or RAW only.

Parent folder hierarchy: Use this menu to choose the structure of your burned discs. You can choose to
burn no parent folders which will place all of your files on the root of each disc. Using One level will
cause the parent folder of each image to be put on the root of the disc, with the photos placed inside.
Using Two levels will cause the two parent folders of each image to be put on the root of the disc, with
the photos placed inside the immediate parent folder.

Burn WAV files: This will cause any sound annotations associated with a photo to be placed on the disc
when the photo is placed on the disc.

Additional files...: Use this button to place additional non-image files on your discs. Things like readme
text files, license agreements, usage terms, etc can be placed on the first disc or on all discs in a series.

At the bottom of the dialog is a section describing how much space the selected images will occupy on the CD
or DVD, and how many CDs or DVDs will be need to complete the operation (image collections can be burned
to a multi-volume set).

Click Start to proceed to begin the burning process. Burn Photos to Disc will ask you for discs, one at a time
until all photos are burned. You can burn DVDs and switch to CDs at each disc insert opportunity. The correct
number of files will be burned based on the capacity of each disc. This way you can use cheaper CDs to finish
up the last few files of a large group of photos.

GPS Functions
Photo Mechanic has several functions for getting the most out of your photos with GPS coordinates. Global
Positioning System, an accurate navigational facility based on the reception of signals from an array of orbiting
satellites, provides photographers with the ability to locate where they created their photos. Some cameras have
built-in GPS receivers on them and will automatically insert the GPS coordinates of the location where the
photo was taken. Others have the ability to connect to a separate GPS receiver and will also insert the GPS
coordinates of the photos location. Most cameras do not provide either of these services, but the emergence of
relatively inexpensive GPS data loggers provides the same functionality but requires a little bit more work.
Photo Mechanic provides an import function for this purpose.

Importing GPS Coordinates

Given a selection of photos, the Import GPS Coordinates dialog can import GPS logs in the GPX and NMEA
formats. In order to load your GPS logs, you need to copy your GPS log from your GPS data logging device to
your computers hard drive, or if your GPS data logging device acts as a USB storage device (like the excellent
AMOD AGL3080 device does) then you can access your logs directly. Use the Add... button to choose and
load your logs. Use the Remove button to remove any added logs you no longer want to work with. Once all of
your logs are loaded, use the Plot GPS Logs button to plot the path you travelled on the Google map. Next
youll need to synchronize the time your photos were taken with the GMT based times that are recorded in each
GPS coordinate. The simplest way to do this is to use the Auto button in the GMT Offset of Photos section
on the right side of the dialog. This automatic offset calculation uses the difference in time between the earliest
coordinate in the GPS logs and the capture time of the first selected photo. This is often a very good time offset,
but if you find that the GPS coordinate matches are not very accurate, use the remaining time/day offset fields to
adjust to your liking. You can always use the Reset button to start over. The buttons in the Move through log
coordinates by second box allow you to further fine tune your time offsets in a more intuitive manner. Youll
see the map markers change as you move through the log coordinates. To see different photos in your selection
and where they match up, use the various arrow buttons to navigate through your selected photos. Use the
Dismiss button to remove a photo from your selection. Once youre satisfied with the matches, use the
Import button to bulk apply the coordinates from the logs to your selected photos.

There are three more elements in the Import GPS Coordinates dialog worth mentioning:

Allow matches within gaps in log: allows Photo Mechanic to interpolate locations between two GPS
coordinates. If this checkbox is turned off then only GPS coordinates with time matches within the time
 range specified will be used and some photos will not receive GPS coordinates.

Dont match photos if closest log time is off by more than N minutes: specifies the time range for
matching GPS coordinates with photos.

Overwrite existing GPS coordinates in photos: allows GPS coordinates that may already exist in
selected photos to be overwritten by the GPS coordinates being imported. If you dont want photos that
already contain GPS coordinates to be replaced by the imported GPS coordinates, then uncheck this
checkbox. Only photos that do not have GPS coordinates will have GPS coordinates imported.

Setting GPS Coordinates

Photo Mechanic also offers the ability to manually add GPS coordinates to photos either singly, or in a batch.
Use the Set GPS Coordinates command on the Image menu to bring up this dialog. GPS coordinates may be
entered manually in the coordinate format of your choice or by using the Google map on the right side of the
dialog.

Use the Show on map button to display coordinates youve manually entered to see if theyre what you
expected. When youre happy with a coordinate you can use the Apply button to set the GPS coordinates on
the photo below. Or if your coordinates apply equally to all of your selected photos, use the Apply to All
button to give all selected photos the same coordinates. Use the Apply to Remaining button to apply the the
photo below and the the photos that follow it in your selected set of photos.

For a more interactive approach, use the Google map on the right side of the dialog. You can enter points of
interest, or full street addresses and then click on the Get GPS button to look up the location and plot it on the
map. To fine tune the location you can pan the map around and the marker will center itself at the new location,
or you can pick up the marker with your mouse and drop it at the desired location. Once youre happy with the
location, use the Accept Location button below the map to copy the location into the GPS Coordinates section
of the dialog. You may now apply the location to one or more photos.

Use the Arrow buttons to move through your selected photos, setting GPS coordinates as you go, until you
have set them all. Use the Close button to dismiss the dialog.
Visualizing GPS Coordinates
For viewing photos along with their location on a map, and Info Text use the Show Map command on any
Contact Sheet thumbnails contextual menu by right-clicking on a thumbnail (use Ctrl-click if you have a single
button mouse). This will display the GPS Map Browser like so:

Another way to visualize your photos and their GPS coordinates is to download Google Earth from
http://earth.google.com/ and then use the KMZ Export template to create a KMZ file that you can open in
Google Earth.

Setting GPS Home Location

Photo Mechanic also offers the ability to set a GPS location of your current base of operations. With a GPS
home location, you can use some of Photo Mechanics variables to display useful information like distance and
bearing of each photo relative to the GPS home location. The variables {distance}, {bearingfrom} and
{bearingto} each have their use, but {distance} is immediately understandable and can be used for sorting of
your photos byt their distance from your GPS home location.
You set your GPS Home location by using the Set GPS Home... command on the Settings submenu of the Edit
menu. Choose a location by using either a selected photo, a manually entered GPS coordinate, or by using the
Google map on the right side of the dialog. You can enter points of interest, or full street addresses and then
click on the Get GPS button to look up the location and plot it on the map. To fine tune the location you can
pan the map around and the marker will center itself at the new location, or you can pickup the marker with
your mouse and drop it at the desired location. Once youre happy with the location, use the Accept Location
button below the map to copy the location into the GPS coordinates section of the dialog. Click the OK button
to accept the location.

Sorting by GPS Distance

Once you have set a GPS Home location, you can create a custom sort to sort your photos by their distance from
your GPS Home location. Click on the Sort popup menu in the toolbar and choose the Edit Custom...
command. Override one of the ten custom sorts. Then click on the OK button and your new custom distance
sort will cause the photos to be sorted by their distance from the current GPS Home location. If you like, you
can set one of the three custom thumbnail labels to show the distance. Just enter:

Distance: {distance}

in any one of the Label fields in the Contact Sheet tab of the Preferences dialog and youll see the distance each
photos location is from the current GPS Home location.

Printing
Photo Mechanic can print two different types of output, a Contact Sheet style of multiple images on a page and
a Proof Sheet style with one image per page. Both styles can be customized with respect to captions, titles,
footers, page numbering etc.

Printing Contact Sheets

Header: Type in a title for the page(s), This can be a text string or a Variable or a combination of the two.
In the above screenshot the Footer uses the {page} variable to add incremented page numbers to each
page but there is nothing to stop you from using this in the header if you choose.

Thumb Margins: Set the white space around each thumbnail image. This sets the spacing.

Thumbnail Title: Choose the text to be printed under each thumbnail image, this can be the file name or
any combination of text and Variables. The variable {filenamebase} uses the file name without the
extension for a more professional look.

Title Line Height: Set this to one more than the number of lines you need for the thumbnail title text to
make sure there is a blank line between the text and the next thumbnail down the page.

Rows and Columns: Set the layout of the page in rows and columns. The number of pages to be printed
will be displayed just to the right of these controls.

Orientation: Three options for layout, the best one being to use the thumbs displayed orientation in the
contact sheet.

Footer: Use text and Variables to set the footer text or leave blank for no footer. In the example Page :
{page} will print as Page : 1, Page : 2 etc with the variable {page} incrementing up by one for each
page printed.

Page Margins: Set the paper margins within which the thumbnails will be arranged. Check Printer
Scaling to allow the printer driver to perform image scaling.

Color Match to: Set the printer profile to be used when printing, or choose No Color Matching to let
the printer color manage the printout. Make sure that if you do let Photo Mechanic do the color
management you must set the printer driver to do No Color Management.
 Resolution: Set the output resolution for the print job. Note that this is not the native printer resolution
but the image resolution. Best results will be at settings like 240dpi or 360dpi. The printer output
resolution should be set in the printer driver software as normal.

Source for RAW + JPEG: If there is a RAW and JPEG pair choose which will be processed to print.

When using RAW: if you select RAW above, choose whether the RAW file is rendered by the OS or
whether the internal preview is used (faster).

Click Print to go to the printer driver software and to see a preview of how the printed pages will look.

Printing Proof Sheets

Printing Proof Sheets is the same as printing Contact Sheets except there is only one image per page. The image
is scaled from the original to fit the page, within the margins set. Again, headers and footers can be defined
using text and variables, and there is much more room to add in more details captions in the footer. Using the
variable {caption} means that each image will have a caption printed under it based on the IPTC Caption
previously set. In the example below the footer includes the date it was taken ({date}), the f-stop used ({f }) and
the ISO ({iso}). On the next line would be the caption info ({caption}), if any.

Selecting Default Printer on Windows

To set the default printer for Photo Mechanic, go to the File menu and Shift-click the Page Setup entry. The
default printer name should be listed at the top of the Page Setup dialog. The Shift key will cause Photo
Mechanic to use the current default printer. If the default printer is changed in the Control Panel, Photo
Mechanic will continue to use the last printer set in the Page Setup dialog.

The printer's paper type and quality settings will be accessed from the printer's properties, in the Control Panel.
Only the dpi setting can be adjusted from Photo Mechanic's Print Settings dialog.
JPEG Compression
Various dialogs in Photo Mechanic offer an option for resizing and compressing files using the JPEG file format.
The Quality slider has no numbers on it but there are in fact 101 steps which can be chosen - 0 to 100. 100 can
be considered an almost lossless compression and will therefore produce the biggest file sizes, although still
considerably smaller than TIFFs.

Quality in the 90s compresses more and offers a good compromise between size and quality.

Quality in the 50-80s range are hard to tell apart from the higher quality settings but offer small file sizes.

Quality in the 20-40s range are heavily compressed but are good for small web files.

0 - 10 is not recommended, except for the following:

If you check the box "Limit file size to:" Photo Mechanic will use the quality slider as a lower limit. If you
absolutely need to limit a file size to a certain number, then check the box and type in your chosen size. Then set
the quality slider to 0. Photo Mechanic will automatically choose a quality (if possible) that will result in the
desired file size. In some cases, even at quality 0, extremely low file sizes will not be possible. Photo Mechanic
will do its best.
Quality 100 is almost indistinguishable from the uncompressed file and is compressed at around 3:1. Quality 50
is more than adequate and represents a compression ratio almost 5:1. Quality 0 is poor quality but very small at
60:1 compression.
It is important to note that the file size of a compressed image depends on the subject matter and a complex shot
with fine detail will not compress as small as a simple image using the same Quality setting.

Subsample Chroma: Check this box to reduce the file size even further. Chroma information is reduced leading
to image quality losses in some cases.

Color Management
Display
Keyboard Shortcut
Toggle Color Mgmt on/off

C
See all shortcuts
Color management in Photo Mechanic is quite straightforward. It is recommended that you use a properly
calibrated monitor to make sure that the color you see is accurate. Photo Mechanic uses the system monitor
profile to display correct color.

In Preferences, under the Color Management tab, you can choose the ICC profile which you would like Photo
Mechanic to use if an image has no profile defined.

In the Contact Sheet view you can toggle CM on and off with the CM icon in the top right-hand corner. In the
Preview screen you can do the same thing.

Turning off CM for thumbs or previews will speed up image display at the expense of less accurate color.

Embed Profile
This command is found under the Tools menu and allows embedding of profiles into JPEGs using either
predefined color spaces like sRGB and Adobe RGB(1998), or custom profiles for output devices.
Use the check box to replace any existing profiles, otherwise the operation will only work with non-
colormanaged images.

Note that Photo Mechanic does not convert the image data to the profile, it merely tags the image with that
profile - the same as the Assign Profile command in Adobe Photoshop.

Workflow
Flexibility
Photo Mechanics power lies in its flexibility and each user will no doubt use Photo Mechanic in subtly different
ways to fit into their own unique workflow needs.

This section will suggest some simple but effective ways to get started and along the way improve the efficiency
of your workflow. None of the steps should be construed as must do.' Feel free to adapt, modify, and customize
anything you like.

Lets look at a fairly typical photographic shoot and how Photo Mechanic can help with reducing the time taken
to deal with the resulting images.

Real World Example

Weddings

This type of photography probably generates more images in a day that any other photographic job. Some
photographers will shoot 2000 images of a single wedding, filling up maybe ten 1 GB cards in the process,
using the Large Fine JPEG setting on the camera generating files of maybe about 4 MB each.

The photographer will need to accomplish three main tasks:

1. Ingest the files from the cards onto a computer and make a safety backup.
2. Edit the images down to maybe 200 keepers and copy these files to a folder for subsequent editing in an
external editor.
3. Upload the images to a web gallery for the client to see and make choices before coming to the studio to
make final selections of proofs sheets.
Not every photographer works this way but this step will serve to illustrate a few key concepts.

Ingest
Step one is best accomplished using the Ingest function. But first a few preparations must be made.

Decide where on your computer you want the images to be copied to. You may have a folder called Work in
Progress or something similar. Also, and most importantly, you need to consider where you want a backup set of
images to be copied to. Ideally this will be to an external hard drive but each has their own way of doing things.

One very effective way is of achieving this to copy onto a harddrive and into folders named DVD1, DVD2 etc.
When a folder reaches about 4 GB simply burn it to a DVD and label it with the appropriate number. This
means you have a backup copy on a harddrive as well as an off-line mirrored backup on DVD.

Also, you need to decide on a consistent file naming strategy which includes meaningful information in the file
name. This makes it much easier to recognize file names from specific shoots much better than the file names
generated by the camera. One simple method might be to use the name of the bride, the date and a unique file
number. (E.g. jones_01012007_0001.jpg) This is immediately recognizable as being from the Jones wedding on
Jan 1st 2007.

Open Photo Mechanic and go to Edit/Preferences. In the General tab set On Start Up to do nothing and On
Mount of Card to Show Ingest Dialog. Now, when a card is mounted the Ingest dialog will start up
automatically.

Open the IPTC Stationery Pad dialog and enter the details of the shoot. Make sure you enter your name as
credit, your Copyright label, the date of the wedding, the location and the names of the bride and groom in the
Caption field. Remember to make sure the check boxes next to any info you want to use are checked.

It would also be useful to add the brides maiden name into the category or keyword field. Later, if you use a
separate cataloging program, it will be easy to search on this name to find all the images from that particular
wedding. If your company shoots more than one wedding, or portrait session, on the same day, then searching
on the date AND the surname will find you the correct images. If you use internal Job numbers the category
field could be a good field to use too.

Close the IPTC Stationery Pad: all the settings will be kept and will be applied to files when needed.

Insert a card into the computer or card reader, this should trigger the Ingest Dialog to appear. There is an option
in Preferences, (Launching) to tell Image Capture to launch Photo Mechanic when a card is inserted.

Normally you will want to copy all the images off the cards, so the option to copy from specific folders is not so
important in this example. Select the card from the list in the Source Disk list.

Now choose the Source Directory Structure as ignore : copy all photos. This simply copies all the files,
regardless of location on the card, into the destination folder.

For Copy Photos choose into folder with name. Type the name of the bride into the text box. This will result in
the files being copied to the Primary and Secondary Destinations into a folder named, in our example, Jones.

Choose a Primary Destination and a Secondary Destination with the top right option buttons. You will need to
check the Secondary checkbox to activate the Secondary button.
Check Apply IPTC Stationery Pad to add the data you set previously to each file as it is copied.

Check Rename Ingested Photos As and type this into the text box: jones_{date}_{seqn}

You can select {date} and {seqn} from the variables list by opening the Variables list (button in the lower left
corner) and double clicking the Variable you want. Click on the Set {seqn} var... button and type 0001 into
the text box and click OK. This sets the initial number of the numbering sequence and by adding three leading
zeroes Photo Mechanic can increment the file number from 0001 to 9999 which is plenty for this example.

Check the Open Contact Sheet during Ingest box to generate a Contact Sheet of all the Ingested images during
the ingest process. You can work in the Contact Sheet and Preview windows even while Photo Mechanic is
Ingesting so you can view and edit your images right away.

Check the Unmount Source Disk after Ingest box.

Click Ingest and files will be copied to your computer. Once the first card is completed, it will be unmounted
and can be removed. Insert a second card and the Ingest Dialog will reappear. All the settings will be the same
as before, and the file sequence number will be set to where it left off during the last Ingest, i.e. if you ingested
100 files, the {seqn} variable number will be on 0101.

Click Ingest again and the next batch of images will be copied, backed up and added to the open Contact
Sheet.

When all the cards are finished you now have all the images mirrored in two places, all renamed and with
accurate metadata added for future cataloging.

Editing
Now all the images are copied and backed up you can start editing them; in fact you can start this process before
the Ingest is finished since Photo Mechanic allows full use of the Contact Sheet view and Preview during the
Ingest process. On the Ingest dialog there is an option to Open Contact Sheet during Ingest.

For quick editing double-click the first image in the Contact Sheet to open it in the Preview window. Press F to
show it full screen and press Z to toggle between full image and zoomed in. (The -click zoom function is very
useful here too.)

Use the left and right arrow keys to step through the images one at a time.

As you view the images and decide whether the image is worthy or not press T to tag the image with a tick in
the box in the lower right hand corner. This marks the image as a possible.

Go through all the images in this way, tagging ones that are worthy in some way. When you have finished, press
Esc to shut down the Preview window and return to the Contact Sheet. Press F3 and all the untagged images
will disappear leaving behind the ones you tagged. Select All (-A) and use the Copy command to copy all the
tagged images to a new folder named something like Final or Keepers.

You could get more sophisticated by using the Color Classes to whittle the whole collection down to the amount
you want to present to the client.

Presenting
Once you have settled on your final selection press -A to Select All. Then choose File/Export. Pick a layout
for your webpages: see Export for details.

This gallery could be uploaded to your website for the bride and groom to view.

So, to summarize, we have copied all the cards quickly and easily. The settings for Ingest and IPTC Stationery
Pad needed only to be set once for this shoot, no matter how many cards were filled or how many images were
shot. If two photographers were covering the wedding Photo Mechanic can keep the images separate based on
the photographers name set in each camera (see your camera manual for this). This is the {owner} or {user}
variable.

The images were edited quickly and easily using the simple tagging system built into Photo Mechanic. For more
sophisticated edits we could have used Color Classes to separate the images into up to 8 different color classes.
Or we could have used the 5-star ranking system.

Once edited, the images were uploaded for viewing but they could also have been Saved As JPEGs of a
different size of they could have been FTP transmitted to a clients server for viewing.

Photo Mechanic offers enough options for any photographer to customize their workflow to suit their needs.

Command Summary
All menus in Photo Mechanic follow certain conventions: A single menu item will directly execute a command
e.g. Close. A menu item followed by an ellipsis (...) will bring up a dialog box with more options. A menu item
with a small triangle to the right leads to a submenu with further choices.

File menu
New Window: Opens a copy of Photo Mechanic in a new window. Contact
Sheet tabs may be moved between open Windows simply by dragging them
from one window to another.

New Contact Sheet Tab...: Opens a new tab in the current Window.

Open contact sheet...: Choose a folder of images to be browsed.

Open Recent...: Choose from a list of recently opened contact sheets.

Close Window: Close currently displayed Contact Sheet Window.

Close Contact Sheet Tab: Close the current Contact Sheet tab.

Ingest...: Opens the Ingest dialog to copy images from external sources like
CF cards.

Live Ingest...: Opens the Live Ingest dialog.

Live Slide Show: Opens the Live Slide Show dialog.

Remember Folders as a Favorite...: This command is only active when the current Contact Sheet tab is
browsing multiple folders. When used, this command remembers the set of folders as a Favorite in the
Favorites panel.

Rename Photos...: Renames selected photos.

Copy/Move Photos...: Copies or moves selected photos to a new destination, photos can be renamed and IPTC
Stationery can be applied.

Delete Photos...: Deletes selected photos from computer by moving them to the Trash or deleting them
immediately. There is an optional confirmation dialog for this operation.

Save Photos as...: Saves photos in a variety of ways, with options for resizing, cropping, compressing and
renaming.

Burn Photos to Disc...: Burn images to CD or DVD.

Send Photos via email...: Send selected images by email, with resizing, compression and renaming options.

FTP Photos as...: Transmits images by File Transfer Protocol to a remote server via the internet. There are
options for sizing, compressing and renaming.

Upload: Sends images to your online accounts. There are options for sizing, compressing and renaming.

Export: Opens the Export dialog for HTML Web page creation or Text and XMP Exports.

Import GPS Coordinates...: Opens the Import GPS Coordinates dialog and allows you to import supported
GPS log file formats onto your photos.

Page Setup...: Set up your printer for making Contact Sheets or Proofs.

Print...: Prints selected images as either a contact sheet view or a series of individual proofs. There are full
layout and captioning options based on variables.

Edit Menu
Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear: These are the normal text editing functions common to all applications
and are used when editing text in the various Photo Mechanic text boxes. All the usual text selection standards
apply, such as double-clicking a word to select it.

Take IPTC Snapshot: Grabs the IPTC data from a selected image and copies it to a clipboard for pasting.

Paste IPTC Snapshot: Pastes the IPTC data to selected images.

Clear Transferred: Clears the Upload Status Indicators of the selected images. Find...: Finds images in the
current selection or contact sheet by searching the file

names and/or metadata for specified words. Find and Replace...: Looks for and replaces, from a selection
of the current contact sheet, metadata text in selected metadata fields.

Search...: Spotlight search. Select All: Selects all images in current contact sheet. Deselect All: Deselects any
selected images.

Select Tagged: Selects all images that are currently Tagged.

Select Rotated: Selects all images that have been soft-rotated.

Select Transferred: Selects all images that have been uploaded.

Select Photos with Audio: Selects all images that have sound files
associated with them.

Select Photos with GPS: Selects all images that have GPS coordinates
applied to them.

Select Color Class: Selects all images of a particular Color Class. Select
Rating: Selects images with a specified Star Rating. Select Date Range...:
Selects all images in a particular date range. Select Others: Inverts the current
selection to the images that are not selected.

Save/Load Selection: Saves out a text file with a list of the currently selected
images. Load the text file to reselect the same images. This could be useful if
you were to be sent a folder of images to make a selection from - just make
the selection, save the selection and then you only need to return the selection
text file, not the whole folder of images.

Settings submenu

Set Autocomplete...: Opens the Autocomplete Settings dialog.

Set Code Replacements...: Opens the Code Replacement dialog.
Reload Code Replacements: Refreshes Code Replacements from
recently saved Code Replacement files
Set GPS Home...: Opens the Set GPS Home dialog.
Set Info Text...: Opens the Set Info Text dialog.
Set Sequence Variable...: Opens the Set Sequence Variable dialog.
Set User/Client Variables...: Opens the User/Client Variables dialog box.

FTP Connection Settings...: Opens the FTP Connection Settings dialog.

Upload Connection Settings...: Opens the Upload Connection Settings dialog.

Special Characters...: (Mac only) Opens a list of special characters to insert into metadata.

Image menu
IPTC Stationery Pad...: Opens the IPTC Stationery Pad dialog.

Apply IPTC Stationery Pad to Photos:

Applies the current IPTC Stationery Pad to selected images. Keywords Panel...: Opens the Keywords
Panel.
Structured Keywords Panel...: Opens the Structured Keywords Panel.

Rotate Photos CCW: Rotate selected images 90 degrees counter-clockwise.

Rotate Photos CW: Rotate selected images 90 degrees clockwise.

Tag Photos: Sets selected images as Tagged. Untag Photos: Untags any
selected images.

Set Color Class of Photos: Apply a Color Class to the selected images.

Set Rating of Photos: Apply a Star Rating to the selected images.

Set GPS Coordinates...: Opens the Set GPS Coordinates dialog.

Preview...: Opens the Preview window with the selected images only.

Edit Photos: Launches the defined External Editor and opens the selected images for editing.

Send Photos to Droplet: If there are Photoshop actions saved as Droplets, the selected images are sent to a
droplet specified in the submenu.

Slide Show...: Starts a Slide Show of the selected images.

View Menu
Combined RAW+JPEG: Toggles on and off the combined RAW+JPEG
option where available.

Unknown files as proxies: Shows proxy thumbs of unknown files rather

than not showing them at all.

All: Displays all the thumbnails in the contact sheet. Turns off any Rating or
Color Class filters.

Selected: Views only the selected images and hides any unselected ones.

Tagged: Views only the Tagged images and hides the rest.

Untagged: Views only the images that have not been tagged and hides the
rest.

Refresh: refreshes the display to reflect any changes to Tagging and

Selections.

Make Arrangement: makes an arrangement from the current order of the thumbnails.

Show Info Tooltips: Toggle on and off the Image Info Tooltips which are displayed in the Contact Sheet View
when the cursor moves over a thumbnail.

Cursor Mode submenu: Allows you to choose between the two cursor modes: Loupe and Selection.
Hide/Show Toolbar: Hides or shows the Toolbar for more viewing real estate. Clicking the button in the
extreme top right of the window does the same thing.

Customize Toolbar...: Same as right-clicking (Ctrl-clicking) the Toolbar to customize the Toolbar.

Tools menu
These tools are a little more involved, so we will look at them closer here:

Adjust Capture Dates and Times...: This tool will adjust the capture dates
and/or times of the selected group of photos. The capture date/time is the
time stamp written by the camera, usually stored in the EXIF data of a photo.

Oftentimes the clock in a camera may be off, sometimes by a little, and

sometimes by a lot. The most common example is when you change time
zones and forget to change the clock on the camera. The capture times
recorded are therefore still relative to the original time zone (e.g. before you
went on vacation).

For multiple camera environments such as sporting events, it is often critical to synchronize all the cameras
down to the second if photos from multiple cameras are to be viewed together.

This tool can be used to either Adjust Relative or Adjust Absolute.

If you know your camera clock was off by some time delta (e.g. three hours since you changed three time
zones), simply dial in the delta time (or even days) in the Adjust Relative section. For example, if you live in
Boston and you went to vacation or work in San Diego without adjusting your camera clock, then set the Hours
control to -3 to adjust the capture times of the photos from the Eastern to the Pacific time zone.

To precisely adjust the capture times, use the Adjust Absolute controls to set the absolute time a photo was
taken. For example, with multiple cameras at a sporting event, make sure all cameras take a photo of the game
clock (or some other common clock that shows seconds). Then select the photos from one camera, locate the
photo of the clock using the arrow buttons under the photo, then dial-in the actual capture time of the photo
shows using the controls to the bottom-right of the photo. A relative time will be calculated from that photo and
applied to all the selected photos.

With the three checkboxes at the bottom you can also choose to update the file systems creation and/or
modification date/time, or the IPTC/XMP date/time.

All selected photos will be adjusted accordingly when the Adjust button is clicked.

Remove Crops

This tool will let you remove at once the soft crops that have been added to multiple photos.

Update IPTC/XMP...:
This tool will update the IPTC/ XMP metadata in the selected photos, according to your IPTC/ XMP
preferences. Photo Mechanic will first read IPTC or XMP according to your reading preferences, then it will
write IPTC and/or XMP according to your write preferences. This tool is useful for synchronizing the metadata
in RAW+JPEG pairs, or for embedding IPTC/XMP data into TIFF-based RAW photos based on IPTC/ XMP
metadata in a JPEG.

For example, with this tool you can:

1) Update the XMP from the IPTC in JPEG, TIFF or Photoshop PSD photos.

IPTC/XMP Preferences for JPEG, TIFF, and PSD photos:

A) When reading IPTC/XMP, choose Read embedded IPTC before XMP.

B) When writing IPTC/XMP, check Add embedded IPTC4XMP.

2) Create XMP sidecar files from embedded IPTC in RAW photos or vice-versa. IPTC/XMP Preferences for
RAW photos: A) When reading IPTC/XMP, choose Read embedded IPTC from the First: popup menu B)
When writing IPTC/XMP, check the option to: Always create and/or update XMP sidecar files with
IPTC/XMP.

3) For RAW+JPEG pairs, update the IPTC/XMP in the RAW photos from the IPTC/XMP in the JPEGs (or vice
versa.)

A) To update RAW photos from JPEGs, in the Update IPTC/XMP dialog, choose the Read IPTC/XMP from
JPEG option For RAW+JPEG pairs.

B) To update JPEGs from RAW photos, in the Update IPTC/XMP dialog, choose the Read IPTC/XMP from
RAW option For RAW+JPEG pairs.

4) Embed IPTC/XMP into TIFF-based RAW photos from the Mac IPTC-NAA resources (Mac only.)
IPTC/XMP Preferences for reading IPTC/XMP: Check the Read IPTC-NAA Resources option. IPTC/XMP
Preferences for writing IPTC/XMP in TIFF-based RAW photos: Check the Add embedded IPTC and/or Add
embedded XMP options.

Convert IPTC Text Encodings...:

This tool converts text in IPTC records from one text encoding to another. This is useful if youre changing OS
platforms or using your photos with a particular application that insists on using a particular text encoding.

Convert RAW to DNG...:

This tool will use an installed instance of the free Adobe DNG Converter application to convert supported RAW
formats to the DNG format.

To use this tool you must first have the DNG Converter installed on your system which you may obtain from
Adobe for free via the internet. Next you need to use the Pick DNG Converter... button to find and choose the
DNG Converter application. Once it is setup in this manner you may set your options according to your needs
(you can read more about the options in the actual DNG Converter application.) If you want your DNG files to
be written next to the original RAW file then check the Output to source folder checkbox, otherwise you will
be prompted to choose a destination folder where all of the DNG files will be written. Lastly, click the Convert
button and your RAW files will be converted one-by-one to the DNG format according to your settings.

Delete Metadata...:
This tool will permanently remove each metadata type whose checkbox is currently set. This operation cannot
be reversed. Once the metadata is removed it cannot be recovered. If you want to temporarily hide metadata, use
the Mask/ Unmask... command instead. Note that Exif data cannot be removed from RAW files even if the
Exif* checkbox is set. Other image types in your selected set, for instance, JPEGs will have their Exif data
removed when the Exif* checkbox is set.

Revert TIFF-based RAW to original:

This tool acts as a safety net since some RAW applications have been known not to read RAW files for which
the metadata has been externally edited. This tool reverts the file back to its original form. Use the Backup
IPTC/XMP to XMP sidecar files checkbox if you want to keep a copy of your caption in a sidecar file. You can
use the sidecar file to reapply the caption data later if you choose.

Mask/Unmask...:
This tool will mask or unmask certain types of information from JPEG,TIFF, PSD, and TIFF-based RAW
photos. Data that is masked is not deleted, and can be unmasked to retrieve the original info (except as noted
below). Masking simply hides the data from most applications by changing the normal tags or resource IDs to
something different. Unmasking restores the normal tags or resource IDs.

Masking data can be useful to diagnose certain workflow problems. For example, if you suspect that some other
application is having problems with embedded XMP data within a photo, you can mask the XMP data for a
photo (or group of photos) and see if this fixes the problem. If masking XMP data fixes the problem, you can
choose to not embed XMP into photos in the IPTC/XMP preferences. If that doesnt fix the problem, you can
unmask the XMP and look for another cause.

Special notes:

1. EXIF info and ICC profiles cannot be masked in RAW photos.

2. If you mask IPTC and/or XMP in a photo and then add new IPTC info, you wont be able to mask or
unmask IPTC and/or XMP because both masked and unmasked data exist. The same is true for ICC
profiles in JPEGs.

Change Resolution...:
This tool sets the resolution for the file so it can be read by other printing applications. This does not make any
changes to the file size, simply to the dpi information contained in the file.

Embed ICC Profile into JPEGs...:

This tool embeds or tags a selection of files with a specified ICC profile. Be careful when you use this, since it
simply tags the file with a profile, it does not convert the image to that profile.

Apply Rotation to JPEGs:

Photo Mechanic does not generally rotate files, it simply displays the thumbnails in the correct orientation.
Using this option on JPEGs applies the soft rotation to the files in a lossless manner so that the images will
appear with the new orientation when opened in other applications which do not recognize soft rotations or
EXIF orientation data. Once youve used this tool a few times and dont want to see the confirmation dialog,
holding down the modifier key will bypass the dialog.

Extract JPEG Previews from RAW photos...:

Many RAW files contain preview JPEGs created by the camera at the time of capture. Often these files are of
sufficient quality for small uses, such as for the web, and being able to extract them means the whole RAW files
does not have to be processed just to create a small image.
The new file will have the same name as the original, with all the settings for the original can be carried over
using the three check box options.

The size of the extracted file depends on the camera model: some cameras only produces images for display on
the cameras rear screen so these will be very small.

Remap

Remaps Color Class to Star Rating or vice versa. This is very useful for images that have been previously
allocated color classes but which may need to be viewed in another application - such as Bridge - with the
ratings visible. Bridge can only see Photo Mechanic Color Classes if the label names are the same, but the Star
Ratings are directly compatible. You can choose which Colors are mapped to which Star Ratings depending on
how you have chosen to use Color Classes in the past.

Then Set Rating/Color Class to: once the settings have been mapped across you can choose to have all the
remapped images set to a particular Rating/Color Class afterwards. This is useful to see which have been
remapped or to reset them to a value that you like.

Window
These commands govern how the program window appears. If you have multiple Photo Mechanic windows
open, here is where you can switch between them.

Help
This menu contains links to various documentations of Photo Mechanic, including within the program, or the
online documentation.

This is also the place where you can discontinue a free trial, or deactivate your computer if you need to install
Photo Mechanic on a difference computer.

Preferences
Keyboard Shortcut
Preferences

Mac: -,
Windows: Ctrl-,
(comma)
See all shortcuts
There are many parameters that can be set in Photo Mechanic to customize its operation to the way you choose
to work. In the Preferences Dialog box there are a series of tabs across the top, each of which leads to a new set
of preferences.

General Preferences

On startup: This is how you would like Photo Mechanic to configure itself when it is launched.

On mount of Camera Disk: This is what action you would like to happen when Photo Mechanic senses that a
card has been placed in a card reader. The logical choice here is the second one, Show Ingest Dialog, but you
can also ignore it or cause the card to be browsed as a set of Contact Sheets.

Color Classes: Here you can customize the Color Classes and names that Photo Mechanic uses to sort images.
Click on a color box to choose another color and type in the box next to it to re-label that color. If you wanted to
maximize compatibility with Adobe Bridge/Lightroom you would set the labels and colors here to match
the labels and colors you use in those applications. Additionally, the Synchronize Color Class with
IPTC/XMP Urgency field check box, when set, will cause the IPTC Urgency field to be set as the Color Class
index whenever the Color Class is adjusted.

GPS: This section allows you to choose how you want GPS information displayed. The GPS
Latitude/Longitude format popup menu lets you choose the format for display of GPS coordinates. The Units
for GPS distance popup allows you to choose miles or kilometers for distance displays.

Contact Sheet Preferences

Selection Method: Three options on how a selection may be made. Option one is the default and is the one
most people will be familiar with.

Default Sorting Method: This is the sorting sequence that Photo Mechanic uses to display a Contact Sheet
when the sheet is first created. This will appear in the main menu bar in the Contact Sheet window and can be
changed.

Behavior, Wrap-around: Toggles whether the arrow keys progress from the last image in a Contact Sheet back
to the first image when the end of a folder is encountered.

Behavior, Create New...: If there are no Contact Sheets open and Photo Mechanic is minimised, a new blank
Contact Sheet will be created when photo Mechanic is resumed.

Only Allow Arrangements...: Thumbs can only be dragged to make new arrangements when the Sort
dropdown is set to Arrangement.

Automatically rescan when folder contents change: Causes Contact Sheets to rescan when other applications
notify the system that they have added or removed files from a folder. This feature has been a source of
reliability issues for some users and has been made optional. If you are having issues when working with folders
outside of Photo Mechanic, please try turning this option off. The change will only take effect when Photo
Mechanic is restarted.

Scroll Wheel Sensitivity: Controls the amount that the mouse scroll wheel, if available, moves the screen while
viewing the Contact Sheet. (There is a separate sensitivity setting for the Preview window.)

Default Thumbnail Size: This is the size of thumbnail that Photo Mechanic uses when it first creates a new
Contact Sheet. It can be changed by using the thumb size slider on the Toolbar.

Generate High Quality Thumbnails: Turning this off displays the very small EXIF thumbnails only. Super-
fast but low quality.

Sharpen Thumbnails: Thumbnails will have sharpening applied and will look crisper to the eye, again, at a
slight cost in speed.
Combine RAW+JPEG: Toggles the combination of RAW+JPEG pairs into a single thumbnail.

Show Soft Rotation: Displays a symbol to show if a thumb has been rotated. Also allows other indicators like
Upload status to be shown.

Colors: Use these options to set how you want Photo Mechanic to appear. A good set of colors has good
contrast between the unselected thumbs and the selected ones, with good text contrast for both.

Labels: Sets the number of lines that are used beneath each thumbnail to show variables. Here one line is used
as default to show file name. You can choose File Name plus 1 to 3 more lines, each of which can display
variables such as Caption, File Size, etc.

Files Preferences

Move Photos to Trash: Check this box to move deleted items to the Trash. Unchecking this box deletes the
item permanently.

Never Warn when deleting: Turns off the warning when deleting files. Use with caution.

Allow modification of files on Camera Disks ( not recommended ! ): By default, Photo Mechanic will not
make any changes to files on a memory device so that if anything ever goes wrong, you'll still have your
original untouched files. If you're really, really sure you want to turn off this protection, you can.

Update Creation Time: Changes the creation time of the image to the EXIF time of capture during Ingest or
Copy. Unchecking this option will cause the files to have a creation time set as the time of Ingest or Copy, not
the actual time of capture.

Allow RAW files (non DNG) to be modified for metadata and image preference updates: When checked,
this setting allows RAW files to have metadata (IPTC and/or XMP) and image preferences (tag, rating, color
class, and crop) written to RAW files. When disabled, metadata and image preferences will no longer be allowed
to be written to RAW files. If needed, IPTC and XMP settings will be adjusted accordingly. Please note however
that some operations performed by users (soft rotation, capture time modifications, and adding GPS coordinates)
will still modify your RAW files since there is no other way to change that information without writing to the
RAW file that is guaranteed to make those changes visible to all applications.

File Extensions: Choose upper or lower case for file extensions. Once set this is best left alone for consistency.
Lower case is safer than upper case for web use.

Resolution Units: Choose between pixel per centimeter or pixels per inch. PPI is the default.

Add Photoshop Resolution: Sets the default resolution for files created during Copy or IPTC Updates. For
other imaging applications which use a dpi value for sizing.

Default Resolution to use: Choose a resolution to use for all file operations such as Resize, Crop, Save As, FTP
etc. Saved images will have this resolution when viewed in other applications.

Renaming resolution: Set options for what Photo Mechanic should do when it tries to save a file to a folder and
there is an identically named file already present at the destination. This policy applies to all renaming
operations. You can choose to append a letter, or a single or double digit number, when needed. The best option
here is probably Append Digits when needed (01,02 etc.). This option makes it easy to see at a glance when
there were two files with the same name since the new file name will be longer and easy to spot.

Add tag, color class and rating to IPTC/XMP: This setting when set to either For all photos or For RAW
photos only will keep your tag, rating and color class settings in each photos IPTC and/or XMP data. Editing
applications that preserve IPTC or XMP will then preserve your Photo Mechanic edits.

Always update XMP Label when changing Color Class: Tells Photo Mechanic to set the XMP Label to the
new Color Class name even if the XMP Label didnt previously match the Color Class name.

Location of User Templates: These settings allow you to choose a folder where your custom templates are
stored on your system. The Export dialog, HTML Template Exporter, and Uploader dialog will look here for
additional templates.

RAW Preferences (Mac)

RAW Rendering is part of Mac OS X. Photo Mechanic cannot render images on Windows.
Enable RAW Rendering: turns on the facilty to use the OS RAW rendering capabilities.

For RAW+JPEG: If there is an image pair when you have shot with the camera in RAW+JPEG mode then you
can choose to work with the JPEG for speed or render the RAW for quality.

For RAW Only: You can choose to use the embedded JPEG preview in the RAW file to speed up thumbnailing
or export, or use RAW Rendering to generate the output. Using embedded previews is faster but using RAW
rending can produce higher quality results.

Launching Preferences
These are preferences for how Photo Mechanic launches other applications in your workflow.

Configure Image Capture: (Mac only) Use this option to set up Photo Mechanic to automatically launch when
a camera card is mounted. Used in conjunction with Preferences/General to bring up an Ingest Dialog on
launch. On Windows, AutoPlay is used to launch Photo Mechanic when a camera card is mounted.

Default application to edit photos: Choose an external editor to launch when the Edit photos options are
invoked. For many people this will be Adobe Photoshop but you can choose whatever you like here.

Default application to edit movies: same as above but for movie files.

Assign Specific Application to File Type: Click Set... to assign different file formats to different applications.
You might like to use Photoshop as the default but also set ImageReady to open GIFs and a particular RAW
Converter to process NEF files. These options are shown when using the right-click context menu option on
photos in the contact sheet: Edit Photos with.

Max Photos to Edit: Sending more than this number of image to an external editor will bring up a warning.
This warning acts as a safety net in case you send more files than your computer can handle at once. The
number of files you can safely send will depend on both the file size and the amount of RAM available.

RAW+JPEG Editing: When Photo Mechanic is treating a RAW+JPEG pair as a single file, this option sets
which one of the pair is sent to an external editor when using the Edit Photos command. You can toggle this
preference temporarily by holding down the Modifier key when choosing to edit.

Opening Contact Sheet with Navigator or Favorites panes: Sets one of four options for single-clicking or
double-clicking in the Navigator or Favorites panes.

The When opening a new Contact Sheet make the Navigator show the path to the folder checkbox can be set
so that the Navigator shows the full path to the newly opened folder.

Photoshop Droplets: Use this to set where your Droplets are stored so Photo Mechanic can load them into the
Send Photos to Droplet menu option on the Image menu.

IPTC/XMP Preferences

The IPTC / XMP Preferences section is where you setup how Photo Mechanic reads and writes IPTC and/or
XMP metadata with photos in order to customize your workflow with other applications that use this metadata.
Most IPTC metadata fields (e.g. City, Photographer, etc.) have an equivalent field representation in XMP
(known as IPTC4XMP), although XMP can also contain other metadata such as rendering preferences.
Unfortunately, not all applications or operating systems support IPTC and XMP metadata equivalently, so Photo
Mechanic has been designed to be very flexible about how IPTC and XMP metadata is both read and written.

For example, since IPTC (an international standard) was in use for more than a decade before XMP (a format
introduced by Adobe Systems), older applications may only handle IPTC data and not be able to view or edit
XMP data. Newer and future applications may only handle XMP. Some applications that handle XMP may
expect the metadata to be embedded within photos such as JPEGs and TIFFs, but expect to find an XMP sidecar
file for RAW photos. Some applications may be able to read, but not write, IPTC or XMP metadata embedded
within a RAW photo. If a photo contains both IPTC and XMP metadata, some applications may read the IPTC
and ignore the XMP or vice versa.

By understanding how all your various applications handle IPTC and/or XMP metadata, you can configure
Photo Mechanic to read and write this metadata for maximum inter-operability. The handling of proprietary
RAW photos, for example, can be very different than the handling of standard JPEG, TIFF, and PSD photos.
Unlike the standard photo formats, which have well-documented methods for embedding IPTC and XMP
metadata, most proprietary RAW photos do not come with IPTC or XMP metadata; and if they do, are difficult
to edit because of their TIFF-based structure (and if altered may fail to work with certain applications or
operating systems). Therefore, some applications favor using an XMP sidecar file for RAW photos. Fortunately,
Photo Mechanic is able to read and write both IPTC and XMP in various combinations depending on the
photos format.

In the left section, When reading IPTC/XMP, you tell Photo Mechanic how to handle the reading of
IPTC/XMP data when both types of metadata are present. For example, if you create a JPEG with both IPTC
and XMP (e.g. by saving from Photoshop CS), then edit the photos metadata with an older application that only
understands IPTC, then the XMP metadata in the file will be stale (out of date). Therefore, in this case, you
will want to have Photo Mechanic read IPTC before XMP for JPEG (and TIFF and PSD) photos. On the other
hand, if you edit the same photo with a newer application that only uses XMP, then the IPTC metadata will be
stale and you will want to change the JPEG read preference to read XMP before IPTC. For RAW photos, there
is an additional third place to find metadata: the XMP sidecar file. Therefore, you can choose the first, second,
and third choices for reading IPTC/XMP metadata for RAW photos. If you are using a Mac, you can also choose
to read the IPTC from a photos resource fork, either as the first place to look or only as a last resort or
uncheck it to ignore the resource fork altogether.

In the right section, When writing IPTC/XMP, you tell Photo Mechanic how to handle the writing of
IPTC/XMPdata. ForJPEG,TIFF,and PSD photos,you can choose to embed IPTC or XMP or both. By default,
Photo Mechanic will embed both IPTC and XMP into these standard formats, but you may want to only embed
IPTC for older applications or only XMP for newer applications. For TIFF-based RAW photos (e.g. 1D TIF,
NEF, CR2, ORF), you can choose to embed IPTC or XMP or both. If you choose to embed neither, or for non-
TIFF based RAW photos, Photo Mechanic will always create and/or update an XMP sidecar file. However, if
you embed IPTC and/or XMP in a TIFF-based RAW photo, then the XMP sidecar is optional and you have
three choices of how to handle them. You can always update the XMP sidecar file, or only if an XMP sidecar
file is present, or only if an XMP sidecar file is present AND already contains IPTC4XMP metadata. On the
Mac, you can also choose to add the IPTC-NAA resource fork when embedding IPTC/XMP.

The option Dont update embedded IPTC/IPTC4XMP even if it exists... causes Photo Mechanic to only
update the XMP sidecar file, letting any current embedded IPTC or XMP data stay in its current state.
One important note: the IPTC/XMP write preferences have to do with ADDING IPTC/XMP metadata when it
doesnt exist in a photo. Photo Mechanic will always update any existing metadata to make sure no metadata is
left stale (unless you force Photo Mechanic not to update it with the previous option.) For example, if you
choose to ADD only XMP metadata into JPEG photos, but Photo Mechanic finds only existing IPTC metadata
in a JPEG, it will update the IPTC data AND add XMP data to the JPEG photo.

Also, Photo Mechanic will load an IPTC ANPA 10000 resource if it exists as a last resort if no embedded IPTC
or XMP or XMP sidecar is available.

IPTC Line Endings: Sets the Line Endings that are used in the IPTC data. The IPTC standard does not specify
a line ending (a character that lets a computer know to start a new line) and the original Mac version always
wrote out a CR character (carriage return). Windows uses CR/LF (a carriage return followed by a line feed) to
delineate new lines. This option lets you choose how you want it to work.

When viewing photos in RAW+JPEG mode use the metadata from the: This popup menu allows you to
choose where the metadata comes from when RAW and JPEG images are paired.

For JPEGs with multiple IPTC records: Because some applications do not properly edit IPTC metadata in
JPEG photos, Photo Mechanic may encounter improperly formatted JPEG photos with multiple IPTC records.
This popup menu lets you configure what Photo Mechanic will do when it encounters this situation. You can
choose to Read/update the first IPTC record or the last IPTC record.

Use a (comma or semi-colon) to separate repeating fields (Keywords, Caption Writers, etc.): Lets you
choose how repeating IPTC fields are separated. If you like to use commas in names as in Last name, First
name then choose semi-colon as your separator.

Check Spelling: Checks spelling of the Caption field using the system Dictionary.

Always Use Todays Date in Stationery Pad: Presets the Date field in the IPTC Stationery Pad to the current
system date. You can override this in the IPTC Stationery Pad if you want, it just opens with the date already set
to now.

Restore defaults: Restores all IPTC/XMP factory defaults.

Maximizing IPTC/XMP Compatibility

Having data move smoothly between Photo Mechanic and other photography software is very important. To
make sure your key metadata follows your photos as you work with them in other programs, you may have to
adjust the settings in Photo Mechanic. Other software can look for metadata in different places, so you'll have to
specify where and how to keep it.

You can now select a specific group of settings designed to work best with other common software packages.
Do this from the "Snapshot" button in the lower right:
Adobe settings

The following settings will maximize compatibility with Adobe products. The key is to remember when
working with Raw files that Adobe will try to look for metadata in XMP sidecar files that live alongside each
Raw file. If you click the "Restore defaults" button, you should get these settings which will work well with
Adobe products.

In order to be able to set Color Classes in Photo Mechanic that will be visible in Adobe Lightroom, change your
labels to match these settings. Spelling of the text labels is important. You can change them in Photo Mechanic
by clicking in the Preferences window.
Capture NX2 settings

Here are suggested settings for working with Nikon Capture NX2:

The key difference here is that (as of February 2013) Capture NX2 doesn't make use of XMP sidecar files, so
tell Photo Mechanic to look for embedded XMP first.
Note on Default IPTC Encoding: Users should either use the default Mac Roman encoding which is
historically the default encoding that Photo Mechanic has always used, or they should change it to one of the
other encodings to work with the encoding of choice used by their organization. For better compatibility with
non-PM users on Windows, using Microsoft Latin1+Euro is a good choice. Using Write IPTC as Unicode
makes IPTC fully international, but unfortunately some applications do not know how to interpret Unicode
IPTC data even though they work fine with Unicode XMP data.

Preview Preferences

Enlarge photos to fit previews and slide shows: Check this box to have Photo Mechanic enlarge images that
are smaller than the preview window and the slide show window. Images will be resized to fit within the
workspace. Images that are bigger than the workspace will always be reduced to fit unless zoom is used.

Wrap-around: Allows the arrow keys to progress from the last image to the first image or the first image to the
last.

Show Soft-rotation: Displays a small rotation icon to designate that an image has been soft-rotated from its
original orientation. Photo Mechanic does not alter original image data, it merely displays a preview as opposed
to actually rotating the original image. This indicator will let you know when an image has been soft-rotated.

Auto-center thumbnails in thumbnail gallery: Causes the current selected preview to have its thumbnail
centered in the thumbnail gallery.

Sharpen Previews: Displays Previews with sharpening applied for a crisper view, at a slight cost in processing
speed.

Automatically advance to next photo: When the Tag is changed, Color Class is changed, or Rating is
changed checkboxes are checked these options will cause the preview to advance to the next photo when any
of the checked options are changed.

When zoomed, the mouse wheel: Allows the mouse wheel to function in one of two ways when zoomed-- the
mouse wheel can pan the preview around, or it can advance to next/previous photo. (Mac OS X-only feature.)
Mouse wheel sensitivity: This is where you can adjust the sensitivity of your mouse wheel for panning and
advancing. (This is a separate setting from the "Scroll wheel sensitivity" setting for working in the Contact
Sheet)

Cropping: Sets the default mode of Cropping, either constrained or freehand. If you choose constrained you
can set the default ratio here. The numbers represent aspect ratios not units. For example, 5:5 will give a square
crop and 9:3 will give a panoramic one.

Edit/Preview: Sets whether a double-click on a Contact Sheet thumbnail Previews or Edits the image. Edits
will be done in the default Editor set in Preferences/ Launching.

Background Colors: Choose colors for the background of the preview window.

Caching Preferences
Location for Cache: Choose a folder where you would like Photo Mechanic to store cached thumbnails. Note
that if you choose a location other than the default and are using OS X then you need to tell Spotlight to ignore
your cache folder or performance will be reduced.

Disk Cache Size: Maximum size of the cache folder. Generally, bigger is not always better, and the usefulness
of the cache will top out at a few thousand MB, because startup and shutdown times will become excessive.

Reserve at least: Makes sure that there is always this amount of space left on the cache disk volume.

Empty on Quit: Empties the cache when Photo Mechanic is closed. Photo Mechanic is very quick to generate
thumbnails and previews so it is not always necessary to keep the cache between sessions.

Remove Cached files that are older than: Cached files older than n days old are removed as Photo Mechanic
starts up. Keeping a large cache between sessions can cause Photo Mechanic to launch slower than normal
because it has to check every cached file for its creation date on startup.

Memory Cache Size: Sets aside an amount of RAM to be used for caching and previewing. If you have less
than 1GB of RAM this should be 64MB or 128MB, more if you are running Photo Mechanic on its own. For
2GB of RAM, 256MB would be a reasonable setting.

Sort Cache: Photo Mechanic can cache the sorting of large folders to improve performance when re-opening
the folder later on. To save disk space, PM will clear out older cached data per your choice of size here. You can
also "Empty Now" to immediately get rid of cached sorting data.

Color Management Preferences

Default ICC Profile: Sets a profile to use if a file has no profile assigned to it. sRGB would be the usual choice
here since most non-ICC capable cameras would be using a nominal sRGB-like colorspace.

Color Manage Thumbs: Applies color management to the Contact Sheet view.

Color Manage Preview: Applies color management to the Preview.

Embed ICC Profile into Camera JPEGs during copy or ingest: Causes Photo Mechanic to embed the actual
ICC profile into your images during copy or ingest operations.

Accessibility Preferences

Font scale for IPTC Caption field: Allows you to make the text larger in the Caption field of the new-layout
IPTC dialogs.
Use Classic IPTC Dialogs: Sets Photo Mechanic to use the older IPTC Stationery Pad/IPTC Info layouts which
many people are very familiar with.

Single key shortcut for Color Class or 5-Star Rating: Set whether the number keys set the 5-Star Rating or
the Color Class without a qualifier key when a single photo is selected.

Run Navigation Services dialogs in a separate process: When checked, this causes all Open/Save dialogs to
be run in a separate process which makes Photo Mechanic run far more reliably, especially on Snow Leopard
(10.6.x) Mac OS X systems. Unless you have a good reason to turn this feature off, please keep this feature on.

Show Growl notifications instead of modal alerts where possible: When checked, this feature causes certain
modal alerts (for instance Ingest complete messages) to present themselves as Growl notifications. Growl lets
Mac OS X applications unintrusively tell you when things happen. It is free software that you can install on
your Mac OS X system. You can read more about it here: http://growl.info and download its installer.

AP Preferences

Photo Mechanic has some special features to optimize use with the Associated Press

Exporting Preferences
Nearly all Photo Mechanic Preferences may be exported to a PMX file so that they can be imported into Photo
Mechanic at a later time. If you run a second copy of Photo Mechanic on a laptop then this saves you having to
set each Preference one at a time. Find the Import and Export buttons on the bottom of the Preferences window:
Importing Preferences
Choose a previously exported PMX file to import into Photo Mechanic.

Use the Merge settings checkbox to merge the imported settings with your current settings. If you want to
replace your current settings with the imported settings, then turn off the Merge settings checkbox Not all
settings can be merged, but many can.

Resetting Preferences
If for some reason you need to start over with your Preferences, you can completely reset them all to factory
defaults. In rare cases this can even solve persistant crashing issues that come from corrupt preferences file. The
process is different on OSX and Windows. Here's how you do it on each:

On OSX (Mac)

Resetting Photo Mechanic's Preference files will erase all of the entries in the Favorites pane and Open Recent
list. If you need to restore your Favorites entries, then Take a screen shot of them before resetting PM's
preference files.

If you have FTP connection settings or IPTC field lists that need to be preserved, then go to the Photo Mechanic
Preferences dialog and click the Export button to save the current settings as a .PMX file. Call the file PM-old-
prefs.PMX and save it wherever you like. Now quit Photo Mechanic. Use the Command-Tab shortcut when the
Finder is running to show a list of all of the running application icons. If Photo Mechanic is not listed, then we
can continue.

The Photo Mechanic preferences files are located in your user Library folder -> Preferences folder.
Unfortunately this folder is hidden on the new Mac operating systems (Lion and Mountain Lion). We can get
around that problem: with the Finder running click the Desktop so the Finder is active. Hold down the Option
key and click the Go menu. Keep the Option key down so you can access the Library folder from the Go menu.
When the Library folder opens, you can drag the Library folder icon from the top of the Finder window, to the
left sidebar next to the Desktop entry. Make sure you see the separating line between two entries in the sidebar
before letting go of the mouse. This will add the Library folder shortcut to the sidebar.

Now open the Preferences folder. Look for a folder called com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic. Rename this folder
by adding -old to the name. If there are any com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic.plist files, then you can delete them
or add "-old" to their names. There could be 3 of these plus 3 copies ending with Lockfile. Close the Finder
window.

Start Photo Mechanic. If you see any messages about registration, you can re-enter it there, If you do not have
your registration info handy, then quit Photo Mechanic. Go back to the Library folder and then the Preferences
folder. ( Library folder shortcut will be in the left sidebar of any Finder window ).

Photo Mechanic should have created a new com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic folder. Open the
com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic-old folder and move the com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic.registration file to the
new com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic folder.

Now Photo Mechanic should be reset so it looks as if it has just been installed for the first time. Try the same
workflow to make sure Photo Mechanic is working correctly now. If not, then we recommend re-installing the
Photo Mechanic application.

If Photo Mechanic is working correctly now, go to the Preferences and click the Import button. Locate the PM-
old-prefs.PMX file from where you saved it earlier and Open it. When the list opens click the Import button to
continue. Click the Yes button in the alert dialog to complete the Import. Photo Mechanic will need to quit to
save the changes.

Windows

If Photo Mechanic will start up, then go to the Preferences option at the bottom of the Edit menu. Click the
Export button at the bottom of the page. After a few seconds a list of selected items will appear. I recommend
deselecting the Preferences:Caching entry. This entry will be near the top of the list. Just hold down the Control
key and click it to deselect it. Click the Export button at the bottom of the list to save this to your Desktop. Call
it something like PM-prefs-<date>.PMX and choose Save. Close the preferences and quit Photo Mechanic.

For Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 go to the following location:

C:\Users\<your_account_name>\AppData\Roaming\Camera Bits, Inc\Photo Mechanic

Note: If the AppData folder is not visible, then go to the Explorer Window's Tools menu and select Folder
Options. This can also be accessed by entering Folder Options in the Control Panel's search field. Click the
View tab and set the option to display Hidden Files and Folders. Apply the changes and then open a new
Explorer window.

Click on the Photo Mechanic folder name on the left side of the Explorer window. This will show all of the files
and folders in the right panel. Delete the files starting with "com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic". They are
preferences files. Close the Explorer window and then restart your PC.

When it's done starting up, check the amount of RAM in your system by going to the System Control Panel.
The RAM memory size will be listed by the CPU info. Make a note of the size.

Now start Photo Mechanic. Go to the Edit menu and select Preferences. Click the Import button at the bottom of
the dialog and locate the PM-prefs-<date>.PMX file on your Desktop and Open it. A list of items will appear in
a few seconds. Click the Import button to continue. Photo Mechanic will open a message box. Just continue
with the import.

Next go to the Caching preference page and double check the Memory Cache Size at the bottom. This should be
set to approximately 20% of the total system ram size up to 600 MB. Here is a basic guide for PM's Memory
Cache size:

Your system RAM PM Memory Cache size

<1 GB 128 MB
1 GB 200 MB
2 GB 400 MB
4 GB+ 600 - 800 MB

Click OK the preference dialog. Quit Photo Mechanic.

Start Photo Mechanic again. Hopefully the problem is fixed.

Toolbar (Mac Only)

Custom Toolbars
The Photo Mechanic Toolbar can be fully customized to suit your own preferred way of working. Right click
(Ctrl-click) in any empty space on the toolbar and select an option.

Click on Customize Toolbar to bring up the following dialog box. Icons can be dragged to and from the Toolbar
to suit your personal taste, or you can simply reset the default toolbar by dragging the whole default set all at
once.

Checking the Small Icons option merely reduces the size of the Toolbar Icons to make more room.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Contact Sheet Shortcuts
(On a Windows system, substitute Ctrl for )

If you have only one photo selected you can use the arrow keys to move the selection around.

Copy item Y
Edit in default editor E
Upload photo via FTP U
Turn tag on +
Turn tag off -
Toggle tag on/off T
Toggle Selection and Loupe cursor modes Z
Set Star Rating (if configured in Prefs) 1 thru 5
Set Color Class (if configured in Prefs) 1 thru 8
Remove Color Class or Star Rating (if conf. in Prefs) 0
Select and scroll to last previewed item L
Save S
Rotate counter-clockwise 90 [
Rotate clockwise 90 ]
Rename M or <Return>
Preview <Space>
Play/Stop any sounds. A
Open IPTC Info I
Move to previous Contact Sheet tab Ctrl-
Move to next Contact Sheet tab Ctrl-

Preview Window Shortcuts

Close Preview window <Esc> or W

Move back/forward one item ,
Scroll thumbnails by page , , <Pg up>, <Pg down>
Delete current item <Delete> or <Backspace>
Toggle rendering quality (RAW vs. JPG) Q
Turn zoom on/off Z or *
Increase zoom +
Decrease zoom -
Toggle shadow N
Toggle highlight B
Link the two previews L
One up view O
2-up view (landscape) V
2-up view (portraits) H
Switch active preview pane in 2-up <Tab>
Toggle color management C
Full screen mode (toggles) F
Restore from full screen mode R
Swap items in 2-up view G or /
Set Color Class (if set in Prefs) 1 thru 8
Set Star Rating (if set in Prefs) 1 thru 5
Remove Star Rating or Color Class (if set in Prefs) 0
Set Color Class -1 thru -8
Remove Color Class -0
Set Star Rating Ctrl-1 thru Ctrl-5
Remove Star Rating Ctrl-0
Toggle tag on/off T or . (period)
Upload U
Toggle crop tool X
Remove crop Opt-X
Rotate counter-clockwise 90 [
Rotate clockwise 90 ]
Play/Stop audio sounds A
IPTC Info I
Add to selected items W
Deselect D
Copy Y
Rename M
Edit E
Save S
Panning cursor <Space> or Opt
Pan in the zoomed mode Opt-, ,,
Pan faster in the zoomed mode Shift-Opt-, ,,
Zoom in and out Opt-scroll
Zoom in and center on click -click

Slide Show Shortcuts

Advance to next item <Space> or

Show previous item <Backspace> or
Dismiss item from Slide Show <Delete> or D
Tag item +
Untag item -
Toggle tag T
Set Color Class 1 thru 8
Remove Color Class 0
Pause slide show if on Auto <Caps Lock>

IPTC Stationery Pad Shortcuts

Clear all fields -D

Load IPTC template -Opt-U
Save IPTC template -Opt-S
Show Job/User/Client dialog -Opt-J
Show/Hide Variables window -Opt-V
Apply to selected items -Opt-A
Accept changes and close Pad -<Return>

IPTC Info Shortcuts

Save the changes and go to next -] or -N

Go to next without saving -Shift-] or -Shift-N
Save the changes and go to previous -[ or -B
Go back to the previous without saving -Shift-[ or -Shift-B
Save, send to Uploader, and go to next -U
Copy all IPTC field data to clipboard -Shift-C
Paste clipboard into IPTC fields -Shift-V
Save the changes and close dialog -<Return>
Clear all fields based on Clear mask -Delete
Load a .IPT or .XMP file -Opt-L
Save all as a .IPT or .XMP file -Opt-S
 Apply the IPTC Stationery Pad -Opt-C
Open Variables window -Opt-V
Play the associated sound file -Opt-A
Add Color Class -1 thru 8
Remove Color Class -0
Add Star rating Ctrl-1 thru 5
Remove Star rating Ctrl-0
Enlarge the thumbnail Ctrl-Z

Option Modifier key

Holding down the Option key will change the following buttons into the other buttons:

Clear will become Options - This will let you set the Clear mask. Only fields checked in the Clear Mask will be
affected when the Clear button is clicked at the bottom of the dialog

Apply Stationery Pad will become Copy to Stationery - This will let you load the IPTC Stationery Pad from
this photos IPTC Info dialog

'OK will become Eval - Click the Eval button to evaluate any variables in the fields to see the results before
saving any changes

Menu Shortcuts

Application Menu

Preferences -, (comma)
Hide Photo Mechanic -H
Hide other applications -Opt-H
Quit Photo Mechanic -Q

File Menu

New Contact Sheet window -Shift-N

New Contact Sheet tab -N
Open Contact Sheet -O
Close Contact Sheet tab/window -W
Close window -Shift-W
Ingest -G
Live Ingest -Shift-G
Live Slide Show -Shift-L
Rename Photos -M
Copy items -Y
Delete -<Delete>
Save As -S
Burn items to disc -B
Send items by email -Shift-E
FTP -U
Upload -Ctrl-U
Export -Ctrl-X
Page setup -Shift-P
Print -P

Edit Menu

Undo -Z
Redo -Shift-z
Cut -X
Copy -C
Paste -V
Take IPTC Snapshot -Option-C
Paste IPTC Snapshot -Option-V
Find -F
Find and Replace -Shift-F
Search using Spotlight -Option-F
Select all -A
Deselect all -D
Select tagged items -T
Select rotated items -Shift-R
Select others (invert selection) -Shift-O
Select Color Class 1-8 -Ctrl-1 thru 8
Select anything with color class -Ctrl-9
Select items with no color class -Ctrl-0
Select Star Rating 1-5 -Opt-1 thru 5
Select anything star rated -Opt-6
Select anything not star rated -Opt-0
Set Code Replacements -Ctrl-C
Reload Code Replacements Shift--Ctrl-C
Enter special characters -Opt-T

Image Menu

IPTC Stationery Pad -I

Apply Stationery Pad -Shift-I
Keywords panel -K
Structured Keywords panel -Option-K
Rotate counter-clockwise 90 -[
Rotate clockwise 90 -]
Tag photos -+
Untag --
Preview -R
Edit items -E
Slide Show -L
Set Color Class -1 thru -8
Remove Color Class -0
Set Star Rating Ctrl-1 thru Ctrl-5
Remove Star Rating Ctrl-0

View Menu

Toggle combined RAW+JPEG -J

View all F1
View selected F2
View tagged F3
View untagged F4
Refresh F5
Rescan Contact Sheet -/
Show/Hide Info tooltips -Shift-T

Tools Menu

Apply rotation to JPEGs -Ctrl-R

Window Menu
 Select previous tab -{
Select next tab -}

Modifier Key
The Modifier Key (Option key on Mac, Shift key on Windows) can be used to modify the operation of
various dialog boxes throughout Photo Mechanic. The most common use is to bypass a dialog box and directly
apply the last used settings without that particular dialog box presenting itself. For example, if you choose FTP
as from the right-click context menu while holding down the Modifier key, the selected image(s) will be
uploaded to whatever the FTP Photos As dialog box was last set to.

Holding down the Modifier key...

When deleting skips the delete files confirmation dialog.

When clicking on a tag box will make all images in the selection have the same tag value as the photo whose tag
was clicked on.

When clicking on a rotation hover button will rotate all images in the selection in the same direction.

When setting a color class on a photo via the contextual menu will set all selected images (if any) to the same
color class.

When pasting an IPTC snapshot will skip the confirmation dialog when multiple items are selected.

When applying IPTC stationery via the contextual menu to multiple items will skip the confirmation dialog.

When double clicking on a thumbnail in the contact sheet will toggle the sense of your preferred double-click
action (edit or preview are the two choices.)

When double-clicking a saved search in the Favorites will execute the search in a new Contact Sheet.

When double-clicking a folder in the Favorites or Navigator will add the folder as an additional folder in the
current Contact Sheet.

Holding down the Modifier key in any dialog that has Set seqn variable... button will change the button to
read Reset seqn variable and will instead reset the sequence variable when clicked.

When opening the FTP As... dialog will attempt to skip the dialog and send the files immediately.

When clicking on the Remove crop button in the Preview window will remove a constrained crop as well as the
crop rectangle.

While zoomed into a cropped preview will give you the hand cursor which can be used to click and drag the
zoomed preview around.

While zoomed into a preview will allow the cursor keys to pan the preview around. Adding the shift key (Mac
OS X) or control key (Windows) will scroll faster.
While moving the scroll wheel on your mouse will zoom in and out of the current preview. Moving the scroll
wheel without the Modifier key down will advance through the previews.

When starting an external edit will toggle the sense of your RAW/JPEG editing preference when in RAW+JPEG
mode.

When using the copy command will attempt to skip the dialog and perform the last copy operation with the
current selection of photos.

When using the rename command will attempt to skip the dialog and perform the last rename operation with the
current selection of photos.

When using the save as command will attempt to skip the dialog and perform the last save as operation with the
current selection of photos.

While inside the IPTC Info dialog will change the Clear button to Options which will bring up the Clear
IPTC Fields dialog. It will change the Apply Stationery Pad button to Copy to Stationery. When multiple
items are selected in the Contact Sheet and you hold down Ctrl and Modifier the button will change to Apply to
Selected. The Modifier key will change the OK button to Eval which will replace all variables with their
interpreted values which is useful to see how variables replacement will work.

While inside the IPTC Stationery Pad dialog will change the Clear button to Options which will bring up
the Clear IPTC Fields dialog.

The Extras Folder

(OSX only)

When you install Photo Mechanic on OSX you may notice an additional folder named Extras alongside the
installer.

HTML Template Docs

This folder contains documentation for the HTML templates used in Photo Mechanic's Export feature. These
materials help you create user-defined HTML templates. Refer to the index.html file in that folder for full info
on these materials.

PM Context Menu
For looking at files and folders in OSX's Finder, you can install this optional service called "Browse with Photo
Mechanic." Once installed, it adds a menu item to the Finder's context menu (Ctrl-click [or right-click if you
have a two-button mouse] on a file or a folder to make it appear) that reads "Browse with Photo Mechanic". If
you then choose that menu item, Photo Mechanic will be launched (or brought forward if it is already running)
and then Photo Mechanic will open and browse those items. If you had selected several files to browse, then the
parent folder will be opened and the items that were selected will be preselected when the Contact Sheet tab
opens.
Installing the service

When you download the Photo Mechanic installer, there is a folder called Extras that exists alongside the
installer. Just copy the BrowseWithPMService.service item to your home directory's Library/Services/ folder. If
the Services folder does not exist in your home directory's Library folder, you can just create it and then copy
the BrowseWithPMService.service item. Copying the service to your home directory's Library/Services/ folder
will make the service available only to your account. If you wish to make it available for all accounts then you
can instead copy it your boot drive's Library/Services/ folder. Create the Services folder in your boot drive's
Library folder if it doesn't exist. Then, copy the service there. Now, all users will have access to the Browse with
Photo Mechanic service.

On some versions of OSX, the service may still not work. If that is the case for you, try holding down the
OPTION key while selecting "Browse with Photo Mechanic." You should be shown a dialog to choose an
application. Select Photo Mechanic here once, and it should work normally after that. If you have multiple
versions of Photo Mechanic installed in your computer, this procedure will allow you to tell the service which
instance of Photo Mechanic to be launched.

Uninstalling the Service

All you need to do is find the service and move it to the Trash and then the next time you restart the Finder it
will be gone. The service will be located in one of two places:

1. In the Services folder contained in the Library folder that is in your home folder.
2. In the Services folder contained in the Library folder that is on the root of your boot drive.

Once you find the "BrowseWithPMService.service" item, just move it to the Trash and then restart the Finder by
either restarting or logging out of your account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I upgrade to Photo Mechanic Version 5?
Answer: The top 5 reasons are:

1. Get full compatibility with the latest version of Mac OS X* If you have a new Mac, youll definitely need
Photo Mechanic Version 5.
2. Start ingesting photos as soon as you plug in a memory card with the new Auto Ingest feature.
3. Take advantage of dozens of new IPTC/XMP fields that are now available. Customize the order, label,
and visibility of each one.
4. Save IPTC info, upload file, and move to the next all with one click!
5. Keep a Preview window open while you continue to browse a contact sheet.

Send Photos to Photoshop?

I used to be able to send my photos from Photo Mechanic to Photoshop but the new version doesnt seem
to work. What do I need to do?
Answer: Photo Mechanic is no longer tied to the full versions of Photoshop. You can use any image editing
application now. The path to the secondary application will be set in the Preferences on the Launching page.
Photo Mechanics preferences can be accessed from the Photo Mechanic menu (Mac) or the Edit menu
(Windows )

Select the radio button at the top section to Assign default application and then click the Choose... button to
the right of the field. This will open the Application picker dialog so you can locate the Photoshop application.
See the path below for a default install location of the Photoshop application.

Windows:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop xx\Photoshop.exe

Mac OS X:
/Applications/Adobe Photoshop xx/Adobe Photoshop xx.app

Highlight the Photoshop application and then click on the Open (Mac) or OK (Windows) button to set the path
and return to the Photo Mechanic preferences. You should now see the path displayed in the field.

Opening Photos in Photoshop?

I have set the path to the Photoshop application but I still cant get my photos to open in PS CS.
Photoshop opens but never displays the images. What setting did I miss?

Answer: This sounds like the Photoshop application needs to be re-installed. Try this quick test to make sure.
Quit both Photo Mechanic and Photoshop CS. Locate a JPEG file on your Desktop and drag its icon to the
Photoshop icon in the Dock. If Photoshop launched but never opens the photo, then you will need to re-install
Photoshop CS.

Upgrading to a New Version?

I am a bit apprehensive about upgrading my older version of Photo Mechanic the latest Version 5 because
it seems so different. I've tried the demo and I cant make it work like I'm used to. Do I have to learn a
new set of commands for the new version?

Answer: Photo Mechanic Version 5 has a wide variety of customizable behaviors. This means that you should
be able to configure it to behave like you're used to. Hopefully this manual will help you understand the
different customizations.

Browsing PSD Files?

I have seen other Photo Mechanic users work with PSD files. When I try to browse my PSD files, all I see
is a blank thumbnail box. Is there some patch or plugin I need to install?

Answer: Photo Mechanic can only render Photoshop PSD files that have a flattened preview within them. If the
PSD files are not saved from Photoshop with the Maximize Compatibility option enabled, then you will see a
blank thumbnail. If you do not see the Maximize Compatibility dialog open in Photoshop when saving a new
PSD file, then go to Photoshops preferences on the File Handling page and set the Maximize PSD and PSB File
Compatibility to either Ask or Always.
Purchased After Demo?
I purchased Photo Mechanic via email. When I try to register my demo with the permanent password, it
comes up as invalid. Do I need to re-install the Photo Mechanic application?

Answer: Photo Mechanics registration dialog is very strict about the text entered. You must type the text in
exactly as shown in the email or on the registration certificate. One extra character or blank space will invalidate
the password.

If you have copied the text from the email, then you could have pasted in hidden characters that will also
invalidate the password. Photo Mechanic will, remember these hidden characters the next time you try to
register it. The solution is to clear the registration dialog fields first and then type in your registration info. To
clear the field, just use the Tab key or Shift Tab to backup one field. When the field is highlighted, hit the Delete
key and then type in the required text. If your registration info does not have a department, then make sure to
leave that field empty.

Expired Thumbnails?
I am trying out the Photo Mechanic demo and one of my photographers images all say Expired in a
black thumbnail box. Is his camera broken?

Answer: The Expired Thumbnails will be displayed any time the capture date of the photo is beyond the
expiration date of the Photo Mechanic demo. Have your photographer check the date setting in his camera.

Where Did My Photos Go?

I am using the Ingest utility to copy my Flash card photos to a folder on the local hard drive. When I click
the Ingest button I see a small dialog open for just a second and then disappear. I have checked the box to
open contact sheet during Ingest but all that opens is a blank gray window. Where are my photos?

Answer: If you have selected the Copy Locked files Only menu item in the Ingest dialog, then Photo
Mechanic will only copy the files that have been locked by your camera. If you have not locked any files, then
nothing will be copied by Ingest when this box is checked.

Ingest Copy Errors?

I'm using the Ingest utility to copy and rename all of my photos to the hard drive and make a secondary
backup. The Ingest progress bar starts to move as normal and then I see a bunch of copy errors list in the
dialog. What could be the problem?

Answer: If you don't use a rename string that will generate unique names for all of the photos, then Photo
Mechanic will append a letter (A~z) to the end of each new file with the same name until all 26 letters are used.
All the remaining files will now flag a copy error since you are not allowed to have two files with the same
name in the same folder.

The solution is to use the Sequence variable somewhere in the rename string. Most people place the sequence
variable at the end of their filenames. Make sure to Set the sequence variable to the correct value before
renaming your photos. Make sure to allow enough leading zeros to cover all of the photos. Dont set the
sequence value to 01 if you have more than 99 photos to copy. If you do that then once the third digit is added to
the sequence value, youll find that sorting by Filename will not display the photos in the correct order.

Spell Checker Dictionary?

How do I change the default dictionary used by the Spell Checker?

Answer: (Mac OS X) In System Preferences>International>Language make sure that the desired language (e.g.,
Canadian English) is in the list of languages. If it isnt, click edit and edit the list. This controls what dictionaries
are available as choices for spell checking. (But it does not select the language used for spell checking.) You can
also edit the language list order so that the one you always use or use most is at the top of the list. Close system
preferences.

Start Photo Mechanic. Open a contact sheet with some images. Put the cursor over an image and click its info
button. Put the cursor in the Caption area and click to make Photo Mechanic think you are about to enter some
text it should spell check. Click Edit>Spelling>Spelling... In the spelling popup window select the language you
want. Close the windows. Close Photo Mechanic. Run Photo Mechanic again and you should have your desired
spelling dictionary as the default. (Thanks to Roy Smith for this solution.)

On Windows, you can change the dictionary from the IPTC/XMP tab of the Preferences dialog. Please note that
the spell checker built into the Windows version is currently incompatible with Unicode characters and if
enabled, it may interfere with some languages. Turn off the spell checker if you experience difficulties.

Costco Photo Center Failed

Im having difficulty uploading images to Costco Photo Center because their uploader says Failed Photo
on each image thumbnail. How can I fix this problem?

Answer: Select the photos you want to upload in the Contact Sheet. Use the Delete Metadata command on the
Tools menu. Set only the Photo Mechanic end of file preferences checkbox on. Click on the OK button.

Now when you use the Costco Photo Center uploader youll no longer see that error and you can upload your
photos.

Clean up Ingest dialog?

The Ingest dialog often shows drives I never want to Ingest from. How can I permanently remove those
drives from the list?

Answer: All you need to do is create a folder named: PMIngestIgnore on the root of each drive that you want
Photo Mechanics Ingest feature to ignore. You can do this with the Finder (Mac OS X) or with Windows
Explorer (Windows.)

Check for Updates annoying?

The Check for Updates mechanism asks me to check for updates every day I startup Photo Mechanic. Is
there some way I can disable this or check less often?

Answer: The Software Update... command on the application menu (Mac OS X) or Help menu (Windows)
will allow you to adjust those parameters to be less bothersome. You can change the frequency of the updates
checking, or disable them altogether.

Snapshots location?
I use the Snapshots facility in various dialogs quite often but sometimes I find that I dont want some of
my Snapshots anymore. Where are the Snapshots located?

Answer: If you hold down the Modifier key (Option on Mac OS X, Shift on Windows) while you select one of
your Snapshots, then your OS will open (Finder on Mac OS X, Windows Explorer on Windows) one of its
windows and show you the Snapshot you selected. From there you can rename, duplicate, or delete your
Snapshots.

Thumbnails matching other programs

My thumbnails don't look like they do in Lightroom. Why not?

Answer: Photo Mechanic uses the embedded Jpeg preview in the Raw files for the thumbnails and large
previews. Some programs, like Lightroom, will render the raw data and using a color profile like ProPhoto
RGB. Sometimes there can be a difference between the look in these two methods. You will need to use the
controls in the Develop module to adjust the Raw image to match the embedded Jpeg generated by the camera.

Photo Mechanic and iPhone

When I plug my iPhone into my Mac, Photo Mechanic opens up. How can I stop this?

Photo Mechanic currently does not ingest photos off the iPhone or iPad. If PM is opening when you plug your
devices is, it might be because of Image Capture. When your device is plugged in, open Image Capture, select
your device on the left, and change the application that opens up in the menu at the bottom.

Uninstall Photo Mechanic?

How do I uninstall Photo Mechanic?

Should you need to uninstall Photo Mechanic, it is in your best interest to deactivate the program so that it does
not count against future installs. If you purchased Photo Mechanic after October 2013, you should be able to do
that via the Help menu in the program. If you purchased Photo Mechanic before Oct 2013, please contact
support (http://www.camerabits.com/support/) to walk through the steps to deactivate your computer. Then,
follow the standard uninstall process for your operating system. On Apple OS X, you can go into your
Applications folder and drag the program icon to the trash. On a Windows system, you can go into your Control
Panel to the "Add/Remove Programs" utility. On Windows, you also have the option of running the original
PM5Setup.exe (if you still have it) and choosing the "Uninstall" option.

Copyright Info
Copyright (c) 1998 - 2014 Camera Bits, Inc. All rights reserved. This manual, as well as the Photo Mechanic
software described in it, is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms
of the license. The information in this manual is supplied for informational use only, and is subject to change
without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Camera Bits, Inc. Camera Bits, Inc. assumes
no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this guide.

This guide may be reproduced only in support of the use of Photo Mechanic. Other uses should be considered
outside the terms of the license. Please remember that artwork or images in this guide are protected under
copyright law, and may not be used without the permission of the author of the images.

Photo Mechanic is a trademark of Camera Bits, Inc. The following are trademarks or registered trademarks of
their respective companies or organizations: Apple, Finder, PowerBook, Mac, OS X, MacBook, Macintosh,
Power Macintosh (Apple Inc.), Adobe, Acrobat, Photoshop (Adobe Systems Inc.), Kodak (Eastman Kodak
Company), Windows, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, WIndows 8 (Microsoft
Corporation) All other brand names or products are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies or organizations.

For defense agencies: Restricted Rights Legend. Use, reproduction or disclosure is subject to restrictions set
forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at 252.27-7013.
For civilian agencies: Restricted Rights Legend. Use, reproduction or disclosure is subject to restrictions set
forth in subparagraphs (a) through (d) of the commercial Computer Software in Restricted Rights clause at
52.227-19 and the limitations set forth in Camera Bits, Inc. licensing agreement for this software. Unpublished
rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States.

Credits
Camera Bits, Inc.

Dennis Walker, Concept, Application Design and Engineering

Kirk A. Baker, Application Design and Engineering

Bill Kelly, Application and Web Engineering
Bob Russell, Technical Support Manager
Brandon Calhoun, Development Assistant and Support
Chris Hunt, Software Engineer

Katie Werremeyer, Chief Operating Officer

Jamie Brown, Sales
Jon Washington, Sales and Customer Service
Mick Orlosky, Director of Customer Communications

Manual written by Nick Rains, Kirk A. Baker, and Mick Orlosky

Camera Bits, Inc. would like to thank the following for their support and ideas:

Rob Galbraith (www.robgalbraith.com)

Kevin Gilbert, Nick Didlick, and Reed Hoffmann of Blue Pixel bluepixel.net (http://www.bluepixel.net)
Bob Deutsch of USA Today
David Breslauer
David Riecks - Provided a sample set of his Controlled Vocabulary for use in the Structured Keywords
editor. You can purchase the full version at: www.ControlledVocabulary.com
(http://www.ControlledVocabulary.com)

The Design Team at Momenta Creative (http://momentacreative.com)

Jordan Karr-Morse: Icon Design SoftBoxDesign.com (http://www.SoftBoxDesign.com)

Photo Mechanic uses software contained in the following libraries:

libjpeg (www.ijg.org)
libtiff (www.libtiff.org)
Adobe XMP (www.adobe.com)
libxml (www.xmlsoft.org)
libiconv (www.gnu.org/software/libiconv)
SDL (www.libsdl.org)
libresample (ccrma-www.stanford.edu/~jos/resample/Free_Resampling_Software.html)
ZLib (www.zlib.net)

This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group. TIFF support is 1988-1996 Sam
Leffler and 1991-1997 Silicon Graphics Inc. This product contains Polar SpellChecker 5.0 from Polar.
Copyright 1998-2003. All rights reserved.

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Categories: UserManual | PhotoMechanic

This page was last modified on 6 November 2013, at 21:51.