Is there a way to quickly have a single image full preview in the lighttable?

[lilygthb]

EDIT: After many suggestions I have a proposal:
Allow to set a shortcut to instantly set the number of columns in the lighttable. This solution combines the easyness of a single stroke to browse the collection at full size with the new lighttable paradigm of Ansel:

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I like the redesign of the lighttable and I think the new culling mode is more efficient.

However, I often need a fast way to preview images 1 at the time, basically what is described here (from Chantal)

Of course it should be a preview of the selected image, not the hovered on one. It should be a toggle, to quicly return to the previous state of the lighttable, for example a 6 columns arrangement.

At the moment to do so I need to reduce the columns to 1 then increase the zoom to fit. Browse the pictures, then increas again the columns to whatever setting was confortable to quicly scroll through the collection.

Am I missing something, is it already possible to do so?

[sahlirc]

Yes, you can select your image and restrict to selection. Right now the corresponding shortcut (Ctrl+S) unfortunately does not work. Clicking on restrict to selection again brings you back to the lighttable. It keeps the image with the left hand panel though. So it is not strictly a "W" equivalent, which I would like to find back.

[lilygthb]

thanks, I tried this workaround but the problem with it is that you are locked to that single image. Viewing a second (third...) image means disabling restrict to selection, select the next image, restrict again etc...
This means you are tripling the clicks to just view images at "fullscreen".

This applies every time you want to browse your collection of pictures, without opening the darkroom.

[olliwa-ifi]

what about right clic on image then 'open in preview mode...' ?

[lilygthb]

I think that is more useful to compare images, unfortunately the preview window is limited to the selected image and does not browse.
It's also a distraction in my opinion. A single stroke toggle is way better...

[maesejofial]

what about right clic on image then 'open in preview mode...' ?

That's right, but he wants to keep previewing the rest of the images in the collection, and that's more convenient the way I use it. At least for me.

[maesejofial]

What I do when I want to restrict the light table preview to a single image:
I select the collection I want to view one by one.
I restrict the columns to "1".
I use the arrow keys to navigate through each image in the collection.
There's probably an easier way, but this solution works for me. Good luck.

[lilygthb]

At the moment I do the same, but it's way too many steps. It's not a matter of ease but more of a friction/speed issue. A single stroke toggle is a better alternative, but I understand there are more urgent issues in this early stge of the software.

[sahlirc]

Try the slideshow view. It has some quircks but you will find your way on using it.

[lilygthb]

thanks, I tried it, but as of now it's better to just change the columns to 1. The slideshows has no control, no zoom. You can only go forward.
The lighttable in 1 column has all of that.

[lilygthb]

to anyone involved in the development I cannot code but I think the easiest solution would be to be able to assign a shortcut to rapidly set the number of columns.

[Jiyone]

I fixed the Ctrl+S shortcut (among others). It temporary sets the right number of columns while it shows only the selected images.
Adding a shortcut for each columns value is not a good idea. You have Ctrl++ and Ctrl+- to adjust it.

[sahlirc]

Hi @lilygthb

This is how I do it if in culling mode:
ctrl+S to select my set of images;
Then set the number of columns to one within the "Columns" window;
ctrl+shift+a to make sure no image is selected, otherwise this may slow down Ansel if zooming in;
Use a shortcut to zoom in the image, mine are ctrl+left arrow (50%), ctrl+up arrow (100%), ctrl+right arrow (200%) and ctrl+down arrow (revert to original size). Note that if comparing raw vs embedded jpeg, the final size may vary;
Select an image if labeling it (color, reject, star).

For a quick look at my collection, full screen size, I use the slideshow but do not select the images, otherwise the order of the images is unpredictable (for me at least). It will start at the first image of the collection if without selected images.
To go forward image by image, left mouse click, right mouse click to go opposite direction;
One can label the displayed image without selecting it in the slideshow (very useful).

[aurelienpierre]

Right click on the thumbnail, context menu -> open in a new window.

[sahlirc]

The default preview size is too small (illustrated here with a 4-column display). I am wondering whether one could set the preview size in the preferences, which would be an alternative to this issue?

[aurelienpierre]

Indeed. It's not too difficult to have a prefered window size here.

[sahlirc]

Looking forward to it! :-)

[lilygthb]

I need to clarify my intent in opening this discussion: this is to simplify and speed up the culling and the browsing of images, especially when a single collection contains tens or hundreds of images.

To do that I view the collection at multiple scale. I might scroll fast until I reach a specific sequence I shot one day (so 12 columns shown in the lighttable, otherwise you are slow to scroll).
I might then choose between two pictures very similar (reducing the column to 2, maybe zoom to compare sharpness, select, reject, then quickly show 12 columns again to keep scrolling).

This is because sharpness needs zoom to be assessed, but composition requires to see the entire image.
To compare sharpness it's best to view multiple thumbnail side to side at 100% or greater, but to compare two similar composition I usually go back and forth at fullscreen, using the arrow keys.

A very frequent action is directly switch between two level of detail: a multicolumn lighttable and a fullscreen single image. This mirrors how you browse collections in Apple Photos or Lightroom.

The restrict to selection is a very useful feature that comes handy when you have very similar images and need to choose. In a pinch, using the shortcut can be a fast way to view a single image fullscreen, but the fullscreen is limited to that single selection and to keep browsing at that zoom you need to use another way.

Using the shortcuts provided to adjust how many columns are shown is very slow.
If you are using the keyboard and you need to go from 12 to 1 and then back to 12 you need 22 clicks...
Or you can use the cursor, position it precisely on the column setting and scroll, but it's again slow for different reasons: you need to position the cursor on a very small target and that slows you down.

Options at the moment:

Select then hit the restrict to selection shortcut
Very fast, but if you want to continue to scroll the filmroll you need to return to the previous grid size and repeat the process

Second preview window
useful in having a reference image to compare
doesn't change, it's fixed on the image you opened it from

Using the slideshow
It always starts from the first image of the collection, unless you select some images, but then why not use the Restrict to selection?
Hides all controls, if you restrict the number of images selecting them, all rating etc is applied to all images selected.

proposal

Having the possibility to assign shortcuts to the grid size would be useful to have some "go to" grid sizes quickly selectable. For example 8 columns is very comfortable for my monitor size, I never use 11 or 7 columns. In my case I would assign a shortcut to 1,8,12 columns and I would set the grid size without having to center a small cursor target or using a lot of ctrl++ or ctrl+-

This would still respect the mechanic of having one "mode" in lighttable (no culling or compare modes), but would allow who wants to quickly jump to a specific grid size the ability to do so. I understand the intention to keep the number of shortcut to a minimum but this would be a good compromise between features and simplicity.