Filtering Question

[Lord_Helmchen]

I have a question regarding filtering based on EXIF data. Unfortunately I have not found a good way to filter following data:
Fix for all
Camera Make
ISO (preferred range) 3200-12800

Groups:
Focal Length (grouped)
- UWW: 1-23
- Std: 24-40
etc.

Per group I'd like to filter on exposure time (manually set):
UWW: longer than 1/50
Std: longer than 1/100
etc.

Background is, I'm thinking about switching camera systems. The new one is about one ISO stop slower than old. And I want to figure out, if longer times could be compensated by better image stabilization. To figure this our, I want to go through my photos and search at which focal lengths I usually shot "moving targets" (sports etc.).

I tried this with with data driven categories and used 3-4 levels. But unfortunately I wasn't fully successful. I can't "group" the results e.g. for ISO level. I see all ISO values as sub categories. With that I could live, but for selecting a range for exposure times I have a problem. They are stored as integer (e.g. "3") or fraction (e.g. "1/40"). And I haven found a way to filter on that.

Any ideas how I could solve my problem?

[Mario]

I'm not sure that I understand what you want to achieve, sorry.

Metadata Value filter for the "Shutter Speed" tag in the filter panel? This shows you all shutter speeds / exposure times used for the files in the scope (could be all files in one or more categories or your entire database). Filtering for ISO also works that way.

Add one value filter for Exposure and one for ISO. Bring all files into the file window, then tick the values you want to see.

[Lord_Helmchen]

Thanks for quick response. Perhaps I should that with the result I'd like to get. 

I'd like to have categories only containing photos that fulfill following conditions:

Standard
- Cam=My Model
- ISO=3200-12800
- Focal Length=1-23mm
- Exposure Time=>1/50s

WW
- Cam=My Model
- ISO=3200-12800
- Focal Length=24-40
- Exposure Time=>1/100s

Std
- Cam=My Model
- ISO=3200-12800
- Focal Length=41-80
- Exposure Time=>1/200s

etc.

Then I want to go manually though the photos and identify photos with action, so that I could see if I could compensate 1 stop slower ISO with image stabilization.

[Mario]

Quite a complex analysis. Probably easier to export the data (Text Export into CSV) and put it into Excel. Then a pivot table. Did you consider that?

For an in-IMatch solution this looks like a simple combination of data-driven categories. And then formula-based categories which 'grab' the combinations you want. Or you use the filtering options available in data-driven categories. Or you use data-driven child categories as category filters for other data-driven categories. Should be doable in categories alone if you don't want to use the filter panel for some reason.

[Lord_Helmchen]

Yes, I thought about Excel - But there I won't see the content of photos. So I won't know if the photo @400mm with 1/400s is an architecture shot or some sports (except chess) on it.

Mainly I need this as one time action (so must not be necessarily fully automatic), but I also wanted to better understand IMatch. I thought also about using the standard categories IM created on new DBs. But I can't find them, probably I have deleted them. CanIM re-create them again automatically, or do I have to do this manually?

[Mario]

You can import the standard categories IMatch creates for new databases from

"C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatch5\Presets\system-de.imcsx"

(Deutsch)

or

"C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatch5\Presets\system-en.imcsx"

(English)

[Lord_Helmchen]

Thanks. I'll try it, when I have some time - as lots of manual work is required for grouping exposure times.

[jch2103]

Just a comment about data-driven categories, especially with regard to shutter speed. What I'm seeing is likely a consequence of how Exif stores data values, but I I create a data-driven category based on shutter speed (e.g., Composite\ShutterSpeed\ShutterSpeed\0 or XMP::exif\ShutterSpeedValue\ShutterSpeedValue\0), the list I get isn't sorted numerically, for example:

...
0.80
1,016.90
1,045.50
...
10.00
104.00
13.30
etc.

(I've tried various choices for data-driven formatting, e.g., Data Type, RAW, etc., but none have produced what I'm trying to get.)

The same problem exists in the IMatch Sample Categories, e.g., ISO. (See screenshot.)

This makes it quite difficult to construct a useful analysis. I don't know if there's a workaround, or if I'm missing something.

[Mario]

Not everything is possible do to. IMatch is a DAM, not a statistics package.

You showing a screen shot of an ISO category. What's wrong with that?

[jch2103]

You showing a screen shot of an ISO category. What's wrong with that?

The problem is the sort sequence. Ideally, the sort sequence for these kinds of numbers should be numerical. Instead, for example, 110 is followed by 1100, which is followed by 111, etc. If I missed a setting that would provide that, I apologize, but this is for one of the IMatch sample data-driven categories.

[Mario]

Check if you use the "Standard" sort mode in the Category View (Gear button in toolbar). This guarantees that numerical values are sorted correctly.

[jch2103]

Check if you use the "Standard" sort mode in the Category View (Gear button in toolbar). This guarantees that numerical values are sorted correctly.

Aah, of course. Somehow, I must have set the mode to Alphabetical instead of Standard...