Fast Raw Viewer - How to Set Up for Success

[Hooligans Imagery]

Use Case Examples
Apple is woefully slow for RAW support
You used Auto Capture (AC) and now have 2,000 images to look through.
You want to view images on your card and only process a few

Success with FRV
Three key factors for me

1. Change Defaults for it act like LRc.
2. Navigation with a mouse wheel in Single File View
3. Checking edge contrast and fine detail

​

For #1, see this article - How To Cull Images Quickly With Fast Raw Viewer
For #2, hold your mouse over the main image window and scroll. It's like watching a movie. When you get to a sequence you like can switch to using arrow keys.
For #3, you can click on the E for Edge Contrast, and the D for Fine Detail. Other programs don't have this. When you are deciding between images shot at 20 FPS it's super helpful. Shown below is Edge Contrast in green. Fine Detail is red but no image below.

For me at home, I copy my images from my card reader to a folder called Photos WIP on a Thunderbolt NVME external drive (Hyper). I open FRV and let it scan the entire directory (a few minutes). I basically assign a rating of 4 to my keepers (in my final review they go down to 3 or up to 5 if warranted. I then move them in FRV to a directory in Photos WIP called For LRC (don't do this if you are reading from a card; copy instead to your HD). From the For LRC directory I import into LRC. I then delete the folder with the ones I am not keeping.

Yesterday I selected 4 out of 1443 images in about 6 minutes. The mindset is true keepers only and it can be done quickly. Sometimes I save more but not the ones that don't make a top shelf cut. Thanks to all you here helping me change my mindset over the past few years.

Yes FRV has many advanced features and sometimes it hard to find the settings. For example the filmstrip has its own preferences where can set the thumbnail size.

Key feature is the Edges and Detail View
Use the Shortcut Keys E and D for these.

• GREEN - Bold high contrast edges.

• RED - Areas containing small (“pixel-level”) sharp details.

• Additionally, you can turn on the simultaneous display of both types of outlines (not possible

for some video cards).

The more green and more red in the area of interest means the sharper it is. If you take two similar images you might find sufficient difference in your area of interest to prefer one over the other. Then check with your eye at 100% and the choice made with this feature will likely be confirmed.


To view the images with the mouse over the main window and the scroll wheel.
Steps for the scroll macro.
1) Open Shortcut Editor (Menu - File - Customize - Keyboard shortcuts)

2) Locate 'Open previous file' line on the 1st page of the editor (File Handling section)

3) Press [+] button in this line

4) Shortcut capture sub-window will appear:

5) Because you want mouse shortcut: keep mouse pointer withing this window

6) Generate the event you want to capture: scroll the mouse wheel (if your mouse has it); Do single-finger swipe for Apple mouse without the wheel.

7) Recorded shortcut will appear in the 'Open Previous file' line.

Repeat for 'Open next file (in current folder)' action.

This procedure is described on pages 231-232 of the manual.

Hope this helps.

 

[viper699]

Thanks for this

Just looking at your screenshot, yours is setup differently than mine, such as the colored squares at the bottom. Mine is default to the right of the main image

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

Thanks for this

Just looking at your screenshot, yours is setup differently than mine, such as the colored squares at the bottom. Mine is default to the right of the main image

You have default CUSTOMIZE BOTTOM BAR (SETTINGS WHEEL), and I have set some of mine to always show. Default hides things depending on real estate.

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

One other shortcut. If you are using folders in LRC, more than just one per year, you can select that folder and Right Click to call up "Import to this Folder". I do that first and then point to the folder with the images

 

[viper699]

You have default CUSTOMIZE BOTTOM BAR (SETTINGS WHEEL), and I have set some of mine to always show. Default hides things depending on real estate.


View attachment 107755

Thanks - didn’t realize there was a gear for each window.

 

[JamesFarrell]

To OP: What is “AC”?

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

To OP: What is “AC”?

Auto Capture with the Z8 or Z9. I will edit post.

 

[Rixpx]

Thanks for the advice. I’ve been using Fast Raw Viewer for over a year and never really took the time modify the file preferences. This will definitely speed up my workflow.

 

[Bikeman]

Fast Raw Viewer is a game changer for quickly getting thru thousands of images quickly.

I use a different workflow and cull directly from the card. Select the keepers and then in grid mode with the selected check box checked I simply hit “R” which opens LIghtroom Classics import dialog window with my selects selected. I then hit import and my selects are imported in Lightroom Classic and ready to go.

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

Fast Raw Viewer is a game changer for quickly getting thru thousands of images quickly.

I use a different workflow and cull directly from the card. Select the keepers and then in grid mode with the selected check box checked I simply hit “R” which opens LIghtroom Classics import dialog window with my selects selected. I then hit import and my selects are imported in Lightroom Classic and ready to go.

I have been reluctant to have read/writes from a computer to my cards. This is a great way to use FRV also.

 

[ButlerKid]

Auto Capture is a confusing term. There is Auto-Area AF - is that what you mean. Or are you referring to "d3 Pre-release Capture"? Or are you referring to "AF-C Continuous AF" ?

Below are Nikon terms related to focus:

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

Auto capture as below. Not pre release.
If set up at 20FPS with a Record time of 3s you get lots of images.
What I have learned is it is very difficult to get bird blast offs without Bird Detection available which is a limit of this AC.
I did try Auto - Area AF but often the focus point doesn't end up on the head in a blast off.

 

[ButlerKid]

Auto capture as below. Not pre release.
If set up at 20FPS with a Record time of 3s you get lots of images.
What I have learned is it is very difficult to get bird blast offs without Bird Detection available which is a limit of this AC.
I did try Auto - Area AF but often the focus point doesn't end up on the head in a blast off.

View attachment 107987

Ah.......another tool I haven't tried! Thanks for the education!

Regarding culling thousands of images, I create that same problem using pre-capture!

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

Ah.......another tool I haven't tried! Thanks for the education!

Regarding culling thousands of images, I create that same problem using pre-capture!

The scrolling method I described works incredibly well. It’s like watching a movie and you just lift your finger when you see images you want to focus on. Then switch to the arrow keys much quicker than anything else I’ve discovered.

 

[Bikeman]

For anyone else having trouble using the scroll wheel to scroll thru image in loupe view as mentioned by Hooligans I found that I had to go into the keyboard shortcuts panel of FRV and then click the "+" sign next to the "Open Previous" shortcut and scroll my mouse scroll wheel forward and then do the same father "Open Next" short cut and then scroll my mouse wheel backwards. Don't forget to hit save when done.

Had no idea I could save mouse actions to the keyboard shortcuts till I found a help article on FRV site.

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

For anyone else having trouble using the scroll wheel to scroll thru image in loupe view as mentioned by Hooligans I found that I had to go into the keyboard shortcuts panel of FRV and then click the "+" sign next to the "Open Previous" shortcut and scroll my mouse scroll wheel forward and then do the same father "Open Next" short cut and then scroll my mouse wheel backwards. Don't forget to hit save when done.

Had no idea I could save mouse actions to the keyboard shortcuts till I found a help article on FRV site.

My apologies everyone but it was so long ago that I forgot this step. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[jthomas39]

I never tried the "scroll to next image using the mouse wheel". The mouse wheel zooms the image for me. And it holds that zoom when I scroll using the keyboard arrow keys -- very helpful when comparing two similar scenes.

I have the Del key set to move the raw+jpg pair to a subfolder called "_Rejected". It's fast and reversible. Ctl-Z (Undo) move the latest reject back to the main folder if I'm going too fast or change my mind. Or I can browse to the reject folder and bulk move them if needed. There's a "clear _Rejected sub folder" on the File menu, or delete them later.

I don't have those long sequences of captured shots, where only one or two of the set is kept. That would change my workflow, I'm sure.

 

[viper699]

Use Case Examples
Apple is woefully slow for RAW support
You used Auto Capture (AC) and now have 2,000 images to look through.
You want to view images on your card and only process a few

Success with FRV
Three key factors for me

1. Change Defaults for it act like LRc.
2. Navigation with a mouse wheel in Single File View
3. Checking edge contrast and fine detail

​

For #1, see this article - How To Cull Images Quickly With Fast Raw Viewer
For #2, hold your mouse over the main image window and scroll. It's like watching a movie. When you get to a sequence you like can switch to using arrow keys.
For #3, you can click on the E for Edge Contrast, and the D for Fine Detail. Other programs don't have this. When you are deciding between images shot at 20 FPS it's super helpful. Shown below is Edge Contrast in green. Fine Detail is red but no image below.

For me at home, I copy my images from my card reader to a folder called Photos WIP on a Thunderbolt NVME external drive (Hyper). I open FRV and let it scan the entire directory (a few minutes). I basically assign a rating of 4 to my keepers (in my final review they go down to 3 or up to 5 if warranted. I then move them in FRV to a directory in Photos WIP called For LRC (don't do this if you are reading from a card; copy instead to your HD). From the For LRC directory I import into LRC. I then delete the folder with the ones I am not keeping.

Yesterday I selected 4 out of 1443 images in about 6 minutes. The mindset is true keepers only and it can be done quickly. Sometimes I save more but not the ones that don't make a top shelf cut. Thanks to all you here helping me change my mindset over the past few years.

Yes FRV has many advanced features and sometimes it hard to find the settings. For example the filmstrip has its own preferences where can set the thumbnail size.

Hope this helps.

View attachment 107752
View attachment 107751

I started exploring the various features on the GUI for now. I see how to use the E/D buttons. I've only played w/the E a little bit.

I find it easier to see how detailed/in focus my image is by looking at the image itself in FRV, or still Windows. Perhaps I don't how to use the E feature in FRV well enough?

To me, the E feature covers the image w/green lines. So in covering up the actual image, how is one supposed to tell if the image is in focus or not, or is sharp enough?

Again maybe it is because I'm used to reviewing images like a Model-T Ford via Windows Explorer??

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

I started exploring the various features on the GUI for now. I see how to use the E/D buttons. I've only played w/the E a little bit.

I find it easier to see how detailed/in focus my image is by looking at the image itself in FRV, or still Windows. Perhaps I don't how to use the E feature in FRV well enough?

To me, the E feature covers the image w/green lines. So in covering up the actual image, how is one supposed to tell if the image is in focus or not, or is sharp enough?

Again maybe it is because I'm used to reviewing images like a Model-T Ford via Windows Explorer??

Use the Shortcut Keys E and D for these.

• GREEN - Bold high contrast edges.

• RED - Areas containing small (“pixel-level”) sharp details.

• Additionally, you can turn on the simultaneous display of both types of outlines (not possible

for some video cards).

The more green and more red in the area of interest means the sharper it is. If you take two similar images you might find sufficient difference in your area of interest to prefer one over the other. Then check with your eye at 100% and the choice made with this feature will likely be confirmed.

 

[viper699]

• GREEN - Bold high contrast edges.

• RED - Areas containing small (“pixel-level”) sharp details.

• Additionally, you can turn on the simultaneous display of both types of outlines (not possible

for some video cards).

The more green and more red in the area of interest means the sharper it is. If you take two similar images you might find sufficient difference in your area of interest to prefer one over the other. Then check with your eye at 100% and the choice made with this feature will likely be confirmed.

Thanks, that's helpful! EDIT: I was able to get the red/green to overlay. I searched through the manual with a good old Ctrl-F.

In looking here > Preferences – GPU Processing – Focus Peaking mode section, what do you set the Focus Peaking Opacity to? The default value was 0.70. The point where I found this feature in the manual didn't explain what to set it to. I didn't see an explanation elsewhere either.

I did add in the OverExposed/UnderExposed button set down below.

So do you just use red/green to cycle through the images to determine what's in focus?

I'll compare some images then, thanks!1

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

Steps for the scroll macro.
1) Open Shortcut Editor (Menu - File - Customize - Keyboard shortcuts)

2) Locate 'Open previous file' line on the 1st page of the editor (File Handling section)

3) Press [+] button in this line

4) Shortcut capture sub-window will appear:

5) Because you want mouse shortcut: keep mouse pointer withing this window

6) Generate the event you want to capture: scroll the mouse wheel (if your mouse has it); Do single-finger swipe for Apple mouse without the wheel.

7) Recorded shortcut will appear in the 'Open Previous file' line.

Repeat for 'Open next file (in current folder)' action.

This procedure is described on pages 231-232 of the manual.

 

[Anthony]

FRV is fast. But its claim to show the raw is questionable. The raw file has to be rendered, and I find FRV's rendering a bit depressing. My photos look so much better in one of the regular raw convertors. I use DxO, but LR, C1 and even Apple Photos give a more accurate preview of the final image.

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

FRV is fast. But its claim to show the raw is questionable. The raw file has to be rendered, and I find FRV's rendering a bit depressing. My photos look so much better in one of the regular raw convertors. I use DxO, but LR, C1 and even Apple Photos give a more accurate preview of the final image.

You have lots of options to change that, dig into the preferences. I am just using it to evaluate composition and sharpness.

 

[Anthony]

You have lots of options to change that, dig into the preferences. I am just using it to evaluate composition and sharpness.

Sure, but why bother when other apps are more useful in terms of anticipating the final result?

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

Sure, but why bother when other apps are more useful in terms of anticipating the final result?

Zero interest in the final result at this stage. Only want to pick potential keepers which might be 20 out of 2500. I don't have time for other previews to render 2500. The purpose was discussed above. That said in terms of final result FRV gives you some insights that others don't for high frame rate picks. See the discussion of the red and green overlay.