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Library filter question

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ColMac9090

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Jan 25, 2011
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Edinburgh, Scotland
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Classic
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom Classic V 9.0
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  1. Windows 10
I have a pictures of an old family house. Using Photoshop I made four artistic versions of each, using a sketch filter. The original image was then named A91 - 164, and the sketches A91 - 164 - Sketch 1 etc. The keyword "Sketch" was also added to the sketches but not the original.

I then repeated the same process with a second similar photo.

Back in Lightroom, I then stacked the first set with the original on top. The second set was stacked with a Sketched version on top (I suspect this was because I was not paying close enough attention).

Subsequently trying to find them with the Library filter, I discovered that if the photos are unstacked, then the library filter Text>Keyword, or Text> Filename finds all 8 sketches. However if I close the stacks, then the same search does not bring back any of version 1, where the top image in the stack does not have "Sketch" as a keyword, or in the filename. The seond version does get returned albeit with the stack remaining stacked which confused me the first time I ran it.

Surely the filter should not ignore any images with the correct entry simply because they happen to be "Hidden" in a stack. Or would other users expect this to be by design?

I've never noticed this behaviour before, but for me it renders the Filter system useless unless I remember to unstack all first - which defeats the whole point of having stacks.

Colin
 
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Stacking was designed as hiding - but people found it useful for grouping or associating.

But the result of stacking (ie hiding) also depends on where you are looking. For example, it won't appear in smart collections, or in dumb collections if you're careful to leave them unstacked.
 
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Thanks for the feedback.

In this case I'm simply working in a folder.

It may be as you say that it was designed initially for hiding, but the help file does not even mention that as a reason now. The behavioiur still seems odd to me.

COlin
 
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I am not sure the help file ever mentioned its purpose! Perhaps, in a world used to stacking slides on a lightbox, it didn't need to be said? But when stacking first appeared, in Bridge, then Aperture and then Lightroom, it was intended as a way to declutter the grid and show only the best version of a photo or the one you were going to use. So stacking includes a range of commands for moving photos up and down in the stack - imagine sitting at that lightbox with someone deciding between 5 similar frames of the same model/dress. And the Photoshopped version of the photo is also placed on top of the stack - imagine the chosen frame needs some skin or hair retouching, and the unretouched version will never get seen by anyone else. In each case, you only need to see the final images and the rest can be hidden lower down in the stack. So all the stacking functionality was developed around this kind of use - it was users who found stacking handy for other tasks.
 
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I agree that the stacking acts a bit odd to me. I do like the stack option for pano and hdr shots, but when I do a "select all" on a folder of images I'd expect to get the full stack and not just the top one. On the other hand, if you are trying to export you may like the fact it only does the top image of a stack.
 
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Collapsed stacks designed to be "hidden" from all filters when the source is a folder. If you expand those stacks they are now visible to the filters. There are requests to provide a way to change that behavior but those requests have been ignore now for many years. However there is a bit of a workaround.

1) create a smart collection with one rule and that rule is "rating >= 0 stars". This results in the smart collection containing 100% of the images known to the catalog.

2) select that Smart collection and then set your filter as you wish and it will "see" images in collapsed stacks. If you want to restrict the result to only one folder, then select for that folder in the smart collection instead of rating.
 
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