The future of editing.

[lkroll]

I've mentioned node editing in the past (here and elsewhere). Oscar (MediaChance) is working on just such an editor and, again, this is the future of editing. Layers are so yesterday. I had to use similar interfaces when I was and Electrical Engineer (used both Simulink and LabVIEW) so the interface is very intuitive to me. Self-documenting editors is going to be the next great thing to photo-editing sooner then later. You can also easily re-use your nodes since you can save them for just that. Oscar even is going to allow you to save the nodes as embedded data in jpegs (only adds maybe 30K or so the the file size) so your documented flow will actually be stored in the jpeg itself; fantastic stuff. Just wanted to share a screenshot (result is not so good; just getting familiar with the inteface). being able to share a layer and branch out the layer to other controls then re-mix them is not such a trivial task in conventional editors such as Photoshop or GIMP but it is quite a trivial thing to do in a node editor such as Photoreactor. Click here for the main support thread for PhotoReactor. Hopefully Oscar will release this gem soon.

[Shoku]

Re: The future of editing.

You can accomplish this in Filter Forge or Postworkshop. Nodes have been around a long time as material editors in 3D software, like Maya, Lightwave, Vue, etc.

[lkroll]

Re: The future of editing.

I know Shoku; I have PostworkShop Pro already. Still, to have a dedicated editor for photos that is a Node Editor is a great thing. I've played with PostworkShop Pro for photo-editing already too (node interface), but I'm like Photoreactor's interface better (feels less clunky to me anyway). Still, regardless of your node-editor if choice, Node editing is here to stay and is the way to edit photos if you ask me. You have an easy to follow self-documented flow to boot and your flows can be reused for other photos easily; that's the benifit of node-editing.

[cardmaverick]

Re: The future of editing.

Node editors look so confusing to me. I understand they are powerful... but I just dread looking at them... Layers seem more intuitive.

[grossmisconduct]

Re: The future of editing.

Hi! Excuse for my ignorance, I am sure I could google nodes and find pages up and down about it, but would it be possible to explain in short what nodes are? And maybe also a short list of benefits?

[lkroll]

Re: The future of editing.

w.r.t. this topic, a node is the pins of the box where you link wired connectors to. The box is the control that allows you to adjust an image (these boxes can have any numerous of functions such as gausian blur or sharpen or overlay (requires 2 node inputs for overlay of course). The benifit is you create a flow that you can allow again to other images besides the original target if you need to. That, I believe, is how Filter Forge creates filters, but I don't have FF yet but may soon get it since I know even a few GIMPers that have this gem.

[plugsnpixels]

Re: The future of editing.

Thanks for the info Lyle! I have PostworkShop and Filter Forge but shy away from the nodes... But I do agree they represent much under-the-hood power.

I would think layers will still have their place as nodes tend to work with stacking effects but don't support manual layer masking/erasing and such, am I correct?

[lkroll]

Re: The future of editing.

You can have masking for nodes plugs; even PostworkShop Pro allows you to have a mask block and you can paint within that block for masking. Still, I think a hybrid approach will inevitibly be the outcome much like how PostworkShop Pro allows. You get the best of both worlds then.

[plugsnpixels]

Re: The future of editing.

Thanks Lyle!

[RobertAsh]

Re: The future of editing.

This looks a bit confusing to me. Also, what if you want to see a full-screen image or a 200% image like you can do easily in Photoshop and have all the layers nicely and neatly stacked on the side of the screen?

Unless this is literally a sea change that I'm not seeing right now, I'm sure layers will be around for quite some time to come. They work very well and they're very intuitive... I do believe it's possible for a hybrid approach to be possible in the future if there are things that nodes can do easier, faster and better, but I'm not seeing it on that screen.

The one thing I'd like improved about Photoshop is persistent history of the type Lightroom can do.

[lkroll]

Re: The future of editing.

What I like about PhotoReactor too is the ability to embed the flow in your saved jpeg (metadata). Very cool feature an adds a very small fraction to the size of the saved jpeg to boot. You get the exact flow; how cool is that? Just purchased the program yesterday evening; have to admit that I've not toyed with it since the initial beta but will experiment some more with it over time. Oscar did a pretty good job with it for sure. The ability to reuse your flows is what makes PR so attractive to me. I'm sure the folks that use FilterForge could already tell you that though. lol

[Mike Needham]

Re: The future of editing.

Sweepstake on when Adobe will adopt nodes for Photoshop over layers - I think I will have £1 on the twelfth of never

I do agree that nodes offer a unique way of working, but they certainly are not new and imagine all the old duffers like me trying to learn again! I barely cling on to what I have

[lkroll]

Re: The future of editing.

Click here for the result. I really like the nodes idea. How do you group jump with layers? You can easily do so with nodes. Talk about self-documenting as well. Makes anyting done w.r.t using a layers program for self documenting obsolete. Note, the result is an artistic interpretation but you can easily have the flow used for faking HDRs or just to do simple adjustments and you can re-use that flow whenever you want on another image. How cool is that? The future is here. I sure do hope the GIMP developers will allow nodal editing which GEGL has that ability built in by the way (a matter of just adding the additional hooks to implement). I'm sure when PS first came out, folks were use to another way of editing and were hessitant to adopt PS at first since it was one of the first photo-editing programs. Not sure if nodes will be PS's paradigm like the crystal oscillator for watches was to the Swiss, but time will tell.

[Shoku]

Re: The future of editing.

Click here for the result. I really like the nodes idea. How do you group jump with layers?

For creating effects nodes are great (check out Filter Forge). In PS you can create a layer stack for a special effect, save that file, then in the future swap out the base image and the same effect will be applied to the new image. Or you could create an action to do the same thing, many of which are available free or for $$ online.

[lkroll]

Re: The future of editing.

Actions/scripts are cool, but I still say nodes are the way to go. I guess I just think graphically so it's more easy for me to embrace this concept. Oh, don't get me wrong. I know how to use layers in my own way, but I can see myself working strictly with nodes one day; just saying.