Video: How to edit photos in Lightroom with a PlayStation controller

You know you can buy the PS controller without buying a PS don't you?

1 month agopermalink

just someone

he probably doesn't.

Still a pointless thing to do though.

1 month agopermalink

HBowman

That part of YouTube again ...

An another ugly geeky hipster without girl friend playing and consuming his time with toys in mom's basement.

1 month agopermalink

Take a chill pill and call me in the morning.

1 month agopermalink

http://www.pusherlabs.com/help/xtremist

The thing you're forgetting is these "ugly hipsters" as you call them, a) have a personality which clearly attracts a lot of people otherwise their channel wouldn't have so many subscribers and b) are often quite rich. The without a girlfriend and living in mums basement comments both therefore seem rather unfounded.

1 month agopermalink

PedroReina

I bit of OT: I find that currently my best photo player is actualy my PS3: very convenient the wireless controller and general application layout to share my pictures on the couch with my friends. I use a uPNP server on a home server with all my digital pictures (more than 40000).

1 month agopermalink

Ron Poelman

At least you can Frag the rubbish with the proper tool.

1 month agopermalink

Arca45Swiss

Except I never use LR. Hate the mandatory cataloging

1 month agopermalink

tvstaff

Kind of like eating soup with a knife ;)

1 month agopermalink

kreislauf

but to do as such it is so sophisticated, my dear...

1 month agopermalink

bed bug

The problem is if you use a Sony to edit Canon images, a warning message keeps popping up "dynamic range error".

1 month agopermalink

Jesse_Just_Him

Ha, this is epic~!!!

1 month agopermalink

Fotos First

If you are looking for an alternative to speed up your editing in LR, I've been using the XTremist Controller by Pusher Labs very successfully for the past 6 months or so. Whilst the controller really speeds up your work flow, I do agree with 'photo-rb' below, the limiting factor with LR is actually LR!
Despite the regular LR lag, with large files, it's a lot more fun and much faster to edit my photos with the controller. I'm not associated with Pusher Labs, just a happy user.

1 month agopermalink

jjandj

Looks to be mac only, so the majority of the world can't use it. You should state upfront: mac only. Waste of time for most users...

1 month agopermalink

photo_rb

Unfortunately Lightroom can't keep up with my keyboard input so another method probably wouldn't be much of an improvement.

1 month agopermalink

Copyrightimage

I tried a similar setup with bridge about a year ago. It does work but I found that it disturbed my emotional response to the images, it made it seem like a game in my mind and stopped me responding to the images.
It could be that sticking with it may have overcome this but using a games controller was so alien to me I was happy to return to the keyboard.

1 month agopermalink

tvstaff

Kind of like eating soup with a knife ;)

1 month agopermalink

Deliverator

Reminds me of that scene from Tin Cup:
Roy: Parred the backside with a 7-iron.
Simms: Why?

1 month agopermalink

cdembrey

I own neither Lightroom or PlayStation. Is this a hint that I should support the economy by buying more stuff 8-D

1 month agopermalink

Can't you just use the hotkeys and arrow buttons on the keyboard just as quickly?

1 month agopermalink

Yes, yes you can. You're right in thinking this is nothing more than a gimmick.

1 month agopermalink

CBR1100XX

It's all personal taste but I like being about to sit back a bit while I cull images especially when I'm out with a laptop. You could do it with a separate keyboard but gamepads are smaller and more ergonomic. That last bit is why I use them even with my desktop.

1 month agopermalink

Bexter

I like the idea of the analogue sticks but realistically this is just more complication and will end up taking longer.

1 month agopermalink

Marty4650

PS3 or PS4...... I never knew PhotoShop 3 or PhotoShop 4 had handheld controllers!

I learn something new every day!

1 month agopermalink

PS = PlayStation = Sony Video game system. They are video game controllers.

1 month agopermalink

evogt500

I'm pretty sure Marty4650 was joking...

1 month agopermalink

Marty4650

evogt... you spoiled all my fun!

1 month agopermalink

I thought you might be joking, but I also figured that anyone over about 45 wouldn't have grown up with video games and may not know.

1 month agopermalink

BadScience

"but I also figured that anyone over about 45 wouldn't have grown up with video games"

why?

That's exactly the age group the DID grow up with video games. A 45 year old today would have been five when the Atari 2600 came out; 10 when the Home computer video game craze started (zx spectrum and c64 was 1982) and 13 when the NES came out (11 in Japan).

That age group grew up at the height of the video game arcade.

That was the first age group, then in their early 20s, that Sony marketed the Playstation to, by putting it in bars and clubs and having a mature advertising campaign. This campaign led to the dominance of Sony because Sega and Nintendo at the time were still largely marketing to children, who (obviously) did not have the spending power of young adults.

A 45 year old would have grown up since the "first generation" of video game consoles, and probably owned several consoles and computers from each generation.

1 month ago*permalink

https://cdn.wikimg.net/strategywiki/images/e/e6/Dkjb_drums.jpg

OK, 45 was an arbitrary age, I'll admit. I'm just under 40 and work in tech, and know very few people older than me that play video games.

1 month agopermalink

Herkybird

Speaking of age, the first gamers are now into their 60s; the first successful console, Pong, was released in '75. And, to think the parents who bought these early machines are in their 70s or 80s.

1 month agopermalink

BadScience

tk - many of the people you know older than 45 may no longer play video games, now they are parents with careers etc.

But that generation certainly did grow up with video games.

1 month agopermalink

Marty4650

I think it is fair to say that lots of elderly people today are pretty much tech savvy. You can visit any nursing home and see people in their 80s and 90s with tablets and smartphones. And WIFI is mandatory in these places. Just remember, computers were introduced to the workplace around 40 years ago, they were all working.

True, there are some who aren't... but that is true for some younger people as well.

And I am not so sure that game playing really means anything. Being adept at Grand Theft Auto won't qualify you for a job.

1 month agopermalink

BadScience

yup

The guys in their 80s and 90s were the pioneers of computer technology!

Sir Clive Sinclair is now 77!

And Miyamoto is 64! almost an old-age-pensioner;

1 month agopermalink

Yake

The fastest method I've found is VSCO Keys. It is no longer supported by VSCO, but now open source. It uses the keyboard you already have.

1 month agopermalink

five5pho

There is always http://pusherlabs.com for macos. Even better than vsco keys

1 month agopermalink

Yake

I like VSCO Keys because it doesn't require a separate device. And it's quick.

1 month agopermalink

five5pho

Me too, in fact I use the exact key layout as the vsco keys I used to use, also offered by pfixer. It is like vsco keys but better. BTW I have no association with them I m just a user

1 month agopermalink

ShaiKhulud

OK, now repeat that please with Guitar Hero controller...

1 month agopermalink

Woodyz

Donkey Kong bongos.

Crappy music and photos together at last.

1 month agopermalink

ShaiKhulud

Magnificent!

1 month agopermalink

Samba de amigo maracas https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2007/09/samba-de-amigo-the-maracas-simulator-is-coming-to-the-wii/

1 month agopermalink

piratejabez

This is very cool, but I'm not convinced it's actually faster than mouse/keyboard...

1 month agopermalink

scoobysnapstories

why not yes, lets be lazier than gamers. make every editing software look like a joke.

1 month agopermalink

How are gamers any lazier than photographers who spend all day on forums and editing photos?

1 month agopermalink

scoobysnapstories

now there is a difference. most people who edits are jobs.

1 month agopermalink

I use a wireless gamepad for about a year for culling photos in Photo Mechanic and it's definitely way better and faster than using a keyboard ;-)

1 month agopermalink

DFPanno

Care to share your specifics?

1 month agopermalink

Once you get accustomed to key placement I don't see how one set of buttons is any faster than another. You only have to look at the actions per minute that starcraft players do on a standard keyboard to know it isn't the hardware that would hold back your editing speed. Sure, a game pad might be more ergonomic for long editing sessions, but I have to question the faster part.

1 month agopermalink

Dheorl have you seen anyone playing street fighter with a keyboard? Horses foe courses

1 month agopermalink

Dheorl on the keyboard you mostly don't use the thumbs for culling and most photographers also actively use the wrist (this is not good at all). The next important thing is that with a gamepad the position of your fingers is much more relaxing and your muscles are working a little bit differently. This in general results faster work and less strain :-) I'm not a fan of gaming consoles at all and clearly remember the times I heavily played Wolfenstein 3D and Doom using only the keyboard, but for me moving from keyboard to a gamepad for culling was a level up in speed. So yes, StarCraft players can do a lot on a generic keyboard, but we are not talking about RTS - using a gamepad for culling is something closer to playing FPS with a perfect gaming mouse instead of the PS4 controller :-)

1 month agopermalink

DFPanno what specifics do you mean? ;-)

1 month agopermalink

I simply don't agree, but it's not something we're going to agree on, so enjoy your day.

1 month agopermalink

DFPanno

Which gamepad; what software? Thanks !

1 month agopermalink

DFPanno - a cheap wireless PC gamepad with USB dongle, the Joy2Key to map keys in Windows. That's all :)

1 month agopermalink

Dheorl :) It's hard to proove this without showing the process at least on video with detailed explanation on nuances.

1 month agopermalink

It's virtually impossible to prove because there are simply to many variables. Short of building a robotic hand with human characteristics and letting it learn one method, wiping it then letting it learn the other method, there'd just be to much in the way of previous personal experience, both with practise using that tool and general computing background.

Sure, if a gamepad is what you've practised with then for you it might be faster, but simply due to number of keys, if you're practised enough I don't believe there is any way it can be faster than a keyboard.

1 month agopermalink

DFPanno

@SV - thanks !

1 month agopermalink

Dheorl - I see what you mean, but I'm still sure that eliminating the need to move the wrist up and down and left/right on the cursor keys (like most photographers do when culling using the keyboard) and including the thumb into the process do help to press buttons faster and lower the strain heavily. When the limiting factor is the user reaction time, but not the software speed (I mean how fast Photo Mechanic runs through RAW previews compared to Lightroom and most other culling software) the speed you can repeatedly press buttons becomes important. I can't speak for everyone for sure, but I feel the difference how my fingers muscles do work when the palm is oriented horisontally, for keyboard pressing, and when it's vertically for using gamepad shift buttons. It's a question of ergonomics.

1 month agopermalink

You may remember those old Microsoft keyboards with better palm rest and separated layout, where less palm and finger movement resulted faster and easier typing. Around a decade ago I was comparing different text input methods and clearly saw significant difference - on a generic keyboard I was able to write around 300-350 symbols per minute, while on the Microsoft Natural was closer to 450-480. Both uses keys, but the nuances play the role. Anyway thank you for your opinion, I simply can't agree because I examined the process pretty carefully to decide to include the gamepad into workflow or not.

1 month agopermalink

Right now I can cull around 6000-9500 RAW per hour, while for most photographers a number around 4000 is too huge. Anyway in the future I expect the process will envolve not a gamepad, but something like a rotatable controller, because modern ILCs with 20-60 FPS burst rate can generate giant amounts of images to select from.

1 month agopermalink

I did say we simply wouldn't agree. I'll keep being nice and speedy on my built in mac keyboard.

I would like to give the Surface a go with it's dial, as I think that has potential, but I have little need or desire for a different layout of buttons.

1 month agopermalink