(Tips) PREVIEW COMPARISON WINDOWS

Click here to show the Preview Window.

In order to bring up a preview comparison window, click on the "Previews" main menu option. Then click on the "Open Preview Comparison Window". Or you can click on the open preview button in the Quick Tools panel. It's the same button icon as the "Open Preview Comparison Window" menu item icon.

You can have many preview windows open all at the same time. Each preview window has a toolbar at the top that allows you to perform many common operations like, resizing, cropping, printing, etc...

HINT: When you close the preview window, it remembers it's window size for the next time you load a preview window. This is a handy feature so you won't have to keep manually resizing the window larger/smaller for your liking.

TIP: You can DRAG & DROP from the preview windows for added functionality.

Why would I want to open Preview Window?

Holding area to do something with it later on.
If you have several images or MOVIES sprinkled into various folders that you want to print or copy or delete etc, you could open up a preview window for each one. And then BEFORE doing your final action on them, you could review them to be sure. And then do your operation. A more efficient way to do this sort of thing is to use the ON-HOLD window.

Compare a bunch of images all at once
If you have several images that you want to see all next to each other, then you can TILE them all on the screen at once in a checkerboard pattern.

Compare two images side by side showing differences
If you have two images and don't know which one is better, you can do a side-by-side comparison and zoom in and see which has better detail. Optionally, you can look at the differences window to see what's been "added" or "subtracted" from the main (left) image to result in the second (right) window's image. Great for seeing watermarks too :)
NOTE: You can of course save disk space by deleting the images of lesser quality.

Find Dead, Hot, Stuck or Weak Pixels from digital cameras
If you have a digital camera and want to see if your camera's sensor is defective, you can use this feature to find the bad spots in your sensor.

Comparing Two Images Side-By-Side

The main purpose of the preview is to compare two images so you can decide which one to delete. This way you can get rid of your duplicates and keep the ones of higher quality. The easiest way to do this is to view them side by side. So just follow these simple steps:

Click on an image on the main Photo Jockey window

Open a preview window for it

Click on another image on the main Photo Jockey window

Open a preview window for it

In the preview window, right click and select Side-By-Side Comparison with another preview window.

DBL-Click in each preview window for Zoom mode

Zoom in and look around each image

Decide which is the better of the two images

Click the delete button in the preview window whose image you want to delete

At the bottom you will see the "Image Comparison Window". This is the window that shows you what's been added or subtracted from the main (left) image to produce the comparing (right) image. Even if the differences are small, you can MAGNIFY the differences by using the red slider to the right. There are 3 buttons:
A: This shows all differences between the 2 images
+: This shows what's been added to the left image to produce the right image
-: This shows what's been subtracted from the left image to produce the right image

HINT: If you DBL-CLICK in the Image Comparison Window and zoom in and scroll around, then the main (left) image is also scrolled to the same position in the image so that you can compare faster and easier.

Find Dead Pixels (Digital Camera Image)

This allows you to find bad pixels in the sensor of your camera.

First, take a photo that is supposed to be black. Maybe go into a room with no lights on to make it dark. Then put your lens cap on the lens or put a black sheet of paper as close to the lens as you can without touching it. Then take the longest exposure you can. Most high-end cameras will let you go 30 seconds, and set your ISO to 100. On low-end cameras, set your ISO to it's best setting (lowest) and turn your flash off. Then take a picture. It should be black. On your high-end camera, move your exposure from 30 seconds to 10 seconds, then 1 second, then 1/60 second. So, high-end cameras will have 4 black photos and low-end cameras will have 1.

Now move on to the white photo sequence. Find a bright light in your room and take a 30 second exposure from about 2 inches from the light, then take a 10 second exposure. For low-end cameras, just put a bright white FLAT sheet of paper on a table and have the camera about 5 inches away and put the flash ON. Then take the photo.

Now that you have your black and white photos, download them to your computer where you can find them. Locate them with Photo Jockey and load the folder into Photo Jockey. Then do the following process for each of the black photos.

Click on the photo to view it

Click on the main menu's PREVIEWS menu item

Click on the Find Dead Pixels (Digital Camera Image) menu item

This brings up a side-by-side comparison window, your original will be on the left

Slide the sensitivity slider all the way to the right

DBL-Click on the right side image and zoom in and scroll around looking for areas that are NOT black. The left side original image will by in sync as you scroll around.

Make notes as to where in the image the bad spots are

Finding Hot, Stuck, Dead, Weak pixels:
Load the other black photos and do the same process, you should find the same bad areas but maybe not quite as noticable. For high-end cameras, if you look at the 30, 10, 1, 1/60 second exposure images and the bad spots seem to fade away as you go to the faster shutter speed, then those pixels are called "hot" pixels. You should NOT see any "hot" spots at 1 and 1/60 second exposure. If some of your spots do NOT fade from 30 to 10 seconds, then those spots are called "stuck" pixels. Stuck pixels are bad because they will appear in all your photos. Hot pixels ususally blend into your normal photos so you don't notice them as much.

If the bad spots are faint when the slider is all the way to the left, then your camera is in pretty good shape, if they are still bright, then you may want to exchange your camera or have it fixed, because those spots will show up in your photos.

You can do the same thing with your white photos. The right side will show "weak" pixels in your camera, again if they are faint, then don't worry. If they stick out like a sore thumb, then you have "dead" pixels, and you should get the camera fixed, because those spots will show up in all your photos as a dark or black dot.

NOTE: Always use the left image which is your original image for determining if the bad spot is strong or faint. The right side image is used to LOCATE the bad spots easier. So when the slider is all the way to the right, even the faintest bad spot will stick out like a sore thumb.


Preview Window Options:
There are many buttons in the preview window that allow you to:

Get help

Get Image properties

Save image

Delete image

Print image

Rotate image

3D Perspective/Shear/Special Effects

Resize image

Sharpen/Smooth image

Add Text/Image Overlays

Color adjust image

Red-Eye Removal

Crop image

Popup Menu Options:

When you RIGHT-CLICK the mouse, you will get a pop-up menu that allows you to control the preview windows.

Find Dead Pixels (Digital Camera Images): This allows you to compare your black photo that you took with your camera and compare it against a TRUE black image and shows you any spots that are not true black in your image (bad pixels). In addition, you can compare a white photo that you took with your camera and compare against TRUE white to see if there are any weak pixels.

Tile All Preview Windows: This TILES all the preview windows to fit on the screen in a nice checkerboard fashion so you can see all the previews at once.

Show All Preivew Windows: This shows all the previews again in case you had minimized some of them.

Hide All Preview Windows: This minimizes all the previews so that you can get them out of your way for the time being.

Close All Preview Windows: This closes out all the preview windows when you are done with them.

Show Side-By-Side Comparison With...: This allows you to do a side-by-side comparison of two images. You are allowed to select another preview window to compare the current preview window against. They are tiled on your screen.

View #########: There can be any number of these at the bottom of the pop-up menu. There is one for each preview window you have open. Just click on the one with the filename you are interested in showing. The ######## is where the filename is placed in the menu caption.

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