I'm running into a few different issues, all relating to image/crop sizes. There are work-arounds for them all; all of my images are in RAW format from a Nikon D300s.

The first issue is when I define the reference area on an image. It appears as though you can define the area to be slightly wider than the image itself and LRT then incorrectly changes the size of that image in the XMP file. The image is 4288 x 2848 (     &     ) but once I define the area across the entire width of the image, the size in LRT changes to 4352 x 2868 (     ). Assuming I'm correct about the cause of this, a user should be constrained from defining an area outside the image itself or LRT should simply ignore that area when defining the image size.

The second issue is that crop sizes on keyframes change in LRT once you select auto-transition. This can cause problems if you're going for pan/zoom motions and approaching the edge of the image. Keyframe crops should be held as absolute values. For example, a crop of 1981 x 1114 in LR gets changed to 1977 x 1112 (     ) when you open it in LRT then this changes again to 1961 x 1112 (     ) after you select auto-trans. I can understand minor changes between LR and LRT owing to how it is calculated but once in LRT that number shouldn't change.

Two minor things:
It would be nice to be able to disable the pop-up for the "Def ref-area" function. It's helpful when you first try the software but certainly once you license it, it really becomes a nuisance.

It would be nice to be able to remove an image from the workspace for LRT without having to delete the image. So options should be: Remove, Remove & Delete

Thanks,
Brad

The first issue is when I define the reference area on an image. It appears as though you can define the area to be slightly wider than the image itself and LRT then incorrectly changes the size of that image in the XMP file. The image is 4288 x 2848 ( & ) but once I define the area across the entire width of the image, the size in LRT changes to 4352 x 2868 (). Assuming I'm correct about the cause of this, a user should be constrained from defining an area outside the image itself or LRT should simply ignore that area when defining the image size.

Hi Brad, I don't think this hast anything to do with the reference area. It's a separate thing. For some cameras Exiftool just delivers slightly different image sizes than Lightroom itself. So once you initialized your sequence and the image sizes are there in LRT the might differ from thos in Lightroom. But this doesn't matter. Just make sure the sequence if fully initialized, so you won't get mixed up sizes. But even that wouldn't matter because the sizes are for information and display only, they are not considered for cropping etc.

The second issue is that crop sizes on keyframes change in LRT once you select auto-transition. This can cause problems if you're going for pan/zoom motions and approaching the edge of the image. Keyframe crops should be held as absolute values. For example, a crop of 1981 x 1114 in LR gets changed to 1977 x 1112 () when you open it in LRT then this changes again to 1961 x 1112 () after you select auto-trans. I can understand minor changes between LR and LRT owing to how it is calculated but once in LRT that number shouldn't change.

You are right - here I have to compromise between smooth motion and absolutely fixed keyframes. The way the bezier curves are currently calculated might cause some slightly shifts. I can look into this again if time.

Two minor things:
It would be nice to be able to disable the pop-up for the "Def ref-area" function. It's helpful when you first try the software but certainly once you license it, it really becomes a nuisance.

Normally a "power-user" won't klick on that button because he knows that he has to drag the area. So just disabling the popup would be strange behavior.
You can just turn off the "workflow toolbar" in the settings, this will give you only the necessary buttons if you know what you do.

It would be nice to be able to remove an image from the workspace for LRT without having to delete the image. So options should be: Remove, Remove & Delete

I no big fan of this idea since it would cause confusion. LRTimelapse always uses the whole folder. If you want to remove images, you have to move them to another folder. If you would follow your approach there would be different image sets in Lightroom, LRTimelapse and if you for example import a image sequence into After Effects, images that have not been processed in LRTimelapse would be imported as well.

Hi Brad, I don't think this hast anything to do with the reference area. It's a separate thing. For some cameras Exiftool just delivers slightly different image sizes than Lightroom itself. So once you initialized your sequence and the image sizes are there in LRT the might differ from thos in Lightroom. But this doesn't matter. Just make sure the sequence if fully initialized, so you won't get mixed up sizes. But even that wouldn't matter because the sizes are for information and display only, they are not considered for cropping etc.

That's not what my experience has been. Once I initialize the sequence it shows the proper image size (you can see this in the image I posed originally - the post initialization size is identical to the LR size). It's only after I define the reference area to maximum width that the image size gets change. Also, it *does* appear to have an effect on final output owing to the crop; if your crop is at the edge - you will get the warning that "clipping" has occurred. In any case, when you bring them back into LR, there's a noticeable shift occurring between the 1st and 2nd images that wasn't there before. Like I said, you can avoid this by defining a smaller area so it isn't critical but it would appear to be a bug.

You are right - here I have to compromise between smooth motion and absolutely fixed keyframes. The way the bezier curves are currently calculated might cause some slightly shifts. I can look into this again if time.

Right, I understand. Even if there's a check-box or something to force those keyframes to be static? Again, an easy work around is for me to simply allow for extra pixels on the tighter (ie: closer to 1920 x 1080) crops.

Normally a "power-user" won't klick on that button because he knows that he has to drag the area. So just disabling the popup would be strange behavior.
You can just turn off the "workflow toolbar" in the settings, this will give you only the necessary buttons if you know what you do.

Hahaha, OK, didn't even occur to me that I didn't have to click the button first. Thanks! The last few days has been a great learning experience for me.

I no big fan of this idea since it would cause confusion. LRTimelapse always uses the whole folder. If you want to remove images, you have to move them to another folder. If you would follow your approach there would be different image sets in Lightroom, LRTimelapse and if you for example import a image sequence into After Effects, images that have not been processed in LRTimelapse would be imported as well.

I only suggest it so it mimics how LR works now - simply because an image is in a folder you don't need to include it in your LR workflow. I'll sometimes place reference shots at the start/end of my TL runs and I simply don't include them in the LR import - this way I get to keep all of the work together in one folder. Again, more of an inconvenience than anything.

Thanks for the quick responses, I'm really enjoying your software.

Thank you for your reply, I'm going to look into the first point as you clarified it.