Bibble Labs finally release a major upgrade for their professional RAW converter and imaging editing program, Bibble 5 Pro. The new features for asset management and selective editing bring it into line with Adobe’s Lightroom.
Asset Management
This is totally new and presents a learning curve for current Bibble 4 users as they now have image catalogs to deal with.
Bibble says, “Importing images into catalogs allows Bibble 5 to summarize information about the photos in that catalog which enables searching or browsing by a wide range of metadata.”
The good news is that Bibble 5 Pro does not automatically use this system or insist on it. Photographers can still use their current management procedures and access images through the normal system of folders and computer storage devices.
UPDATE:
further testing suggests that this feature is not complelety robust (Version 5.0.1) and users should consider sticking withe file system for image management until the system is rigourously sorted.
Catalog Options
There are a number of basic structural strategies with Bibble 5 Pro catalogs. For existing users Bibble Labs recommend leaving the images in their current file structure and creating a catalog that references their location but still allows image searching and browsing with the catalog system.
Then there is moving or copying the image files into a Bibble 5 Pro catalog structure. This suits new images and is suited for importing images from external media or memory cards. The asset management system allows a combination of catalog structures to exist side by side.
It is possible to edit images without importing them into the catalog system by using the file system to access them instead. This allows quicker editing but does sacrifice long-term management capabilities. There is a difference in how the adjustment data is stored when using the file system or the catalog modes. This means adjustments made in one mode may not be visible in the other.
Layers
This is one of the major enhancements in Bibble 5 Pro. This allows photographers to specify a region or section of an image and apply exposure adjustment to that region. This allows lightening, darkening or color adjustments to part of an image.
Existing Bibble 4 Files
The Bibble environment is a non-destructive editing system, all adjustment details are kept in a separate data file and only applied to output image files. Bibble 5 uses a different data file system than version 4. This means all the current library of photos do not have this data if opened in Bibble 5. This is a particular issue for the asset management section of Bibble 5 as it currently cannot read the metadata from the older files.
Because the data files are different, they can exist side by side so the current suggestion from Bibble Labs is to keep running Bibble 4 alongside Bibble 5 for the moment. The ability to import the image data from version for to the current version 5 is another feature planned for future upgrades.
Lacks Spot Healing
This handy feature to fix small imperfections such as skin blemishes or pimples is missing from the initial release of Bibble Pro, According to Bibble labs on their user forum they intend to include this in an upgrade release of Bibble 5.
Cost
For many current Bibble Pro users Bibble 5 Pro is a no cost upgrade, while for new users it is a $US199 download from Bibble Labs for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.
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