• Welcome to the Lightroom Queen Forums! We're a friendly bunch, so please feel free to register and join in the conversation. If you're not familiar with forums, you'll find step by step instructions on how to post your first thread under Help at the bottom of the page. You're also welcome to download our free Lightroom Quick Start eBooks and explore our other FAQ resources.
  • Dark mode now has a single preference for the whole site! It's a simple toggle switch in the bottom right-hand corner of any page. As it uses a cookie to store your preference, you may need to dismiss the cookie banner before you can see it. Any problems, please let us know!

Contour Design ShuttlePRO question

  • Thread starter Deleted member 39308
  • Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I'd spotted that you'd published your preferences as part of my homework when deciding which device to buy. Though happy to admit I'm not sad enough an anorak to have examined them & could choose differences as my Mastermind chosen subject! Intended starting with yours and deviating if necessary. Don't believe in reinventing the wheel and prefer to let others' expertise guide me. Apparently it's been sent, but no details on when it'll arrive.
Topic du jour has been LR softproofing with you & Schewe....
 
Oh you poor thing, that's not a riveting day! ;)
 
There were plenty of digressions! Progress made, but not all hurdles overcome. Am about to do some searching on here for soft proofing with dual monitor setup. I'm ok with soft-proofing in PS, but since I'm using LR more, makes sense to be able to keep everything in same software.
Back on topic for this thread once the hardware arrives.
 
The beast has landed, seems like a good bit of kit. I've now altered the settings to your preferred ones Victoria & labelled buttons. No Mr Numpty here didn't realise initially that the clear plastic covers were removable.... Yes I did write on them with permanent marker pen.... all cleaned up now.
I'm finding that the shuttle ring is selecting a whole row of thumbnails in Grid view and acts as a coarse control in Develop module, e.g. exposure is in ±⅓ stops per click (with the jog at ±0.1). I've got it set to do nothing as per your list. Not sure where these different increments can be set.
Two things spring to mind, the different behaviour in each module and secondly that it seems a bit of a waste of a major input control in Library module, can't think when I'd want to select images a row at a time. Is this what you find happens with yours? If it could be made to rattle through the images sequentially it'd be a much faster way of navigating.
 
So I've been playing a bit more & have discovered the option to use Shuttle for scrolling, but this then renders it inoperative in Develop module. Seems more homework is required. Have discovered that there's an option to export settings to a file so you can share settings with those who want to import them.
 
You can create two different sets of settings - one for Develop and one for Library - and switch between them using the buttons at the bottom. I put a request in when the product manager popped over from Norway a couple of months ago, to switch modules at the same time.

The Develop increments depend partly on whether you float over the slider or click in the values. The latter does the smallest values. Central dial should do up/down keys for 0.1 steps in exposure, or add the shift key for larger increments.
 
How does this switching work between sets of controls work Victoria? I can only do it via the tray icon. Or can you assign a contour key. My current set is still evolving. Tip for Baxter: save your controls as a html file and print that.


Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Tapatalk
 
Thanks for the tip Gerard. I've now discovered the tray, but haven't yet worked out how to perform the module change. Do you mean assign buttons 12 & 13 to do this Victoria? It's certainly be quicker to do it from a button press, than mouse movement & click. Are you thinking that this needs to be the 'switch settings' or 'Open file' option and then specify the Shuttle settings for each module?
Whilst the kit is well made, the documentation is very out of date, user manual refers to 'dot icon' which isn't there now, superseded by the gear cog. They ought to have a wider variety of YouTube tutorials, there are a few other people who've posted how to use. It soon becomes apparent how versatile the device is in the way which they've chosen to allocate controls.
Show installed apps omits my Capture One, but I've seen how to add this - All in good time! Priority is LR.
I've had too much for one day. Need to return with a fresh set of eyes tomorrow.
 
How does this switching work between sets of controls work Victoria? I can only do it via the tray icon. Or can you assign a contour key. My current set is still evolving. Tip for Baxter: save your controls as a html file and print that.
You can assign a contour key. I tried it, but I tend to use the keyboard for most Library stuff.

Thanks for the tip Gerard. I've now discovered the tray, but haven't yet worked out how to perform the module change. Do you mean assign buttons 12 & 13 to do this Victoria? It's certainly be quicker to do it from a button press, than mouse movement & click. Are you thinking that this needs to be the 'switch settings' or 'Open file' option and then specify the Shuttle settings for each module?
Module change is simply G or D keypress. One of the requests I made recently is to allow macros to do additional things - I think it was a suggestion made by a member here actually. That way you could set a macro to do "G then switch control set" as a single button press. You can't do that quite yet, but you can assign a button to do G or D, and another button to toggle control set.

Whilst the kit is well made, the documentation is very out of date, user manual refers to 'dot icon' which isn't there now, superseded by the gear cog. They ought to have a wider variety of YouTube tutorials

They're a really tiny team and it works over a tonne of different programs, so they're struggling to keep up. The product manager and the main programmer popped over from Norway a couple of months ago, and came down to Southampton to see me, so we talked through a lot of this stuff.

I'm actually planning on doing a video on this shortly, so the issues you're running into are helping to shape the content.
 
Very helpful thanks! Still got L plates on. Trying to learn how to use ShuttlePRO & edit some new pictures. Progress is slower than without! Contacted Contact Design tech support this afternoon explaining situation. Got prompt response from USA which has suggested a change to your shuttle zone settings, i.e. to change it back to their default setting, to enable it to do what I'd like. Haven't had a chance to do it yet. They wanted to know why I'd started with your set!

Appreciate it's a massive task aiming to support and give info on all of those software suites. Suppose one route would be to work with people like yourself, experts in their field and devolve their training. However... QC must be a concern given the standard of many people who feel compelled to make instructional videos. It's like gold prospecting, trying to find the right nuggets of information - and avoid the right Nuggets who profess to be experts and mislead.

Will report back when I've progressed the situation. If you want to chat about video, then I have some ideas. It's a good idea you're proposing to cover it.
 
Oh no you're not!
Let me get further down the trail. The good news is that I've now resolved the Shuttle issue.
So for me to be able to have the shuttle scrolling through photos in library & develop modules, I had to recreate all of the Shuttle Zone commands in the defaults. Couldn't find way to load defaults, copy/paste to my settings. Then when I tried it out, I was getting a hybrid behaviour of it selecting one or more rows above/below depending on how far I turned shuttle wheel whilst simultaneously scrolling through these selected photos. Nightmare! At this point I discovered the conflict with the Shuttle transitions which are in your settings. I reset these to 'Do Nothing' and now it works as I wanted it to.
I've fed back to Contour Design support that there is a lack of diagrams or videos explaining terminology. Such as in this situation the difference between a shuttle zone and a shuttle transition. For the keystrokes I eventually found out how to access 'repeat key and Hold key' with all the other alternatives. Couple this with saving settings under specific clearly descriptive names & general tips for the Shuttle software would make a very useful, short video. Then you could introduce the LR specifics in a far quicker manner on following ones obviously signposting the existence of the first video and stating assumption that viewers are familiar with terminology & how to perform the basic operations. You clearly understand need for this type of thing because your book is well thought out & cross-referenced.
 
Tx Victoria, I missed that you could go up/down on settings. I'll have a go and see how handy that is in reality.

My settings tend to drift a bit: e.g. I did a lot of panoramas during my holidays, I like to stack my panoramas on top of their original pictures, so i put some stacks controls in the contour settings. Now these are less useful so i might change them again.


Baxter: for the modules, I use mostly the grid view (G) and develop (D). I normaly use the keyboard to switch, but also programmed a button to alternately press G and D. Disadvantage is that sometimes you first go to the same mode you're in. I also use a single button to open and close the view focus point plugin. To select that, I programmed a little macro. (First a sequence in one group of keystrokes E, ALT+L, U, F), then a second group ALT+F4 to close the window). The ability to add several keystrokes to one button is quite useful.
 
Thanks Gerard - I concur, nearly all my time is spent in G & D. Ability to use single button for complex keystrokes is very efficient (if only I knew some!). I've printed out the pdf of settings and am making notes as I work, a kind of requirement audit for the things which I use most. It makes sense to prioritise these. I've already programmed buttons on Wacom tablet for some functions, so don't want to duplicate. Am making list of things I'd like to be able to access readily and then will work out how to achieve them. It's then a case of working out where to place them on the Shuttle so the most used are most convenient.
I did a similar process for my Fuji X series Q menu and it means that I can change modes easily with minimum button pushing.
The interface is becoming more familiar and easy to change. Really need to find out how to save settings and be able to reload them. This would expand usability when working on different styles of photos or projects & needn't cause too much confusion. I should imagine it'd suit your situation with the Pano priority being one set, ready to reload next time you're doing lots of them.
 
Really need to find out how to save settings and be able to reload them.

Right-click on the LR icon (not the app name) in the left column of the settings page, and it'll let you export to a text file which can be reimported later.
 
Oh, so tempted. I almost bought a Behringer X-Touch Mini MIDI controller the other day from CEX - but didn't want something that large across my desk. This looks much more compact.

Does anyone use Keyboard Maestro on Mac - I've used it to really speed up my keywording workflow in Photomechanic, but not had much success in Lightroom. I wonder if using KM with the Shuttle will enable more complex keystrokes to be automated.
 
Interesting idea snapper. I do use Keyboard Maestro, but not with the Shuttle or with Lightroom. Were there particular strings of commands you had in mind?
 
No - nothing specific - just looked like it could make the whole thing very powerful - especially as KM can trigger other keystoke sequences or actions etc.
 
Mull it over, and if you come up with something you think KM can do that the Shuttle can't, let me know and I'll test it.
 
Last edited:
Ha, I've got one at last, having had a bit of a trial at the Photography show.
I must admit it's harder to use to manage the develop sliders than I thought - almost want to usethe with my right hand - but that's using the trackpad - or it might be a case of just easily moving between the two - which frees up the left hand for hitting G and D on the keyboard.

@Victoria Bampton - I know your settings are posted on the site - but any chance of putting up the settings export file so it can just be imported rather than having to recreate it ourselves?

Any idea if there's any progress on changing module and changing settings at the same time?

I've tried to create an AppleScript that will change the settings via the system menu, fired by Keyboard Maestro (which can be triggered by a Shuttle button) - but no luck. Also trying another couple of approaches.
 
I too hit a bit of a brick wall trying to get it to do the things I wanted. It has fallen into disuse whilst I'm editing new photos. Opting for 'Devil you know' over potential improvement once hurdles have been overcome. I will try to come back to it, when I get some rainy days in a row (English summer is around the corner!).
Most of the things I do in LR are in develop module and need to use mouse/pen/trackpad to alter adjustment brush/grad filter settings or select presets I have for these.
 
@baxterbradford I used the device in earnest yesterday afternoon (after changing my settings to suit, and some other trickery with KM - see my other thread Using Shuttle Pro with Keyboard Maestro ) and found that I really liked the ease with which I could use a single button for some of the convoluted shortcuts. I still ended up using the trackpad to select the numeric apart of the sliders - easier than trying to cycle through them - and a mix of the wheel and the trackpad to adjust with. But cutting and pasting settings, synchronisation and even undo on the shuttle really sped things up.

I was definitely happier with it at the end of the day than at the beginning...I've a very busy weekend working - so let's see how I feel next week!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks, very useful new thread, have commented & now following it. Hope it does work for you & weekend not too arduous!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top