The lighttable view is the default view loaded when Ansel is started, and allows you to view and manage your image collection. It will noticeably allow you to:

  • Cull your images, assign then ratings and ultimately decide which images are worth keeping and editing,
  • Filter your images based on ratings, base folder, or any metadata supported by the software (EXIF/IPTC/XMP),
  • Apply metadata, like title, description, tags, GPS coordinates, or correct EXIF date/time,
  • Copy-paste editing histories between images or apply styles, individually or in batches,
  • Export images editing histories to final files.

Lighttable content

All the images known to Ansel are stored in a database, the library. The lighttable shows thumbnails of a subset of this library, called a collection. A collection is created by filtering the images from the library using criteria, first from the library toolbox, then from filtering/include toolbar.

Library
The library toolbox, in the left sidebar, provides the primary querying criteria to extract a subset of images from the library database. The main criteria are :
  • Folders : the base folder in which the images are stored on your filesystem. They can be shown as a flat list or as a tree. Note that Ansel does not directly read the folder’s content, but shows its imported images (from its database) whose base folder matches this criterion. As such, the actual filesystem folder may contain more images than what Ansel will show, if they have not been imported.
  • Collections : allows to query all images that have a certain tag assigned. This is similar to what other software call “collections” or “virtual folders”, except that, in Ansel, you don’t add an image to a virtual folder, you assign a tag to an image, and then query all images having that tag.
  • Queries : enables more advanced querying rules, using metadata and boolean combinations of criteria (or/and/and not). Note that folders and collections (aka tags) only provide a simplified interface for the most common fields that can be found in the queries tab. Available metadata to filter can be:
    • gear : lens name, camera, focal length,
    • exposure settings : shutterspeed, ISO, aperture,
    • date and time : of the shot, of last modification, last export, last print, etc.
    • user set data : title, description, copyright, creator, publisher, etc.
    • internal technical tags : file format, local copies, etc.
Include
The include toolbar, in the second top row, allows to quickly filter in and out images based on their (in order of appearance):
  • rating :
    • Unrated (0 star) : the barred star icon,
    • rejected state : the circled cross icon (same as on the thumbnails),
    • 1 to 5 stars : the next 5 star icons. Those are positional, meaning :
      • Selecting the third starred-button will filter in all images having 3 stars,
      • To select images rated at least 3 stars, you will need to select the third, fourth and fifth stars, which can be quickly achieved with Ctrl+left click on the third star.
  • color labels :
    • Unlabled images : the white disk,
    • Color-labeled images : colored disks,
  • edited state :
    • Images having no editing history : the horizontally-barred circle,
    • Images having an editing history : the yin-yang +/- circle (same as on the thumbnails),
  • selection : restricting the collection to any arbitrary user-defined selection. This replaces Darktable’s culling view.
  • text search : restricting the collection to all images having at least one textual property matching the search query (filename, folder, title, etc.).
The controls from the include toolbar are toggle buttons, meaning when they are selected, images matching those criteria will be shown (filtered in/included), and when they are unselected, images matching those criteria will be hidden (filtered out/excluded). To show everything (include everything or exclude nothing), you will therefore need to have all buttons checked, which can be quickly achieved by doing a right click on any of the buttons, then selecting Select all filters in the context menu. If no button is toggled, no image is included and the lighttable grid stays empty.

To summarize, the library toolbox helps filtering images based on their intrinsic properties, while the include toolbar, allows to target workflow-based properties that you can set yourself to keep track of your work in progress :

  • Star ratings help culling and narrowing down the set of images you will actually edit. For example :
    • 5 stars means “to edit absolutely”,
    • 4 stars means “to edit if time permits”,
    • 3 stars means “backup plan”,
  • Color labels help tracking where you are in your workflow. For example :
    • Red label means “basic/batch editing applied”,
    • Yellow label means “fine-tuned/individual editing applied”,
    • Green label means “exported”,
    • Blue label means “printed”
    • Purple label means “sent to client”.

Those are, of course, examples that you can adapt to your needs and workflow. Note that you can also use text tags to keep track of all that, but they will not show over thumbnails in the lighttable.

Selecting and acting on images

The lighttable enforces a simple, safe interaction model:

  • Any action that writes metadata (ratings, color labels, tags, history…) applies only to explicitly selected images.
  • A selection is only ever made by a “hard” interaction: a mouse click or a keyboard keystroke. Hovering an image never changes a selection and never writes anything — hover events are strictly read-only.

This rules out the accidental metadata changes that a hover-driven workflow can cause. Selection is also What You See Is What You Get: you can only select images that are actually visible on screen.

Selecting with the mouse:

  • Click a thumbnail to select it alone.
  • Ctrl+click to add/remove a thumbnail to/from the selection.
  • Shift+click to extend the selection up to the clicked thumbnail (range selection).

Selecting with the keyboard is described in shortcuts and keyboard interaction; batch helpers (select all, invert, clear) live in the Selection menu.

Double-click a thumbnail, or select it and press Enter, to open it in the darkroom.

Lighttable display

The display options live in the second top row, next to the collection filters, and in the Display menu. They control the size of the grid, in-image magnification and the overlays drawn over thumbnails.

Columns (grid size)

The Columns spinner sets how many images are shown per row (1 to 12). Fewer columns means larger thumbnails. You can also:

  • Ctrl+scroll over the grid to change the number of columns,
  • press Ctrl++ / Ctrl+- to add/remove a column.

Zoom (magnification)

The Zoom control magnifies the content inside each thumbnail frame: Fit, 50 %, 100 % or 200 %. When you zoom in:

  • drag inside a thumbnail to pan it,
  • Shift+drag to pan across all zoomed thumbnails at once,
  • Ansel automatically pans each image toward the barycenter of its details, so faces and subjects roughly line up across pictures with different framing and aspect ratios.

This makes the lighttable a practical tool for comparing sharpness and framing across a series, replacing the dedicated culling/preview views.

Overlays

Thumbnails can carry overlays: star rating, reject mark, color labels, group borders and metadata. From the Display → Thumbnail overlays menu you choose whether overlays are always hidden (Ctrl+Shift+H), shown on hover, or always shown (Ctrl+Shift+O).

Two analysis overlays are available from the display toolbar:

Overlay focus zones
Shade each thumbnail to indicate the regions in focus.
Overlay focus peaking
Highlight the sharpest edges of each thumbnail, to quickly judge focus across a series. See focus peaking.

Thumbnail source and group display

Thumbnail generation and group display are also set from the Display menu:

  • Thumbnail source — process the RAW, use the embedded JPEG only when the image is unedited, or always use the embedded JPEG. Changing this takes effect at runtime.
  • Collapse grouped images and Show group borders (Ctrl+Shift+P) — see grouping.