Compare and History

The bottom of the Develop view is the history strip — every stack and edit you’ve made in this session, plus any jobs currently running. The history strip is also the source for the Compare mode, which lets you A/B-evaluate two entries side by side.

The history strip

Every time you complete a stack (Pyramid, Depth Map, or both), it lands as a thumbnail at the right end of the strip. Loading a single image with E adds a thumbnail too. The strip scrolls horizontally if you’ve produced more results than fit.

Each thumbnail shows:

The result image — at the resolution that fits the thumb (resizable up to ~100 px).
A settings line — for stacks, this reads like pyramid d15 s1 da (Pyramid method, detail 15, sharpen 1.0, depth auto, align on). For single-image edits, it shows the filename.
A folder hint below the settings line (where the source images came from) — useful when the strip has results from multiple shoots.

Active result

The thumbnail with a blue border is the active result — the one shown in the center canvas. Click any thumbnail to switch.

Removing results

Hover any completed thumbnail to reveal a small × in the top-right corner — click it to delete that result from the strip.
Right-click a thumbnail for a Delete option.

Deleting doesn’t touch any files on disk — it just removes the result from this session’s history. If you haven’t saved the result yet, it’s gone for good once deleted.

In-progress jobs

When you press Stack, the job appears immediately in the history strip with a dim placeholder thumbnail and a green progress bar across the bottom. The progress bar fills as alignment, analysis, and blending proceed.

Controlling jobs

Hover an in-progress job for an × in the top-right corner — click it to cancel the stack. Useful if you realized you selected the wrong frames and want to start over.
Right-click the in-progress thumbnail for two options:
- Cancel Stack — same as the × button.
- View Source Images — jumps to Library view with the source frames re-selected, so you can adjust your selection without restarting from scratch.

When a job completes, the placeholder swaps for the real result thumbnail and you can click into it.

Compare mode

The Compare button in the Develop view header (or C) puts two history entries side by side. Useful for:

Pyramid vs. Depth Map on the same stack — which method handled the antennae better?
Same method with different detail/sharpen settings — A/B at full resolution before committing.
Before/after an adjustment-heavy edit — keep the pre-edit result in history and compare against the new version.

Entering compare mode

You need two results in the history strip first. Then:

Click the result you want as A (it’s the currently active one with the blue border).
Click Compare in the header — it’ll prompt you to pick a B if one isn’t selected.

The center canvas splits horizontally into two side-by-side panels with A and B labels in the top-left of each.

Inside compare mode

Pan and zoom are locked together by default (the 🔒 icon shows locked). Scroll on one side, both sides scroll the same way. Pan on one side, both pan together.
Click the lock icon to unlink them — useful for comparing different regions, but most often you want them locked.
Click Swap ⇄ to switch which result is on which side. Visual habit-breaker — sometimes you need to see the comparison reversed to confirm a difference.
The active mask, adjustments, crop, and retouch all show on whichever side is currently selected (its border turns blue when you click it).

Exiting compare mode

Click Compare again, or press C. The view returns to single-result mode.

Tips

Stack with Run all methods checked to get Pyramid and Depth Map in one job — saves you waiting for two separate runs to compare them.
Keep old results around. The history strip is cheap (just in-memory thumbnails). Don’t delete a result until you’re sure you don’t want to compare against it.
Compare is the fastest way to spot regression when tuning advanced settings. Stack with detail=15, save as “A”. Re-stack with detail=20, that’s “B”. Compare. Keep the better one.