The Library in TPE Web brings your Locations, Shot Plans, and Visual Searches together in one place. You can use it simply to keep track of places you want to return to, or organise more detailed planning for an upcoming trip, a place you photograph regularly, or a particular photographic idea.
For example, a List for an upcoming trip might include several Locations you want to visit, a Visual Search you want to revisit, and specific Shot Plans you have already begun developing. Or you might create a List for a single photographic project and collect several possible approaches before deciding which one to pursue.
What is saved in the Library?
The Library contains three types of saved items:
- Locations save places you want to find and use again. See Finding and Saving Locations in TPE Web for more information.
- Shot Plans save a specific planning setup, including its location, date, time, and applicable settings such as field of view and photographic equipment.
- Visual Searches save a set of search conditions so you can return to the same photographic question (for example, “ When can I see a full moon above the Matterhorn? ”) and search again from a date you choose.
Choose All items to see everything together, or select Locations, Shot Plans, or Visual Searches to view just one type of saved item.
Each view includes a search field to help you find saved items by name or other searchable information.
- View all items
- View Locations
- View Shot Plans
- View Visual Searches
- View Upcoming Shot Plans
- View favourited items
- Selected List
Using Favourites in the TPE Web Library
Click the heart beside any Library item to mark it as a Favourite. Favourites provide a quick way to keep frequently used or especially important Locations, Shot Plans, and Visual Searches easy to find.
Click Favourites in the Library sidebar to view all of your favourited items together.
Previewing and working with saved items
Click any Location, Shot Plan, or Visual Search in the Library to open its preview panel. The preview shows key information about the selected item along with the actions available for it.
The available actions depend on the item type:
- For a Location, you can set either the red or grey map pin to the saved position, edit the Location, export it, or delete it.
- For a Shot Plan, you can edit, delete, export, or reopen the saved plan.
- For a Visual Search, you can load the saved search, edit or export it, or delete it.
This makes it possible to build up your planning over time rather than having to complete everything in one session. You might begin by saving several possible shooting Locations, use Visual Search to investigate promising alignments, and save particular opportunities as Shot Plans. Later, you can return to those saved items and continue your planning from where you left off.
Organising your planning with Lists
Lists let you group related Library items in whatever way is useful for your photography. A List can contain Locations, Shot Plans, Visual Searches, or any combination of the three.
There is no single way you need to organise them. For example:
- A Colorado 14ers List might simply contain Locations for mountains you want to photograph or visit.
- An Indiana Dunes List could bring together Locations, Visual Searches, and Shot Plans for an upcoming trip.
- A Gateway Arch List might collect possible shooting Locations and specific plans for photographing one subject.
- A more focused List such as STL Skyline + Moonset could combine a saved Visual Search with several Shot Plans for promising results from that search.
An item can be added to more than one List, so you do not need to choose a single way to categorise your planning.
Creating a List
Click New List at the lower left of the Library page.
Give the List a name, and optionally add a description. You can also choose a colour and icon to make different Lists easier to recognise in the sidebar.
A short description can be useful for remembering the purpose of a List. For example, an Indiana Dunes List might include a note that it is for planning an upcoming trip.
Viewing and arranging items in a List
When a List contains different kinds of Library items, use All items, Locations, Shot Plans, and Visual Searches at the top of the List to view everything together or filter by item type.
You can also arrange items in whatever order is most useful to you. Drag an item using the handle to its left and drop it in a new position. For example, you might arrange Locations in the order you expect to visit them on a trip, or put your highest-priority Shot Plans near the top of a project List.
- View all items in the selected List
- View saved Locations in the selected List
- View saved Shot Plans in the selected List
- View saved Visual Searches in the selected List
Working with multiple items
Use Select items when you want to work with several Library items at once. Select the items you want, then add them to a List, remove them from a List, or delete them as a group.
Removing an item from a List does not delete it from your Library. The item remains available under All items and its corresponding item type. Use Delete only when you want to remove the saved item itself.
- Add selected items to list
- Remove selected items from list
- Delete selected items
- Item not selected
- Selected item
Importing and exporting Library items
TPE Web can import planning and geographic information from a number of supported file formats, including KML, KMZ, GPX, GeoJSON, PlanIt/PT, and TPE files.
When imported information belongs to a particular trip or project, importing it into a List can help keep those items together with the rest of your planning.
Library items can also be exported for backup or use in other applications. Available export formats depend on the type of item. The TPE file format preserves TPE planning information, while KML/KMZ files can be opened in applications such as Google Earth.
Building a TPE Web Library for Photography Planning
The Library does not require a particular planning system. You might use it simply to save a few favourite Locations, or build Lists containing multiple Locations, Visual Searches, and Shot Plans for projects you return to over time.
The planning you save today can become the starting point for what you explore next – whether that means returning to a familiar park, preparing for an upcoming trip, or comparing several possible ways to photograph the same subject.
