Greetings! I'm the newest kid on the block, and I've been searching for three days trying to find a good solution to my problem. The challenge comes in describing the problem to the search engines, so I get a good response. I found this forum today and would like to see what feedback you all have for me.
I'm on a windows machine, running CS4. My user experience level is not as high as it should be, I have been using PhotoShop for as long as I can remember, just mostly to do the same basic things though, I haven't really learned much of the higher-end functions. I do basic batch processing, droplets, etc... for shortcuts, but I've never really learned much about the scripting. Haven't had a lot of success yet finding good tutorials that I can follow.
I am scanning old pictures with a batch scanner. Thousands of them. Not doing tons of color correction, just a real basic auto-tone to pop the color a little bit. The scanner leaves a fuzzy edge around the photo, which I like to remove by doing a canvas clip of about 1/16 of an inch on both axis.
Here is what I am trying to do in one automated step, but currently it takes me about 3 executions of a batch to accomplish...
The folder of original scans looks kinda like this:
[eventname]
[batch01]
[batch02]
[batch03 etc,....]
Each batch may have a few scans, may have a few hundred scans. The total event may have over 1000 scans in it. It all varies. The original scans are 600dpi JPG images (my software does not create TIFs...) with very little compression - the lowest setting my software will do, for best possible image it can create.
Using actions, and the image processor script, I open the image, perform that slight canvas clip to give it a nice sharp edge, I create a couple of adjustment layers so that I can adjust the tone, contrast, etc to some settings that I am happy with. Then I save out that PSD file, so that I can always have the original scan plus those adjustment layers so I can go back and tweak something later should I choose. Then I need a highest quality JPG image (so that my wife can use those to build her photobooks with) and then I want a lower res JPG such that is appropriate for Facebook, emailing, whatever.
Right now, I batch each part separately, then have to manually go in and push files around to get the structure I want. I've tried using various combinations of actions within batches, actions within image processor, But can't make it work. I love how in the image processor you can do PSD, TIF, and JPG all in one stroke, but what I need is JPG, JPG and JPG. LOL.
When all is said and done, what I would LIKE to achieve, is a file structure that looks something like this:
[eventname]
[batch01]
[RawScan] (still debating if I want to keep this or just use the PSD as my "raw")
[PSD] (still debating if I want to keep this HUGE file or just retain the raw scan)
[High-Res] - this is my 600dpi JPG, max quality, least compression, etc
[Low-Res] - presently this is just knocked down to 1024 either axis
[batch02, etc. etc. etc. ]
The challenges I have faced, is sometimes when set these up, it won't honor my quality settings (I get level 8 instead of 12, or whatever). And I want to be able to say "here's a folder with hundreds of files, include all folders" so I really need to the processed images to go somewhere else all together, or else I'm adding files into a folder that it's reading from, that's no good.
What thoughts have you guys got on this one? Or a better way even that I should look at doing this. Thanks!
Farns
I'm on a windows machine, running CS4. My user experience level is not as high as it should be, I have been using PhotoShop for as long as I can remember, just mostly to do the same basic things though, I haven't really learned much of the higher-end functions. I do basic batch processing, droplets, etc... for shortcuts, but I've never really learned much about the scripting. Haven't had a lot of success yet finding good tutorials that I can follow.
I am scanning old pictures with a batch scanner. Thousands of them. Not doing tons of color correction, just a real basic auto-tone to pop the color a little bit. The scanner leaves a fuzzy edge around the photo, which I like to remove by doing a canvas clip of about 1/16 of an inch on both axis.
Here is what I am trying to do in one automated step, but currently it takes me about 3 executions of a batch to accomplish...
The folder of original scans looks kinda like this:
[eventname]
[batch01]
[batch02]
[batch03 etc,....]
Each batch may have a few scans, may have a few hundred scans. The total event may have over 1000 scans in it. It all varies. The original scans are 600dpi JPG images (my software does not create TIFs...) with very little compression - the lowest setting my software will do, for best possible image it can create.
Using actions, and the image processor script, I open the image, perform that slight canvas clip to give it a nice sharp edge, I create a couple of adjustment layers so that I can adjust the tone, contrast, etc to some settings that I am happy with. Then I save out that PSD file, so that I can always have the original scan plus those adjustment layers so I can go back and tweak something later should I choose. Then I need a highest quality JPG image (so that my wife can use those to build her photobooks with) and then I want a lower res JPG such that is appropriate for Facebook, emailing, whatever.
Right now, I batch each part separately, then have to manually go in and push files around to get the structure I want. I've tried using various combinations of actions within batches, actions within image processor, But can't make it work. I love how in the image processor you can do PSD, TIF, and JPG all in one stroke, but what I need is JPG, JPG and JPG. LOL.
When all is said and done, what I would LIKE to achieve, is a file structure that looks something like this:
[eventname]
[batch01]
[RawScan] (still debating if I want to keep this or just use the PSD as my "raw")
[PSD] (still debating if I want to keep this HUGE file or just retain the raw scan)
[High-Res] - this is my 600dpi JPG, max quality, least compression, etc
[Low-Res] - presently this is just knocked down to 1024 either axis
[batch02, etc. etc. etc. ]
The challenges I have faced, is sometimes when set these up, it won't honor my quality settings (I get level 8 instead of 12, or whatever). And I want to be able to say "here's a folder with hundreds of files, include all folders" so I really need to the processed images to go somewhere else all together, or else I'm adding files into a folder that it's reading from, that's no good.
What thoughts have you guys got on this one? Or a better way even that I should look at doing this. Thanks!
Farns