Batch Automation Inspiration required to establish process for automation - please!

[jimslita]

Hi there,

I hope that I am posting in the right place ;-) Having followed members advice previously I have managed to pick up a number of tips which have helped me acheive certain things in the past - but this time the real problem I have is working out what (and if!) I need to do before I worry about automating it - although I guess that its best to know that I want to automate it first.

My wife is setting up a website and wants to display photos of some work which is always photographed in the same way and on the same background but isn't always 100% perfectly identical in terms of framing. I'm trying to find a way of using the frame (or mount) in the image to isolate the important part of the image and then to crop > resize the image so that the resulting images are a) the same size b) have the same 'border' size/proportion around the work and c) the work is in the same position within the overall image. I'm sorry if the terminology is not very clear but this isn't my profession, I'm just a motivated amateur!

In the example image attached - the mount around the image forms is what I am thinking of using as the base point for the selection. I'd like to then expand the selection (?) so that I can crop the image so that the ratio of the image to background is X which remain constant for all other similar images. I'd then resize the image to a fixed size so that all resulting images are the same size, the mount/frame is the same size and the position within the image will always be constant.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated - I think I have reached a new 'out of my confort zone' but it may be that there's a blissfully simple way of acheiveing this which I'm not seeing because I've confused myself going round in circles!

Kind regards

jim

 

[colleague]

it would be best if you could scan all the artworks
and then use "file - automate - crop and straighten"

 

[jimslita]

Hi - thanks for your reply colleague!

The images are all photos in the style of the example that I have shown in my post. I did wonder about the Crop & Straighten function - but it is possible to adjust the crop size (I dont want to crop out the background - just end up with all images having the same amount of background as the others and the image size being the same for all images) - my only experience of this function is scanning old photos and cropping them down to the edges of the scanned image.

Jim

 

[colleague]

do you want a) with passepartout or b) without passepartout

crop and straighten will automatic find the borders and then you can resize afterwards

 

[jimslita]

Sorry colleague - I can see that I haven't managed to express myself very clearly and I don't want to waste your time. What I would like to achieve is an image including the passepartout and some of the beige background (shown in red dotted line. I want to end up with all images having the passepartout being in the same position within the overall image and therefore with the beige 'frame' being cropped to the same on all images (cropped to x percent larger than the passepartout), and with all the final images having the same image size (resized to a predefined size in pixels for example)

I'm struggling to see how I can automatically define (or select) the passepartout to have a base to work from - does that make sense?

I hope that seems clearer!

 

[colleague]

ok

it would be best to scan all the passepartouts
so that the "crop and straighten" function can regognize the passepartout

after that you can make an automatic action, that will resize the passepartout
and add the beige frame (x % larger than the passepartout)

and you can batch that action to all the scanned frames

 

[jimslita]

Yes I originally thought along those lines but it means having a 'photoshopped' image rather than the original which she'd prefer not have. I have to assume that what I'm trying to do is as difficult to achieve as I was finding it !?

 

[colleague]

maybe you can scan the beige frame also
then it would not look photoshopped

 

[jimslita]

The passepartout is A4 size so it would be too big for my scanner ;-(

 

[colleague]

here is an example with another background

 

[colleague]

a good photo of the beige background would be ok
but if the passepartout is already a4 then that would be a problem

scanning without the passepartout is also a possibillity

 

[jimslita]

Hi Colleague

Sorry we were out last night so I have only just found your messages. I think I might have to set about this in a different way as I know its not the route she wants go down! Thanks again for your help so far - I'll have a rethink and see if I can come up with a different plan - sometimes not knowing enough is a great way of learning new skills - sometimes it leads you down the garden path!