Photoshop question

[Doug Bernhardt]

Sorry as I understand this is a hand lettering forum but I'm also aware there are some real top notch guys with photoshop here. The question is on how to re-size images in batches. I have several hundred pictures I would like to get down to e-mail size from their 300dpi format. I have CS2 and am aware of the bridge and some of it's functions. However I don't see the option of re-size in the task bar. Any suggestions?...and as always....thanx in advance.

[Danny Baronian]

Hi Doug,

If this were strictly a forum for hand lettering, many would have been chased off long ago. Read the header, I take it mean anything sign related. Photography and computer work are fitting into the sign quite nicely, both as additions to a sign, how to's and as pure photography to either show a passion, or sharing sign work others have done before us as your doing with your Pub Crawl's.

That said, take 10 - 15 photos you want to process as a test. Put them in a folder in your photo section. Open photoshop and make these selections: File > Browse. In Browser, navigate to the folder with the sample photos, open and select all. From there do - Tools > Photoshop> Image processor. Image processor is self explanatory.

Select a save location in no 2, file type in 3 as jpg, click resize to fit with a width and height of 450 px, check convert profile to sRGB then hit run at the top and watch windows pop us and close for the next 10 15 seconds with no visible images.

Once the actions are complete, navigate to the designated folder, open and check for image quality and file size. Your raw nef files fwill be in the 5.3 meg range, resizing the images will compress those files to approximately 311k.

Give lynda.com a try. It's reasonably priced, available 24 hours a day and has a section specifically on processing digital photos. At $ 25 a month, one month alone would increase your proficiency tremendously.

If you need more information, post it. Mike can add to this when he checks in,he does a lot of processing with the amount of photos he's taking.

[Jeff Lang]

Doug,
One thing you could do (I have photoshop 7) is under the file menu, go to automate, then contact sheet II. This is an automatic setup I use often to vew a folder of images with many on one sheet, like the contact sheets of negatives the photographers used to use (or maybe still do). You could set the page size to the image size desired, say 3" tall by 5" wide, and select one photo high by one photo wide, the image resolution, select the folder that contains all of the images, select ok & watch it go. It may take a while, & I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but play around with it a while & see what cool things it is capabale of.
Let me know what happens.
Jeff

[Mike Jackson]

Doug,
I am sitting here scratching my head because I know I have batch processed files from RAW to JPG from Adobe Bridge, but I don't see the command right now. I know you can select a folder of images, then click open in RAW. That brings all of them into the RAW converter. After selecting all of them again in RAW, you can make global modifications in raw, then click SAVE in the lower right. It will give you a choice of folders and image quality, but I didn't see where to change the pixel size down to something like 600 pixels. When you click OK, it will change all the images. That does work, but I seem to be missing a command.

Besides all that, you can create an Action in photoshop that resizes the image, sharpens it slightly, and then save it with the same file name but with a JPG extension. (If my images are in Adobe RGB, I add in a convert to profile command to change it to sRGB before saving) I do this kind of action all the time and they are easy to do.

Lastly, if you still have Nikon View, that basic little utility does a good job of converting piles of images to email quality images. I normally use DigitalPro4 for that, so I haven't needed to do what you are asking in a long time.

Mike Jackson

[Mike Jackson]

Found it.
In Bridge, select a group of images you want to turn to JPGs. Go to Tools>Photoshop>Image Processor

From there you tell it which folder you want to save them to, and pick a size, plus sRGB.

That's pretty much it. The software will process all of them for you and put them in the folder.

I don't know if this will play for you, but it might be worth a try:
http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/play ... 0A49D0882C}

If not, go to:
http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/free.asp
Then try going to Photoshop CS3 tutorials and look for Russell Browns tutorials.
The one you want to watch is called "Exporting Camera Raw Images"


Mike

[Doug Bernhardt]

Lets try this again...for whatever reason my post last night, didn't seem to make it. I checked out the advice (thanx Dan and Mike) and can see how it works from raw to jpeg, however I have a few hundred Hi-Res jpegs to convert to e-mail size. I have a good book by Scott Kelbey (sp?) but it doesn't address this application as the Linda.com link doesn't either. All the images are at present 9inches high by various widths. The only available tool requires you to predermine both dimensions. I can see this is gonna be painful and long!

[Danny Baronian]

Doug,

the information Mike and I posted are identical and works well. Prior to sending you the information, I ran 10 as a test since it's been a while that I've used this function.

Try running a test and see for yourself. By selecting 10 nef files, going to image processor, setting height and width at 425, link the two and select view first image in processor, when you hit run the ten images open in bridge with all 10 images displayed. You can make any adjustments to the first photo, and it will apply that to all others. While there change the dpi (lower left) to 72 dpi.

The only problem is to make sure each grouping your doing is shot under similar lighting. If you have pub interiors mixed with shots in bright daylight you might not get the best results. Bottm line though you should get good results without adjustments.

Once you've done a test, do a group of 50, and if that works well do in groups of 100.

Working with raw nef files from the D70 will take a file from 5.3 megs down to about 47 k with good screen results.

Ok, after re reading I see you have high res jpg files. Try running those just through the Image processor. I think I've tried that and it seems to only work with raw files. Did you shoot the files you want to convert in jpeg or raw? If their still in raw you might want to use the raw files, and they will work faster through the image processor as it's completely automated. If not, you've got a big job ahead of you.

The next thing to do is set up actions in ps, much like making a recording of your movements, to change size, dpi, etc. It takes a little to set up but will make the rest of the job faster.

Danny

[Mike Jackson]

Doug,
Even if your files are jpgs, the steps are basically the same. You select a pile in the Bridge, then go to Tools>Photoshop>Image Processor. Tell it which folder you want to save the modified JPGs and tell it 600 x 600 (for example). It will use those two dimensions as the max, so a standard photo will end up as either 400 x 600 or 600 x 400. When you get everything set up, hit okay and it will automatically convert all you have selected whether it is three or four or 100 at a time. Since your photos are already JPGs, you won't need it to do any modifications such as sRBG or tonal changes that you might do with RAW files. JPGs should process pretty darned fast.

Using these steps, you never really have to open the images in Photoshop. The utility will open one at a time, resize it and save it for you. I just did 13 images as a test and it took maybe 2 minutes to process, or less.

If you do this set of steps over and over, you might create a folder called something like "emailimages600".

Mike Jackson

[Doug Bernhardt]

Yup....it gives a prompt like "open first image to make changes" which I have done and not done....can get the dimensions changed no probs but can't find where to change the dpi from 300 to 96 or whatever. Hummmm

[Doug Bernhardt]

What Mike and Danny suggested did work for some of this project but wound up just resizing them with actions. Now I'm sure there is an easier way of doing this BUT....that was way easier than doing the old way....one at a time!

[Danny Baronian]

Well, if there's an easier way, post it here.

I think what would really make you happy is to have someone else to do it for you. Well.... I will.

Please send two round trip tickets, lodging vouchers and per diem to my address via FedEx. I'm estimate it will take a minimum of 2- 3 months in Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany and a few other stops to do the job properly.

I will be more than happy to document, file and prepare the photos in any way you desire.

That way, you can get it all done by writting just one check, how hard can that be?

Thanks in advance!

Danny