This might be a silly question, but figure if anyone knows how to do this, they are on this forum. I am shooting golf outings that have 100-150 golfers with one or two pictures for each player. We print them as we go, and with a little luck we have them done at the end of the event. I shoot digitally, and would like to be able to make some adjustments across the board for all pictures in the folder. Simple things like auto contrast and sharpness for example. Is there any way to do this in Photoshop? If not, is there another piece of software that can do that? Thanks in advance, Steve
Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.
If you mean you want to apply the same adjustments with the same settings to each image, then just compose an ACTION and run it in BATCH mode. See your manual or online help for details…
I think I understand the batch mode… but I can’t figure out how to put automated functions in the action palette. If I wanted to do auto contrast, sharpening tool and a cropping size for a batch of pictures, how would I create an action palette to do that? Many thanks, Steve
1) Make a new Folder and call it: Actions. 2) Start an action and open One picture from the series. It does not matter if the pictures are downloaded to the HD or they are on a compact flash card. When open Go to Image>Adjust>Auto Levels, then Image>Adjust>Auto Contrast, then Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. Set the Amount to 150%, the Radius to 1.0 and Threshold to 0. 3) Stop the Action. 4) Save the action in the folder you just made.
5) File>Automate>Batch. Under Play make shure that the Set and action are selected. In Source select Folder. Click Choose and select the Folder of your Images. Select Override Action "Open" Commands. In Destination Select Folder and select the Folder you want them saved to. It would be a good idea to save them to a previously made folder on your HD if you opened them from a Compact Flash card. Or if they are already on the HD just select the same folder. Select Override "Save in" Commands. In File Naming select "Document Name + Extension. 5) Hit OK, sit back and let PS do the work.
It would be much better if you would use curves instead of Auto Leves, but it’s OK if your exposures and White Balance are accurate.
You could also build into the action as a first step some kind of Resizing, go to Image>Image Size. Deselect Resample Image and set the Resolution to 240 ppi. This resolution is good enough for prints on an Inkjet printer.
Actions are the mechanism by which a sequence of events can be recorded and played back in photoshop. The Action Pallet is the little window in PS that holds the actions – like the layers pallet. So you are not creating an action pallet, you are creating an action and it is (automatically) stored in the Action Pallet.
Batch is the mechanism used to play actions on multple files automatically.
So read about creating actions(analogous to recording your keystrokes). Then in the actions pallet, look at some of the ones that shipped with PS.
Open some dummy images and play with those – watch what they do, and you’ll get the idea.
Norbert, Yes, I just got a chance to sit down and look at your response… very helpful! What do you mean change my work flow and go with 2 pictures per player?
Norbert… I was able to get the hang of it after playing with it for a bit… plan to play with this process over the weekend. Photshop never ceases to amaze me! Thanks for your help!
YrbkMgr… thanks for the lesson on the correct grammatical terms… along with Norberts helpful information on how to actually get started I am on my way…
I take lets say 2 pictures of a player. If I take more I delete the bad ones in the camera. I have Templates for One 8×10, One for 5×7 and a separate one for two 5x7s. These are white canvases with rectangular saved selections.
The actions work like this: The picture I selected is resizzed to Hight or Width (Depending of the cameras aspect Ratio 2:3 or 3:4. What you want is one side 7" the other a liitle bit bigger than 5" Or in the Case of an 8×10 one side 10" the other a liitle bigger or the other way arround the width 8" and the hight bigger than 10. The next step is Select all and copy. Then Open the Template Load the selection and past the picture Into the selection. This way I can move it a bit arround, and with other actions Color correct, make it smaller or bigger, brighter or darker etc. If I need two 5x7s I will call up the two 5×7 template and it will make two pictures of 5x7s on the same sheet. An other action will past a second different picture allowing me to print two different pictures on the same sheet.
Do to the templates all pictures are exact sizes and not odd ones like in Picture Package.
The whole process takes only 3-5 seconds on a 1Ghz P3 256 Ram computer.
Norbert: I will have to play with that… what I have been doing is making corrections to each picture, which is too time consuming… the action and batch process will take care of that and I usually onlt need minor adjustments anyway. After all, this is for golf tournaments and not portraits and the lighting is pretty consistent throughout the shoot… Since we print during the tournaments, I usually run 3 or 4 batches, which makes the lighting even more consistent.
I have then been importing them in a folder into Film factory, and printing them in batches. Most events are for identical pictures, and if not you can print various sizes in film factory without resizing the picture. I have never set up templates in photoshop, but that sounds like a good way to do it as well. Again thanks for the help! What kind of photography do you do now? Steve
I work in Times Square and 42nd St in New York almost all nights between 7pm and 11pm photographing tourists and others, mostly lovers going to the movies and hanging out in the area.
I think the actions batch function is going to be a real life saver for me… can’t thank you enough. I shoot nature and wildlife photography as my prime thing. I have a web site at lambesisphotography.com that is almost completed selling that photography… check it out. I would like to try your other process for outings as well. How would I start to set up templates for photoshop? Steve
File new. Set dimension and resolution: Say 5×7 inches and White canvas. Do a Select All. Now go to Edit>Save selection and give it a name I use "5×7 Picture". Save the template. and close it. Now open a Picture from your camera, rotate it so it is at the same position as the template. Resize using same resolution. Make sure one side is bigger than 5 or 7 it depends on the aspect ratio of your camera. When done do a Select All, copy it to the clipboard and close it. When promptet to save "say No". Go to File>open and open the Template. Now go to Select>Load Selection and navigate to the name you gave to the selection. Do a past Into. (Not Past)You will be able to move it a bit. Do the same for an 8×10. If interested for two same or two different pictures on one sheet let me know.
If you write the steps beginning with Resize Picture you can automate this process.
This seems a lot more time consuming, but i am giving it a try… once I have done the select all, how do I copy it to the clipboard??? Just don’t know how to do that. Steve
It seems, but you have to do this only once. After you write the action you are flying. 2 to 3 seconds to make an 8×10 or two 5x7s.
If you want to go really fast go to Edit>Preferences General and set the History states to 1. For High volume production work you do not need History states it only slows down your computer and specially so if you are short on RAM. Also Set the Memory usage for Photoshop to 75% if you have more than 256RAM otherwise let it at 50%. You do this by clicking on the little arrow next to General.
