Automated Image Processing

eyemacg5 · Oct 12, 2009

Hi Guys,
I'm looking for a solution to this problem we've been having and it could save me days because I wouldn't have to wait for bridge and mess about with it.

I work for a mail order company and in catalogue production a lot of photography is shot, what I want is for the photographer to be able to drop .nef and .tiff files in a folder and a program to open them up convert them to cmyk 300dpi and jpgs then save them to a different folder.

Yes I know jpgs loose image quality but our images are printed 10x10cm max not on a bill board. So we're fine using jpgs.

Any Suggestions?

zlinuk · Oct 12, 2009

If you have photoshop you can create droplets tailored to your own requirement. Stick "photoshop droplets" into google and see what comes up.

spice weasel · Oct 12, 2009

Use Automator. I'm not sure how much you can fine-tune the specs of your final image, but you can very easily and very quickly resize and convert using Automator.

jdl8422 · Oct 12, 2009

Just create your own photoshop action.

Pull up one of the images, open the action tab and hit record. Go through all the steps you want and hit stop. Then go to File>automate and run your action. You can pick which folder and pick a destination folder.

eyemacg5 · Oct 12, 2009

I don't think I explained my self right.
This all needs to be automated.
I currently have the folder open in bridge then use Tools>Photoshop>Image Processor.

What I want is a watched folder (hot folder?) that when I drop the image into it, it triggers the action on that image and saves it somewhere else.

My aim in this is me not needed to go into bridge and use the image processor.

I've been looking into it and is there hot folders in aperture?

spice weasel · Oct 12, 2009

Create a workflow in Automator and save it as an application. Then you can just drop your files on it and it will automatically make the changes and save it to whatever folder you specified in the workflow.

eyemacg5 · Oct 13, 2009

Nope, still dont think you've got it.
I need my photographer to be able to drop files in a drop box.
Then another machine will see that they are there then process them and put them in another folder.

I don't want to drag anything anywhere.

needs to all be done automated, we get thousands of images daily.

dundonald · Oct 13, 2009

Can't you just do as Spice weasel suggests, but make the dropbox being watched by Automator a folder in Public or Shared?

chown33 · Oct 13, 2009

eyemacg5 said:
Nope, still dont think you've got it.
I need my photographer to be able to drop files in a drop box.
Then another machine will see that they are there then process them and put them in another folder.

I don't want to drag anything anywhere.

needs to all be done automated, we get thousands of images daily.

I think you and the responders are talking past one another. They may be assuming you know about Folder Actions, which trigger a user-determined action when any item is added to a folder.

If you don't know what Folder Actions are, you should read about it. Google the words folder actions, or try these urls:

http://www.apple.com/pro/tips/folderactions.html

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/02/16/applescript-exploring-the-power-of-folder-actions-part-i/

If you already know about Folder Actions, but don't know how to write a script to perform the specific action you described, then you should say that. Otherwise I think most folks are going to assume you at least know what AppleScript or Automator is, and that you can figure out how to use them to tell other applications to perform specific actions, like converting or resizing images.

If you don't know AppleScript and can't figure out Automator, then you should simply say that. We can't read your mind, and we have no way of knowing your automation skills except by you telling us.

Also, jdl8422 was very specific: Photoshop can create automated actions triggered from folders.

Just create your own photoshop action.

Pull up one of the images, open the action tab and hit record. Go through all the steps you want and hit stop. Then go to File>automate and run your action. You can pick which folder and pick a destination folder.

I don't use Photoshop, so I can't confirm this description, but it sounds dead simple. If you use Photoshop, you should try this. If you don't use Photoshop, you should say that.

You have to tell us what tools you have, and what your experience with automation is. I think the problem to solve is adequately defined at this point.

ezekielrage_99 · Oct 13, 2009

This tutorial from Smashing might be what you're after.

Designer Dale · Oct 14, 2009

I think the OP wants this to happen over a network. The photographer in the studio or his/her office drops the file into a folder on his/her machine and it is automatically sent to a machine in another department where it is processed and stored. Just a guess, and I don't know how to do this.

Dale

ChrisA · Oct 14, 2009

Designer Dale said:
I think the OP wants this to happen over a network. The photographer in the studio or his/her office drops the file into a folder on his/her machine and it is automatically sent to a machine in another department where it is processed and stored. Just a guess, and I don't know how to do this.

Dale

There might be a "mac-like" point and click way to set it up. I don't know. But it's not hard to do the above using just the UNIX tools that ship with Mac OS X.

You would have a file server to hold the data and it woud have a directory exported and mounted to all the client conputers in the office. Photographers would drop their files into this shared folder.

Then I'd have an entry in the system "cron table" that periodically check the folder for files of a given type (.NEF, .TIFF and so on) When it finds those files it runs a conversion script on them and puts the result where ever.

You can read the "cron" man page in the terminal by typing (no quotes) "man cron".

That said I think Apple has a neat feature where folder actions can do this in a simpler way.

A bit more esoteric but "way cool", and I've set this up for some other purpose is to use the native UNIX printing system "lpr". This system uses a file called /etc/printtab to specify what happens to a file when sent to a printer. "Printers are just entries in the printtap and most correspond 1:1 with real printers but they don't have to. The entries can do anything. You can do some really odd things like set up a "printer" that convers what you send to it to PDF file then emails it. So you could set one up to convert NEF or TIFF files to JPG and send them to some place. It's a good tool because built into the print system are log files and queues and user feedback if it worked or not

snickelfritz · Oct 14, 2009

file > scripts > image processor

or

file > scripts > load files into stack...

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Automated Image Processing

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