macOS Help: Accessing Photo Booth files for Automation/Applescript

[Pojken]

Hello,

I recently transitioned from Windows to Mac (retinaMBP/Mountain Lion). With Windows, I used JitBit and Photoshop to create a simple script to make a photobooth for a friend's wedding. I am trying to recreate that using Automator, but it is... a bit frustrating. The problem is...

• Accessing the files: "Photo Booth Library" is a library where Photo Booth saves the folders. How do I access the package content files in it using Automator? It seems that Photo Booth will not save it to a folder, but a library.

Here is the logic I am trying to follow:

1. Take 4 photos in Photo Booth (Complete: Used this code with a 7 second pause in between. "Take Video Snapshot" produced a low quality icon-sized image.)
2. Select all files and open them in Photoshop (Incomplete: I can't figure out how. I assume that once I can access them, I can use "Open Finder Items" )
3. Process photos in a strip (Complete: I can run a Photoshop Action script to make it into a script to arrange them.)
4. Print strip (Complete: )
5. Move photos to a different directory and upload to Dropbox (Incomplete: Again, I cannot access the files.)

Ideally, I'd like to keep it all in Automator, but if not, I would like to use Chrome to display the pictures in a row by renaming the files and using HTML to arrange it. The files would have to be renamed or the HTML code rewritten each time and then refreshed. I want to keep it simple so that anyone with a MBP can have it.

Here is an example of the photobooth strip I made. I like adding a static image at the bottom, to show the event - in this case, it was my niece's 7 year birthday party. I used a regular inkjet and had some cheap A4 photopaper cut into 4 strips since that is the minimum size that can be fed through the printer. It got crinkled in the drawer.

​

So, any help with just that one problem of accessing the files would be really helpful. I think I can figure everything else out. Unfortunately, I don't know how to create apps like the App Store offers, and am annoyed that there isn't something out there that is affordable - the only one offered at the moment costs $100-$500.

Thanks,

Tien

 

[kryten2]

Use the "Take Video Snapshot" action. Info here : http://macosxautomation.com/automator/examples/ex01/index.html
The pictures in the example workflow don't look like low quality icon-sized images to me. Probably Photoshopped but give it a go.

 

[Pojken]

Use the "Take Video Snapshot" action. Info here : http://macosxautomation.com/automator/examples/ex01/index.html
The pictures in the example workflow don't look like low quality icon-sized images to me. Probably Photoshopped but give it a go.

I guess I should mention that I have the Retina Display Macbook, with OS X 10.8.2. I'm using a 2880 x 1800 display. Then again, I don't think it matters because I tried the same thing on a friend's Macbook (2010) and got the same results.

The "Take Video Snapshot" gives me a really poor quality photo. Photo Booth gives me a somewhat better one. Here is a comparison:

"Take Video Snapshot"

Photo Booth

Tien

 

[Pojken]

I found this - Applescript to open Show Package Contents

Can anyone help me translate that to what I need? Again, I'm brand new and would love to figure this out on my own, but I need to make it before Halloween.

Tien

 

[kryten2]

I think the "Take Video Snapshot" looks better. Must be getting old and my eyesight has started to deteriorate. To take a good photograph you need light. Anyway I found this :

Exporting and removing images from Photo Booth
Click on one photo in Photo Booth and hit command-R to reveal the file in the Finder. In the Finder window, hit Command-A to select all, then hold down the command key while clicking with the mouse to deselect any pictures you don't want to move and delete.

Info : http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070908142808852

In Finder go to View --> Show Path Bar. Post a screenshot of the Finder window when you do a Reveal in Finder of a photograph in Photo Booth.

 

[Pojken]

Click on one photo in Photo Booth and hit command-R to reveal the file in the Finder.

Unfortunately, the Photobooth Library is a library and the only way to get access to it is to (as far as I can tell) "Show Package Contents"

 

[kryten2]

Can you post a screenshot of the Get Info window of the Photo Booth Library?

Run these in ScriptEditor and post the results :

--choose the Photo Booth Library
set theLibrary to choose file
tell application "Finder" to get properties of theLibrary
-- or
tell application "Finder" to set theLibraryInfo to info for theLibrary

and

set photoLibrary to (path to pictures folder as text) & "Photo Booth Library:Pictures:" as alias
tell application "Finder" to set thePictures to every item of photoLibrary

 

[Pojken]

I figured it out... rather, a friend did. He used the following Shell script to move the files from one folder to another.

mv ~/Pictures/Photo\ Booth\ Library/Pictures/* ~/Desktop/Temp\ Pictures/

After that, it was relatively easy to do the rest. Thanks for your help!

Tien