How can I reduce lots of photos

[jbrown]

Hi All

In the coarse of my work I have to take loads of photos ( generally Jpegs of Tiffs ) of various locations - which I like to have as large files, as I may need to work on them. So the camera has been set, and it results in files approximately 4mb
in size.

When the job is finished and I'd like to reduce the photo sizes down to save space, say to around 400k.

So as an example; I'll have a folder called New York, and in that there will be 10 subfolders ( Bronx, Manhattan, Coney Island etc. etc. ) - each of those folders could have 100 4mb photos.

What I'd like is an app the I could drop the main folder onto, and it will reduce any photos in that folder and it's sub-folders ( and their sub-folders ), from 4mb down to 400k*. Does anything like that exist. Or could a clever computer savvy person write me a script that would do this?

Many many thanks!

J


* And added bonus would be the ability to adjust what size the files are reduced to.

 

[Dave Braine]

Automator(it should be on your Mac) should be able to do this for you. I can get it do it for individual photos, but can't see a way to do it for Folders.

For individual photos, open Automator, and choose Folder Action, from the New File option. If there isn't a Sidebar to the left, click "Show Library" in the Toolbar.

Choose your Destination Folder at the top of the window.
In the left hand column of the Sidebar, click on Photos. The right hand column will change it's contents. Find the "Scale Images" option and drag it into the panel to the right. Choose the size that you want your finished image.

Save the project.

Now just drag and drop photos into that Destination Folder and they will be resized.

Someone else maybe able to tell you how to do it with Folders of photos.

 

[chown33]

To do folders of photos, add a "Get Folder Contents" action before scaling the images. To apply the action recursively (i.e. getting the folder contents of each sub-folder, etc.), click the "Repeat for each subfolder found" checkbox.

To debug this, temporarily disable the "Scale Images" action. Then drop a folder of images into the Destination Folder. Then look at the list of files produced by the action. It should match what you know to be the contents of the folder. In short, Confirm Your Expectation, the essence of debugging.

 

[jbrown]

Thanks so much guys!!! Between the two of you - I now have a working Automator app that does just what I need!!

 

[Dave Braine]

Thanks, Clown33. Knew there had to be a way.