Preserved Topic: Filter on Multiple Images

I was wondering about this, it would save me allot of time. Is there a program or plug-in that could possibly add one specified filter to say 50+ images all at once, instead of editing each one manually. This would save me a great deal of time when making graphics for flash.

Just create an action with whatever filter, and then use File > Automate > Batch.

Ask for a more detailed explanation if needed.

Thanks a bunch, good idea. But do I have to open up and do the action on all the images or will the batch be able to handle 50+ at once?

If you set up the action right, it will do all fifty without you having to do anything. It won't do them all at once, but will do them one at a time until all fifty are done. But you don't have to do a thing...

Penguins ain't from Boston.....................they are from PITTSBURGH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


BTW...............Wish someone would explain actions to me in plain english. I see the uses.....just can't get it right.

Actions in plain English:

• Open the ol actions palette (<--1 "L")
• Clcik the NEW ACTION button
• Name your action in the box that pops up
• Now, the "record" button on the palette is depressed and it recording every step you do, like the history palette.
• When you are done with the sequence of events that you are building an action for, click the "stop playing/recording" button at the bottom of the actions palette

That's it. If you want to repeat the action you just choose the action in the palette and click the "play" button and it will run all those steps on your active image. If you would like to run the action on multiple images go to FILE > AUTOMATE > BATCH then choose the action from the dialog box under "PLAY" that you wanna run and then choose the fodler full of images you want to run this action on under "SOURCE" in the same dialog box. Still in the same box, choose a folder to output the new images to under "DESTINATION" then the last option is "ERRORS" where you choose what to do in case of an error (never had one yet).

That was plain English, to me, hope your perspective is the same.

Only thing I would add to JK - click the "override 'save in'" check box. Many times your action will involve a save step, say for instance to establish a JPEG compression level. Obviously, in order to grab that step you have to save the file somewhere. That may not be where you want the files saved the next time you run the action, especially with a batch. Clicking the "override" box allows you to do everything the action recorded, but to select where to save the files.

Actions make life with a digital camera bearable. I'll give you and example. Our D1s won't auto-rotate verticals. We come back from a shoot with, let's say 75 portraits, all which open in landscape orientation. Who wants to sit there and open, rotate and save 75 images? Let an action rip and go for coffee! Actions are not easy to figure out at first, but believe me - if you do repetitive stuff they are a blessing, and by the time you've recorded your third or forth one, they start to make sense and there's no turning back! Note that batching really only works unattended if EXACTLY the same thing has to be done to every file. But actions can help even if you need some input. We did a job a few years back involving posters for an e-commerce site. All the images had to be a specific number of pixels in the long dimension, but the proportions of the posters varied all over the place - some were square, some real skinny ... I put in a stop action at the crop stage, which meant I could draw the crop box manually, while letting the action do everythig else: opening, resizng and saving. Boy did that make things more bearable!

Image Magick will do it, and it's free. I know I pimp this quite a bit, but I use the hell out of it. When you get much past 100 images, this is really the way to go. It's fast enough to do this kind of thing on the fly on your web server too.

Check this filter selection out: http://www.imagemagick.org/www/mogrify.html