Batch Automation. Multiple files from same PSD

[Keith Trigwell]

Hi, system is XP Pro running CS4 or Vista running CS4.

first off. Thanks to anyone who reads this and double thanks to those who reply....... I've been on this mission for about 4 days and 'm getting a few things sorted...

This is the scenario....

I take a shot or two (RAW)... (or 500), injest via bridge and rate and select certain of the resulting CR2 files (or DNG).

1) I work on the selected RAW files (doing recovery maybe colour balance in ACR) save the XMP files and open in PS

2) I do the necessary sharpening and artistic adjustments, Copyright notices and watermarking. (I have an action which creates all the watermarks (3 types))

So I have a working PSD file by this point.

I can use Scripts>Image Processor and set "Use Open Images", "Save in Same Location", "Save as PSD" and not run and action in order to save these in a folder structure to how they are organised within the photo project.

So I now have PSD's with multiple layers, all saved.

Now the problem....

I need to have several outputs from these PSD files of different format (TIFF/JPEG), differnet sizes (original, 1024, 600, 110), with different Layers hidden or shown and save at different quality settings. I also want to be able to change the file naming and utilitse batch naming such as *filename*_1024_WM.JPG

Obviously I want to be able to set up to batch automate as much of this as possible.

Reasons for this are, If i do band photogrphy, the venue want a copy, the bands want one for their facebook or myspace pages (with a watermark to protect them from web site rights grabbing).. A print house may want an unlayered TIFF at 200... I will want a 110 thumbnail and a 600 PX version to give customers for their own websites, which wil have course have a copyright logo on it.

The formats are


1) Print Production Version.
File Type. Unlayered TIFF,
File Size. Original image dimensions,
File DPI. 300DPI.
Protection:Watermarked with small copyright notices


2) Digital Production Version.
File Type. Jpeg - Maximum Quality.
File Size. Original image dimensions,
File DPI. 72DPI
Protection:Watermarked with small copyright notices


3) Safe Distribution Version (for non-commercial promotion)
File Type. Jpeg - Quality 8
File Size. No more than 480 pixels height or width,
File DPI. 72 DPI,
Protection:Watermarked with a 25 pixel bordered copyright notice to prevent theft by cropping. Not to be uploaded to Social Networking sites that image rights grab.


4) Image Promotion Version.
File Type. JPeg - Maximum Quality
File Size. No more than 2000 pixels height or width.
File DPI. 72 DPI
Protection:Very heavily watermarked with copyright and ownership notice.


5) Social Networking Site Version.
File Type. JPeg - Maximum Quality
File Size. No more than 600 pixels height or width.
File DPI. 72 DPI
Protection:Artistically watermarked for social networking sites that rights grab, giving rights of this special artistic watermarked image to the social networking site with warnings about theft of it thereafter. Offering a way of gaining use of the original unwatermarked image and stating rights ownership of the original image lies with the photographer. (just mail me and I can send you the action. it works for portrait and landscape images)


The problem is when I try to automate this, the PSD gets lost after the first one. (needs to be reloaded). It may not be a problem for the first three formats as the first two are the same (just requiring to be saved in different formats and DPI) and the third can be made from the maximum quality JPEG of the second format and resized down. Thats when it goes wrong...

Is there a way of keeping th ePSD in RAM and having it savedin each of these formats.

and the other thing is the last four formats will save in a JPEG folder each time, effectively over-writing previous versions.

So

1) Is there a way of automating the saving process to put them in named folders under the PSD folder and
2) Is there a way of having something added to the name eg...
Print_*filename*.TIFF
Production_*filename*.JPG
Dist_*filename*.JPG
WM_Promo_*filename*.JPG
WM_SN_*filename*.JPG

Thanks in advance

Keith Trigwell

[akiersky]

I think what you are trying to do would be possible using the history pannel with the actions.
to preserve the original psd, at the bottom of the history pannel, there is a button at the bottom left that will create a new document from state, this will copy the original psd into a new file that can be edited. Then after each save, just close the copy and you will be back at the original. Then do the resize, watermark, and whatnot.

if you want to constrain the image to 'fit in a box' if you load the 'production' action set, there is a fit image action that will do that, just copy it in to the flow of your action after you record the other actions. (I usually use a test image to create my action, and set up all the steps there.)

as for the saving as sequenced files, this isn't really natively possible through the actions. it is possible to write your own script that could do that. but not very possible better off, just save each format to a different folder set as the default name. so if your original image is 'imageNumber5.psd' just make a folder for each type (full size, samples, social network, etc...) and save to there. then after you finish all photos, go to the folder in bridge and go to tools>batch rename, which has lots off options to process all the file names in a folder.

one other tip, if you want to have control over certin action steps, you can add stops by clicking the box to the left of the action (not the check, looks like a little window) this will pause the action, let you adjust parameters such as filter settings, or crop dimensions, then hit enter, or accept, and it will continue with the action.

sorry if this turned into a collection of action tips, but I think with some trials you should be able to do what you want.
good luck!
ak