Need help with a PS action, please

[sdubose99]

Hi, I'm an old hand with Photoshop but fairly new to actions. I've recorded them and modified them with fair results over the years. But now I need help with one.

I photograph virtual tours for real estate agents, using my digital camera and stitching multiple shots together to create a 360 degree panorama of building interiors, etc. I use a wide angle lens attachment that has significant barrel distortion, and I want to pre-process all the images prior to using my panorama program.

I created an action that rotates each image, corrects for barrel distortion, and resizes the image. I want to process all images in a folder, and not ask for input from me during the processing and saving. But the action asks me to press 'OK' for the distortion correction, and again to press 'OK' to set the JPEG compression during the save.

How can I modify the action or the batch process so it just runs and processes all images in the folder? I will have a few hundred images after my jobs this Monday and want to streamline the processing.

thanks!
Scott

[DannyRaphael]

Hi Scott:

I'd like to tinker with your action to see if I can help. If you'll e-mail it to me [email protected] (take out the xxx), I'll take a look.

~Danny~

[DannyRaphael]

One thing that occurs to me...

In the File > Automation > Batch dialog...

Try turning on the "Override Action Save As Commands" checkbox for the destination folder. Seems I read somewhere what this does is override the "file path," but not the options specified in the recorded Save As dialog.

~Danny~

[sdubose99]

Danny, thanks for your offline help! Between your expertise and other external expertise, we solved the problem. In my example, I have several hundred images in a folder, and want to process them all the same way:

1) resize the image (I want to reduce file size, so I put this step first to speed up the processing of the latter steps. If you are enlarging the image, you should put the resize step last in the action, prior to the Save step)
2) rotate CCW
3) debarrel correction (a filter plugin -- this method works for any other filter, too)
4) save

Record your action and designate the settings you want for each step. As it is, the action will run -- but it will require you to click 'OK' since some filters do not run automatically in an action. And it will sometimes require you to click 'OK' when you set the jpeg compression options during the save process.

But we can get around those hurdles. We ultimately want to allow the action to run on ALL images in the folder, without human intervention...

At the point where you will run the filter - in my case, the debarrel correction -- go to your action palette, and click "Insert Menu Item...". A dialog will open and ask you to select a menu item to process with this step in the action. In my case I selected CTRL-F, or Filter/Last Filter. Click OK to close the dialog. If you recorded the filter in the action above, you may want to deselect that step in the action.

If you are running the batch action in the future, you will have to "set the stage" for the action by processing one image manually. This will pre-set your action parameters. Perform the filter and set any other options exactly how you want to process all the images. Save the image, setting the jpeg compression options or file format options that you want. It won't matter where you save that particular image, as we will next use the Batch process in Photoshop to save to a target folder.

Now that we have the filter settings correct, and the save options correct, and set the stage for the action, we can proceed to the batch automation process.

Click File/Automate/Batch...
Select the action set you want, and the particular action that we recorded and modified above.
Select the folder that contains all the original images.
Select "Folder" for your Destination.
Choose a folder where you want the modified images to go.
Click "Override Action "Save As" Command."
And Click OK.

Your action should now process through all the images in your "Originals" folder, and deposit the modified images into your "Destination' folder!

Quick Summary:
Record your action
Insert Menu Item...
"Set the stage"
Batch automate using "Override Action "Save As" Command"