Actions & Batching

Only did this once last year and can't find my notes:
I have created a layer as a template, what i need to do now is creat the actions necessary to bring in another photo or set of them, place the template i created on top of it (merge?) save the photo as a copy and close it. From there i need to batch and make sure the photos go into cs4, get the template placed on top (again merge?) saved as a copy into the same folder they came from... Need help PLEASE!! Need to figure out by tonight if possible
Thanks!!

8386gmc4x4 wrote:
I have created a layer as a template, what i need to do now is creat the actions necessary to bring in another photo or set of them, place the template i created on top of it (merge?) save the photo as a copy and close it. From there i need to batch and make sure the photos go into cs4, get the template placed on top (again merge?) saved as a copy into the same folder they came from... Need help PLEASE!! Need to figure out by tonight if possible
When I read Template and Image it makes me think of two things data driven graphics where you create a template and set variables to layers and create a CSV text file to associate text and images for these layers. And Photo Collage and my Photoshop Photo Collage Toolkit.
Photo Collage Toolkit
The package includes four simple rules to follow when making Photo Collage Template PSD files so they will be compatible with my Photoshop scripts.
There are eight scripts in this package they provide the following functions:
TestCollageTemplate.jsx - Used to test a Photo Collage Template while you are making it with Photoshop.
CollageTemplateBuilder.jsx - Can build Templates compatible with this toolkit's scripts.
LayerToAlphaChan.jsx - Used to convert a Prototype Image Layer stack into a template document.
InteractivePopulateCollage.jsx - Used to interactively populate Any Photo Collage template. Offers most user control inserting pictures and text.
ReplaceCollageImage.jsx - use to replace a populated collage image Smart Object layer with an other image correctly resized and positioned.
PopulateCollageTemplate.jsx - Used to Automatically populate a Photo Collage template and leave the populated copy open in Photoshop.
BatchOneImageCollage.jsx - Used to Automatically Batch Populate Collage templates that only have one image inserted. The Collage or Image may be stamped with text.
BatchMultiImageCollage.jsx - Used to Automatically Batch Populate Any Photo Collage template with images in a source image folder. Easier to use than the interactive script. Saved collages can be tweaked.
Documentation and Examples
Download

Similar Messages

Add layers from other psd file via action/batch (Or possibly script)

Hi
Brand new to this forum. Quick intro: Eivind from Norway, 32, Photographer, Nikon D300, CS5
I have tried to make a action where i open 2 files, duplicate the layers from file2 to file1 and it works fine.
But running the action as a batch i get in trouble, the action saves the from and to filenames when i duplicate the layers.
Then i found the place function (File - Place..) but i ran in to trouble here also. When i place a psd file containing the layers it becomes smart objects and i can't edit the text layers directly.
Background: I have a script that copys info from the filename to specific labeled text layers in photoshop. (Name_Age_Title.jpg) so i can batch process lots of files and add info boxes from the filename (Fantastic) Only problem is the i want to make lots of different layouts, logos, fonts. And no i have to adjust the action for every change. Would have been perfect to just have a action/batch/script opening the file, adding the layers from a template1.psd file, running the script adding text to the text layers and saving.
Any ideas?
Eivind

No comments on this one?
Maybe i have to do the scriping way, any ideas?
Eivind

Healing brush / action / batch?

I have a massive amount of photographs with the same view of Shanghai and I'm trying to make a still image animation using these pics. When i started working my images I found two huge spots in the skyline. I'm wondering if theres a way to do something like an action/batch thing in photoshop using the healing brush to clean these spost that are sitting in the same damn place in all of my images, or would it just be easier to clean the spots from the animation video with premier or something. I'm not that familiar with video editing and would like to clean these spots before I get started.

Reynolds (Mark) wrote:
Do you have them as RAW's? If so there is a spot healing brush in RAW that can be applied to multiple images.
I don't think they have to be raw files. ACR will work on JPGs and TIFFs too.
I think the feature mentioned was primarily introduced to deal with dirty sensors where the same fault is present on all images.

Photoshop CS3 Actions Batch mode bug?

I posted this in the Mac forum but received no responses after a couple of days, so I am trying it here.
Photoshop CS3 Actions seem to have a bug such that when used in Automate > Batch mode it will use the name of the first file opened in the batch session for every file processed in that session. Since that name is used in Save step, this means having to deal with the "File Already Exist" dialog for every file in the batch because it is attempting to save at the designated location with the same file name. If the continue option is chosen each time, the final result is one file with the first opened file name, but with the contents of the last processed file.
To confirm that this is a problem particular to the opening step, I have disabled all processing steps as well as the saving step by toggling them in the Actions panel. I then ran the action in batch mode on a folder containing 4 files. This resulted in 4 opened files all with the same name but different image content.
This was with the "Override 'Open' Action Commands" checked/not checked, and the "Suppress File Open Options Dialogs" checked/not checked. The problem described also occurs when using a Droplet.
By comparison, Photoshop CS exhibits the expected behavior: when an action is used in batch mode to process an entire folder of files, the name of each file is retained after opening and used after processing in the save or export step.
The above described behavior of CS3 is a change acquired along the way to the CS3 version (I do not have the CS2 version to test). But more importantly, can someone please report if the CS4 version behaves as I described for CS3, or if it has been returned to the CS behavior?
OS X 10.4.11
G4 800 MHz 2 MB L3/processor 1.25 GB SDRAM
Is this a known bug?
Al

Hello Miguel,
I was going to come back to post some of my findings, one of which relates to your staement:
"- The open command created by Photoshop 6 doesn't keep the file's name, it is a much simple open command, and so it opens the file with the own file's name."
In my case I found that my CS version of the "same" action worked, while the CS3 version failed, precisely because the earlier one records less detail for the open step.
My need is to convert dozens of Quark pdf files to GIF and JPEG files for the web. What I found after several days of testing is that it is best to record the opening step in CS3 NOT using a pdf file, so that the "Open As Generic Pdf with 'Name____' " would not be coded into the opening step. Instead I recorded the whole action using a PSD file. Then I can proceed to run it in Batch mode choosing a folder of Quark pdf files as the source location with "Override 'Open' Action Commands" checked, and the "Suppress File Open Options Dialogs" checked, and it opens all the pdf files just fine in some background process, not getting stuck in the details of the file name, and proceeds to cary out the flattening, saving, and closing steps to my chosen target location and uses the finder file name of each pdf files in the source folder to save a filename.ext in the Target folder.
Contrary to what I stated in my original post, "Override 'Open' Action Commands" checked/not checked does indeed make a difference. If it is not checked, the files do open in batch mode, but the other steps are not performed. There is much more about this that I would like to know, and this may not be a general solution for all types of files that a user may wish to process in batch mode, but it works for my case. The main trick is to use as simple an opening step as possible when recording the action, and then letting Photoshop use whatever background process it requires to open a particular file type. I tested this by manually saving a pdf file to each of the twenty some odd formats available in the save as dialog to a Source folder, and then proceeded to batch process that folder with the action described above, and it worked for all except one.
So while there may not be a bug involved in this problem, there certainly is a lack of documentation about how the "improvements" in the opening step in newer versions of Photoshop affect using Actions in Batch mode.
Please comment if you can further explain any of the reported results. In particular, what is the situation in CS4?
Thanks,
Al

Action batch export issue with image trace

So, currently I'm working on batch processing jpeg sequences using illustrator's image trace and distortion effects. I have batch exported the image traces of the sequences via Adobe bridge. Now I'm trying to create an action which opens the .ai files containing those image traces, apply a graphic style to the trace, and export a png from that. I'm banging my head against the wall trying to get this to work right now. If I do the steps (step by step... not using a recorded action) I want on a single file, it works great, but the moment I batch export using the action I've created, it puts the original .png image that the image trace was linked to, on top of the image. The result is a bunch of .png exports that look exactly like my original image sequence. If I add a "save" function to the action and open the resulting .ai files, I can see that the image trace vectors are in the file. The "linked png" however visible on the layer above those vectors. Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong? How do I get rid of that pesky linked image.
Also, for anyone who might be thinking that it has something to do with expanding the image trace before applying effects, this issue I'm running into, I've determined, is happening higher up in the hierarchy of the actions... If I simply make an action to open the image trace illustrator file and save it back out, the same issue occurs... placing the .png "linked file" on top of the vector image.
While I'm at it, I might as well ask if anyone knows how to change the illustrator default image trace preset.... Without being able to change it, or much less specify in the action sequence that I'd like to use a user created image trace preset rather than the default setting, it's greatly overcomplicating my workflow. Makes what could easily be one-step batch processing into two. Seems pretty silly if you ask me.
Please, if you guys have any insights on this, let me know. It's super frustrating... By the way, if you're wondering what type of effect I'm going for, the idea (as well as some explanation into their own process) starts at 12:44 of this video (http://vimeo.com/77427470).
THANKS!

Just wanted to let you guys know, for anyone who might be having my same issue... My home computer, even after a fresh install of Illustrator, was still placing the linked jpeg over the traced vector shapes when batch exporting... I did however find a workaround. Rather than using Bridge CS6 for the batch image tracing, I used Bridge CS5 to trace in Illustrator CS5. Then, I used Illustrator CS6 to batch export an action that imported and applied an effect to those image traced sequences. When you do this, it forces you to expand the tracing on import (because of the difference in Illustrator versions I'm assuming). This way, when you batch run the action, it's already working with expanded vector shapes. Not sure why this works, but it does.
Also, I was having some issues getting Illustrator to apply the graphic style when batch exporting. I got it to work by copying an object with that particular graphic style to the clipboard, then adding in the action I was running a "paste" command, followed by a "clear" command. I can only assume that Illustrator was having issues loading custom graphics styles while batch exporting. The paste/delete technique is annoying, but gets it done.
Anyways. Just wanted to check in on this one. I'm happy I was able to muscle my way through it all.

Problem with Action/Batch

OK, PS CS4 extended v. 11.0.1 on a Win XP sp3 OS
I recorded a simple action set
Open | Set File Info of current document | Save | Close
I then performed an Automated Batch run to duplicate this on a series of more than 100 photo images in a folder. In the Batch dialogue box, I clearly identified a new folder - located in the same directory as the original - as the Destination Folder for the images. However, when the batch process was complete, the newly created folder was EMPTY and all of the photo images in the Source Folder had been rewritten!
Now, since this was as simple as entering file information, no harm was done to the image files. However, I have had other times when I run a batch action to resize the images from their raw size to, for instance, 6" X 4" @ 300 dpi for printing. When these save to the original source folder it IS a problem because my native files are overwritten.
Did I do something wrong in the action? Did I set something incorrectly in the batch process?
If I do this correctly, there should be a screenshot of my action steps and my batch settings here.
Please help me! I use this feature A LOT because I am responsible for cataloging all of the photos taken at our airport.
Thank you!
Susan

ZB: Please don't apologize! I am grateful for the assistance, I was just confused by the "save" vs. "save as" information and wanted to be certain that I understood what you were saying. I figure if I'm going to ask someone to share their knowledge/time with me, the least I can do is understand it well enough to put it to use and possibly pass it along to someone else at a later date! I certainly don't want to have to keep asking the same questions each time I try to do a task. Oy ve...that would be annoying!
Thank you very much for your help. I don't have another project right now to try this with, but I'm certain I will soon enough. We have a $138 million dollar construction project we are photographing almost daily.
Again, my heartfelt thanks!

CS5 Action Batch

Windows 7. (64bit) Illustrator CS5 (15.0.0)
I am trying to run an action on a batch of EPS files. The action runs as expected, but Illustrator is determined to SAVE AS ai files. I have no Save or Save As steps in my action.
If I choose Save and Close for Destination, each file will present a Save As Dialog Box, set to the AI format.
If I choose Folder, and choose the destination folder as the same as trhe source (Which is what I want), then Illustrator does not prompt me. However, it ends up saving 2 copies of the file. One with a number appended to the file name (Which also appears to be a slightly smaller file size).
My understanding is that when you choose Save and Close, Illustrator should do just that. Not change the format.
Any ideas?
Thanks
-Karl

Hi Kurt. Basically I'm taking a small Tiff (500 x 357) that I have edited in Photoshop and finishing it off in Illustrator by first Live Tracing it and then resizing to 1920 x 1080.
I tried Bridge and it would not ignore white, also the resize stage seemed to miss every other file, which is why I have two instances of it in my actions.
I would have liked to have the action read from my RAID (d drive) and then write to my my export drive (e drive) but everytime I configured the batch dialogue to do that, I ended up with duplicates of each file. EDIT duplicates in the export folder.
I added "save and close" to the action steps, but could only get that to work by writing to the same folder I am reading from.
I intend to use this process a fair bit in the coming months and the small amout of time saved in each instance will add up to a lot, which is why I want to understand this fully.
Thank you.

CS3 saving from actions & batch error, what to do?

Hello!
I am trying to edit a big bunch of my photos using actions and the batch script in Photoshop CS3 Extended on Windows Vista. The whole thing falls apart when PS is trying to save during an action sequence (or even if the saving is bypassed by the batch script) and displays an error message: "Could not save as 'file location/file name...' because the file could not be found." And this happens while the file actually is already open in Photoshop!
Not only does it make the batch command completely useless but also makes editing a large number of photos very frustrating since the only way of saving them is to do it manually one by one.
Anyone have any ideas on what I could do to make it work again as it should?
Kind regards,
Olli

Photoshop open a file and read it in memory and converts it into a Photoshop document in Photoshop data structures and closes the file. There are no open files in Photoshop there are active documents in Photoshop. Some Active documents may be associated with files while others may be new documents where no file exists yet. You may be getting a miss leading message about a file not existing where the real cause may be something else like the device or folder does not exist or the folder or file is locked with a read only attribute or something like that. Batch Scripts and Plug-in save files all the time without problems its what batching is all about.

Photoshop CC. Actions & Batch Processing has a bug

I am using a new MAC Book Pro, with OS 10.9, purchased on 12/03/14. I subscribed to Photoshop CC and discover that I am not able to batch process my pictures. I do create new action, do the action, then save and close the picture file, then stop recording. I then do automate and batch and select the source folder and destination folder and do OK. I then get a random series of parts of the actions carried out. For example I tried to change a file of 27 images from colour to black & white. I actually just got 5 images changed to black & white. I have tried to batch process various picture files, with the same results. I am a professional photographer, and have used Photoshop for many years. Batch processing is absolutely fundamental to my work, so I am having to cancel my subscription and revert to an older version of Photoshop. Adobe cannot expect professional people to tolerate this basic lack of product non functionality.
Here's a revolutionary business lesson for Adobe, put more money into R&D and testing, develop a working product, and you will sell more product, and your profits increase !.

It in now mid November and this bug still hasn't been fixed!
That's really unacceptable. I've already lost a few hours trying to find another solution...

Problems with actions (batch automation)

I created an action to convert some .tif files to .jpg's and then resize the image and close. However
when i try to put it into action, the batch automate wont proceed, and it says: "The command "save as" is not currently available... even if i click "continue" it still gives me the same prompt for the other steps in the action.... 'save' and 'close'.
I created a similar action a week ago that worked fine... anyone know what might be the problem???
thanks.

Peter
Do you have a save or save as command as part of your action?
Do you have the 'Overide action 'save as' commands' ticked in the batch settings window?
Double click the text 'Overide action 'save as' commands' for a description of what it does.

CS6 actions batch saving images to a clipping mask issue

Hey all,
Been at this for quite some while now and searched the www thin for suggestion - so really hope someone can help me out here.
Objective:
- Target a folder with xxx .gif patterns (in the same size)
- Setup actions to batch open each image from the folder, copy the pattern image individually over to a .PSD file that have a silhouette of the sleeve.
- Apply the individual pattern to the clipping mask
- Save it out as .png
Issue:
So far ive only had the automate > batch process to save out one .png with the pattern correctly applied to the silhouette.
What I experince is that, if I close down everything and initiate automate > batch process then Photoshop will complain about not being able to locate the clipping mask.
In my action setup I first open my .psd containing my sleeve shape, then open an actual pattern image and then all other steps ending up with saving the .psd with pattern clipping mask to .png.
Just to give a simple idea about my setup take a look here:
http://i.imgur.com/FE8mSEU.png
In this one below, ive closed everything and run the automate > batch process, which gives me the error you can see here:
http://i.imgur.com/7Cvj26D.png
Any suggestions on what I could be doing wrong OR if I am doing anything wrong?

Hi Mack,
Thanks a lot for your throughout response - really appreciate it!
I do acknowledge that im new to batch in Photoshop and could possibly why this is not working for me - although in not quite sure why and what I would need to make as a programmed script - would you by any chance try to give me an idea on what specific step needs to be programmed?
My actions are very few and quite simple, and seemed to fit in very nicely in how ive understood the actions feature would work - in any case of not being precise enough here's my exact steps.
1. I open up Photoshop - No documents or anything are open at current point. I click "Record" in actions
2. I open my sleeve_layer.PSD file (which opens up in a tab) -> File -> Open -> PSD
3. I open one of the pattern .gif files (which opens up in a tab) - which are all located in the same folder with the same size -> File -> Open -> .gif
4. In my pattern tab window (from nr 3) I select all (ctrl-a) -> copy (ctrl-c)
5. I then click over to my sleeve_layer.PSD window tab and paste (ctrl-v) my copied pattern image into a layer above my sleeve layer.
6. I then right-click with my mouse on the pattern.gif layer -> click "Create clipping mask" (the pattern is now only shown within the sleeve layer shape)
7. I save the work done in the .psd to web -> File -> Save for web -> .png
8. I then close my sleeve_layer.PSD - without saving it (since I dont want to have clipping masks for each pattern stacking up from the batch)
9. Recording ends
If I now run the batch all actions are done fine until it reaches the action with the clipping mask - where I get "The command "Create clipping mask" is not currently available" - I can see that when this error appears, im not seeing any open sleeve_layer.PSD tab - so not sure if the psd file is actually getting opened (and this might be the error for the reference error of the clipping mask to appear).
If I try to manually RUN the actions set in the actions panel, I notice though that the sleeve_layer.PSD tab is getting opened.
When running automate -> batch -> I point "source" to my folder of all patterns (only .gif files appear in this folder)
"Destination" folder is set to some other folder.

Actions, batch saving down

Hi,
I am working on an action to save down from CS4 to CS3,
When I first made the action to save as an EPS, I choose File, save as, picked EPS, and chose CS3 as the version. but when I play it back it won't save as CS3, but as CS4.
How can I get the action to use CS3 as the version type.
I'm going to be running this as a batch on 5000 files.
Any help would be great.
Thanks,
Karleen

Hi,
I am working on an action to save down from CS4 to CS3,
When I first made the action to save as an EPS, I choose File, save as, picked EPS, and chose CS3 as the version. but when I play it back it won't save as CS3, but as CS4.
How can I get the action to use CS3 as the version type.
I'm going to be running this as a batch on 5000 files.
Any help would be great.
Thanks,
Karleen

Actions - batch images

Would you be so kind to help me? I need to apply an action for a set of images (let's say 100) and I want to use Batch function in order to simplify the process. The issue is that I need this action to be applied at opacity 20% for all images. How it's possible to do? I wonder if it is the way to do automatically, not manually to change the opacity for each image.

You'll need to record the steps to yield that 20% mixing result into your action.
You could, for example, start by duplicating the image you're working on as a second layer, doing the operations you want on it, then setting the Opacity of the layer to 20% and Merge Down.
Keep in mind actions can invoke other actions, so you could record an action that does the above, and the "the operations you want" step could be calling upon another action to do the work.
-Noel

PS Action - Batch Selective File Types

Hi,
My camera software dumps jpegs and raw files into a single folder.
I am wanting to batch (automate) process the jpegs in said folder, but not the camera's raw files. How do I employ an action that will only run on the jpegs in the folder and skip the raw files?

Noel is correct. The Picture Processor is a script like the Image Processor that provide you with options for saving Image File types with setting for the the format with optional resize with better naming abilities then an action can provide.
Automate Batch and the Image Processor scripts are similar in some respects. They can Process Open files or Files selected in the Bridge or all image files in a folder and even process image files in sub folders. The image processor has more output options the batch it can save more then one image file for each image processed run different actions for each file to be saved. Scripts and Plug-ins have more abilities than actions for they can use logic and retrieve and pass information.
Paul's Processor is much the same however he provides you with a input file filter only image file that match the filter will be processed.
The image processing done by these scripts and plug-ins can be customized by the use of actions recorded by users. Actions which are easy to record for they need not be concerned saving and naming output files.

Action, Batch Command in CS1 and conversion

I'm experimenting with turning PSDs and JPGs into web size (approx. 700x950 pix.) jpegs. Is there a way to convert PSDs to JPEGS in the Action command (I assume one can't do it in Batch).
Thank you,
Allan

Allan, use the Image Processor. (Unless CS1 didn't have it, I don't remember anymore.)
If tou want to use actions, use File > Automate > Fit image and record that.

Actions & Batching

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for