Action workflow help

[Alter_ego]

Ok here's the deal.
I've just done a baby shoot.(approx 100 pics) I used my 24-70mm at various focal lengths for variation. Now I want to give the mother a CD of low res pics so that she can choose the photo's she likes for printing. I have converted from raw, colour balanced them and applied some USM. I then saves as Tiffs at 300 ppi.
Now, I'd like to crop all the images seperately for best effect (preferable to showing uncropped images) and reduce them to 72 ppi just for viewing on her computer.
Now for the questions......If I crop to 8x10 unsampled, I end up with images of various pixel dimensions. I then have to change all the image sizes pic by pic to make them 800x600 and resample to 72ppi. If I create an action for one pic, will it work on all the rest regardless of the different pixel dimensions. Obviously I want to batch process the whole folder at once to save time.

[Mr. Pickles]

I'm not sure what you want. Do you want all of them 800x600-ish at 72dpi?

[jfrancho]

Use File > Automate > Fit Image, or File > Scripts > Image Processor.

[Alter_ego]

DOH!! I am a numb nuts. I think I've just found the answer myself.
If I am going to crop the pics just to remove the unwanted space etc, I just set 8x10 in the dimensions boxes and set 72ppi in the last box. Job done. I can then use a simple action to do a mode change to 8 bit, convert to srgb and save as jpeg.

I wanted 72ppi low res pics so that there is little chance of the parents printing the pics themselves. Is 8x10 too big? Can anyone suggest a more appropriate size for screen viewing.

[dch]

Originally Posted by allcart

I just set 8x10 in the dimensions boxes and set 72ppi in the last box. Job done.

What that does is create and image that is 656 x 720.

Originally Posted by allcart

I wanted 72ppi low res pics so that there is little chance of the parents printing the pics themselves.

The ppi setting is meaningless until there is a print size associated with it. It all comes down to the actual file dimensions divided by the print size.

A 600 x 400 image that has 72ppi or 300ppi set in the file header are exactly the same -- there is no difference.

If you print that file as a 4x6, the print will be at 100ppi, but print that same file as a 2x3 and it's now 200 ppi.

[tomrock]

DCH is exactly right -- if you give them 656x720 files, they'll be able to print them probably up to about 5x7.

Also, no matter what you give them if they do print and the prints aren't good, who do you think they'll blame? Do you think they'll say "we were trying to print this illegally and that's why the prints are bad"? No, they'll blame you.

Best thing is to give them a file that's 400 on the longer side with a watermark on it.

Or even better, have them come to your place and make the selections.

[jfrancho]

I would crop, with no resampling and then either resize to pixel dimensions or use fit image to resize. You may want to look at the difference between bicubic, bicubic sharper for resampling methods. Sometimes one works better than the other on specific types of images. Bicubic smoother rarely looks good when resampling.

Say No to 72 dpi

[Alter_ego]

It seems like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I understand whats been said, so as a test, I cropped to 5x4 and still specified 72ppi and I got a file 360x288. When viewed with windows picture viewer it displays the pic 5x4in on screen at 100%.
Surely no-one would want to print that I thought!! So I uprezzed it to 300ppi and it actually looked ok on screen. So maybe its a case of home viewing or the watermark method.
Now where do I get a simple watermark/copyright action. Hmmm

[jfrancho]

Are these for print or on screen display? If its for print, then 300 ppi would be 1500x2100 pixels for a 5x7 print. If ist for onscreen, try 500 - 800 pixels on the long sid, andd leave it at that. Don't get caught up in ppi.

[dch]

Originally Posted by allcart

Now where do I get a simple watermark/copyright action. Hmmm

I use BreezeBrowser Pro for many things. One is resizing and adding a watermark all at once for proofing. You might want to try out their 30-day trial to see if it's something that could be of use for you.

[jfrancho]

Now where do I get a simple watermark/copyright action. Hmmm

They are easy to make yourself, or try Russel Brown's:
The Russell Brown Show
video: http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/BrandingSM.mov
action: http://www.russellbrown.com/images/t...Action.atn.zip

[Alter_ego]

Thanks John, I'll take a look.

[Jim Sykes]

Originally Posted by allcart

... So I uprezzed it to 300ppi and it actually looked ok on screen.

That is because they ARE the same thing.

Just changing ppi on the computer does nothing, as someone said, ppi is purely a print function.

If you look close, if you have something that is 1200 pixels long. When you have it at 300 ppi, you'll see in the print size box it will say 4". If you change it to 200ppi you'll see the PRINT size change to 6" and if you go to 100ppi you see it change to 12"

However, your pixel dimensions NEVER changed.

So you need to give them something based on pixel size because the ppi means nothing.

Now, if you resampled when you changed ppi, then it would have also changed the pixel dimensions as it interpolated and actually uprezzed the photo. There is nothing you can do about that except giving them something small enough to start that if they try that it will lose enough quality to make printing no good.

[Mr. Pickles]

Maybe this old thread can "shed some light" on the DPI thing....

http://www.photocamel.com/forum/imag...ideo-card.html