A simple question for Mac owners
Discussion
Hi all,
Hoping to pick some brains from any Mac users out there.
I have recently converted over to a Mac (Mac Book Pro) and mostly finding it a lot easier to use than Windows laptop, however, I cannot find an easy way to resize an image from the original camera pixels to (say) 1000 pixels x 666 pixels. Obviously I can do it in Photoshop but mainly just one at a time. I used AcdSee on my laptop which was the easiest way I knew to resize, view the folder>select images to resize>ctl r>job done. Someone said its possible to do in iPhoto but I cant see it. Would Aperture be a good thing for me to use, is it easy to batch resize several images or one at a time?
Hope that makes some sense, looking forward to your replies.
Hoping to pick some brains from any Mac users out there.
I have recently converted over to a Mac (Mac Book Pro) and mostly finding it a lot easier to use than Windows laptop, however, I cannot find an easy way to resize an image from the original camera pixels to (say) 1000 pixels x 666 pixels. Obviously I can do it in Photoshop but mainly just one at a time. I used AcdSee on my laptop which was the easiest way I knew to resize, view the folder>select images to resize>ctl r>job done. Someone said its possible to do in iPhoto but I cant see it. Would Aperture be a good thing for me to use, is it easy to batch resize several images or one at a time?
Hope that makes some sense, looking forward to your replies.
Possibly a free app like this http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/osximageresizer.html
Individually you can do this in Preview which is the bundled image viewer ( Tools > Adjust Size )
To do batch operation you'd use Automator from the Applications window:
First time, create a new workflow (mine goes like this):
Ask for finder items (brings up a dialogue box to select the images you want to resize)
Copy finder items (to a new location; ensures you preserve your originals)
Scale images (by size or percent)
Rename finder items (I add a 's' suffix to the filename so I can easily tell it's been reSized)
Save this, then subsequently you just open and run the workflow.
To do batch operation you'd use Automator from the Applications window:
First time, create a new workflow (mine goes like this):
Ask for finder items (brings up a dialogue box to select the images you want to resize)
Copy finder items (to a new location; ensures you preserve your originals)
Scale images (by size or percent)
Rename finder items (I add a 's' suffix to the filename so I can easily tell it's been reSized)
Save this, then subsequently you just open and run the workflow.
Select all the images you want to resize, double click to open them in Preview. Press Command-A to select all the images (or go to the Edit menu > Select All). Then in the Tool menu click Adjust Size, enter the dimensions you want. It will resize them all then File > Save all.
In iPhoto, you can select the images you want to resize, then go to Export in the FIle menu and you have an option to choose the size of the images you export.
In iPhoto, you can select the images you want to resize, then go to Export in the FIle menu and you have an option to choose the size of the images you export.
ad551 said:
Select all the images you want to resize, double click to open them in Preview. Press Command-A to select all the images (or go to the Edit menu > Select All). Then in the Tool menu click Adjust Size, enter the dimensions you want. It will resize them all then File > Save all.
Just learned something - CtrlA never worked for me before despite having tried on numerous occasions. Just tried again based on your suggestion and you're right, what I've missed all this time is that you have to select one of the multiple images in the right hand pane before CtrlA will work. Cheers!Hi Ian, we've crossed paths in the past on the UK circuits. I use a different PH name now, so you probably won't recognise me on here. Mail me if you like.
Anyway, my motorsport workflow at the track is:
- Have Photo Mechanic, Adobe Bridge and Photoshop.
1 - drag a batch of pics from your folder onto the photo mechanic icon to open them all up at once. Double click on one to get a larger window up. Left and right arrow to scan through them, and press 1-7 keys to highlight them by colour. Once all are done, press Escape to return to a window with all the pics in. In the bottom right, highlight the shaded little box to hide all the non-selected pics. Drag what's left (ie your selection) to a new folder on your desktop (outside of PhotoMechanic)
2- Close Photo Mechanic and drag the pictures left in that first folder (your non-selected pics) to another folder (I call mine 'unused')
3 - you now have a folder with the best images only.
4 - drag these images onto the Adobe Bridge icon on the tool bar. Select them all in the Bridge window, then right click and select Open in Camera Raw - even if a jpeg. Do you quick editing, sharpness, levels, graduation, and cropping. I set my first crop to 4500 x 3000 pixels which is slightly smaller than the camera resolution. When all images are edited...click in the left hand margin and Cmd-A to select all images. Click bottom left - Save images and choose your resolution (12 for the first edit for max quality) and choose a new directory (mine is called 'Edited at 4500x3000')
5 - Quit Adobe Bridge.
6 - Drag all the 'edited' pics back on to the Bridge icon and select Open in Camera Raw again. At the top, choose your custom crop (mine is 1200 x 800 for web use)
7 - select all the pics in the left hand margin.
8 - drag the crop tool from edge to edge on the main picture - all are cropped to the same
9 - Choose save images - I then select image quality of 7 and save them all to a new directory ('cropped at 1200x800') and which are now ready for uploading.
If any pics need serious work, they go into Photoshop - I have a large action that I use for batch work to give my pics the finishing touch. Even after that though, for the final batch cropping, file quality and batch saving....I always use Bridge. For selecting the images worth keeping and editing, I always use Photo Mechanic. For preview, I just Cmd_A on a folder and hit the space bar and scroll through, but you cannot select images using this.
Although this seems long...it's actually VERY quick. I have to get everything done immediately after a race, and this works for me, and keeps originals, edited large and edited small, copies of all the important shots.
All the best.
Anyway, my motorsport workflow at the track is:
- Have Photo Mechanic, Adobe Bridge and Photoshop.
1 - drag a batch of pics from your folder onto the photo mechanic icon to open them all up at once. Double click on one to get a larger window up. Left and right arrow to scan through them, and press 1-7 keys to highlight them by colour. Once all are done, press Escape to return to a window with all the pics in. In the bottom right, highlight the shaded little box to hide all the non-selected pics. Drag what's left (ie your selection) to a new folder on your desktop (outside of PhotoMechanic)
2- Close Photo Mechanic and drag the pictures left in that first folder (your non-selected pics) to another folder (I call mine 'unused')
3 - you now have a folder with the best images only.
4 - drag these images onto the Adobe Bridge icon on the tool bar. Select them all in the Bridge window, then right click and select Open in Camera Raw - even if a jpeg. Do you quick editing, sharpness, levels, graduation, and cropping. I set my first crop to 4500 x 3000 pixels which is slightly smaller than the camera resolution. When all images are edited...click in the left hand margin and Cmd-A to select all images. Click bottom left - Save images and choose your resolution (12 for the first edit for max quality) and choose a new directory (mine is called 'Edited at 4500x3000')
5 - Quit Adobe Bridge.
6 - Drag all the 'edited' pics back on to the Bridge icon and select Open in Camera Raw again. At the top, choose your custom crop (mine is 1200 x 800 for web use)
7 - select all the pics in the left hand margin.
8 - drag the crop tool from edge to edge on the main picture - all are cropped to the same
9 - Choose save images - I then select image quality of 7 and save them all to a new directory ('cropped at 1200x800') and which are now ready for uploading.
If any pics need serious work, they go into Photoshop - I have a large action that I use for batch work to give my pics the finishing touch. Even after that though, for the final batch cropping, file quality and batch saving....I always use Bridge. For selecting the images worth keeping and editing, I always use Photo Mechanic. For preview, I just Cmd_A on a folder and hit the space bar and scroll through, but you cannot select images using this.
Although this seems long...it's actually VERY quick. I have to get everything done immediately after a race, and this works for me, and keeps originals, edited large and edited small, copies of all the important shots.
- by the way, I bought Aperture when I switched to Mac in late 2009 - never used it. Others recommended Photo Mechanic for filtering and sorting, then Open in Camera Raw in Bridge for quick edits.
All the best.
Edited by PlaneFan on Sunday 16th January 01:38
I've taken things a little bit further than some of the comments above - primarily to make my life easier.
If you've already created an Action within Photoshop which does what you want e.g. adjusting the levels and resizing the images to a predetermined size e.g. for posting on your website and saving the file in a specific directory. Then I'd recommend you look under the File, Automate and find the one called Create Droplet.
What this does is basically do the same as Automator does for the Mac interface (drag a file to it and it'll process it) but what the droplet does is create a link on your desktop (or anywhere else) which will process any files you drop on it and if you've included a save as statement in the process it'll dump the processed files into a predetermined directory.
I've set up both my droplet and the processed directory on my desktop (one above the other) like this (just to remind me that the files go to the directory that the icons pointing at.
So all I do now is drag either a single or multiple files (complete folders sometimes) onto the Process and Resize icon and leave it to do it's thing. Job done and I know the processed files will be in the processed directory below it.
As I say - if you've got the action created it's a doddle to create the droplet.
I should add - learn to create an action to resize a single image. Once you've got that action created - you can use File, Automate. Batch and select your resize action and add a save as and it'll run for as many images as you want instead of one at a time.
If you've already created an Action within Photoshop which does what you want e.g. adjusting the levels and resizing the images to a predetermined size e.g. for posting on your website and saving the file in a specific directory. Then I'd recommend you look under the File, Automate and find the one called Create Droplet.
What this does is basically do the same as Automator does for the Mac interface (drag a file to it and it'll process it) but what the droplet does is create a link on your desktop (or anywhere else) which will process any files you drop on it and if you've included a save as statement in the process it'll dump the processed files into a predetermined directory.
I've set up both my droplet and the processed directory on my desktop (one above the other) like this (just to remind me that the files go to the directory that the icons pointing at.
So all I do now is drag either a single or multiple files (complete folders sometimes) onto the Process and Resize icon and leave it to do it's thing. Job done and I know the processed files will be in the processed directory below it.
As I say - if you've got the action created it's a doddle to create the droplet.
I should add - learn to create an action to resize a single image. Once you've got that action created - you can use File, Automate. Batch and select your resize action and add a save as and it'll run for as many images as you want instead of one at a time.
Edited by crmcatee on Sunday 16th January 08:40
megy said:
Hope that makes some sense, looking forward to your replies.
Install ImageMagick on your Mac. Then, using a terminal, cd into the folder where the pictures live and run the following:for a in `ls` ; do convert -resize 1280x $a $a ; done
You can resize to whatever you want, with 1280x (1280x makes everything 1280 wide. x640 would make everything 640 high, etc).
I use the above command for resizing tens of thousands of photos at any one time. Plus I have a watermark command as well that runs at the same time. Plus a -quality tag to reduce file sizes (pictures are only used for web slideshow).
You can do this within the iPhoto originals, but iPhoto gets very confused.
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