Best high volume developoer???

Primo-Photo

OK- I've tried capture one and it is nice but only for raw photo. I've tried Expressdigital and like it ability to process a lot of photo regardless of their format ( raw, jpeg, etc), it is expensive, seems more for the true professional, and doesn't allow me to save the process photo's to my hard drive. It also appears to force me to post my phototo their web site.

Are there any other programs out there I should try or should I stick with Photoshop CS and get better at programming actions.

mercphoto

Primo-Photo wrote:

Are there any other programs out there I should try or should I stick with Photoshop CS and get better at programming actions.

My life got a lot easier when I not only learned actions, but also learned File Browser. In particular, the art of flagging files and batching them, and the nuances of batching, such as when to ignore the save-as command, etc.

What things in particular are you wanting to do to a large number of images? For motocross races I typically do an auto-levels, a sharpening run with a standard set of parameters, and add a text line of copyright in the lower-right corner, then save off as a level-10 JPG. All with one action that gets called for each image in turn.

My gut says if you already own Photoshop CS, learn the file browser and learn actions. If it still doesn't do what you need, then look into spending more money elsewhere.

Primo-Photo

Thanks for the feedback. Most of what I do is sporting events for our town. My kids are getting to the High School age and more and more parents are asking me to take pictures of their event ( even if my kids aren't in the event - check out primo-photo.com). This is just a hobby.... I have a full time job as a plant manager of a factory... so time is critical. ExpressDigital is nice ( the more I play with the evaluation down load I have), but I want to make sure there isn't something else I'm missing. Most business that I have talked to that do this for a living, use ExpressDigital, so that is why I am giving it a try, but it is pricy for a semipro....

mercphoto wrote:

My life got a lot easier when I not only learned actions, but also learned File Browser. In particular, the art of flagging files and batching them, and the nuances of batching, such as when to ignore the save-as command, etc.

What things in particular are you wanting to do to a large number of images? For motocross races I typically do an auto-levels, a sharpening run with a standard set of parameters, and add a text line of copyright in the lower-right corner, then save off as a level-10 JPG. All with one action that gets called for each image in turn.

My gut says if you already own Photoshop CS, learn the file browser and learn actions. If it still doesn't do what you need, then look into spending more money elsewhere.

Shay Stephens

I have to agree here. When I started using the file browser, actions, and scrpts, my workflow got a lot easier and I shaved off almost a day of wedding processing time.

mercphoto wrote:

My life got a lot easier when I not only learned actions, but also learned File Browser. In particular, the art of flagging files and batching them, and the nuances of batching, such as when to ignore the save-as command, etc.

mercphoto

Primo-Photo wrote:

Thanks for the feedback. Most of what I do is sporting events for our town.... Most business that I have talked to that do this for a living, use ExpressDigital, so that is why I am giving it a try, but it is pricy for a semipro....

I do mostly sporting as well. So, specifically, what is it about ExpressDigital that these guys like? Or that you like? What types of edits to the files are you doing?

For example, I do one particular type of sharpening technique to my motorsports photos that I cannot do with Canon's DPP software, but that I can do with Photoshop CS. Therefore I use CS. Its hard to answer if you should learn CS actions better, or pay for ExpressDigital, if we don't know what you do to your files in the first place. If CS cannot do the type of manipulation that you need to do, then learning CS actions to batch what CS cannot do is a waste of your time.

Bodley

Primo-Photo wrote:

Are there any other programs out there I should try or should I stick with Photoshop CS and get better at programming actions.

One thing I have done in PSCS is assign shortcut keys to my most used functions. Then quit using the mouse so much by learning keyboard commands. The open, close, save and select keyboard commands alone have saved a lot of time vs the mouse.

I looked at ED as well. Seemed pricey since I already have, and like, PSCS.

Greg