batching Shadow/Highlight in PS?

csonnicsonni Registered Users Posts: 3 Big grins
edited November 2, 2008 in Finishing School
As you may notice, this is my first post here at Digital Grin. I recently purchased a Nikon D300 and love it. I've started using the Shadow/Highlight feature in CS3 lately and find it does wonders to my images. Does anyone know how to batch process images using Shadow/Highlight?

Comments

  • csonnicsonni Registered Users Posts: 3 Big grins
    edited November 1, 2008
    Just figured out that making a new action did the trick. I suppose there is a danger in batch processing an entire folder of images. I can make copies and work at those first to make sure I like the results. I believe that batch processing images with Save and Close further degrades them (jpeg). Is there any way of doing a batch process without further degradation of jpegs?
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,952 moderator
    edited November 1, 2008
    csonni wrote:
    Just figured out that making a new action did the trick. I suppose there is a danger in batch processing an entire folder of images. I can make copies and work at those first to make sure I like the results. I believe that batch processing images with Save and Close further degrades them (jpeg). Is there any way of doing a batch process without further degradation of jpegs?

    You can modify the action so that it saves the pics in a lossless format. PSD and TIFF will work fine. Once you are done with all the adjustments you can convert to JPG.
    My Pics
  • csonnicsonni Registered Users Posts: 3 Big grins
    edited November 1, 2008
    How does one modify the action? Does this mean that, when applying an action to the image and saving and close, the image isn't further degraded if saving into a TIFF or PSD? I thought that an image lost a certain amount of info when saving from a jpeg (into any file), no?
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,952 moderator
    edited November 1, 2008
    csonni wrote:
    How does one modify the action? Does this mean that, when applying an action to the image and saving and close, the image isn't further degraded if saving into a TIFF or PSD? I thought that an image lost a certain amount of info when saving from a jpeg (into any file), no?

    As of CS3, I don't know of a good way to edit one step of an existing action, but it is usually easy to just recreate the action by following each step while recording a new one. When it comes time to save, just choose TIFF. Hopefully someone else knows a better way.

    You only lose quality from a JPG if you save it again as a JPG. If you save it in any lossless format, there will be no degradation. JPG is a lossy compression method; TIFF and PSD are not.
    My Pics
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,703 moderator
    edited November 1, 2008
    I am trying to understand the need for a routine shadow/highlight correction for every image. I have not felt this need. In the rare instance when I do use Shadow/Highlight, I do it a little differently for each image as dictated by the image. If I am going to do Shadow/Highlight I do it on the L channel in LAB routinely.

    I confess I rarely use Shadow/Highlight for the vast majority of my images. That kind of editing correction, I do in RAW with the Recovery and Fill light sliders, as I only shoot RAW images. Or I do a luminosity blend with a an appropriate B&W image created by Image > Adjustments > Black & White in CS3.

    I suspect that Shadow/Highlight was used more before the advent of CS3 with ARC 4.4 and LR2, but I could be wrong about that.

    Here are a few links about S/H from here on dgrin

    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=20433

    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=9805

    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=25586

    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=1671
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited November 2, 2008
    csonni wrote:
    Is there any way of doing a batch process without further degradation of jpegs?

    No, not if you're going to edit and resave the action output further at any time in the future.

    I'd never save on top of the originals. Processed files are always copies. If I screw up a setting, no harm done, I toss the batch and start from the originals again.

    Shadow/Highlight is great but like Pathfinder I would not assume one setting for all photos and would have treated images individually. If I was to batch them, I would have done this back at the raw stage in Camera Raw using Fill Light and Recovery. If you're shooting JPEGs, well Camera Raw opens those now too. The Fill Light and Recovery adjustments would be stored compactly as metadata and then pasted onto all other images using Camera Raw or Bridge in much less time than you could run an action on them in Photoshop. Plus they are nondestructive so you don't alter the original pixels; you export copies.

    But once you start working from Camera Raw then you should be shooting in raw, and at that point there is no more concern about degradation. Shoot and store in raw, edit in Camera Raw until you can't, if further edits are needed convert raw to Photoshop and store as TIFF or Photoshop format to avoid any degradation, then batch export JPEGs for Smugmug and other JPEG oriented uses like drugstore prints.

    I only use Shadow/Highlight on images that can't be edited in Camera Raw.
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