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Author Topic: I have a gift for you :)  (Read 18426 times)

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« on: January 04, 2010, 19:15 »
0
Hi everyone

I have been busy the last few days preparing a very small gift for you - 106 kilobytes to be exact  ::)
Did you ever wish for a tool that would make downsizing really, really easy? A tool that could help you make your images appear a little sharper and that would automatically adjust the size relative to the sizes on the stock sites? I spend a lot of time developing this tool last year, and now it will be yours for free  ;D

I hope some of you will find it useful!

www.laflor.dk

Yours sincerely,
laflor

Ps. Now it's very late where I live and I gotta get some sleep. See you tomorrow!


« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2010, 19:23 »
0
Here's a script from 2007 that does that:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=59163

I'll just stick to imageSize :) .

« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2010, 21:30 »
0
Hi Laflor,

 Thank you for making a free offer to everyone, that is very considerate. Congrats on the pic on Istock as well. I think you are by far one of their best shooters, the new school stuff is awesome.

Best,
Jonathan

« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2010, 05:10 »
0
Here's a script from 2007 that does that:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=59163

I'll just stick to imageSize :) .


Interesting. Hadn't seen that before. He has indeed done something similar.

My 2009 version could be considered an upgrade to the 2007 version for the following reasons:

- comes with a set of six actions to go with six individual script (2007 is a single script with no actions included)
- you can jump several levels down instantly whereas with the 2007 you have to click between 8 and 24 times to get from XXXL to M (24 if you don't make your own action for it, which I think many won't)
- works both ways; it both downsizes and upsizes (you really have to know what you are doing if you use it to upsize though)
- you get the prompt version asking you for a specific size in megabyte

The 2007 version does have the advantage of asking you to choose the resampling method, which can be handy in rare situations (although it can't actually upsize, which makes the relevancy of the function ever more rare). By default my 2009 version uses "bicubic sharper" to downsample and "bicubic smoother" for enlargement: I would say that covers the needs of 99,9% of photographers. I would say keep the ImageSize for the odd case of downsampling gradients and use my system on a daily basis for photographs.
Just my 5 cents!

Yours sincerely,
laflor

« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2010, 05:12 »
0
Hi Laflor,

 Thank you for making a free offer to everyone, that is very considerate. Congrats on the pic on Istock as well. I think you are by far one of their best shooters, the new school stuff is awesome.

Best,
Jonathan

Thank you Mr. Ross. You are a kind and appreciative soul  :D

« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2010, 05:24 »
0
Thanks. I'm sure it will come in useful in future for hiding artifacts.  :P

« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2010, 05:54 »
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Thanks. I'm sure it will come in useful in future for hiding artifacts.  :P

Yes, that is one of the perks of the system ;D

Just be careful not to loose out on sales because of too much downsizing. My experience tells me that when shooting with Hasselblad H3D, you can go even further up in the otherwise horrible ISO because of the ability of downsizing the 39 megapixel files. But with anything else but the H3D (or other medium format apparatuses) I wouldn't use it as a noise/artifact reduction method. I'd rather bring out the gaussian blur ...

Regards,
laflor

« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2010, 06:32 »
0
Haha I will add that to my note book for the (near?) future. I'm currently shooting with the Canon G9. istock seem to reject a lot of bluesky/black so I've recently moved to downsizing and resubmitting. I was adjusting the image size to 80/90% before but your actions are very welcome.

« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2010, 06:48 »
0
...istock seem to reject a lot of bluesky/black...

I don't understand. What do you mean by bluesky/black?


Yuri_Arcurs

  • One Crazy PhotoManic MadPerson
« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2010, 07:03 »
0
Here's a script from 2007 that does that:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=59163

I'll just stick to imageSize :) .


I used that one before. Laflors action script is much better. As in MUCH faster. :)

« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2010, 07:17 »
0
...istock seem to reject a lot of bluesky/black...

I don't understand. What do you mean by bluesky/black?



I mean images with large areas of blue sky or regions of black. I shoot raw and the still seem to get artifacts.

« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2010, 07:31 »
0
I used that one before. Laflors action script is much better. As in MUCH faster. :)

If you say so.  All it is doing is an imageSize:
    activeDocument.resizeImage( final_width, final_height, final_dpi, ResampleMethod.BICUBICSHARPER ); 

There's nothing else in the action.  Any benefit from resizing (apparent loss of noise, sharpening, etc.) comes from just sizing down.

Yuri_Arcurs

  • One Crazy PhotoManic MadPerson
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2010, 07:34 »
0
I used that one before. Laflors action script is much better. As in MUCH faster. :)

If you say so.  All it is doing is an imageSize:
    activeDocument.resizeImage( final_width, final_height, final_dpi, ResampleMethod.BICUBICSHARPER ); 

There's nothing else in the action.  Any benefit from resizing (apparent loss of noise, sharpening, etc.) comes from just sizing down.

Laflors let's you do it as an action in the sidebar. The resizeimage only works as a script under file/scripts/resizeimage.... That's 1 click versus 3 clicks. I prefer fast workflow and prefer Laflor's. Thank you again Laflor. Excellent work! (Excellent stock photography by the way, see you at the top!)

« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2010, 07:50 »
0
Thank you Laflor...very useful. You have a wonderful port.....I am jealous. No doubt in my mind...you will be very successful :)
Take care Denis

« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2010, 08:05 »
0
I used that one before. Laflors action script is much better. As in MUCH faster. :)

If you say so.  All it is doing is an imageSize:
    activeDocument.resizeImage( final_width, final_height, final_dpi, ResampleMethod.BICUBICSHARPER ); 

There's nothing else in the action.  Any benefit from resizing (apparent loss of noise, sharpening, etc.) comes from just sizing down.

Laflors let's you do it as an action in the sidebar. The resizeimage only works as a script under file/scripts/resizeimage.... That's 1 click versus 3 clicks. I prefer fast workflow and prefer Laflor's. Thank you again Laflor. Excellent work! (Excellent stock photography by the way, see you at the top!)

Thanks Yuri. You are the most time efficient and intelligent business man I have ever met, so to me that says it all  ;D

« Reply #15 on: January 05, 2010, 08:05 »
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Thank you Laflor...very useful. You have a wonderful port.....I am jealous. No doubt in my mind...you will be very successful :)
Take care Denis

Thanks Dennis. I'm happy that I could be of some use!

« Reply #16 on: January 05, 2010, 09:55 »
0
This is great and thanks so much for sharing!


« Reply #17 on: January 05, 2010, 10:34 »
0
Will it work with photoshop Elements 5.0 ???

Xalanx

« Reply #18 on: January 05, 2010, 12:45 »
0
Very nice of you Laflor.

« Reply #19 on: January 05, 2010, 13:11 »
0
Will it work with photoshop Elements 5.0 ???


In some cases PE 5 can use scripts from Photoshop, but I don't know if mine will work. Why not give it a try?

I found this link where you can experiment and see if it works:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/qt/actions.htm

@Xalanx and danabeth555 Great to hear! Hope it frees up a little more time for shooting :)

All the best,
laflor

« Reply #20 on: January 05, 2010, 15:15 »
0
Thank you for your generosity, a very nice addition to my actions and scripts.


« Reply #21 on: January 06, 2010, 01:06 »
0
My 2009 version could be considered an upgrade to the 2007 version for the following reasons:

- comes with a set of six actions to go with six individual script (2007 is a single script with no actions included)
- you can jump several levels down instantly whereas with the 2007 you have to click between 8 and 24 times to get from XXXL to M (24 if you don't make your own action for it, which I think many won't)
- works both ways; it both downsizes and upsizes (you really have to know what you are doing if you use it to upsize though)
- you get the prompt version asking you for a specific size in megabyte

The 2007 version does have the advantage of asking you to choose the resampling method, which can be handy in rare situations (although it can't actually upsize, which makes the relevancy of the function ever more rare). By default my 2009 version uses "bicubic sharper" to downsample and "bicubic smoother" for enlargement: I would say that covers the needs of 99,9% of photographers. I would say keep the ImageSize for the odd case of downsampling gradients and use my system on a daily basis for photographs.


I didn't realize people were so concerned about an extra mouse click here and there, so I dusted off my programming cap and spent a couple hours rewriting Martin's 2007 script (with his permission).  Normally, I'm more into trying to come up with tools for buyers, but this sounded like fun.

So, if you don't mind traveling through the file menu to open a dialog, I've added a pulldown to the gui, which allows you to easily pick the dimensions closest to all 5 uploadable levels to resize to.  So hopefully, that cuts out the 8-24 clicks you came up with.  Also, it upsizes and downsizes.



So, if anyone wants the option to be able to select the size you want, or to muck around typing numbers ( :) ), try it out and let me know if you have issues, see here:
http://digitalplanetdesign.com/index.php?page=istocktools

In the end of course, all these things just end up running an imageSize command, nothing else fancy going on to speed up or smooth anything.  It's just the ease of getting the right pixel dimensions you need for the jpeg.  Now, with two options, people should be pretty happy for a while. :)

« Reply #22 on: January 06, 2010, 12:24 »
0
Thanks again Laflor,

I am loving it, works great. Today is a good day in so many ways. I am having my favorite stew for dinner, anyone having crow?  ;D

Best,
Jonathan

« Reply #23 on: January 06, 2010, 16:21 »
0
Thanks again Laflor,

I am loving it, works great. Today is a good day in so many ways. I am having my favorite stew for dinner, anyone having crow?  ;D

Best,
Jonathan

Glad to hear Jonathan! I hope you are full, peaceful and happy  :D

Thank you for your generosity, a very nice addition to my actions and scripts.



May you become loaded with action  8)

« Reply #24 on: December 16, 2010, 17:12 »
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OLD THREAD ALERT!

But I am resurrecting this because I have been using laflor's action and it worked great. I got another computer and copied the .atn file from my laptop. I put it in the PS>Presets>Actions folder, exactly like on my laptop. When I open PS, it shows in the actions palette, but when I click on the XL size and hit play, it does nothing.

Both computers are running PS CS4 and both are now running Snow Leopard. It works fine on the laptop, but not on the macmini. Any ideas? I have deleted the .atn file and recopied it from the laptop and re-dropped it into the Actions folder. Shut down PS and restarted, no luck.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong? It's usually such a simple process.

edit: I have tried other actions, and they work ok. Laflor's link to his site at the top no longer works...i get a timeout.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2010, 17:18 by cclapper »


 

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