Switching blogs

Probably switching my blog.

After the last post where I had so many issues posting a blog with more then a few pictures that needed to be oriented a certain way. I went and found a new home.

http://tsukisramblings.wordpress.com/

I actually am liking the tools available to me much much more after spending a bit of time with it. Its a bit overwhelming at first, but its given me alot more control I think. So add it and follow me there, as I am thinking I will likely quit this one :D

Tutorial: Batch Processing Camera RAW to JPEG

The problem I came across the other day was that we had been out all day taking pictures of a bunch of flowers. I came home after taking some 250+ pictures all taken in camera RAW. Awesome idea, but when I came home, I didn't realize how tedious it would be to just look at all of the images to see which ones I liked. On top of being time consuming, I would also have to then take into Photoshop all of the images I liked, edit them and re-save them as a JPEG or whatever other file type I wished for posting purposes.

Knowing it was possible to process all of the files automatically, but yet, not knowing how to accomplish that goal myself, I went about online to figure out how to do it. The problem came though that I was really unsure of what the process was called. So I spent some time looking around and finally came across something that gave me the basics but didnt really tell me everything. So I sort of had to just guess my way through it.

Anyway, to save myself sometime, figured I would post it here for later use, as well as hopefully helping anyone else who may need it as well.

Step 1: Obviously the first step is to open Photoshop up. (assuming at least that photoshop is the program you are using. If its not, why are you here then? )

Step 2: You need to create the action over in the actions flyout. If you do not see the action flyout, you can bring it back up by clicking on the Window tab in the toolbar and activating the Actions option. Or for those like myself who prefer shortcut keys ALT + F9 will also bring it back up.

Step 3: The next thing I would do is to create a new folder for your custom actions. So under the actions flyout, click the new folder option.

Step 4: With the new folder created, click on it to highlight it, then selct the create new action option.

Step 5: A bit about the options here:

Name – Self Explanatory

Set – This is the folders that you have created for your actions. If your custom action folder is not selected, select it here now.

Function key – I have not used this myself, but I would imagine you could use this option to fast track the specified action. In the case of this type of action here, I don’t imagine this would be too helpful. Perhaps in the case if you were creating custom selections for creating perhaps a border for your images, it might be a bit more helpful for something like that.

Color – I have yet to figure out what this actually does. I am guessing perhaps if you are using an action to create a background piece that perhaps it is used for the background color? I am really not sure.

When you have everything completed, click the record button

Step 6: Now this is important. From here on, everything you click will be recorded and added to the action. So make sure that anything you want to add to this action, you go through in the EXACT order it should be. Granted things can be edited later, but its just good practice to try to get it right the first time then to have to spend all the extra time editing later.

For the case of this action, all I wanted was for an action to open Camera RAW images then to resave them as JPEG.

From this point I opened up the first image that I wanted to be done. The camera RAW options opened up inside of photoshop. As I mentioned before, everything you edit will be done to EACH image. So in the case of this, I figure less is more. I don’t want to go through and edit the exposure and everything else that I would normally. Those edits might not be accurate from image to image. So in this case, the only thing I opted to change was the white balance from “As Shot” to “Cloudy”. I liked the look of that option, so I went with it. I then precedded to click on the Open in Photoshop option.

Now with Photoshop open, the image itself is fine. If I wanted to change the size of the image to a smaller format, I could do that here first. In this case though, all I wish to do is to resave it. So I go to File> Save As> Select JPEG as my file type, name my file.

The final thing I need to do now is to close the file out and leave just Photoshop Open. Done.

Click Stop Recording in the Actions flyout. You will now see the Action you created in the folder you opted to attach it to.

Step 7: Now go to File> Automate> Batch and look at the options here.

The Play Options:

Set – Once again, the action folder that you are using, in this case, Custom Actions

Action – the name of the action you are using.

Source Options:

Source – Folder is what you will need for this option. I have not found a need for the other options so far.

Choose: This option is the folder in which all of your camera raw pictures are located. Ideally I believe they should be somewhere on your harddrive and not inside of the memory card. Doing this I believe would save time and also not have the chance of corrupting your memory card if something went wrong.

Override Action “Open” Command: Unsure

Include all Sub-Folders: Have all of your images from a weeks worth of photoshoots in one folder seperated in their own subfolders, click this and it will go through each subfolder one after the other.

Suppress File Open Options Dialogue box: I am not 100%, but I believe this option stops you from having to manually click an options that happen during the opening of the file. For instance, I know some images might have a different color profile then the native setting inside of photoshop, so when this happens, photoshop always asks me if I wish to convert the profile to that used by the program, or that inset with the camera RAW file. Having this command selected will bypass this and I think it will just stick with whatever you had set during the original recording.

Suppress Color Profile Warnings: Unsure

Destination Options:

Destination – Once again, I opted for Folder as my option. I have not found a need for the rest of them yet.

Choose – The folder you are putting the new files into. I created a folder on my desktop called JPEGs, which is where I opted to save all of the converted files.

Override Action “Save As” Command: This makes it so you don’t have to keep selecting all of the options to save a file. You don’t need to change the name or the file type or anything.

File Naming – Now I am not 100% sure what all of the saving options use here. I know with the first section, I opted to use the 3 digit seriel number as my file name. This would make all of my files look like this as they save: 001, 002, 003, etc etc. The option to the right of it I chose extension. This option will take the File Extension, in this case JPEG, that you originally saved the file to during the action recording as the file type for all of your images.

Step 8: Click ok. This will start your batch process. Now walk away from the computer and do what ever needs to be done while the computer does all of the work. At any time say you forgot to set something up, just hit esc on your computer and you can cancel the Batch process when needed.

Now I know this process works inside of Photoshop, but I am unsure it works inside of Lightroom or another photo editing software. At least with Lightroom, since it is an Adobe product, I am sure there is the chance of a similar procedure, but as I do not have access to the program I am unsure. If anyone has it and knows how to do a batch process in it, please let me know as I am curious now. Also, if I have forgotten a step, or if I explained something wrong, please let me know! I am still learning alot of this stuff myself, so any thing I post is just how I understand things as of now. Thanks again :)

PS - Also, my apology about the formatting here, I am still trying to figure out how to format the blogs with any pictures in. The edit window this whole thing looks completely different to me.

Photography: Phipps Conservatory 4-5-11

Went to the local Phipps Conservatory the other day. (see title for the date) Got a chance to finally mess around with the Canon 100mm Macro Lens that we bought a month or so ago. Love the results with it so far.

Below is a image Angela had wanted me to take. We re-shot an image that she liked from our wedding. Although this time instead of our photographer taking the image, I did :D In order to get this I did have to get a few of the branches of the plant out of the way, I also had to change the focus to manual instead of auto as it kept trying to focus on the front plants and not the person behind them.

This here is probably my favorite picture that I took while we were there. Looking at the full size image is awesome as you are even able to see the little spines along the edges of the plant. Seems really cool. I wish in retrospect that I had taken a picture of the name plates of all the plants as well, as of right now, none of these I know the name of.

This one here was sort of interesting as it originally had a small spot light shining on it. I thought it looked neat but it was too dark and I had to turn the flash on with the camera. Inadvertently, it worked nicely to fill in the extreme shadows that the spot light was causing and created a really neat soft look to it.

I did learn a few things from this trip that is worth mentioning. First and foremost, the 2.8 aperture creates a really lovely blur behind almost anything you point it at :). Also though, this I didnt know till we were close to leaving, is that I dont need the full aperture set up that high to get a pretty nice view. Its honestly sometimes better to step down a bit, perhaps to 5.6, 7.1 or something between. It allows more of the plant to be in focus, as well as, still creating a nice blur as long as you position the lens and set up your shot well. I also have learned how to setup photoshop for batch processing as well, which makes changing over 200 images to jpeg from RAW, much much easier. Of that I shall post a bit later.

Photography: Contest?

Came across this today and was thinking about trying to give all of the upcoming contest a go. Might be fun and will get me something to work towards for a final goal. Who knows? I may even win :P

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/features/Amateur_Photographer_of_the_Year_2011_features_305128.html

The current contest is for Streets and Walkways.

"For this round we want you to concentrate on capturing the roads and thoroughfares themselves. While we're not asking you to ignore people entirely, we are looking for images that focus on the streets or walkways rather than candid shots of passers-by. A pier featuring a silhouetted figure at sunset would fit the brief, but a street portrait where there is not an obvious walkway would not. The street or walkway can be in a city or the suburbs. You could try photographing from a high viewpoint to make people on the streets below look like ants or you could use a long exposure at night to capture car light trails on a busy road. Think about whether your scene would look more dramatic in black & white or whether colour would be a better choice. Most of all, try to be original in your interpretation of the theme. "

List: Book Collection

This is just mine own personal books, not even taking into account Angela's books yet. Also, this is severaly incomplete as the majority of my collection is in boxes that I currently can not get to. So these are pretty much just the books that I have bought over the last year and a half or so.

Seems even though the authors are posted in my main menu, they dont seem to post onto the blog, not sure why. So, the authors are there as well, you just cant see them :D

Books List	Author
3ds Max 2011: One Project From Start to Finish	3Dats
Ancestor	Scott Sigler
Apocalypse of the Dead	Joe Mckinney
Canon EOS Rebel XSI	David D. Busch
Cataclysm - Ensemble	Stephen Molter
Cataclysm - Phoenix	Stephen Molter
Chasing the Dead	Joe Schreiber
Complete Birds of the World	National Geographic
Contagious	Scott Sigler
Dead Space: Martyr	B. K. Evenson
Elderst	Christopher Paolini
Eragon	Christopher Paolini
Feed	Mira Grant
Forgotten Realms: Legacy of the Drow - The Legacy	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: Legacy of the Drow - Starless Night	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: Legacy of the Drow - Siege of Darkness	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: Legacy of the Drow - Passage to Dawn	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: Hunters Blade Trilogy - The Thousand Orcs	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: Hunters Blade Trilogy - The Lone Drow	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: Hunters Blade Trilogy - The Two Swords	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: Paths of Darkness - The Silent Blade	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: Paths of Darkness - The Spine of the World	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: Paths of Darkness - Servant of the Shard	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: Paths of Darkness - Sea of Swords	R. A. Salvatore
Forgotten Realms: War of the Spider Queen - Book 4 Extinction	Lise Smedman
Forgotten Realms: War of the Spider Queen - Book 5 Annihilation	Philip Athans
Forgotten Realms: War of the Spider Queen - Book 6 Resurrection	Paul S. Kemp
Getting Things Done	David Allen
Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines	Graphic Artist Guild
Infected	Scott Sigler
Inside the Third Reich	Albert Speer
Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong	James W. Loewen
Parasite Eve	Hideaki Sena
Patient Zero	Jonathan Maberry
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies	Seth Grahame-Smith
Realistic Architectural Visualization with 3ds max and Mental Ray	Autodesk
Star Trek: All Good Things	Michael Jan Friedman
Star Trek: Crossover	Michael Jan Friedman
Star Trek: Dark Mirror	Diane Duane
Star Trek: First Contact	J. M. Dillard
Star Trek: Generations	J. M. Dillard
Star Trek: Insurrection	J. M. Dillard
Star Trek: Nemesis	J. M. Dillard
Star Trek: Metamorphosis	Jean Lorrah
Star Trek: Mirror Universe - Shards and Shadows	Assorted Authors
Star Trek: Myriad Universe - Echos and Refractions	Assorted Authors
Star Wars: Allegiance	Timothy Zahn
Star Wars: Crimson Empire	Mike Richardson
Star Wars: Crosscurrent	Paul S. Kemp
Star Wars: Dark Empire	Tom Veitch
Star Wars: Dark Empire 2	Tom Veitch
Star Wars: Dark Lord - The Rise of Darth Vader	James Luceno
Star Wars: Dark Nest 1 - The joiner King	Troy Denning
Star Wars: Dark Nest 2 - The Unseen Queen	Troy Denning
Star Wars: Dark nest 3 - The Swarm War	Troy Denning
Star Wars: Darth Bane - Path of Destruction	Drew Karpyshan
Star Wars: Darth Bane - Rule of Two	Drew Karpyshan
Star Wars: Death Troopers	Joe Schreiber
Star Wars: Force Unleashed	Sean Williams
Star Wars: Outbound Flight	Timothy Zahn
Star Wars: Survivors Quest	Timothy Zahn
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi - Outcast	Aaron Allston
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi - Omen	Christie Golden
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi - Abyss	Troy Denning
Star Wars: Jedi Academy Trilogy - Jedi Search
Star Wars: Jedi Academy Trilogy - Champions of the Force	Kevin J. Anderson
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Betrayal	Aaron Allston
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Bloodlines	Karen Traviss
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Tempest	Troy Denning
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Exile	Aaron Allston
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Sacrifice	Karen Traviss
Star Wars: Legacy of the Froce - Inferno	Troy Denning
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Fury	Aaron Allston
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Revelation	Karen Traviss
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Invincible	Troy Denning
Star Wars: The Old Republic - Fatal Alliance	Sean Williams
The Art and Science of Digital Compositing	Ron Brinkmann
The Child Thief	Brom
The Children of Huran	J. R. R. Tolkien
The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft	H. P. Lovecraft
The Divine Comedy	Dante
The Elegant Universe	Brian Greene
The Fall	Chuck Hogan/ Guillermo Del Toro
The Living Dead	Assorted Authors
The Nuremberg Interviews	Leon Goldensohn
The Walking Dead Volumn 1	Robert Kirkman
The Walking Dead Volumn 2	Robert Kirkman
The Walking Dead Volumn 3	Robert Kirkman
The Walking Dead Volumn 4	Robert Kirkman
The Walking Dead Volumn 5	Robert Kirkman
The Walking Dead Volumn 6	Robert Kirkman
The Walking Dead Volumn 10	Robert Kirkman
The Walking Dead Volumn 11	Robert Kirkman
The Zombie Survival Guide	Max Brooks

List: Movie Collection

This is my movie collection so far as I have cataloged, yes, when I have nothing better to do, I start cataloging my belongings. Anyway, I know there are movies missing here, as there are ones I know I own, but they could likely be in storage or something. I only added the things in that I could physically touch the actual DVD/Bluray.

Movies - DVD

5 Children and It

10 Things I Hate About You

28 Days Later

50 First Dates

300

A Beautiful Mind

Abbott and Costello Funniest Routines

A Knights Tale

Alvin and the Chipmunks

American Girl Samantha

American Girl Felicity

American Girl Molly

American History X

Animatrix

Armitage Dual Matrix

Army of Darkness

Atonement

Austin Power's

Austin Power's Goldmember

Band of Brothers

Bed of Roses

Big Bang Theory Season 1

Big Bang Theory Season 2

Big Bang Theory Season 3

Bourne Supremacy

Bourne Ultimatum

Braveheart

Bridge to Terabithia

Brotherhood of the Wolf

Bubba-ho-tep

Casshern

Children of Men

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

Chronicles of Riddick

Clerks 2

Cloverfield

Coraline

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Crow

Dances with Wolves

Dark Knight

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dead Silence

Diary of the Dead

Elf

Emma

Evil Dead

Evil Dead 2

Fast and the Furious

Fifth Element

Final Fantasy: Advent Children

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Finding Nemo

Fountain

Frailty

Fringe Season 1

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Grave of the Fireflies

Grumpy Old Men

Grumpier Old Men

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Hatred of the Minute

Hero

Hitch

Hot Fuzz

Hot Shots Part Deux

House of Flying Daggers

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

In the Army Now

Insomnia

Ju-on

Juno

Knocked Up

Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda

The Last Samurai

Lemony Snickets: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Lilo and Stitch

Little Mermaid

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings Special Extended Editon

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Special Extended Edition

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Special Extended Edition

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Love Letter (korean version)

The Matrix

Memento Mori

Mist of Avalon

Monsters Inc

Moulin Rouge

Naked Gun 33 1/3

Neverending Story

Ninja Scroll

Night of the Living Dead

Night at the Museum

Notebook

Orphange, The

Out For Justice

Pans's Labyrinth

Persuasion

Phantom of the Opera (2004)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

Pixar Shortfilms

Police Academy

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment

Police Academy 3: Back in Training

Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Pulse (japanese Version)

Pursuit of Happiness

Quarentine

Rest Stop

Resident Evil Apocalypse

Resident Evil Degeneration

Revenge of the Nerds

Robin Hood Men in Tights

Romeo and Juliet (1968)

Royale Tramp

Royale Tramp 2

Rush Hour

Rush Hour 2

Saw

Saw 2

Saw 4

Schindlers List

Secret Garden

Seven Swords

Sherlock Holmes

Shinobi

Shrek 2

Silent Hill

Somethings Gotta Give

Somewhere in Time

Spaceballs

Star Trek (2009)

Star Wars: A New Hope

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition

Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi Special Edition

Star Wars : The Phantom Menace

Star Wars : Attack of the Clones

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

Step Brothers

Story of Star Wars

Superman Returns (2006)

Surviving the Game

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

The Three Stooges Collection Volumn 1

The Three Stooges Collection Volumn 2

The Three Stooges Collection Volumn 3

The Three Stooges Collection Volumn 4

The Three Stooges Collection Volumn 5

The Three Stooges Collection Volumn 6

The Three Stooges Collection Volumn 8

The Three Stooges In Color

To Live

Twilight

Twilight: New Moon

Twilight in Forks

Underworld

V for Vendetta

Vampire Hunter D

Vampire Princess Miyu Volumn 1

What Dreams May Come

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

White Noise

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Witches

X:1999

X-men 2

Movies - Blu-Ray/ Blu-Ray DVD Combo

Avatar Extended Edition

Beauty and the Beast

Black Swan

Despicable Me

Event Horizon

Final Fantasy: Advent Children

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Julie and Julia

Labyrinthe

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Ponyo

Princess and the Frog

Romeo And Juliet (1996)

Tangled

Twilight: Eclipse

Wall-E

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