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Author Topic: CS4 Bridge/ACR/batch save problem  (Read 7520 times)

Mike Arst

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CS4 Bridge/ACR/batch save problem
« on: March 14, 2010, 11:46:14 pm »

One reason I upgraded to CS4 was that there is no way to open my particular camera's files in earlier versions of ACR. Fine, now I have ACR 5.6 and it will process those files. I had hoped to switch to ACR because it has Lightroom-like editing features but doesn't force the user into a LR-style digital-asset-management paradigm, which I don't want or need.

Well. I open RAW images into a light-table view in Bridge CS4. I make some adjustments in ACR to several of them. I close them without first saving -- I leave the edits saved in XMP files and return to the light-table view.

Then when all that's done, I batch-select the ones I worked on, then select Tools>Photoshop>Image Processor. The image processor dialog opens. I select my various export setings there. I click the Run button.

Photoshop opens, some minimalist activity takes place there (no image showing, so I assume whatever's happening is happening in the background). Eventually the activity stops. TIFF files saved, right?

Wrong. No TIFF file for any image gets written to disk anywhere on my system.

I try it again -- let's see if a different output directory will do the trick. Nope. No image file is saved.

Ok, let's try it with a single image. This time, let's click the Image Processor check-box telling it to open the image first in ACR to apply settings. I don't need to re-do the settings, but let's just try it anyway.

ACR appears for a moment. I click Done. A dialog appears -- a "script alert" saying "Sorry, I could not process the following files:" followed by the one one filename I selected this time. Reason it "could not process"? Not given. (At work, I write script applications -- internal-use-only tools. I didn't even graduate from college, and will wonders never cease, even I can write a better error message than that...)

Ok, let's try it again. This time ACR opens and I click Open Image instead of Done. This time, no error message. Photoshop appears again (and again with work apparently happening in the background). And again -- no image is saved to disk.

Um. Is there some not-entirely-obvious thing that should have been done? What have I left out? Or is it just Bridge being buggy again? (My past experience with Bridge was less than thrilling; lots of bugs.)

CAN a person, in fact, do batch saves to TIFF format via Bridge/ACR?
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rwheat

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CS4 Bridge/ACR/batch save problem
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2010, 09:33:52 am »

Yes, it does work (on my installation).

Did you get any error messages during your PS install - I mean any at all.  I had a problem of a similar nature where I couldn't run Photoshop batch from Bridge.  The problem turned out to be an installation error and a reinstall fixed it.

Make sure you have the latest patches installed.  You might also try reinstalling.

HTH,
Richard.





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Mike Arst

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CS4 Bridge/ACR/batch save problem
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2010, 09:53:37 am »

Quote from: rwheat
Yes, it does work (on my installation).

Did you get any error messages during your PS install - I mean any at all.  I had a problem of a similar nature where I couldn't run Photoshop batch from Bridge.  The problem turned out to be an installation error and a reinstall fixed it.

Make sure you have the latest patches installed.  You might also try reinstalling.

HTH,
Richard.
Argh. That was a painfully long installation. This isn't the first time the image processor approach in Bridge hasn't worked properly (I saw that in CS -- and never tried it in CS2). I have a friend who says it's working for him as well. Argh again.

Then again, there's the approach whereby you open several images in ACR at the same time, make adjustments, keep ACR open, multi-select images in the 'filmstrip' view, and click 'save files.'

It works, though of course the settings are fairly crude compared what you get in other raw converters such as Lightroom. (But of course; Adobe ain't stupid; they would love it if you bought LR as well, eh?) There's that dialog for output color space, pixel dimensions, etc., accessible via a link at the bottom of the ACR dialog. Some of the settings 'stick' between sessions and some don't ever seem to. Illogical, but welcome to software. :-) Those options don't seem to be configurable as defaults in Bridge's ACR options dialog, and they don't seem to be included in ACR's own 'save settings' dialog.)

Anyway, at least there's an alternative to the image non-processor. :-) Thanks for your suggestions (even if the thought of re-installing, so soon, fills me with dread).

[... ok, ok, guess I'd best buy a book about this program. Does Schewe or some other author have an up-to-date ACR book, as thorough and as well-written as Bruce Fraser's (RIP) original ACR book was? I haven't used ACR in a long time and I guess I'd better pay some dues and do a bit of catching-up.]
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JeffKohn

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CS4 Bridge/ACR/batch save problem
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2010, 11:01:45 am »

I use the Image Processor extensively, to create TIFF's for stitching and/or exposure blending. I also use it to run actions on a group of files (I prefer this approach to running as Batch because it simplifies file saving options). I've never had any problems with it not working. At the risk of stating the obvious, it doesn't actually save the files in the directory you specify, but rather in a sub-directory named for the file type you selected for output (TIFF, JPG, etc).
« Last Edit: March 15, 2010, 11:03:11 am by JeffKohn »
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Jeff Kohn
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Mike Arst

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CS4 Bridge/ACR/batch save problem
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2010, 03:35:43 pm »

Quote from: JeffKohn
I use the Image Processor extensively, to create TIFF's for stitching and/or exposure blending. I also use it to run actions on a group of files (I prefer this approach to running as Batch because it simplifies file saving options). I've never had any problems with it not working. At the risk of stating the obvious, it doesn't actually save the files in the directory you specify, but rather in a sub-directory named for the file type you selected for output (TIFF, JPG, etc).
Well, I will just keep trying until the program consents to do what I'm asking...or use the batch-select-in-ACR approach and forget the other one.

(It's not entirely obvious why the above is "stating the obvious". Which is the "obvious" aspect of the feature whereby an application creates and writes to a subdirectory the user hasn't explicitly told it to use? Is this displayed in some, as it were, obvious fashion in the UI? And while we're on the subject...I'm still wondering which part of the "I can't process file such-and-such" script error message [with no reason given for why "I" can't] was the obvious part...)
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Peterun

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CS4 Bridge/ACR/batch save problem
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2010, 10:56:57 am »

re "Sorry, I could not process the following files:"

I had this script alert message in Photoshop CS3 when trying to use the Image Processor.

After some experimentation it seemed to be whenever I used a filename with % (percent symbol) in it. I tried other symbols like ~ [ ] and they seemed OK. Perhaps % means something special in the script and got confused?

Could this be your problem ?

It looks as though I will have to rename all my files to exclude the % character (which I was using as a delimeter in the filename), strange thing is I can create filenames with the % sign from CS3.

Before I go to all the trouble of renaming my files, does anyone know if you get the same problem with % char in CS4 or CS5 Image Processor?
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