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Author Topic: Exporting Retouched Images Workflow  (Read 529 times)

Clark

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Exporting Retouched Images Workflow
« on: November 28, 2018, 05:17:17 am »

Hi guys,

I wondered if I could get some advice on my workflow. I'm trying to achieve an ideal level of automation, especially when saving out final versions of my retouched images.

I'm currently using PS droplets to process various sizes from my layered TIFF files. I have separate droplets for my most commonly used file formats. eg. TIFF RGB, CMYK, JPG sRGB Q76 H1000 etc..

Each of these saves copies of the image into a specific folder in a parent "droplet output" folder on my HD, and I then manually drag these into my project folder and cloud etc. It works quite well for me, but I'm always looking for ways to improve my workflow.

Droplets have worked pretty well for me, and they're based on actions, so they're very customisable: An action to sharpen after resizing, or disable particular layers can be included as part of the output process for example. But they are not that flexible. It's not easy to tweak parameters of a droplet when switching from one project to another.

Also, my various JPG droplets use the Legacy Save for Web export function. This has some useful features, but IMO still missing a lot of functionality: The ability to resize the "long edge", or add a suffix, for example.

A while back Photoshop introduced a Export As tool which supposedly replaces Save For Web. I was initially very excited to get into this, but was then amazed to see that there is even less control. It seems overly basic to the point of not being useful :-\ Perhaps I am just missing something? You can choose a suffix for your filename now (hooray), but it looks like the only sizing parameter available is "scale", in terms of a percentage of the original size. Who is this useful to!? I would love to be corrected if I'm wrong, but it seems like there's a hugely expandable control panel missing here.

What I really am looking for is an Export console where I can keep all my usually required 'recipes' if you will, tweak parameters on each of them, enable/disable as needed for any particular batch of images, and then just queue up and render out all the formats I want from there. A lot like what Adobe's standalone Media Encoder app does for videos.

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if this already exists in some form, but I'm just not aware of it?

Do any of you guys use a different software or PS plugin for exporting images? Would love to hear any suggestions.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Exporting Retouched Images Workflow
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2018, 10:05:22 am »

I keep life easy by processing my raw files in Lightroom and using Lightroom's excellent "Export As" ("COMMAND>SHIFT>E) tool when I need to export a file for any purpose that cannot be served from within Lightroom, which are few. The Lighjroom export tool provides extensive control over the size, resolution and file format of the export.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8....."
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