We have a couple cameras in organization that employees use to take pictures and then download them to our network through one single workstation. The problem we are running into is the camera can produce very large file sizes that are not necessary for the employee use thus taking up a lot storage space. We modify the megapixels on the camera to 2M, but sometime they are still excessive in size or the cameras get bumped back up. Is there any type of software that will automatically detect the camera when it is plugged into the usb and compress the photos as they are transferred to the network?
I am trying to avoid asking people to compress their pics, because I know most of them will not.
See if this helps you have photoshop do the following jobs..
1) Run Photoshop 2) Open a file 4) Go to Action Pane (Alt+F9) 5) Click on new Action (set a function key for it) 6) Click on record 7) now resize your Image 8) Save the file 9) close the file and click on stop (in Action Pane)
now you can do 2 things:
1) open all your desired files and press the function key that you had set for it..
or
2) copy all your files in a folder
2.1) open photoshop 2.2) goto file>Automate>Batch ... 2.3) Now select your action 2.4) Choose the source and destination folder 2.5) press Ok
Really depends on if you're looking for nice professional software -- this is certainly possible using Fireworks, Photoshop, ImageReady, and a number of other high-grade ($$$) products.
Rather than Photoshop, I am going to suggest another alternative, which is a free program called IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com). This program can do many simple image manipulations, but it excels at batch resizing and (if needed) renaming.
Currently, we have some users use irfanview which works well. However, I am trying to eliminate the need to open up Infanview to compress the pictures. Most users will just skip this compression step and copy them directly to the network.
Here are two solutions that should do what you want:
A) purchase and install BoxTop Pro JPG Plugin for Photoshop. It is amazing and I can't suggest it highly enough for making great quality JPG images that take up almost no space. (I just saved a 3840 kb TIFF image as a JPG using BoxTop and the file size was 60 kb. The quality was better than Photoshop's default JPG format by far and 1/10 the size!)
B) create an ACTION in Photoshop that you can then use to create a DROPLET. Prohibit users from storing files directly in your image directory using File and Folder permissions. Then instruct your users that they have to drag their files onto the DROPLET to store them on the server. The DROPLET will then automatically launch Photoshop, adjust the image size, save the image in the correct directory using BoxTop Pro and you are set.
From the ACTIONS pallet in Photoshop, click the New Action button and give it a name. You are now in RECORD mode. Select OPEN from the FILE menu and open a typical (but large) image. Make any necessary adjustments (i.e. change the image size, change the color mode, etc.) Select SAVE AS from the FILE menu and select BOXTOP PRO as your file type. Configure your JPG settings and click OK to continue and return to your image. Click the STOP button on the ACTIONS Panel to stop recording.
From the FILE menu, Choose AUTOMATE, then CREATE DROPLET... Select a location that is publicly accessible and give your Drdoplet a name. Choose the Set of Actions (where you recorded your ACTION above) Choose the Action Select Overide Open Actions. Select (optionally) include Scan Subfolders (if you want users to be able to drop folders of images) Select Surpress File Open Options Select Surpress Color Warnings Select Folder for the Destination and choose the folder by clicking the Destination button. Select Override Save As.. and click OK after reading the warning You can customize the naming and numbering of files in the fields below and set UNIX or MAC for the compatability file type. Select stop for Errors Click OKAY.
A small application will appear in the directory you indicated. Now, users can drag images and folders of images onto the DropLet and Photoshop (with BoxTop Pro) will do the rest.
You don't have to use BoxTop Pro, either. For example if you want to use EXIF information or RAW data, but want to scale the images before saving, you handle all of that in your ACTION.
You can even create a bunch of different droplets the same way so that some images can be stored as large as possible, while others are compressed.
