Need a fast cropping workflow

Hi, all.

I’ve started hand-cropping proofs for better results, but at high-volume my current tools are killing my productivity. Most of the time isn’t spent doing the crop, but waiting for loading & saving.
Photoshop Elements 4 has worked fine for most of my "workflow" to-date and the cropping tool is great, but slow to load & save. On average, it’s taking 25 seconds to load, crop, and save an image, which makes for a *lot* of hours per event.

With the right tool, I know this could take less than 5 seconds per proof. I’ve tried IrfanView, which is very fast to load & save files (and is tweakable for fast save / load), but its hand cropping tool is really unfriendly.

Is there a better tool out there for cropping workflow? I’m looking for something very basic, but focused:
* Set a crop ratio (e.g., 3:2) (a la PSE)
* Quickly position / rotate / size the crop box (a la PSE) * Automatically / quickly save the file after crop & load the next file from the folder (a la IrfanView)

Any ideas? Is there a way to streamline this to be fast with PSE4 or CS2? Even getting the files to pre-load / save in the background could solve the PSE4 problem, though I’m probably trying to push a consumer product too far. 🙂

With the right tool, I know this could take less than 5 seconds per proof. I’ve tried IrfanView, which is very fast to load & save files (and is tweakable for fast save / load), but its hand cropping tool is really unfriendly.

Is there a better tool out there for cropping workflow? I’m looking for something very basic, but focused:
* Set a crop ratio (e.g., 3:2) (a la PSE)
* Quickly position / rotate / size the crop box (a la PSE) * Automatically / quickly save the file after crop & load the next file from the folder (a la IrfanView)

Any ideas? Is there a way to streamline this to be fast with PSE4 or CS2? Even getting the files to pre-load / save in the background could solve the PSE4 problem, though I’m probably trying to push a consumer product too far. 🙂

Open them all at the same time. Or maybe ten at a time or whatever. Then crop and save and close. Go to the next window.

If you were making the same crop on all of them it’d be easy, but it sounds like human interaction is required.

Any ideas? Is there a way to streamline this to be fast with PSE4 or CS2? Even getting the files to pre-load / save in the background could solve the PSE4 problem, though I’m probably trying to push a consumer product too far. 🙂

I’ve gotten somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 seconds per, using IrfanView to crop hundreds of images. The hand cropping tool by default is pretty poor, especially if the crop frame is created from scratch each time using the mouse. But if you’ve defined a default Custom Crop frame size, it can be invoked as quickly as you can type <Shift>-C <Enter>. Slightly slower if you do it through the menu

1. Use some kind of batch script to make small versions (like 640×480) of each picture.

2. Load and crop each of those pictures with your favorite tool or script. They should load very fast, since they’re small.

3. Use another batch script to use the small crop to decide how to crop the large version. That can run slow and unattended.

I can tell that IrfanView has a lot of potential here (it’s really fast, and the File | Save dialog boxes can be disabled), but the interface for cropping is pretty painful.

By rotate, what I mean is flipping the ratio of the crop box from portrait to landscape – how do you do this? The preset ratios don’t do anything until you edit the size fields, so it seems to require a lot of repetitive back & forth between mouse & keyboard.

Is there a better tool out there for cropping workflow? I’m looking for something very basic, but focused:
* Set a crop ratio (e.g., 3:2) (a la PSE)
* Quickly position / rotate / size the crop box (a la PSE) * Automatically / quickly save the file after crop & load the next file from the folder (a la IrfanView)

I replied too quickly. I should have added that IrfanView can do this with the exception of rotating the crop frame. A very simple work around is also quite fast. Rotate the image first (type L or
R) and then add the crop frame. Crop, rotate once more (if
appropriate) and save.

Hi, all.

I’ve started hand-cropping proofs for better results, but at high-volume my current tools are killing my productivity. Most of the time isn’t spent doing the crop, but waiting for loading & saving.
Photoshop Elements 4 has worked fine for most of my "workflow" to-date and the cropping tool is great, but slow to load & save. On average, it’s taking 25 seconds to load, crop, and save an image, which makes for a *lot* of hours per event.

With the right tool, I know this could take less than 5 seconds per proof. I’ve tried IrfanView, which is very fast to load & save files (and is tweakable for fast save / load), but its hand cropping tool is really unfriendly.

Is there a better tool out there for cropping workflow? I’m looking for something very basic, but focused:
* Set a crop ratio (e.g., 3:2) (a la PSE)
* Quickly position / rotate / size the crop box (a la PSE) * Automatically / quickly save the file after crop & load the next file from the folder (a la IrfanView)

Any ideas? Is there a way to streamline this to be fast with PSE4 or CS2? Even getting the files to pre-load / save in the background could solve the PSE4 problem, though I’m probably trying to push a consumer product too far. 🙂

Thanks,
Richard

Is there a better tool out there for cropping workflow? I’m looking for something very basic, but focused:
* Set a crop ratio (e.g., 3:2) (a la PSE)
* Quickly position / rotate / size the crop box (a la PSE) * Automatically / quickly save the file after crop & load the next file from the folder (a la IrfanView)

Paul Rubin wrote:

1. Use some kind of batch script to make small versions (like 640×480) of each picture.

2. Load and crop each of those pictures with your favorite tool or script. They should load very fast, since they’re small.

🙂 There’s an idea I should have thought of by now. During the Raw-> JPEG conversion step, I could resize to ~0.5MP and hand-crop from there. In this case, the online proofs are only 500×333 pixels, so even 0.5MP would give a lot of cropping latitude. It should load & save a lot faster too.

3. Use another batch script to use the small crop to decide how to crop the large version. That can run slow and unattended.

This idea is intriguing. What tools will batch crop the high-res image based on the cropping of the low-res version like this?

Hi, all.

I’ve started hand-cropping proofs for better results, but at high-volume my current tools are killing my productivity. Most of the time isn’t spent doing the crop, but waiting for loading & saving.
Photoshop Elements 4 has worked fine for most of my "workflow" to-date and the cropping tool is great, but slow to load & save. On average, it’s taking 25 seconds to load, crop, and save an image, which makes for a *lot* of hours per event.

With the right tool, I know this could take less than 5 seconds per proof. I’ve tried IrfanView, which is very fast to load & save files (and is tweakable for fast save / load), but its hand cropping tool is really unfriendly.

Is there a better tool out there for cropping workflow? I’m looking for something very basic, but focused:
* Set a crop ratio (e.g., 3:2) (a la PSE)
* Quickly position / rotate / size the crop box (a la PSE) * Automatically / quickly save the file after crop & load the next file from the folder (a la IrfanView)

Any ideas? Is there a way to streamline this to be fast with PSE4 or CS2? Even getting the files to pre-load / save in the background could solve the PSE4 problem, though I’m probably trying to push a consumer product too far. 🙂

Thanks,
Richard

The model (BTW) is similar to that of the defunct
FlashPix,
http://www.i3a.org/i_flashpix.html
which in turn was based on concepts
from the "LivePix" product,
which IIRC was in turn based on
something esarlier than I can’t recall.

3. Use another batch script to use the small crop to decide how to crop the large version. That can run slow and unattended.

This idea is intriguing. What tools will batch crop the high-res image based on the cropping of the low-res version like this?

I don’t have PSE4 (only PSE3), but are you saving the pictures in .jpg format, .tiff, or the Photoshop format? I don’t notice any slow saving as I operate almost exclusively in .jpg format.

This doesn’t sound like it would be terribly difficult to automate in CS2, I don’t know how PSE handles things. I’m going to record an action which sets the crop tool to 3:2, and check it so that it will always pause and wait for my input on the crop. Then I’m going to run it as a batch process on a folder full of 8MP JPGs.

Alright, it opens a file, brings up a crop shield at 6×4 inches, and waits for me to adjust it as I need. After I hit "enter" to apply the crop, it’s 3 seconds or less until the next JPG is up and waiting with a fresh 6×4 crop shield, waiting for me to do my part. That seems like it fits all of your criteria.

Now if you’re opening RAW files, processing them is inherantly slower than processing JPGs, and that will be true regardless of which program you use.

this is a nice little program, I don’t know how good it is as I am new to dig pix’s, but check it out…. kk

http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/

On Thu, 28 Sep 2006 20:48:12 -0700, Richard H. wrote:

Is there a better tool out there for cropping workflow? I’m looking for something very basic, but focused:
* Set a crop ratio (e.g., 3:2) (a la PSE)
* Quickly position / rotate / size the crop box (a la PSE) * Automatically / quickly save the file after crop & load the next file from the folder (a la IrfanView)

I replied too quickly. I should have added that IrfanView can do this with the exception of rotating the crop frame. A very simple work around is also quite fast. Rotate the image first (type L or
R) and then add the crop frame. Crop, rotate once more (if
appropriate) and save.

Paul Rubin wrote:

1. Use some kind of batch script to make small versions (like 640×480) of each picture.

2. Load and crop each of those pictures with your favorite tool or script. They should load very fast, since they’re small.

🙂 There’s an idea I should have thought of by now. During the Raw-> JPEG conversion step, I could resize to ~0.5MP and hand-crop from there. In this case, the online proofs are only 500×333 pixels, so even 0.5MP would give a lot of cropping latitude. It should load & save a lot faster too.

this is a nice little program, I don’t know how good it is as I am new to dig pix’s, but check it out…. kk

http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/

🙂 There’s an idea I should have thought of by now. During the Raw-> JPEG conversion step, I could resize to ~0.5MP and hand-crop from there. In this case, the online proofs are only 500×333 pixels, so even 0.5MP would give a lot of cropping latitude. It should load & save a lot faster too.

That’s your #1 time saver right there.

A) I shoot RAW+jpeg, separate jpegs to a different folder.
B) Irfanview batch resize jpegs. Presently I resize to max 800
pixels, but to leave room for cropping I’ll try resize to max 1600.
C) Irfanview sort/chimp/crop, using the "custom crop selection" and
the L/R tips that AASAR posted.
D) Irfanview batch sharpen, and perhaps also resize to max 800 pix. This depends on how many images I crop – if I do a lot of cropping to a lot of images, I may just upload them as cropped. My gallery site does more resizing for me automagically.

I replied too quickly. I should have added that IrfanView can do this with the exception of rotating the crop frame. A very simple work around is also quite fast. Rotate the image first (type L or
R) and then add the crop frame. Crop, rotate once more (if
appropriate) and save.

That’s a GREAT tip. Thanks. I’m going to give it a try with my next batch of event photos.

Indeed, it does! PSE does not allow for this type of scripting.
Well, this would be a good reason to upgrade to CS2. I’ve avoided it so far because PSE was doing a good job of meeting my needs.
Can you tell me what the rough specs are for your system? (CPU, speed, RAM)

www.kevinkienlein.com wrote:

this is a nice little program, I don’t know how good it is as I am new to dig pix’s, but check it out…. kk

http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/

Very nice! Pretty much exactly what I’m looking for – very fast all-around.

Thanks for the pointer!!

Cheers,
Richard

I just tried this on a set, and it was even slower. At least with this approach, it seems that memory is an issue for PSE4. (This is a P4 3.3GHz, 1GB RAM.)

"Richard H." writes:

I just tried this on a set, and it was even slower. At least with this approach, it seems that memory is an issue for PSE4. (This is a P4 3.3GHz, 1GB RAM.)

Add more memory, and a SCSI disk or two. Memory is probably the big one.
—
Paul Repacholi 1 Crescent Rd., +61 (08) 9257-1001 Kalamunda.
West Australia 6076

I don’t know if SCSI is a big performance advantage over today’s modern SATA hard drives.

this is a nice little program, I don’t know how good it is as I am new to dig pix’s, but check it out…. kk

http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/

Aah! It layers over JPEGTran – that the "gold" in this solution.
BugBear (who used JPEGtran to make normal JPEGS progressive without loss)

JPEGcrop made a significant slash in my processing time, but there’s still a lot of wasted time that could be squeezed out with some relatively minor user interface changes.

www.kevinkienlein.com wrote:

this is a nice little program, I don’t know how good it is as I am new to dig pix’s, but check it out…. kk

http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/

Aah! It layers over JPEGTran – that the "gold" in this solution.
BugBear (who used JPEGtran to make normal JPEGS progressive without loss)