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geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: wellington1869 on Fri, 05 November 2010, 23:28:52

Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: wellington1869 on Fri, 05 November 2010, 23:28:52: ok, around $50 or less... need to do simple batch manipulations on jpegs... batch crop, batch convert to b&w, and batch reduce resolution/size. Any ideas? thanks! Preferably I'll select the jpegs and right click for context menu options?
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: Daniel Beaver on Sat, 06 November 2010, 00:38:03: IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.net/), in combination with some plugins, will do all sorts of batch operations on images. For free.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: wellington1869 on Sat, 06 November 2010, 00:53:23: Quote from: Daniel Beaver;243284
IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.net/), in combination with some plugins, will do all sorts of batch operations on images. For free.

good idea, thanks.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: instantkamera on Sat, 06 November 2010, 07:09:03: you can now close this topic.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: Daniel Beaver on Sat, 06 November 2010, 12:24:28: I know there is a plugin which does batch cropping and can apply filters to each picture, but I can't remember what it is. Not sure about tag editing, but it is basic enough that I am sure some way exists.

Lightroom is as nice product for more advanced management. Not cheap, though.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: Ekaros on Sat, 06 November 2010, 12:35:03: Yeah, InfranView can do B&W, resize and format conversions very easily... Best imageviewer out there...
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: Daniel Beaver on Sat, 06 November 2010, 13:17:54: Meh, I would normally be a hater, but I like Adobe's software suite. Things just seem easier to do.

I am also poor, so I am incentivised to find free solutions. A combination of Irfanview, Gimp, Paint.Net and other programs can replicate almost all of what can be done with Adobe's software. Free software may not be a replacement for the professional, but it is "good enough" for most folk. And I would rather be able to afford my car payments than spend money on software.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: Ekaros on Sat, 06 November 2010, 13:31:42: Quote from: Julle;243433
Falling for your trollish post that reeks of paid endorsement, I'd say both Lightroom and Elements are overpriced and resource-hungry for what they do, and very bloated too. Next time you install an Adobe product, do count how many useless pieces of software you need to un-tick to install the product you actually purchased (or did not purchase).

The fact that Irfanview has a simple interface makes it a very powerful tool. You can run it without a hitch on virtually any modern Windows computer. Lightroom on the other hand takes up needlessly large amount of resources to even run the flashier-than-necessary interface.

I belive it will run with most of MW's comps too...
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: Ekaros on Sat, 06 November 2010, 13:35:26: Quote from: ripster;243441
Welly's computers are from this century.

Just making my point of generaly it working on dated hardware too...

Abobe hasn't ever been too much into optimization or are they?
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: instantkamera on Sat, 06 November 2010, 14:57:56: right tool for the job. Adobe products don't apply here, Im sorry.

I have never used imageMagik for windows, or I would recommend that ...
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: RoboKrikit on Sat, 06 November 2010, 20:35:40: I'm a fan of Irfanview for viewing and some very basic photo manipulation, but I don't get the Adobe hate in a thread about image editing. Photoshop is indispensable and Lightroom is a really excellent tool for photographers.

You might get a bee in your bonnet like I do when upgrading Adobe "freeware" like Reader and Flash Player, but this doesn't make their good tools less useful.

For the photographers here (since B&W and batch processing were mentioned in the same sentence), I find Bibble Pro really useful for some RAW editing. There is a plugin called Andy that does very nice B&W film simulation, and if you are a licensed NoiseNinja user, it can apply NoiseNinja in RAW conversion, among other useful stuff. These days I really prefer Lightroom for its UI, but Andy B&W keeps me coming back to Bibble.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: Daniel Beaver on Sat, 06 November 2010, 21:07:30: "I don't get all the Adobe hate"?
Exactly one person in this thread has expressed significant negative opinions about their software.

Stuff such as lightoom is an excellent tool for photo management. But we don't recommend to people that they go out and buy, say, a 5 axis water jet cutter for use in arts and crafts projects. As Kishy said, spending $80 on Adobe software for the rather basic needs that welly is asking about is way overkill.

Give the free trial a shot, in any case. You might like the other features it provides.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: wellington1869 on Sat, 06 November 2010, 22:54:36: thanks for the tips everyone! I also enjoyed the warfare... its funny, my political threads never get people this angry, LOL

i'm downloading and trying out everything mentioned above... i've used irfanview before (tho i had forgotten about it) and it probably will do what I need - and at the same time, I'm definitely open to a more professional solution if its affordable since this is stuff I expect to be doing a lot more of (and lightroom academic edition is a "reasonable" $80, though i'll play with the trial first for a while before deciding). Also I have paint.net and gimp, tho havent played much with them yet either.

Anyway, ya'll will hate me but actually it turns out I dont need this software right now anyway... I thought I needed it to manipulate jpegs before feeding them into abbyy finereader (OCR sw) but I've since upgraded from Home to Pro (was forced to really) and it turns out Abbyy Pro has a built-in batch cropper and b&w tools... yay.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: msiegel on Sat, 06 November 2010, 23:01:35: it's a good day when a problem contains its own solution :D
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: wellington1869 on Sat, 06 November 2010, 23:29:18: Quote from: msiegel;243656
it's a good day when a problem contains its own solution :D

:) Yea I have nothing but extreme praise for abbyy finereader... its one of these truly miraculous pieces of software, one of a kind.

The Home version is cheap; the Pro version is absurdly pricey (unless you get the upgrade version (which I did) or unless you find a certain shady ukranian ebay seller... tho i've bought stuff from him before and they activate fine ;)

Quote from: ripster;243654
I just like to argue.

I'm sure you haven't noticed.

wouldnt have you any other way man ;)
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: keyboardlover on Sun, 07 November 2010, 06:35:58: Quote from: wellington1869

wouldnt have you any other way man ;)

Awwww...sweet bromance.

(http://www.scadd.org/images/459445guys.jpg)
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: CodeChef on Mon, 08 November 2010, 08:35:06: Wait... FastStone Photo Resizer has all that you asked for and more, and it's totally free...
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: zefrer on Mon, 08 November 2010, 08:52:47: It appears there are a lot of people stuck in the 'if it's free there's something wrong with it' mindset. Disappointing really.

Meanwhile.. : mogrify *.png -size 80% -format jpg

Took all of 2sec. How long did it take you to download free trial, install, see if it works for you, potentially pay for it before it stops printing "UNLICENSED" in red capital letters all over your pictures?
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: instantkamera on Mon, 08 November 2010, 09:09:21: Quote from: zefrer;244207
It appears there are a lot of people stuck in the 'if it's free there's something wrong with it' mindset. Disappointing really.

Meanwhile.. : mogrify *.png -size 80% -format jpg

Took all of 2sec. How long did it take you to download free trial, install, see if it works for you, potentially pay for it before it stops printing "UNLICENSED" in red capital letters all over your pictures?

Quote from: instantkamera;243475
right tool for the job. Adobe products don't apply here, Im sorry.

I have never used imageMagik for windows, or I would recommend that ...

Im right there with you buddy.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: zefrer on Mon, 08 November 2010, 09:22:13: I wanted to slap her head right off when I saw her blow on the lens like it's a gameboy cartridge :heh:
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: instantkamera on Mon, 08 November 2010, 09:34:31: Quote from: ripster;244218
Have I ever mentioned that Nikon is the only choice if you are serious about photography?

genius. and hot.

...

The ending is a little weird, is that what happens if you can't cross-over brands for some poon?
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: TexasFlood on Mon, 08 November 2010, 10:38:19: Quote from: wellington1869;243277
ok, around $50 or less... need to do simple batch manipulations on jpegs... batch crop, batch convert to b&w, and batch reduce resolution/size. Any ideas? thanks! Preferably I'll select the jpegs and right click for context menu options?

Have a look at open source software such as ImageMagick (http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php) or GIMP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP).
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: TexasFlood on Mon, 08 November 2010, 10:59:11: Quote from: ripster;244266
Gimp is an insult to handicapped people.

At least it's cool software, not a leather clad slave kept in a box.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nxZ80QwRbt4/TCP8OzVbBNI/AAAAAAAABX0/jCDqeT7h3iI/s1600/bring-out-the-gimp.jpg)
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: instantkamera on Mon, 08 November 2010, 11:29:11: Quote from: ripster;244266
Gimp is an insult to handicapped people.
Show Image
(http://momodomo.com/press/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/manner200902.gif)

I assume this is you expressing your disapproval with the software. Trust me, you are wrong. I used to think the same, even as a hardcore linux user. Let me tell you that dcraw, digiKam, GIMP, imageMagick and argyllCMS are challenging the "That's what the PROS use" mold. In fact, you will find many pros don't use what "the pros use".
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: firestorm on Mon, 08 November 2010, 11:42:02: FWIW, I have used Irfanview and Faststone. I like both, but prefer the UI on Faststone. Both are very fast viewers with a lot of features.

I also use Adobe Lightroom 3. It's a pig on my P4 3.2Ghz though, even with 3GB of RAM (Win XP Pro) - I swear it crashes every other time I open it too, when absolutely nothing else ever crashes. But it does some amazing things and it never crashes while I'm using it. I'm a big fan of the Flickr, Gallery2 and Facebook export plugins. That crap never worked right for me in Picasa 3 (which I always found awkward to use.)
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: instantkamera on Mon, 08 November 2010, 11:58:57: Quote from: ripster;244285
Nothing else is possibly as good as Adobe This or Adobe That. And Adobe products need all the promotion they can get, because hardly anyone knows what Photoshop is.

Give it a rest dude. Seriously. Adobe make great products, and are clearly the industry leaders for a reason. Sometimes it's nice to use other things.

- $x != free

- maybe sacrificing a bit of speed for a true understanding of the components that compose a workflow would be informative and beneficial.

- Maybe learning to use programs that are made to be extensible and even non-interactive can speed UP you workflow considerably in the long run, as you can customize each tool to your liking.

- Maybe some real competition from other software will help Adobe to continue to innovate. I don't see many other companies doing a good job of that, especially the big co. with a lot of money, knowledge and REACH in the computing world.

peace.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: wellington1869 on Mon, 08 November 2010, 14:25:59: Quote from: ripster;244299

Show Image
(http://images.craigslist.org/3k13of3p55O65Q05P3a7r04e46044f1fa15bd.jpg)

I read them for the articles.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: wellington1869 on Mon, 08 November 2010, 16:39:16: i miss having to tear the edges off my printer paper. it was kind of fun.

jeez they all look like they work in a morgue.
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: zefrer on Mon, 08 November 2010, 17:19:14: Since when did the OP being satisfied stop us from arguing? Where's the fun in not arguing?
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: wellington1869 on Mon, 08 November 2010, 21:00:09: Quote from: zefrer;244430
Since when did the OP being satisfied stop us from arguing? Where's the fun in not arguing?

this is a good point
Title: help me buy a batch photo converter...
Post by: keyboardlover on Mon, 08 November 2010, 21:35:24: If I'm not mistaken, trolls feed on arguments...