Dick finally gave me the file I started for him of a photo for each visitor he had in the hospital back in June. I had tried to get him to stick to the square size but ...well, now I have a mix of square but most of them shots are 4x6, portrait and landscape. Persnickety has a 30% off sale for the small books til Sept 30 so I have time. I've done some of the editing in Persnickety but get frozen after about the 3rd crop and adjust process. I don't see how I can do a batch edit in PSE since the size and orientation change from photo to photo. Anyone have any suggestions on doing this? I still have about 50 to go...ugh.
I like to use the Project Life app when I want everything square. Do you have it? I open the 12x12 template, pull in the photo, move it how I want it, export, then pull in a new photo and repeat, exporting them all to the same location. Hope this helps!
Are most of the photos' subjects in the center of the frame? If so, could you make an action and use batch-process every file's canvas size? You'd still have to "save as" after checking each one was correct, but the process of "sizing" would be taken care of. [You could make an action for changing canvas size to 6x6 in and then using Batch > Automate to change the canvas size of all open files. Or you could add bleed and make your action change canvas size to 6.5x6.5in, but I digress.] ETA: I think your easiest bet is to change canvas size, not to "resize": I did a quick test and when you change canvas size, it "chops off" from the sides and leaves the middle, which is why I thought it would work if most of your subjects are in the center of the frame. I just read Cheryl's reply, and I like the idea of separating the photos into vertical and horizontal folders (and it wouldn't be hard or time-consuming to do that). Anyway, now I have a "change canvas size to 6 inch by 6 inch" Photoshop action, if you want to try batch process with it.
I haven't ever used this feature of PSE, but I found this older article about batch processing. Note the tip at the end that suggests you separate the landscape and portrait images into separate folders and then do the batch processing. Here's the link to the article: https://digital-photography-school.com/batch-processing-in-photoshop-elements/ Good luck!
Maureen @cookingmylife are they on your phone? Monica @umyesh mentioned the Project Life App and there's also an Instasize app that resizes photos for Instagram.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will be with my grand daughter most of the rest of this week so I'll check your ideas next week. No, none of the photos are on my phone. They were either taken with Dick's phone or with the phone of the friend who was visiting and then sent to Dick. Sadly almost none of them are centered with the two/three people in the middle. A great # are like this. What can I say? Very few of his friends even had a clue on how to take a selfie of the two of them! But at least I have a record....LOL Dick's former co-worker and his daughter who later worked with Dick. 3 engineers. Say no more...
I absolutely love that you're just excited to have the photos, regardless of how "good" they are! Also, I am glad Dick has so much support around him! It's such a wonderful idea to turn those selfies into a photo book.
Since the people aren't centered I would use the pictures as is, portrait or landscape, with added white space to make them square. I don't have a quick way to do that, though. Good luck!
I like umyesh's suggestion to use the photos as they are and add white space around them to make them all square. You could even list the names of the visitors in the white space. You have a great idea and so glad you have photos of each of the visitors no matter the orientation or size.
For the white border, what if you made a template, one for vertical one and one for horizontal. Then you could drag and drop and save. If you have a save action, that would make it quick? I've never done too much batch processing besides editing so I'm not much help.
Do you have Lightroom? You can crop one to a square, then sync all the other crops. After they are synced, then you just go to each photo and tweak the placement of each photo within the square. Since the photos are all different with the people in different orientations and locations within the frame, there is no way to fully automate it. But LR will at least sync a square crop across them all so you aren't drawing individual crop boxes for every photo. Then just export them all at your desired size.
Thanks everyone. @mollyc I do appreciate that idea as I really enjoy working in LR a lot even if I'm never trying to get a 'really great photo image'. Those days are long gone..
Thank you all again...Dick was happy! so I'm leaving it to him now to go to Kinkos or wherever to get it printed. He wanted to drive again so it's another little excursion for him. (click to see)
