Question - Auto Import, Resize, Watermark, Save To - Possible?

[alex_w]

Hey Everyone,

Looking into solutions for a project. Would like to know if the following is possible with Lightroom.

--Auto-Import by scanning a designated folder.
--Import anything new there.
--Resize image to set dimensions.
--Watermark with either text or another image, in lower right corner, (or anywhere)
--Save to new location.
----Bonus but not necessary - Save to new location with designated name/incremental numbers.

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Brad Snyder]

Alex, welcome

--Auto-Import by scanning a designated folder.
Not exactly, you can import from any designated folder(s) but not automatically

--Import anything new there.
Sort of, you can set a watched folder, which must be empty to start, and drop images into it individually, and they will be autoimported, via 'move to', and the designated folder will finish empty.
--Resize image to set dimensions.
Not automatically, but in an arbitrary number of batched images synchronously. Note that crop/aspect ratio and pixel density resizing are two separate operations in Lr.
--Watermark with either text or another image, in lower right corner, (or anywhere)
Yes, the most capable solution is a 3rd Party plug-in, Lr2/Mogrify. Lr3beta adds some native capability here.
--Save to new location.
Sort of, Lr calls this the Export function, but I believe that's what you want. With another optional plug-in, the output folder structure can mirror the imported structure. The pixel resizing operation will be integrated here.
----Bonus but not necessary - Save to new location with designated name/incremental numbers.
Probably, depends on your exact naming needs

If you want to tell us exactly what you're up to, perhaps we can cut directly to a helpful workflow for you.

 

[alex_w]

Hey Brad,

Thanks much for the reply.

What I would like to do is this:

Taking shots in the field using an Eye-Fi. Will have a laptop running in backpack connected to camera via ad-hoc mode, with 3g/4g/wifi access.

Images will auto stream to a folder I set in Eye-Fi settings.

Want some program, potentially Lightroom, to be running, and constantly scanning a designated folder for images.

As they come in from Eye-Fi, Lightroom imports, resizes for web (13'' x 13'', aspect ratio kept, Jpg, 85% quality, etc), watermarks.

Then, it saves to a new folder, so there is no overlap and originals are kept.

I then run a backup/sync based FTP program as a service in Windows, to scan a folder every 3' seconds, (the newly resized images' folder), and FTP up to our server.

Staff posts publicly, or images are shown via flash/javascript slideshow embedded in forum/blog/etc type enviornments.

I need to be taking pictures, with 1''% ZERO interaction with anything on the laptop, Lightroom, etc. After the initial setup that is. Get it all set, turn off monitor, close lid, slide in backpack, take pictures, on internet in under a minute.

Can't tell from research I've done if Lightroom is capable. It's close, but not 1''% sure.

 

[Brad Snyder]

No, it can do it all, but not hands-free. The auto-import could work if properly configured. The resizing/quality/watermark/export could be done all in a batch, but not as a sequential trigger image by image, it would require manual intervention in batch sized bites. All current versions are free to try, so you could experiment.

Will you be shooting raw or JPG?

You might want to consider something along the lines of Marc Rochkind's Image Ingester, which is far more configurable, with respect to file locations and multiple copies, etc. I'm not sure how it would fit in the tethered environment tho'. I believe there are competitors to that product as well, Breeze Systems to name one.

 

[Denis Pagé]

As Brad said from Lightroom's point of view. But there is a fast track using a Photoshop action configured to save to the FTP folder. Altough, on Windows, you still have to drop the streamed image onto the action's icon. I think that on Mac the folder where you put your streamed images can be automated to send to the Photoshop action but I do not know how (and would like to know).