LR/PS advice please.

Jelster

Jelster

Messages
9,855
Name
Steve
Edit My Images
Yes
My workflow is pretty simple; copy from card to a remote drive, import into LR, apply an import filter removing any sharpening (Fuji files). From there I do any basic stuff in LR like crop, exposure etc, then "Edit In" PS to resize, sharpen and add a border.

I'm quite happy with this method as it works for me. However I would like to improve on my method for adding borders. Usually for digital screen images I resize at 1200 x 800, then go to "Canvas size" add a 2px border in black, then 98px in white. Is there a way I can either make the "add border" bit into a simple macro, or is there a better way of achieving this? I'm just going through a load of shots taken yesterday at my grandsons 3rd birthday party, and doing this about 20 times is going to get a bit time consuming.
 
Jelster said:
My workflow is pretty simple; copy from card to a remote drive, import into LR, apply an import filter removing any sharpening (Fuji files). From there I do any basic stuff in LR like crop, exposure etc, then "Edit In" PS to resize, sharpen and add a border.

I'm quite happy with this method as it works for me. However I would like to improve on my method for adding borders. Usually for digital screen images I resize at 1200 x 800, then go to "Canvas size" add a 2px border in black, then 98px in white. Is there a way I can either make the "add border" bit into a simple macro, or is there a better way of achieving this? I'm just going through a load of shots taken yesterday at my grandsons 3rd birthday party, and doing this about 20 times is going to get a bit time consuming.
Click to expand...

Record it as an Action.
 
Jelster said:
Just watched how to do that, thanks very much, that makes life easier......
Click to expand...

Eucris beat me to it :D

I've used Mogrify2 for a different function, but it seriously slowed down LR so I wouldn't recommend that now; just a PS Action will do fine

I have several Actions for borders, all mine are set to different sizes for whatever media I'm using them for, and mine have a drop shadow border as part of the Action too; it just makes mine look different to most so more recognisable
 
Dave Goodier said:
Eucris beat me to it :D

I've used Mogrify2 for a different function, but it seriously slowed down LR so I wouldn't recommend that now; just a PS Action will do fine

I have several Actions for borders, all mine are set to different sizes for whatever media I'm using them for, and mine have a drop shadow border as part of the Action too; it just makes mine look different to most so more recognisable
Click to expand...

I've used Mogrify for years on both Intel and M series Macs and never experienced any slowdown.

The plug in is not used until you export so I can't see how it can slow LR down. Sure it will slow down exporting but then it's adding borders and watermarks. That's bound to take a bit longer.

Anyway, it's free to try it out so try it.
 
ecoleman said:
I've used Mogrify for years on both Intel and M series Macs and never experienced any slowdown.

The plug in is not used until you export so I can't see how it can slow LR down. Sure it will slow down exporting but then it's adding borders and watermarks. That's bound to take a bit longer.

Anyway, it's free to try it out so try it.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I did mean on export. It was the section where the Filename was added to the exported image, and on a typical 600ish export it took as much as 4x as long just to add that. Bizarrely, using it also stopped LR capping the file size too, so while I used the 'Limit to 600kb' it didn't and some images were much too big
 
mstphoto said:
A quicker way is to to select the whole image then go to EDIT-STROKE in PS and select the width and colour of the border/keyline
Click to expand...
But wouldn't I have to do that twice? (Once for the black then again for the white).....
 
Dave Goodier said:
I think Mike meant it'd be quicker than how you were doing it

MUCH quicker still is to create an Action that does it as many times as needed, but with just one click :)
Click to expand...
Which I have now done, and will set up others for different sizes as I need them....
 
You could create an image of the border (and watermark, etc) as a png (transparent BG) and have that added as your watermark during LR export. Just make sure the frame/watermark image is of the same ratio, and at least as large as the largest exported size. Set it to "fit" in the watermark editor. Here I edited "watermark centered" to use a B&W frame graphic and saved the watermark preset as "FRAME."

1736269382137.png

Here are the export settings to auto resize and apply the frame/watermark.

1736265302236.png

And this is the result (yes it is noisy/unedited; and I wouldn't normally have sharpening enabled).

_SGK0111.jpg

Note that the original image in LR was cropped to 4619x3080; and the frame image was 8256x5504 (to accommodate the largest file size form Z9/D850). Interestingly, the frame/watermark image is resized separately from the image, so the border width after export remains the same regardless of the original image size. This is an uncropped 8256x Z9 image exported with the same settings.

_SGK0388.jpg

You can then just batch export all of the images from LR, and you could save the export settings as an export preset as well.
You could also do the same by creating an action in PS. And you could even run that action as a batch command on a folder of images... but for something so simple I wouldn't bother.
 
Last edited:
sk66 said:
You could create an image of the border (and watermark, etc) as a png (transparent BG) and have that added as your watermark during LR export. Just make sure the frame/watermark image is of the same ratio, and at least as large as the largest exported size. Set it to "fit" in the watermark editor. Here I edited "watermark centered" to use a B&W frame graphic and saved the watermark preset as "FRAME."

View attachment 442671

Here are the export settings to auto resize and apply the frame/watermark.

View attachment 442673

And this is the result (yes it is noisy/unedited; and I wouldn't normally have sharpening enabled).

View attachment 442674

Note that the original image in LR was cropped to 4619x3080; and the frame image was 8256x5504 (to accommodate the largest file size form Z9/D850). Interestingly, the frame/watermark image is resized separately from the image, so the border width after export remains the same regardless of the original image size. This is an uncropped 8256x Z9 image exported with the same settings.

View attachment 442675

You can then just batch export all of the images from LR, and you could save the export settings as an export preset as well.
You could also do the same by creating an action in PS. And you could even run that action as a batch command on a folder of images... but for something so simple I wouldn't bother.
Click to expand...

Mogrify does all of this for you. No need to create images with the same ratios. Just add a border of x pixels or x %. You can even add two borders.
Seems like the suggestion was dismissed because one person said it slowed down their exporting.

I've never found it to be slow and never had a problem with file size limits either (I suspect that may be user error).

Screenshot 2025-01-07 at 16.25.10.png


This took me 20 seconds to setup and export. You can save the export as a preset and then batch export as many as you like. (There is a 98px white border around the side) which you can't see here.)

- Elliott Coleman.jpg
 
Last edited:
ecoleman said:
Mogrify does all of this for you.
Click to expand...
Wasn't aware of it, and hadn't noticed you recommended it earlier... surprised the OP went with a PS action instead.
I don't see where it really does/simplifies anything for you if you use a graphical watermark as well, but for just basic frames it looks good.
 
Last edited:
You could save time and effort by importing and copying your files at the same time using LR import. I use import to copy the files to my main data disk and to make a copy to my NAS.

Dave
 
sk66 said:
Wasn't aware of it, and hadn't noticed you recommended it earlier... surprised the OP went with a PS action instead.
I don't see where it really does/simplifies anything for you if you use a graphical watermark as well, but for just basic frames it looks good.
Click to expand...

Mogrify does graphical watermarks too.

Screenshot 2025-01-07 at 17.44.01.png

Mogrify has a few different modules that you can add to an export action. Some of them are just better versions of LR's own version and others are added features.

Screenshot 2025-01-07 at 17.45.30.png
 
Last edited:
This is interesting. (Hope tis post is not too far off topic!) I've also been looking for reasonable ways to add borders on export or when printing, but I'm starting from Capture One Pro rather than LR. After reading the above, I did a bit of searching on Mogrify, trying to find out if it could easily be used from C1Pro; I think the answer is likely no. However, I did notice that there's a companion to Mogrify in ImageMagick called Convert, and that reminded me of a utility called XNConvert that I used when moving from Aperture to C1Pro, to convert all my black and white images from a greyscale space to RGB (C1Pro refused to allow me to edit images in greyscale!). I checked, and XNConvert does allow me to do many of the same things, including adding borders; it appears to be one of many derivatives from ImageMagick.

C1Pro does allow me to call Epson Print Layout from the Edit With or Open With items in the Image tab. I'm not yet sure if I can call XNConvert that way; probably not, as XNConvert has a rather unusual way of opening its input image(s). There's yet another variant called XNView MP that I'm also looking at; no idea yet whether this would be easier to call.

When I was asking about this issue of better print controls, borders etc a few years ago, the most common suggestion was to get QImage One, and at this point I must say I'm seriously considering it. In that thread there's a link which would get you 10% off the licence fee if anyone's interested. I think I'll sign up for a free trial first.
 
ChrisR said:
This is interesting. (Hope tis post is not too far off topic!) I've also been looking for reasonable ways to add borders on export or when printing, but I'm starting from Capture One Pro rather than LR. After reading the above, I did a bit of searching on Mogrify, trying to find out if it could easily be used from C1Pro; I think the answer is likely no. However, I did notice that there's a companion to Mogrify in ImageMagick called Convert, and that reminded me of a utility called XNConvert that I used when moving from Aperture to C1Pro, to convert all my black and white images from a greyscale space to RGB (C1Pro refused to allow me to edit images in greyscale!). I checked, and XNConvert does allow me to do many of the same things, including adding borders; it appears to be one of many derivatives from ImageMagick.

C1Pro does allow me to call Epson Print Layout from the Edit With or Open With items in the Image tab. I'm not yet sure if I can call XNConvert that way; probably not, as XNConvert has a rather unusual way of opening its input image(s). There's yet another variant called XNView MP that I'm also looking at; no idea yet whether this would be easier to call.

When I was asking about this issue of better print controls, borders etc a few years ago, the most common suggestion was to get QImage One, and at this point I must say I'm seriously considering it. In that thread there's a link which would get you 10% off the licence fee if anyone's interested. I think I'll sign up for a free trial first.
Click to expand...

Looks like I posted that link. I’ve been using QImage One for a couple of years now and it’s great for adding borders to images for printing. It also handles print sharpening far better than LR.

I can’t see it doing what the OP wants to do though. You could add borders and print to .jpg file from Qimage One but I don’t think it would work very well for batches of images.
 
Last edited:
ecoleman said:
Looks like I posted that link. I’ve been using QImage One for a couple of years now and it’s great for adding borders to images for printing. It also handles print sharpening far better than LR.

I can’t see it doing what the OP wants to do though. You could add borders and print to .jpg file from Qimage One but I don’t think it would work very well for batches of images.
Click to expand...
Ah. XNConvert et al are great for batches of images. Converted thousands of black and white film scans in greyscale into RGB in one go, for me. Confident you could borderify (;-) a big batch of images at the same time. But it's the advice above (mogrify) in a slightly different version, I think.
 
sk66 said:
Wasn't aware of it, and hadn't noticed you recommended it earlier... surprised the OP went with a PS action instead.
I don't see where it really does/simplifies anything for you if you use a graphical watermark as well, but for just basic frames it looks good.
Click to expand...
I prefer to resize & sharpen in PS, rather than LR, I "think" I get more control over the sharpening using PS. I don't want to add the frame until I've resized & sharpened, so I would have to bring it back into LR for that. I'm happy with the "action", it cuts down the time I was spending creating borders, and the method fits into my current workflow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top