The challenge:
1. I have 5000 photos that need to be captioned/titled. We are looking for the easiest format and workflow to both caption the photo and overlay the caption onto the photo itself. Each caption will be different and will be no less than one short sentence (10-15 words)
2. Ideally the caption would be at the bottom of the photo. Black text on a white background. It doesn’t need to be super big font. Think National Geographic subtitles under their photos in the magazine.
3. Perfect world would be that the caption would not be on top of the photo itself and would be situated below it. This is not a mandatory given that its not a lot of text and would occupy just a small amount of the bottom of the photo.
Please let me know what you think the best solution would be ala using only photo mechanic or a combination of photoshop and photomechanic.
This can be done entirely in Photo Mechanic.
1 ) Create a plain-text file. On each line of the file, enter the name of the photo, then a Tab, then enter the caption text and press return. Save the file.
2 ) Load this file into the Code Replacement dialog. (Edit->Settings->Set Code Replacements...)
3 ) Select all of the photos. Bring up the IPTC Stationery Pad (Image->IPTC Stationery Pad...) and enter the following into the Caption field:
\{filename}\
4 ) Apply the IPTC Stationery Pad by clicking on the "Apply Stationery to Selected" button. It will take some time to caption 5,000 images.
5 ) Select a single photo.
6 ) Bring up the Save As dialog (File->Save Photos as...) and set your desired sizing/quality options. To setup your Watermark, click on the checkbox to the left of the "Watermark" button. Then click the Watermark button itself.
7 ) Set the "Draw Text" checkbox. Enter the following in the text field:
{caption}
8 ) Choose your font and color, alignment and opacity. Then set the position by clicking on the radio button that indicates the lower area you desire. Then in the Dimensions section choose how much area you want your text to be written into. The font size will vary based on the length of the text and the area in which it has to draw into. Click the OK button when you're satisfied.
9 ) Back in the Save As dialog choose your destination and then click the Save button. Examine the saved photo and if you're happy with the result, select all 5,000 images and perform the Save As on all of them. This will take longer than step 4 to complete.
That should do it. Please feel free to ask questions!
-Kirk
