AppleScripting Photo Mechanic

[whatmicah]

Automator actions for FTP and Upload to Photoshelter routines.

would rock!

[joemahoney]

I too would love to be able to save my edited & captioned images to a "hotfolder", and have those images automatically transmitted via PhotoMechanic's FTP. Is this already possible?

No, it is not currently possible.

-Kirk

Is something like that possible with an AppleScript via PM since it has an FTP engine built-into it?

For me I'd like to be able to automate creation of web pages from images sent. For example, run a script that selects all images that are x hour old or newer and create a page based on a template using variables for things like date, time and then have PM upload the HTML and JPGs.

(Then, have it make a nice banana split afterwards, especially if I'm shooting a golf tournament where it 1,000F in the shade.)

[Pavel]

Capture one is my favorite program for raw but it is a major pain at the same time because it strips out all the captioning and much of the exif.  What I would really, really be grateful for would be a script where the exif and iptc of one folder was transcribed onto a second folder of ones choosing.  That way I could take my raw files folder and after extracting all the edited shots with Capture one (or other programs that may be troublesome) simply have all the information "sync'd" back.

The challenges that I see are that it would have to not choke on files that are missing from the second folder because I often move files to my process folder which I then skip when using capture one - so the contents of the files would often not be identical.  Also it would be desirable to be able to not have to have the same filename.  After I process files they go to a second drive automatically and then I change the names.  I wonder if there is some aspect other than filename as a basis for comparison to recognize that a file is the same as the original file - so that all the info could be put back?

This would be a great blessing.

[Kirk Baker]

Capture one is my favorite program for raw but it is a major pain at the same time because it strips out all the captioning and much of the exif.  What I would really, really be grateful for would be a script where the exif and iptc of one folder was transcribed onto a second folder of ones choosing.  That way I could take my raw files folder and after extracting all the edited shots with Capture one (or other programs that may be troublesome) simply have all the information "sync'd" back.

The challenges that I see are that it would have to not choke on files that are missing from the second folder because I often move files to my process folder which I then skip when using capture one - so the contents of the files would often not be identical.  Also it would be desirable to be able to not have to have the same filename.  After I process files they go to a second drive automatically and then I change the names.  I wonder if there is some aspect other than filename as a basis for comparison to recognize that a file is the same as the original file - so that all the info could be put back?

This would be a great blessing.

Honestly, the C1 people should just make sure that there are options to preserve metadata all the way to final output.  Request that they do so.  If they care about their customers, they will add such an obviously necessary feature.

-Kirk

[RobertE]

Hi Pavel,

Capture one is my favorite program for raw but it is a major pain at the same time because it strips out all the captioning and much of the exif. 

Are you using the LE version? Capture One Pro supports IPTC and honours IPTC embedded by Photo Mechanic. There has to be some difference between the $99 and $499 versions . It wasn't that long ago the Mac version of C1Pro didn't support IPTC but it does now.

EXIF support improves with each new release.

-- Robert.

[Pavel]

I'm using an older version ... but though that the new version (on Mac anyways) didn't change that.  I may have to download the latest to try it out - but seem to recall from other users of the newest that they are still frustrated with stuff getting stripped out.  Hmmm.

[soren steffen]

I am using the newest version 3.7.4 and it strips the caption, but not most of the EXIF.

[Pavel]

An update:  I just bought the latest version and while it seems to strip out much of the exif - it keeps the iptc stuff in.  Even the caption stays put. Very good.

[Pavel]

Soren ... which version are you using.  I used a newer version which was a demo for the pro version. I worked fine so I bought the newest version of the LE for Mac and now I find out that the iptc comments are ALL gone when I process files.

I wonder if any of the settings from the preference panel "iptc/xmp" in photomechanic may have any impact on this.
Is it better to write to xmp or to the embedded iptc or does it make any difference?  What does the "read iptcnaa resources do, I wonder?

This is slightly frustrating and Kirk it makes me ask for that feature again - where one could use one folder as a source for updating the iptc stuff into the shots of a second folder. 

[Kirk Baker]

Pavel,

Soren ... which version are you using.  I used a newer version which was a demo for the pro version. I worked fine so I bought the newest version of the LE for Mac and now I find out that the iptc comments are ALL gone when I process files.

I wonder if any of the settings from the preference panel "iptc/xmp" in photomechanic may have any impact on this.
Is it better to write to xmp or to the embedded iptc or does it make any difference?  What does the "read iptcnaa resources do, I wonder?

If Capture One LE doesn't preserve IPTC or XMP embedded into the RAW file all the way to the output file then you could try XMP sidecar files, but I doubt they would fare much better.  It sounds like metadata preservation is reserved for the Pro version.

This is slightly frustrating and Kirk it makes me ask for that feature again - where one could use one folder as a source for updating the iptc stuff into the shots of a second folder. 

We already have a tool to synchronize your IPTC/XMP metadata between RAW+JPEG pairs.  Just make sure that your JPEGs have the same name as your RAW files (ignoring the filename extension part of course).  Then open both folders into the same Contact Sheet which will join them as RAW+JPEG pairs (as long as you have the join feature turned on.) and then select them all and use the "Update IPTC/XMP..." command on the Tools menu.  You can copy the IPTC/XMP from the RAW file to your JPEGs all in one batch.

HTH,

-Kirk

P.S. This thread has gotten way off topic...

[Pavel]

Thank you .... another technique that I wouldn't have thought of myself .... that will work.

[tc]

Hi,

I'm sure some of this can be done through Finder, but I'd love to be able to script comparisons between folders and adding PM colour codes or tags to images in one folder that exist in another (and removing them from ones that don't).

Thanks,

Tim.

[jjtiziou]

Ok, here's the big automation thing I'd like to be able to do with Photo Mechanic (and I'm not a hard core coder with applescript, so it'd be nice to be able to see it easy to implement with Automator or directly within PM)

I would like to be able to output several html galleries in one swoop. If I could point PM at a series of folders, and it could generate a matching series of folders with web galleries in them, that would be pretty helpful. Is this doable?

Similar management of folder structures in 'save as' could be useful too: If I'm viewing a contact sheet that is made of multiple subfolders, and I want to output a set of low res versions that match the same folder structure- that'd be pretty nice. Maybe a little checkbox for "use parent folder heirarchy" - it could get complicated when the folders are in many totally different paths- but something similar to the 'parent folder heirarchy' in the disk burning dialog could be nice. But that's getting off topic of the web gallery automation.

So back on the automation track: I'm envisoning that if I have a dozen or a hundred web galleries to output, I could just hit "go" and have pm4 output them all at once, while I'm a sleep, into their respective folders, rather than my having to come back to it every little while to point it at the next source folder, and the next output folder...

Thanks as always,
-jj

[Hayo Baan]

To put in my two cents.

Being a command-line freak and one who always writes little scripts to automate tasks, I can sure envision any scripting support to be a nice addition!  I'm currently on Windoze though where I use the REXX scripting language for most things.
We're to switch to Mac before the end of the year though, so I'll probably start learning (and using) AppleScript.

[jjtiziou]

Hey Kirk,

So I'm trying to set up an installation that is going to involve a projector in a storefront display... here's where being able to trigger a slideshow via applescript would be handy. I'm now off to look for some other slideshow program that can be automatically launched...

thanks!
-jj