Software for batch edge finding

[jvgig]

I am currently scanning in all of my film shots, but since I have several 1000 to scan, I either have to do it myself or watch my picture quality deteriorate. My scanner can determine the boundaries of pictures, but whatever software it uses takes an incredibly long time. To scan one roll of film takes about an hour to an hour and a half during which time I cannot leave my computer...An impossible task. However, if I let the scanner software just scan, I can do a roll in about 5-10min, but the 4 images are on one superfile. So, what I need is a program that I can tell to go through a few hundred of these images and pick out the pictures from the white background and save them as individual files. I do not have the time to do this manually. I don't care if it even takes 15 hours to do, I just don't want to have to babysit it.

Is there software that does this?

btw, I am scanning 4x6s at 600dpi and 24bit color (seems to be the best picture quality with a reasonable scan time)

Thanks

[TPF Sponsor]

[dkf10425]

The only thing I can think of is to create an action set using the "crop and straighten photos" feature in photoshop, then run the "automate-batch" command on the folder with the photos. You will have to save each photo after the automate command has run, but it should crop the whole folder of photos.

[jvgig]

So, could I then just select a folder of a hundred of these files and have it run on those, and then save the files, or do I have to save after each one before it moves on to the next?

[dkf10425]

You don't have to save each one before it goes to the next. It will batch process the entire folder. Because this is a resource heavy action set, I would go to preferences in photoshop and under "performance" temporarily bump up the amount of ram allocated to photoshop.

[MountainPaul]

The lazy way of doing it is to use a script.
Here is one that I wrote for Photoshop CS2/CS3
save the code as FileName.jsx
Then from Photoshop File - Scripts - Browse (to where you have saved it)
It will process all JPG,TIF and PSD files in the selected Folder
The output files will be placed into a folder called Edited off the selected folder.
Hope its off use to you.
Paul.

******************************************************//
#target Photoshop
app.bringToFront;
var inFolder = Folder.selectDialog("Please select folder to process");
var fileList = inFolder.getFiles(/\.(jpg|tif||psd|)$/i);
var outfolder = new Folder(decodeURI(inFolder) + "/Edited");
if (outfolder.exists == false) outfolder.create();
for(var a = 0 ;a < fileList.length; a++){
if(fileList[a] instanceof File){
var doc= open(fileList[a]);
doc.flatten();
var docname = fileList[a].name.slice(0,-4);
CropStraighten();
doc.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES);
var count = 1;
while(app.documents.length){
var saveFile = new File(decodeURI(outfolder) + "/" + docname +"#"+ zeroPad(count,3) + ".tif");
SaveTIFF(saveFile);
activeDocument.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES) ;
count++;
}
}
}
function CropStraighten() {
function cTID(s) { return app.charIDToTypeID(s); };
function sTID(s) { return app.stringIDToTypeID(s); };
executeAction( sTID('CropPhotosAuto0001'), undefined, DialogModes.NO );
};
function SaveTIFF(saveFile){
tiffSaveOptions = new TiffSaveOptions();
tiffSaveOptions.embedColorProfile = true;
tiffSaveOptions.alphaChannels = true;
tiffSaveOptions.imageCompression = TIFFEncoding.TIFFLZW;
activeDocument.saveAs(saveFile, tiffSaveOptions, false, Extension.LOWERCASE);
}
function zeroPad(n, s) {
n = n.toString();
while (n.length < s) n = '0' + n;
return n;
};
******************************************/

[jvgig]

Since I do not currently own Photoshop, is there a less expensive program to do the same thing? Does Elements have this feature?

[MountainPaul]

If/when you have all your pictures scanned you could then download a trial version of Photoshop from
http://www.adobe.com/downloads/

At least you would get all the hard work done for you and FREE.

Paul.