Batch Cropping

[TheSemiUnprofessional]

Hello

I'm in the process of cropping multiple images of the same product for our website. Each image is of the same product however, each one has a different attribute like a different colour, worktop or finish. I want to crop them down but keeping to the same image size so our visitors enjoy a closer up view.  I'd like to find a way to either accurately crop them into a more centralised position or, batch crop them to save on manual work. The reason they need to be accurately cropped is because they'll be used as swatches, so when a particular customer picks blue for example, it'll switch from red to blue without the image jigging everywhere when a website product option has changed. 

I've tried to find any tutorials to help but all I've found it batch processing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[TheSemiUnprofessional]

Does this make sense to people? Hope someone can help

[walt.farrell]

I think I understand it

I think that an approach like this should work, but I've never tried it for your purpose.

1. Find a set of images of the same object that match, except for the different attribute.
2. Use File->New Stack, then select all those images. Specify Automatically Align Images.
3. That should give you a new document, with all the images as layers, with the object aligned.
4. Manually crop the document as you'd like it.
5. Switch to the Export Persona.
6. Using the Layers panel, create one slice per layer (image) to export.
7. Export the slices as individual images.

[toltec]

Do they all have to end up the same size ?

[John Rostron]

2 hours ago, toltec said:

Do they all have to end up the same size ?

Are you addressing the OP,  @TheSemiUnprofessional, or @walt.farrell? The various layers of the document will all be cropped to the same size, which is what I presume the OP wanted.

John

[toltec]

5 hours ago, John Rostron said:

Are you addressing the OP,  @TheSemiUnprofessional, or @walt.farrell? The various layers of the document will all be cropped to the same size, which is what I presume the OP wanted.

John

I was a bit confused at the time by

13 hours ago, TheSemiUnprofessional said:

I want to crop them just to enlarge them

I find that happens a lot these days 

But it makes more sense to me after taking my meds.

P.S walt.farrel had not yet posted when I replied and pressed Submit Reply, so there was no other post there at that precise moment, except for the OPs. It's all a question of timing

Hence your confusion 

[TheSemiUnprofessional]

9 hours ago, toltec said:

I was a bit confused at the time by

I find that happens a lot these days 

But it makes more sense to me after taking my meds.

P.S walt.farrel had not yet posted when I replied and pressed Submit Reply, so there was no other post there at that precise moment, except for the OPs. It's all a question of timing

Hence your confusion 

Ah I can absolutely see the confusion, sorry! I meant to enlarge the product within the image but keeping to the same image size. So basically cropping it down and allowing the website backend to work its magic and stretch it out when imported. Just to make it easier for customers to see. Current images are just too zoomed out from the product and look a bit small!

Thank you walt.farrell I'll try this shortly, just landed in the office. I'll report back, thank you all!

[toltec]

1 hour ago, TheSemiUnprofessional said:

Ah I can absolutely see the confusion, sorry! I meant to enlarge the product within the image but keeping to the same image size. So basically cropping it down and allowing the website backend to work its magic and stretch it out when imported. Just to make it easier for customers to see. Current images are just too zoomed out from the product and look a bit small!

There is no sensible way to automatically batch crop lots of different images, unless they were all taken at the same size and the products are all the same position. Especially if you want them to look neat in swatches.

The best method is to create a document at the exact size and resolution you want the swatch image to be.

Then, one by one Place (File > Place) the images and size and position them inside the document,  saving (or rather exporting) them one by one. The document boundaries act as a cropping boundary for the images. If you place guides on the document, that will help to position and size each item so that it looks professional.

See in the image that the original boundaries of the image are outside the document boundaries, which is exactly the same as cropping it. The guides help sizing and positioning so that each wee beastie would be the same size and position. If the swatch opens up a larger image, you could use the same technique to position the item in the image. It that case, work with the larger image and output the smaller image by resizing it on Export.

You can place many images inside one document (memory allowing) as each new image you 'place' will simply cover the previous one. That save a lot of saving and naming.

If you create a keyboard shortcut for Place and for Export, it soon becomes a very fast process. I have done many catalogues using a very similar technique.

[TheSemiUnprofessional]

Really appreciate your time and effort. All products are of the same product and are actually in the same position. They're 3D rendered so you couldn't get them more accurate in regards to position. I think I've done it now based of walt.ferrel's guide. I'll save this thread somewhere safe and keep your guide if I'm in a similar situation. Thanks again! 

[martenf]

For batch processing to crop multiple images to the same size, use File/New Batch Job.

Instructions can be seen at http://www.millermattson.com/blog/batch-processing-with-affinity-photo/

 

 

[zynexis]

the general workflow problem is this:

you have a bunch of images, with various sizes, and you want to crop off the edges to make them all uniform

you drop in the stack into affinity photo -> it doesn't center them, you have to manually align them using select all layers and Arrange (center, middle)

you then resize all layers together so the varying edges are outside the canvas (could be smaller as well)

you then want to save each layer to file, letting the save crop to canvas size -> not possible in affinity studio

ok, then you try go to export persona -> it expects you to manually resize the slice for each layer -> no go with 50-100 layers

you go to new batch job -> no crop option, no export pr layer

this is an extremely common thing when dealing with multiple images and photos, and should be efficient to do in photo edit app