Photoshop & Automator

Batch processing and workflow is always a hot topic in digital photography. Yesterday a friend over at opensourcephoto.net asked how to batch process a bunch of images to assign a color profile. He mentioned that Actions and the Batch... command in Photoshop just didn't cut it. I said he would have to use the scripting interface, which he is full capable of, but it isn't easy to whip something together in ten minutes and get the job done. And if you have no programming knowledge this solution is not a solution at all.

Late last night I stumbled across the solution for all digital photographers. Well, most. You have to have OS X 10.4 "Tiger".

With Automator and the Photoshop Automator Actions created by Ben Long at Complete Digital Photography creating the automated workflow is done in literally 2 minutes.

Preparation:

1. Download the Photoshop Automator Actions
   
2. Copy the Photoshop Automator Actions to the main Photoshop directory
   

Creating the Assign Profile Workflow:

1. Open Automator (holding down Option gets Automator to discover your new Actions)
   
2. Select the Photoshop CS/CS2 Actions in the Library pane
3. Drag the Open action from the Actions pane to the Workflow pane on the right
4. Drag the Assign Color Profile action and drop it below the Open action (you will see them connect)
5. Select the Custom profile radio button and your desired profile.
6. Check Save and Close if you want the file automatically saved and closed. (Note: if you leave this unchecked all images will remain open in Photoshop)
7. Last Choose File -> Save As Plug-in... and save the Workflow as a Finder plug-in.

Running Your Workflow

1. Select the images you want to process in the Finder
2. Right click on your selected image and choose Automator -> Your Workflow
3. Automator does its job and you take a nap.