Would anyone be interested in a product that has actions that are similar to the big boys, Kevin Kubota, Jim Davis Hicks, Totally Rad, etc. but does not use Photoshop, and lets you Install on all of your computers.

For example you downloaded this package and it installed a few things, "behind the scenes" and then you can choose what folder (of images) get what action (or multiple actions) and then you hit go and it does it.

It would not just be strictly actions, it could possibly allow you to apply a custom level profile (curves in time but not initially) to all of your images. Watermark images, etc.

Does this interest anyone?
What else would you like to see in it?
What would you be willing to pay?

Thanks in advance for all your help everybody!

Jeez... is this really such a terrible idea?

Come on, how bout if there were an OSP discount?

I might be - it just depends on how it reduces my workflow time. What price are we looking at?


Never know, I am a sucker for new things.

Are people still using photoshop & actions to post process? lol

Sorry, I edited 3 weddings this year. I used photoshop for a total of under 25 minutes for the 3. It's all lightroom now. It's fast - actions made people fast, lightroom makes them faster. I'm not sure why I would sort and not be able to preview when in LR I can see the effect before I apply it, kwim?

Hey Bryce, It Sounds interesting to me...

Ditto on what Matt said...I'm using Lightroom for about 98% of my post-processing time...only open up Photoshop for something that requires major retouching, like swapping eyes or heads. Still, something that could make life easier and faster...let's hear more!

I'm still using Photoshop a lot. I have CS3 and I do a fair bit of retouching anyways. I would not be that interested. Why would I want something external to what I already use? It's far more convenient to have everything together as much as possible.

depends on if it has the same quality as photoshop.

the reason i'm still using photoshop for b/w and xprocessing is that I haven't been able to reproduce the qualityof the action in lightroom. also, i still have to open up photoshop to retouch facial stuff, cause lightroom just isn't as fine-tunable as photoshop, and i don't want to butcher people.

would your tool be faster than batch processing of actions in photoshop (which does exactly the batch process you described)? would it accept the same actions as photoshop? if it's cheaper than photoshop, it might be an option for some.

That's a good point Matt. I don't use lightroom too much so I don't know how "set and forget" it is but i was looking for a very hands off sort of thing.


Hmmm... that's a very good point. It's the actions that have the quality, photoshop just throws the algorithms on the photos' pixels but I see what you mean. Which xprocessing actions do you use? How do you do your b/w? It should hopefully be faster but I really don't know.



The main thing was to provide similar actions to the big name kinda costly action sets with a way to apply them and not require photoshop and make the process set and walk away.
Matt made a great point with the real time previews. I would still like the batch as an option but what about if you could click through your images and as you clicked on them a series of reasonably sized thumbs popped up with output representative of what the action would look like when applied to the final image? Like the original would be in the upper left corner, and in the big center column there would be the processed images for you to scroll through. Then you just click an attached checkbox and processing starts automatically in the background.

I'm really trying to get a feel for what an experienced group of pro's would find as a useful tool in their bag.

I've always felt that action sets are a heck of an investment. I mean look at Kevin Kubota's full set cost thats a bit of an investment in some guy clicking on a screen and saving it! Don't get me wrong though. I've gone through the lists of all of the bits he includes with his actions and there's a ton there, and his samples are absolutely incredible, but that is a bit of a meaty investment especially if you're just starting out.

You guys are giving me a whole lot of good ideas. Thanks for all the comments! Keep em coming if you've got them!

Oh and the price point would be for around $100. That's fully loaded with actions etc.

What about a feature where you can create your own actions by going to an editor and selection actions and combining them. Then you can save as with you own name and apply your action and it goes through all the ones that you have set.

Hmm i guess what I'm doing is figuring out how I'd like a program to be to automate and speed up my work, and seeing it others would find it useful too.

Bryce, I work in IT and in my former role I used to do a lot of build or buy calculations. In my educated opinion I think if you go through with your development plans and price at $100 then you're not going to see the money you would if you did something a little less grand (and probably easier) and priced it for volume.

IMO the real sweet spot is in simple finishing actions at a sub $50 price.

A set of $39.99 CS3-compatible actions that did the following things would be in high demand:

• Even borders for any size print
• Resize to standard print sizes without crop (essentially an even border depending on print size and aspect ratio)
• Even borders with a keyline
• "Sloppy" borders
• Artsy Textures
• Punchy contrast curve (without blowing highlights)

I'd imagine a few of those actions would require a little scripting, so that's where your development would come in.

Please note that I'm not advocating reverse-engineering the popular action sets. I would just like to see a set of actions that don't try to do everything short of wiping my butt; I just want a few that work well and don't cost half of a CS3 upgrade.



True indeed. That's why a standalone action set/program seems like ultra-overkill.

Lightroom can handle most of the post processing with ease. Speeding up the finishes like borders, textures, etc. would be much more useful (again, IMO)

Hmm I like that Idea. I'll have to start looking at some plugin/action code for Photoshop and figure out how to do what i'm after. But those finishing actions should be possible. Heh maybe I'll start with that, gotta start somewhere, that's for sure.

The reason I was thinking stand-alone program is that I do a ton of batch processing and I spend a whole lot of time in Linux, and there's not many real professional photo programs for linux. Yes there's Bibble but I don't like the layout or style of it. And if I write my own I can make sure that it runs on Mac/Win/Linux. Also I haven't found a program that I've really liked for batching so I guess I could always make that a project and just work on some actions etc.

I think it has potential--but you know, I agree with Damon, price for volume--and then if you want to expand your market also advertise to soccer moms and uncle bob's who don't have photoshop. If it's a stand alone deal and easy to use then you could see a huge market in the consumer dSLR crowd.

Do the Kubota thing and have sets--each priced low enough that it's an impulse buy, but then when all are together, you are making a nice profit.

just my thoughts

P.S. I'll beta test for you

The first one is a pain in the butt. Damn no conditional logic in actions.

This one isn't possible to do as an action (because of the conditional for the aspect ratio) so that one'll have to be a script. Is that sort of thing acceptable.

This one is done. Just need to make others and tweak for different size keyline, border etc.

This one is a bit more difficult. I'm still trying to find a reasonable way to do them.

This one's gonna be a pain. I could always include public domain and royalty free textures but that'll be a last resort.

The punchy contrast I have done but not via curves with apply image, i'm working on the curves one.


Soo.. anything objectionable up in the above statements?

I didn't realize you'd, like, knock them out so fast!

...and more importantly, how much are you charging and where do I send the money?

Haha, they're not done yet. I'd really like a more complete set before I start releasing them. It'll be atleast a week before I'm happy enough with them then i'll need testing and feed back so we'll definately be in touch.