enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

let’s save valuable blogging time.

PROCESS

It's quite likely this "tutorial" is already known by most photo-savvy folks, but I had NO idea that this technology existed until a few months ago. I re-size every photo on my blog (and every photo on my website) to properly fit the column/size needed. Part of this is making them "web-friendly" or reducing the resolution to 72dpi so load times are not too long. These photos are NOT printer-friendly, but they look great on screens.

Before I learned this "process multiple files" trick I was re-sizing each image on it's own and it took minutes instead of seconds, which over the course of a month really adds up. I dreaded photo-heavy posts because they were so time intensive to prepare. Now I'm like, "bring it." (And I have brought it here, here and here.)

processing mulitple images for the web from elise blaha on Vimeo.

The above three minute video (click here to view full-size and be sure to let it load fully before starting) shows you how I used to process my image files one at a time and then shares my time-saving tip. I use PSE9 (I know, I know, upgrade already!) but I imagine the idea is similar no matter what version of PSE or PS you have.

I hope this helps! It was a gamechanger and time-saver for me, FOR SURE.

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55 responses to “let’s save valuable blogging time.”

  1. Leah Avatar
    Leah

    I’m curious to hear from Photoshop CS6 users… I don’t think there is a “process multiple files” option but there may be. Is this where Actions come into play? Like, you create an action that does this resizing, and then run it? I use Photoshop CS6 but don’t know much about Actions.
    Great video Elise!

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  2. Kelsey, Esp. Avatar
    Kelsey, Esp.

    HOLY WHOA.
    This is ABSOLUTELY a game changer.
    So, so, so useful. And I had no idea this little trick existed…

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  3. Helene Avatar
    Helene

    Thanks for the tip. I didn’t know it existed. Very helpful!

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  4. Megan Anderson Avatar
    Megan Anderson

    Doing the same thing helps me to resize my photos for my blog to! It saves SO MUCH TIME.
    I have Photoshop CS6, and there, you go to File >>Scripts>>Image Processor to get the same effect.

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  5. Megan Anderson Avatar
    Megan Anderson

    No actions needed! Go File>>Scripts>>Image Processor in CS6

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  6. Allison Avatar
    Allison

    Rad! Thanks so much! I learned that before but need to practice so I don’t forget. I had PSE7 (!!) on my computer that just died. Guess I’m going to have to finally upgrade.

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  7. Catherine Avatar
    Catherine

    Amazing knowledge! Thank you for sharing. Was there any photo editing done before the resize, like cropping? Or does that come after?

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  8. Anna Avatar
    Anna

    Whoa, handy! I am in the VERY early stages of blogging and I have been resizing all my photos one-by-one in the html. So there are multiple game-changers for me here. Thanks!

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  9. Sara Avatar
    Sara

    I’m still using elements 9 too. Thanks for the for tip!

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  10. Mandy Avatar
    Mandy

    Could you do a post on how to make a video using just your computer screen like this one? It might be a very simple task but I cannot figure it out! =)

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  11. Lauren Avatar
    Lauren

    Can’t wait!! I enjoy the projects and photographing it as I go but I always dread the edits too because it’s so time consuming. Can’t wait to try this out. Thanks Elise!

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  12. Kristen Avatar
    Kristen

    Thanks SO much for this video and tip. One of the most helpful ever! I do not blog but I upload photos to galleries that need to be resized and I dread it. This will make it easier.

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  13. Nicola Avatar
    Nicola

    I’d love that too 🙂

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  14. Meg Avatar
    Meg

    Thanks, this is very useful!

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  15. Kristen Avatar
    Kristen

    Girl, you should also try out Automator. It’s a Mac-only gem, but it’s delightful. You can resize and do all sorts of batch actions with it. I use it for resizing sometimes for blog posts, but even if you want to stick with PSE for that, you can also use it for quick batch file renaming.
    You have to create the application, but then you just select all the files, give them a name, and they process down the line. So you’d end up with waffles-1, waffles-2, etc. It is the best.

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  16. Bobbi Rubinstein Avatar
    Bobbi Rubinstein

    This was great info. Immediately went to try it out. Is there a way to batch copy? to make copies of a file of folders first? I edit copies, not originals. Trying to google this. I don’t save my photos in PSE10 Organizer. Is that the answer? Help. Also I crop a lot. I guess I have to do this batching in steps. But what a time saver this will be. Thanks so much.

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  17. Christine Avatar
    Christine

    I have used Lightroom since 2009 to process and export my photos for my blog. I can honestly say I would not be blogging if it were not for Lightroom. I created an export preset for blog photos. All I have to do is highlight the photos and hit my export preset. Then in a few seconds every single photo is saved to my hard drive with a preset pixel number for the web. Done.

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  18. Carlee Avatar
    Carlee

    How did I not know about this before. I use PSE too and I have been saving one by one. You are a life (time) saver for sure!

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  19. Leah Avatar
    Leah

    Awesome, thanks!!

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  20. Leah Avatar
    Leah

    So would I!

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  21. elise blaha cripe Avatar
    elise blaha cripe

    great question! I usually do everything, cropping or adjusting lighting, etc before I resize and save them for the blog. 🙂

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  22. elise blaha cripe Avatar
    elise blaha cripe

    I have a program called ScreenFlow. http://screenflow.en.softonic.com/mac I’ve had it for a few years and I think it was $99. 🙂

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  23. elise blaha cripe Avatar
    elise blaha cripe

    awesome! great tip!! thank you.

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  24. elise blaha cripe Avatar
    elise blaha cripe

    I really don’t know the answers to these questions! I am sorry! I don’t save my photos in PSE organizer, just to the desktop. I know under file you can duplicate an image… I wonder if you could select multiple images and then duplicate all of them at once?

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  25. Brittany Avatar
    Brittany

    AMAZING! I am so doing this from now on! Thanks a bunch!

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  26. Brittany Avatar
    Brittany

    Another Lightroom user here! And it totally made my image workflow so much easier. I always knew there was a way to do it in PS, but I never took the time to figure it out. Lightroom was so intuitive from day 1.

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  27. Piper Avatar
    Piper

    since I use PS Lightroom I know what “workflow” can really mean. No better tool for organizing and processing esp. large amounts of photos, including resizing as already written by someone else. And as it works like kind of a key logger you don’t have to open and save files. Great options for printing, too.
    It doesn’t replace PS completely, but more than 90% is done only with LR. Worth a try!

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  28. Bobbi Rubinstein Avatar
    Bobbi Rubinstein

    Hi again everyone – comments on Photoshop Elements versus Lightroom. I’ve been hearing from some photographer friends who use Lightroom. I’ve used PHE10 for 2 years. Should I switch?
    Thoughts?

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  29. Diane Avatar
    Diane

    In PS6 I created an action for resizing and then batch process the images using that action That way you don’t gave to rename every file afterwards, they get named sequentially as they process.

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  30. Carrie Avatar
    Carrie

    I save so much time with batch processing! Especially turning photos to black and white. So easy! Great video btw!

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  31. Katharina Avatar
    Katharina

    Hi Elise, I love your tutorials – and your entire blog of course : ). Your turorial is just sweet and simple and says everything you need to know.
    For renaming my files I use a free tool that is called “Renamer4Mac”. You just drag and drop all the files you want to rename, then type in the new name and choose a type of numbering for identification. Press enter and they are renamed : )

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  32. Jen S Avatar
    Jen S

    Brilliant and easy! Thanks!

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  33. piper Avatar
    piper

    There are several tutorials on the web. Find some which explain the basics and get a trial version. It needs some time to adjust to, because of the data bank system and non destructive mode is different to normal processing. But once you get it, you will work no longer with other progs .
    So before you are going to spend money for an PSE update, think about a change.

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  34. Alli Cherry Avatar
    Alli Cherry

    Wow, that’s a game changer for sure! Thanks! Do you have a similar process for editing blog photos, or do you edit them individually? I’ve heard that you can edit multiple photos at a time w/ Lightroom, but I’ve never tried it.

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  35. Bobbi Rubinstein Avatar
    Bobbi Rubinstein

    Thanks. I’ll check it out. Good idea to watch some tutorials first to get a feel for it.

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  36. Danielle Golinski Avatar
    Danielle Golinski

    Great post! I use Photoshop CS6 so this wasn’t super useful for my purposes. BUT…it let to comments that were and now I know about the file > scripts > image processor method!! I was using Bridge and then batching photos to PS and THEN using an action I had created to resize them. Woohoo to saving time!!

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  37. Samantha Avatar
    Samantha

    Hi Elise! You can also change the filenames when you process multiple images at the same time. There’s a section called ‘File Naming.’ Check the box to rename the files and then you can input whatever you want. It’ll even do it in sequential order. I hope that helps!

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  38. Caroline Avatar
    Caroline

    Wow, thanks! I have a personal family blog and hope to print out my blog posts in a book one day. If I lower the resolution to 72 dpi then will it not print well in book format? Have you or do you ever plan to print your blog in a book format? And just out of curiosity, do you delete your files from your desktop once you upload your resized photos to your blog? Or do you store them? I have a ton of photos on my desktop and am tired of the clutter.
    Thanks and love your blog!

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  39. Julie Avatar
    Julie

    Dude–BLOGSTOMP. It will change your life. You drag your photos over, make your settings, and bam! You can re-size, re-name, add a watermark and/or border, and make mosaics. In SECONDS. I think you can post places too, but I don’t use that function.
    Not an affiliate, just a huge fan!

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  40. Stephanie Avatar
    Stephanie

    Thanks for this tip!!! This will save me tonssss of time, especially since I do a few posts at once!
    StephanieLists.com

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  41. Margaret Wakelee Avatar
    Margaret Wakelee

    I’ve used this version for “flipping the classroom”: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

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  42. Kristen Avatar
    Kristen

    I am clearly not Elise, but I wanted to chime in. I’ve heard dots-per-inch might not matter so much for sharing on the web, but just total pixels. (I could definitely be wrong, but it makes sense.) Regardless of the “per inch,” if they’re saved small for the web, they might be too small to print (470 pixels prints at 300 dpi at 1.5″). I know it doesn’t help you for the past, but it might be safest to save two versions – full size for your book and littler web size. I hope that makes sense. 🙂 But I feel like any photos saved is better than no photos at all. So you could always make a mini book!

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  43. Yolanda Avatar
    Yolanda

    Yes. Lightroom is by far the way to go for batch processing, or any image processing as far I’m concerned. And with the $10/month photographer deal for the creative cloud you now get Photoshop and Lightroom (pro-level tools, instead of stripped down consumer version) for basically the same price annually as it costs to upgrade Photoshop Elements. Lightroom has a slight learning curve, but if you’re already using RadLab and used to adjusting images by clicking presets and adjusting sliders, the transition is pretty minimal. The increase in capability is well worth it.

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  44. Katie Avatar
    Katie

    WHOA. SO helpful. 🙂 Thanks!

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  45. tanya Avatar
    tanya

    I have PSE6 and I see the option there under File. I just tried it, it works!

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  46. tanya Avatar
    tanya

    …and then I just saw you said CS6! Woops!

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  47. tanya Avatar
    tanya

    I just tried this and I used a couple photos I had on my desktop that I saved for reference for something else. I went to check this out, and it changed the “originals” I had on my desktop to a super small pic. No biggie for me this time, but I definitely recommend saving a copy of the pics to a folder and work on the copies of the pics. Otherwise it would seem that you will change up the originals and can’t change it back. (I just tried this once, so it was what I just experienced) Elise? Is this your experience?
    Bobbi – do you have your pics saved in folders on your computer? Make a folder for all originals. To copy pics to another folder to “work on” you can select multiple images by either holding down your mouse and highlight all, then right click – copy, and then place them into a “working copy” folder. You can also go through your pics, hold down your ctrl key and select pics in a folder that may not be in consecutive order. (Be careful that your computer may try to make copies of multiple pics by using the ctrl key, just know that you can hit ctrl, then click on pic and let go of the ctrl key until you find another pic to highlight)

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  48. Meg Avatar
    Meg

    You can rename them all at once with automator (which comes with Macs!)

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  49. Becca Groves Avatar
    Becca Groves

    This changes everything! I have even googled this one before and came up empty. I’m so good at mindlessly doing it one by one that I can usually talk on the phone during this part of the picture process, but man this is a hot tip. I am so grateful. Thanks Elise!
    Joyfully,
    Becca

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  50. Morgan Avatar
    Morgan

    Thanks, Megan!

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