How to Batch Edit Photos
Editing images individually can be a painstaking and time-consuming process. Most image editors have the ability to automate certain tasks using recorded commands, sometimes called actions or presets, depending on the application. If you have a lot of images to process, you can batch edit or batch process them by placing them in a directory and setting your image editor to apply the same action to the entire directory. Batch editing is especially useful for simple image editing such as resizing or adding a watermark.
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Instructions
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1
Choose an image editing program that allows you to batch process photos. Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements and Corel PaintShop Pro are all commercial image editing applications that support batch processing and are available for Windows and Mac. Free open source alternatives to these commercial applications include GIMP, an image editor, and Phatch, a dedicated batch image processor, both of which are available on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.
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2
Create two new folders on your computer. During the batch editing process, the application will ask you for a source location that contains the photos you want to process and a destination location for the processed image files. The folders can reside anywhere on your hard drive but should be in a location that is easy to locate. Create the first folder and give it a name (for example, BatchSource) and move the files you want to process into this folder. Create a second folder and give it a name (for example, BatchDestination) and leave it empty for now.
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3
Open your image editing program. To batch edit photos, you will first need to create the a set of instructions that the program will use to automate the photo editing, commonly called "actions." The action creation process will vary from application to application, but the principle is to record the steps which you would use to process your image. Consult your image editor's manual for the exact procedure on how to record and save the action.
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4
Open the batch processing command on your image editing program. The location of the command will vary between applications but is most commonly found under the "File" > "Batch Processing" menu. Consult your image editor's manual for the exact name and location of the batch processing tool. The tool will ask for the source and destination folders created in Step 2 as well as the action to process the photos created in Step 3.
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Run the batch processing tool. Once the batch processing tool has been configured with the necessary information, click "OK" to start the process. The batch processing tool will alert you if there are any problems or if it needs any further input from you. Once the process has been completed, you will be able to view your completed processed images in the destination folder.
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