Lightroom Command Line Usage?

[bob1367]

I would like to be able to decompress a raw image into a jpeg and possibly do this via the command line. Does anyone know how to do this or is this even possible? Any suggestion or ideas on doing this?

Thanks for any assistance with this

[bob1367]

Forgot to note that the target OS is Windows XP running Lightroom 2.3

[john beardsworth]

Lightroom doesn't have a command line interface. What's the bigger picture? Where does Lightroom fit into what you're trying to achieve?

John

[csriddel]

I'm a software developer and interested in using lightroom to develop raw images, but would like to use LR programatically, as opposed to working via the LR user-interface. I understand there's no command line interface -- is there any other way to utilitze LR from other programs?  I see there's an SDK, but it seems to just be for developing plug-ins, which wouldn't seem to help.

[escouten]

No, there's no such ability at this time.

[csriddel]

Thanks for the info.

Steve

[criggle]

Is there any update to this?

I can imagine Lightroom running on a remote server and cranking out jpegs from raw files automatically as they hit hot folders.

[ssprengel]

Have you tried writing a Photoshop Plugin that works with Adobe Camera RAW? The underlying RAW-engine is basically the same between Camera RAW and Lightroom so depending on what you want to do you would probably get further going that route.

LR and Photoshop are about a human adjusting or at least approving the settings based on what they see on screen, which is the opposite of what you're trying to achieve, it sounds.

If you're interest is merely to create JPGs from RAW files without any human ever being involved, then it is a requirement that Adobe products be used? There are other RAW conversion engines that might lend themselves to programming, such as DCRAW which I believe is open source.

[criggle]

Adobe Bridge and photoshop are something I'm considering.  Basically all settings from color to crop are setup (by humans) on set during the course of a photoshoot.  But we would like to have the raw to jpeg conversion be more automated or handled overnight by a server.  We need whatever process to mirror what was viewed in the capture software (lightroom)  The processing server would read the xmp side car and create either a jpeg or a tif based on some sort of trigger or hot folder.

[areohbee]

Would the publish feature do it for you? - trigger being that you have to push the publish button... hot folder being publish collections......

[Mathew L]

criggle wrote:

Adobe Bridge and photoshop are something I'm considering.  Basically all settings from color to crop are setup (by humans) on set during the course of a photoshoot.  But we would like to have the raw to jpeg conversion be more automated or handled overnight by a server.  We need whatever process to mirror what was viewed in the capture software (lightroom)  The processing server would read the xmp side car and create either a jpeg or a tif based on some sort of trigger or hot folder.

Another idea: if the Lightroom settings are written out to XMP, then a Photoshop script could check the hot folder, process the images, generate the JPEGs and retain the rendering intent. This works because the RAW rendering engine in PS CS5 (ACR) is the same as the one in LR 3.

[criggle]

Thats exactly what I was thinking.

I just found this site.

www.ps-scripts.com

[Mathew L]

Could you not use something like HP QuickTest to record the GUI export sequence within Lightroom and replay it automatically?

[areohbee]

I think this may be a case where a plugin could come to the rescue.

I wouldn't know what to do just yet because I don't really understand the requirements.

But some brainstorming:

- Make a plugin with a daemon that polls a folder or collection and automatically initiates an export when new or changed photos present themselves.

Well, kind-of a short brainstorm but - your turn.

PS - This post probably should have been targeted at the original poster - You need to give us a better idea of what you are trying to accomplish - I mean, no: Lr does not have command line support, but yes: there are all kinds of things you can do with plugins. So what exactly do you want, and why?

Rob

[jollyturns]

Rob, the daemon option was my initial thought too. I'd be nice to export over an HTTP API some of the builtin Lightroom functionality. However I looked at the SDK documentation, but I don't see any way to have Lua code running outside the scope of a plugin.

[areohbee]

jollyturns wrote:

Rob, the daemon option was my initial thought too. I'd be nice to export over an HTTP API some of the builtin Lightroom functionality. However I looked at the SDK documentation, but I don't see any way to have Lua code running outside the scope of a plugin.

As long as Lightroom is running, there are multiple options for automation. For example, as long as you don't mind not getting a response from Lightroom, you can use a URL like

lightroom://doe.jane.UberPlugin/path/to/file

to send a file to a plugin and have it do what it does.

I've also used xml-rpc for plugin-app communication, but more often now I just use a file-based inter-communication system.

There are other options too, including a tcpip (be it http, custom, or .. ) daemon.

So, bottom line: no way to invoke Lr from command line, but multiple ways to use Lr to do things, triggered externally, via plugins (or scripts..).

I could better advise if I knew more about what you or whoever is up to.

Cheers,

Rob

[jollyturns]

Thanks for the quick reply, Rob.

One thing I'd like to do is expose the list of collections, and then the individual pictures in a particular collection. I want to do that over a socket-based protocol (HTTP REST would be perfect) so I can build a small LR plugin that's able to browse collections on a remote Lightroom.

Apple's iPhoto had this functionality but for an unknown reason they dropped it in the latest release. Now I have no way to show my pictures on the computer connected to the projector in my media room. Lightroom would be my choice here since I already use it in my workflow.

Thanks!

[areohbee]

jollyturns wrote:

Thanks for the quick reply, Rob.

You bet JollyTurns..

jollyturns wrote:

a small LR plugin that's able to browse collections on a remote Lightroom.

So, you'll be having 2 Lightrooms running:

1. The remote Lightroom, running a server plugin, and

2. A local Lightroom, running the "small" client plugin.

And the machines will be connected via a tcpip network.

Did I get that right?

With the exception of the "lightroom protocol" URL handling, Lightroom SDK supports HTTP client ops only, but you can hand-roll an http server if you know how (contact me offline if you want to discuss).

Note: lightroom protocol is non-routable, since it does not support host-name/tcpip-address (local machine is "implied").

So, if you must follow the rules (not use undocumented features), then I think you'll have to have a proxy app running on server machine, to do the communication (listen for requests from client, pass to server plugin, and forward the response back to client).

Dunno if Lr's http support is adequate for implementing client-side REST or not.

Rob

[daradaragh]

Hello,

any update on this possibility ?

[areohbee]

Not possible via command line, nor via any means without a plugin.

You may be able to achieve you goals with the help of plugin(s) - more info required..