P: Ability to batch process Photo Merge (HDR and panorama)

[ColinMcD]

Now that we have HDR inside Lightroom, with virtually no user input, the next step is surely a batch facility for a folder full of bracketed images.
Please!!!!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

You've gotta be kidding - you're saying you're a pro or at least very busy shooter, and take the time equivalent to 2 shoots to sit in front of LR and manually queue hdr ops? If that's the case, Adobe's customers are ready to accept everything before they use a 3rd party app like AutoPano and Adobe doesn't need to change anything 😕

[frostyfriday]

Marsu42, do you use AutoPano a lot? Do you use it for real estate interiors? Just curios. I use it for Google business views and for my real estate stuff. Looking for someone using it the same way as I who know it better than I. I find Autopano amazing but tricky to use. I am just using Pro 3.7 haven't bitten the bullet and moved to giga 4.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm using it for nature shots, so the stellar deghosting really helps. For architecture, the other projection modes LR doesn't feature are often a lot better, I dunno about the difference 3->4, or how good free apps like Hugin compare. However other then open source software, the development of Autopano has stopped  when Kolor was sold. But you can still use their forum to get some help from other users - just don't expects the devs to reply. Well, we're used to the latter from Adobe 😛

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

@Victoria: The inability to queue anything (photo merge, export) in an app that is designed for bulk photo processing is not an upcoming feature - it's a bug that needs fixing. The functionality is all there, they just need to add a "limit parallel ops to _" option.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

I'm not here to argue over whether it's a bug or a feature. Either way, they rarely pre-announce.

As far as Adobe goes, they define a bug as something not working the way it was designed to work. They didn't design merge to use a queuing facility, at least in its early incarnations, so they'd call it a feature/enhancement.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what we call it - I wholeheartedly agree it would be a useful addition.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Sorry if my post sounded argumentative, that's the way one gets when sitting in front of LR waiting for the current photo merge to end (and the computer to un-freeze).

I just don't get it why they don't just add this basic feature, but work on LR for Apple Watch.  A queue can't that confusing ... but on the other hand, we got an impression of what the LR team thinks of their users when they added the "import dialog of hell" 😆

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

I understand the frustration Marsu. FWIW, there are completely different teams working on iOS/Android/Web/Sync functionality, so any unexpected mobile app development doesn't impact on desktop development.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Thanks for the insight into the teams and workloads, that's a relief.

On the upside, I have to say they've done a good job with photo merge and keep improving it. It's only a bit of "wasn't invented here", but with the boundary warp and rawish output I find myself using it more than expected. And waiting a *lot* more than expected to queue the next one 😛

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Strike! In the latest and greatest LR 6.7, you can develop smart previews even if the original is available. Connection to batch processing: They did it by popular request! And as another option, bound to confuse users and cause mayhem with the harassed support! 

Now please add another option "Limit jobs processed in parallel to: _", would you kindly?

[billyray1usa]

Any chance you could clarify this post?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

> Any chance you could clarify this post?

Could you please clarify which posts you're talking about (mine or Tommy) and which parts you'd like clarified specifically? Thanks.

[jdphotoart]

I'm with you 100% Cathy. PTGui has gotten much better in the past few months. It's still better than anything else available!!

[billyray1usa]

I just couldn't understand what you meant (LR Fanboi). Rereading your post, I think you are saying that Adobe has failed those of us who want panorama and HDR workflow improvements.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

@bill: Well, here's the official clarification from me 🙂 ...

... you can already start as many hdr or pano ops as you want, i.e. batch process.  The problem simply is that LR insists on doing all of them in parallel. If the user could limit the operations done in parellel to a certain number, the user interface already works as a queue manager (click on the top left big bar to get the little bars).

All it would take is to add one option - just like the one Adobe has just added to only process smart previews. If this was done by popular request, I'm amazed no one from Adobe has stumbled upon this and similar threads yet. Or they simply re-position LR as a casual photo app and don't expect users do really do a lot of batch photo merging.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Unfortunately for external apps, to my knowledge only LR is able to do the raw-ish processing without freezing develop settings into a tiff - no one else can apply the proprietary acr engine.

[frostyfriday]

Come on Adobe. It has been over a year since I last posted on this topic and still no decent batching.

I am totally tired of having to use Photomatix. It does a good job but it totally disrupts the workflow.

I just completed a job where I had to HDR over 1000 images (virtual tour). Your customers want to be able to do this in LR!!!

Today I am downloading https://macphun.com/luminar 

It doesn't have batching yet but when it does I am jumping ship.

-Dennis

PS I hate subscription software.

[rsjaffee]

Yes, need batch processing. This should be a no-brainer to implement, and the current workflow is terrible.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Would love to see HDR batch processing in LR, would purchase a new edition based this feature alone.

[sdinweoinasd9384152]

I found a way to script Lightroom HDRmerge with Autohotkey. It was actually pretty simple but took me several hours to figure out. Sort the library by rating. Set all photos to 0 rating. Set filter to RAW and Unrated only, then select the first image on top left corner. Run this Autohotkey script and press Ctrl 8.

^8:: ; This is the hotkey change to what you like

Sleep, 1000 ; Wait 1 second

Loop, 4

{ ; Change number of loops to the number of bracket sets

IfWinNotActive, catalog6 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library ; Change to your lightroom window name

{

break

}

Send, {SHIFTDOWN}{RIGHT}{RIGHT}{SHIFTUP}{CTRLDOWN}{SHIFTDOWN}h{CTRLUP}{SHIFTUP} ; 2 rights for 3 braket add extra right for each additional bracket

Sleep, 4900 ; change your sleep time before rating

Send, 5 ; change your rating from 1 to 5

Sleep, 3500 ; change your sleep time after rating

}

return

What happens is shift right right will select 3 brackets. Then CTRL SHIFT H to start the merge headless. Wait a few seconds, rate the 3 RAW as 5 star. Since filter is set to unrated, the 3 RAW will drop out of the selection, and to the bottom of the library (sort by rating) and disappear. The first unrated RAW on top left is automatically selected by the UI. Code will loop again.  If for some reason the UI does not select the first image, you will have to add a mouse click command with XY coordinates (don't know how to do that, you'll need to research this command).

I'm not sure of the ";" in my script is actually a comment, so if your script does not work, delete all the commends including the ";" and spaces.  Also, if nothing else works, double check that the correct Lightroom window name is used in IfWinNotActive, because that will break the script.

I set the sleep times so that only 1 job is running at a time.  I don't know if it is slower or faster to run jobs concurrently.  You should adjust the sleep times to how fast your processor merges each set, and whether you want in parallel or consecutive. My CPU seems to take 8 to 8.5 seconds per 3x set.

To run Autohotkey scripts, copy and paste this into a text file and save it with extenion .ahk.  Download Autohotkey from a good source, the official website.  Don't get it from other sites because they may be malware. Double click the .ahk script to run it.  Open to the Lightroom window and set the filters and selection as described above, and press the hotkey CTRL 8. It will stop if you change the active window.

[sdinweoinasd9384152]

Ok. Here is a more advanced script for series or parallel processing. I found parallel processing is 75% time of series processing. Don't need to play with ratings filter anymore. Only filter by RAW, and either select the first top left image or select no images , then press crl 6 or 7 to start the script.

^6:: ; series processing

Sleep, 1000

MyNumOfSeries := 4

MyNumOfImagesInSet := 3

MyNumOfImagesInSet--

MyWindowName := "catalog6 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library"

MySleepSeries := 8300

MySleepTime := 200

Send, {ALTDOWN}{LEFT}{ALTUP}

Loop, %MyNumOfSeries%

{ IfWinNotActive, %MyWindowName%

{

Pause

}

Loop, %MyNumOfImagesInSet%

{

Send, {SHIFTDOWN}{RIGHT}{SHIFTUP}

}

Sleep, %MySleepTime%

Send, {CTRLDOWN}{SHIFTDOWN}h{CTRLUP}{SHIFTUP}

Sleep, %MySleepTime%

Send, {ALTDOWN}{RIGHT}{ALTUP}

Sleep, %MySleepSeries%

}

return




^7:: ; parallel processing

Sleep, 1000

MyNumOfSeries := 1

MyNumOfSetsInParallel := 4

MyNumOfImagesInSet := 3

MyNumOfImagesInSet--

MyWindowName := "catalog6 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library"

MySleepSeries := %MyNumOfSetsInParallel% * 4500

MySleepTime := 200

MySleepTimeExtra := 75



Send, {ALTDOWN}{LEFT}{ALTUP}

Loop, %MyNumOfSeries%

{ MySleepTime := 200

Loop, %MyNumOfSetsInParallel%

{

IfWinNotActive, %MyWindowName%

{

Pause

}

Loop, %MyNumOfImagesInSet%

{

Send, {SHIFTDOWN}{RIGHT}{SHIFTUP}

}

Sleep, %MySleepTime%

Send, {CTRLDOWN}{SHIFTDOWN}h{CTRLUP}{SHIFTUP}

Sleep, %MySleepTime%

Send, {ALTDOWN}{RIGHT}{ALTUP}

MySleepTime += %MySleepTimeExtra%

}

Sleep, %MySleepSeries%

}

return




^0::Pause ; pause on 1st press or resume on 2nd press

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Also it would be great if the newly generated HDR images were automatically added to the original images' collection (stacked on top of them would be just perfect, IMHO).

[rlmillerphoto]

For those of you who like to tinker with scripts, there is an application called AutoHotkey where you can automate all kinds of routine processes on a PC.  Be sure to download the AutoHotkey macro recorder (you may have to search around the internet a bit to find it, or get another version of macro recorder from a third party) but you can basically follow these steps to automate HDR processing in LR using this application.

Before beginning, download and install AutoHotkey http://ahkscript.org/ and this copy which includes the macro recorder (while the link lasts) https://web.archive.org/web/20150908182356/http://www.autohotkey.com/download/AutoHotkey.zip

1. Stack your LR brackets using auto stack (I do a 3 shot bracket on my camera with the timer so they are all within 5-6 seconds, adjust to yours as needed so they stack neatly, check for stack errors before beginning)
2. Run the Macro Recorder and start recording (the first time only, just to write the script)
3. Click your first thumbnail in the timeline (stacked images) and hit CTRL SHIFT H to start the HDR merge (Before you do this you may want to run a manual/GUI HDR merge from the right click menu to make sure the settings in LR are what you want as it repeats your last HDR options with the CTRL SHIFT H keyboard shortcut)
4. stop the macro recorder and save the script somewhere you can find easily (desktop) with the .ahk extension
5 Right click and "edit" your script to add the following:
  A. Move the mouse moves, clicks, window focus, and other commands to the top so they are not repeated in the loop
  B. add the "loop" command and  the number of times to loop the script (100 in my example) to repeat the HDR merge again after advancing:  loop, 100 {   }
  C. Add the "wait" command to wait for the HDR merge to complete before advancing (I set mine to 10000ms but on slow computers you may want to do 20s (20000ms, etc.)
  D. Add a command for "Arrow Key Right" to advance to the next image once the HDR is complete
6. test it out and see what happens by running the script you saved
7. Once your script works, just follow step 1, then run the saved script from wherever you saved it.

Here is an example of my script, yours will have different data depending on what your catalog is named, etc.  I do not offer support on this product so don't ask, but for those willing to figure it out it is worth the time.  You do need to run the macro recorder to get most of this, then add the rest of the info from my script example.


WinWait, 2016 Catalog - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library,
IfWinNotActive, 2016 Catalog - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library, , WinActivate, 2016 Catalog - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library,
WinWaitActive, 2016 Catalog - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library,
MouseClick, left,  67,  665
Sleep, 100
Loop, 100
{
Send, {CTRLDOWN}{SHIFTDOWN}h{SHIFTUP}{CTRLUP}
Sleep, 100000
Send, {RIGHT}
}

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Same boat here as well.

[sdinweoinasd9384152]

I tested a few different HDR software and I found that SNS-HDR gives much better results, and it has batch process.  Compared to LR HDRmerge, the highlights in SNS-HDR is extremely better, because SNS-HDR has many more sliders that affect a specific range of the histogram.  It also has realtime preview, which means the image updates instantaneously as you adjust the sliders. I've now changed my workflow to use SNS-HDR for the bracket processing, although it does cost an extra 85 € to buy the software, I think the cost is worth it.  It was much better and more realistic than Photomatix or EasyHDR.  It is a bit slow though, but with the batch function, I start the process and do something else in the meantime.
So first I shoot in RAW with AEB brackets, then in LR I only adjust exposure, highlights (-50), shadows (+30), NR, sharpening, CA removal.  Copy Paste to all and then export to TIFF.  Then bring into SNS-HDR for processing.  It's important not to use Clarity (and maybe Contrast) (or other extreme localized adjustments) because it will not globally affect all bracketed images the same way, which will interfere with the tone mapping in HDR software.

[jdphotoart]

I don't think SNS is compatible with Apple ??
True-Not-True??