Participant

Question

Adding a stroke to each image in a composite with multiple images?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 11, 2025
3 replies
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I have 220 - 24"x12" spreads for a three volume album. The company I sent the $6000 album order to in November went out of business in January. The company was to produce the old fashioned albums with matted pages and required I create my PSD spreads (converted to JPG) with a very bright magenta background. See attached images. Apparently their laser production method required this color wherever we wanted matted borders.

I can't find another album company who still makes matted albums AND will accept my spreads with the magenta backgrounds. So I think making a flushbound album with the images on a black background with a thin white stroke around each image is the way to go.

I wonder with all the new AI technology, Is there a way to work on a JPG file to add a white stroke to each image? Once I do this I can use the paint bucket tool to change the magenta to black. Please refer to the attached images.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

@Ron Canon

If you saved JPEG files, you should still have the layered PSD files, which will hopefully offer easier editing via elements be accessible in separate layers and will offer better quality without the JPEG degradation.

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Ron CanonAuthor

Participant

Thank you Stephen. I definitely don't want degradation. Please read my two replies to the other contributors. You will see my issue using the unflattened PSD's

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Thank you Stephen. I definitely don't want degradation. Please read my two replies to the other contributors. You will see my issue using the unflattened PSD's

By @Ron Canon

JPEG is lossy by nature, however, it depends on the level of compression and the image content on how much the quality suffers.

If you have access to lossless compressed images such as PSD, that is the "best practice" place to start. Additionally, having elements separated into various layers should help with your task over working with a flattened image.

If this is proving problematic, you could always flatten a copy of the layered PSD.

I'll look into your replies to the other contributors and post back if I have any insights.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

This is something that’s been doable before AI existed. One way is shown in the demo below. If you have to process 220 of these, you might be able to record the steps below as an Action or write it as a script, and then apply that as a batch job on the 220 images.

The basic idea behind the steps below is: Select the magenta color and delete those pixels, leaving transparency; this will make it easy to apply an adjustable Stroke layer style around the images that’s set to white and a stroke width you choose. Also, create a new solid background color, set it to black, and stack it behind the stroked image layer.

1. Choose the command Select > Color Range.

2. With the Select menu set to Sampled Colors, click the color in the image that you want to select, in this case magenta. (I clicked the magenta in the document window, but you can also click in the Color Range dialog box preview.) My Fuzziness value of 200 does not have to be that high for this example, it can probably be quite low. I simply forgot to lower it.

3. Click OK. The color (or color range) you sampled becomes a selection.

4. In the Layers panel, unlock the layer. This could have been done before entering Color Range. This is necessary to allow complete removable of the background (to transparency).

5. Press the Delete key, or choose Edit > Clear. The magenta background is now removed, and the image background is now transparent (not white).

6. Click the Deselect button in the Contextual Task Bar (or choose Select > Deselect).

7. Create a new Solid Color Fill layer. I did it by clicking the button at the bottom of the Layers panel that creates a new fill or adjustment layer, but you can also choose the command Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color.

8. Set the solid fill layer color to black or any other color you want.

9. In the Layers panel, drag the solid fill layer behind the image layer.

10. Select the image layer and apply a stroke effect. I did this by clicking the “fx” button at the bottom of the Layers panel, but you can also choose the command Layer > Layer Style > Stroke. This is the entire reason for separating the images onto their own layer earlier with a transparent background: The Stroke layer style draws along the edges of non-transparent regions.

11. Export a copy in whatever format the album company needs. (Keeping the layered originals is a good idea if you think you might want to change the design again later.)

By applying the new background color as a solid fill layer and the new stroke as a layer style, you can edit either one at any time. If you had done this using pixels (e.g. the Paint Bucket), the change would be permanent and much more difficult to change later if needed.

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Ron CanonAuthor

Participant

Thank you for the detailed instructions. I used your method and was impressed with how it helped achieve my goal. I then read Stephen Marsh's reply and he mentioned it being better to use my unflattened PSD files to avoid degradation. I then examined the white borders using your method and under close examination there was some degradation or jaggedness in the edges of the borders. Please see the attached images. I am not sure if the fuzziness setting was an issue. I made a second attempt but this time lowered fuzziness to Zero. Not sure if it actually helped but in my eye it seemed to.

I had a 20x10 print made from this file at Millers Lab to see how it looked to the naked eye. Upon very close examination there were some jagged edges. I might be able to get away with it but would like to know if there is a setting I can adjust to remove the degradation as shown on the attached image below.

When I did a comparison of the individual images on the new composite with black background/white strokes to the original composite with the magenta background, I could not see any degradation.

So if there is a way to get rid of the jagged edge on the white stroke, I would love to know how it is done.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

It looks like I should have inspected the results more closely. In the demo below, I did, and might have a way to improve it.

In figuring out where it went wrong, I started from the idea that the Stroke effect follows non-transparent pixels, so if the mask has irregularities along the edge, the stroke will be irregular too. so I thought maybe my technique was resulting in an irregular edge.

In my original suggestion, I said maybe Fuzziness should be 0. But what I missed there is that if Fuzziness is 0, any variations in the color levels of the magenta might show up in the mask, roughening its edge and therefore the stroke too. So now I realize that it’s probably necessary to increase Fuzziness until the resulting edge is smoothed out and straight. For me, that was a value above 100. So maybe try that next.

That’s one idea. Another idea is this: Are there only a few standard layouts involved, where the photos are always in exactly the same position? If so, instead of masking based on the magenta color, consider reconstructing those layouts using a Solid Color fill layer with a vector mask built using the Rectangle tool in Path mode. What you would end up with is a Solid Color fill layer with rectangular holes styled with white strokes. Then, for each image matching that layout, drop that layer on top of the image. Because they are rectangular vector masks, their edges will be perfectly straight and sharp, and so the strokes will be perfectly sharp. See demo below.

Even if you have some page layout variations, if the mask holes are built as vector paths, the size and position of the rectangles should be relatively fast and easy to duplicate and adjust for each variation. (If you’re comfortable with editing vector paths.) But if there are too many layout variations across the 200 frames, then this idea might not be practical to automate.

creative explorer

Community Expert

@Ron Canon Sorry to hear that the company went bankrupt! That truly stinks... hopefully, you got your money back. $6,000 is a lot of coin!

Maybe look at wedding photography companies, as many would or could use that style. I know I have used companies such as Costco and Shutterfly. You just have to upload the images yourself; This could mean you can customized the layout of the photos on the page too... so, you could have 3 images or 4 images versus just one. And it is cost effect... unless you are printing mass qualities... granted, there probably are bigger savings for more?!

m

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Ron CanonAuthor

Participant

Thank you for the suggestions and I wish it were that easy. My situation is a little different. I am trying to replicate a specific type of album where the invidual photos are mounted on a page and then an actual card-stock mat is cut and placed over the photographs. The images seen here are from an old sample album I have from 2005 but the concept is still the same. Leather Crafstmen in NY made this album but they went out of business in 2021. I then used Finao and they too just went out of business. I understand Queensberry in New Zealand still offers this style album but as I mentioned eatlier, they require I send individual JPG images and not the flattened composites I was required to submit to Finao. The issue with that is I have been working with this client on her event from 2006 and over the years she has requested multiple changes and reworks. In many cases I just opened the unflattened PSD files and either added, removed, retouched or changed the size of the images on the PSD. If there is an efficient way to take the individual images from the unflattened PSDs and save each one separately I would love to know how it is done. Also many of the 200+ spreads have 8 images on each one so this is a very big undertaking. But I do appreciate your suggestion. Thank you again.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

If there is an efficient way to take the individual images from the unflattened PSDs and save each one separately I would love to know how it is done. Also many of the 200+ spreads have 8 images on each one so this is a very big undertaking. But I do appreciate your suggestion. Thank you again.

By @Ron Canon

It would depend on the layer structure. If you can post reduced-resolution copies of the PSD files that would help, you can redact people's faces etc. A custom script could then be written if one of the following generic scripts didn't do the job.

There are various scripted options for saving layers to files:

Photoshop has a "Layers to Files" script and you can also select the the required layers in the layers panel and right click and select "Export As".

There are various 3rd party options for saving layers to files:

https://github.com/antipalindrome/Photoshop-Export-Layers-to-Files-Fast

https://github.com/Paul-Riggott/PS-Scripts/blob/master/Layer%20Saver.jsx

https://github.com/Paul-Riggott/PS-Scripts/blob/master/Layer%20Saver%20Plus.jsx

These are not designed for batching, so I'm not sure if they can be used for batches, but this one is designed for batching:

https://www.marspremedia.com/software/photoshop/save-layers