Auto crop and/or auto separate bulk scanned photos?

[VicoDrive]

I will soon be scanning hundreds of photos and wondering the best way to do it.  I will be using a commercial copier to scan so I have a large area to lay all the photos on.  I'm debating on doing one at a time which will likely leave uncropped white space with most photos, or laying as much down as I can to scan all on one swipe.

If I do one at a time, does Photoshop or any other CC app have a way to auto crop out the extended white areas of which can probably also work in batch processing?

If I scan multiple at one time, does Photoshop or another CC app have a way to auto separate each photo on that scan into individual JPGs?

[lambiloon]

Hi it will not detect which photo is good or bad scanned but you can crop them using the batch process...regards

[Conrad C]

@VicoDrive wrote:

If I scan multiple at one time, does Photoshop or another CC app have a way to auto separate each photo on that scan into individual JPGs?

Yes, when you have a single document containing multiple images surrounded by white space, try the Photoshop command File > Automate > Crop and Straighten Photos.  It will split them out into multiple documents.

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@VicoDrive wrote:

If I do one at a time, does Photoshop or any other CC app have a way to auto crop out the extended white areas of which can probably also work in batch processing?

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Yes, if you have a single image with a uniform background, you can choose Image > Trim (same link as above, but near the top of the page). You can set it up to trim all pixels of the same color inward from any side or all sides, stopping at the edge of the photo. But the background must be the exact same solid color. For example, if the scan has a pixel near the edge that’s 1% different than the rest of the background, Trim will stop there, so there will be untrimmed space remaining between that pixel and the photo.

[JJMack]

There are threads on this subject of scaned images and action that can be batched that uses crop and straighten to automate the process.  One thread dealt with a stamp collection  being scanned  from a stamp  collection book, The action first removed the scanner bed background then user crop and straighten to remove the book page background.  Search the forum before asking questions yoy will get the answer faster that way.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/is-there-a-way-to-add-padding-to-the-automated-crop-and-str... 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/how-to-crop-a-large-batch-content-aware/m-p/11835235 

[dunkoid]

Hi,

I am trying to use this feature, but it does not work - Photoshop just creates a copy of the entire file.

The image I am trying to split is a jpg, and has a white background bewteen the multiple images.

Thanks

[Kukurykus]

May 13, 2022

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

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@dunkoid wrote:

I am trying to use this feature, but it does not work - Photoshop just creates a copy of the entire file.

The image I am trying to split is a jpg, and has a white background bewteen the multiple images.

Is there any contrast difference between each photo and the "background" of the scanner so that each image can be successfully isolated?

[Conrad C]

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@dunkoid wrote:

The image I am trying to split is a jpg, and has a white background bewteen the multiple images.

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Is the white space only between both images, like a single stripe of white or near-white, or is there any surrounding white space? If it’s just a single stripe of white, or it is more of a light gray, the feature might think it doesn’t look enough like a scan of multiple prints.

If it’s OK to post an example, that might help us understand what is going wrong.

In general — and this is for anyone reading this thread — don’t expect too much from Crop and Straighten Photos. It has been in Photoshop for a long time, it has not changed in years, and because of that, it is not the smartest feature in the world. We do not know exactly how simple its algorithm is, but due to its age, for example it does not use any form of AI/machine learning, as far as I know.

[dunkoid]

I've figured out what the problem was. Along two outer edges of the scanned page was a grey shadow which must have been fooling PS. I just put a marquee tool over them and applied a white fill, then everything worked.

Thinking about it now, it would probably have been easier to crop the scan slightly or reduce canvas size by a few pixels.

[davidw11789793]

Did you every find a solution to this problem? I've looked for a while and can't get a reliable solution. None of the solutions mentioned in this post work. Trim just trims to the nearest side and doesn't seperate the different photos. The stamps example is interesting but again, doesn't seperate the photos.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

@davidw11789793 

It depends on the images, there are many variables which can affect the results.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/how-do-i-seperate-subjects-into-diffe...

[c.pfaffenbichler]

@davidw11789793 , please provide example files.