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Participant
January 12, 2025
Question

Is it possible to create an action for finding black and white points?

  • January 12, 2025
  • 5 replies
  • 594 views

I'm batch editing dozens of photos, most of which have been post-processed in different ways, and need them to look as similar as possible. Since the first step in doing so is finding the black and white points, is there any way to batch edit this process or would it require a custom script? Appreciate the help!

5 replies

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 13, 2025

@BGering – I have never had good results, although YMMV:

Image > Adjustments > Match Color

D Fosse
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 13, 2025

The lighting is a much bigger variable than endpoints. If shot in different lighting, matching the endpoints won't make them look anywhere near similar.

 

Which is why I fully agree with Stephen. This can only be done by eye, by a human.

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 13, 2025

The OP wants to batch a lot of images.  That was the point of his question.

D Fosse
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 13, 2025

Yeah. You can't batch "make images look the same". The parameters are too many and wide-ranging, and only a pair of human eyes can process all that.

 

Pinning the endpoints is just a very small part of it - it won't get you there.

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 13, 2025

Trevor suggested a traditional, tried and tested way of finding an image’s black and white points. If you need more details about how to think through this feature, you can refer to the following article by the great Bruce Fraser written 23 years ago but still works just as well, as Trevor showed.

 

https://creativepro.com/out-of-gamut-don-t-underestimate-photoshop-s-auto-color/

 

If I was doing this, I think the way I’d set up an action is:

1. Set the Auto Color Correction Options defaults as instructed, adjusting the Clip percentages with a test batch until you think it gives you the result you want across the kinds of images you’re feeding it. 

2. Click Save As Defaults. Not only does this set the defaults in the Auto Color Correction Options dialog box, I think it also sets the defaults for when you choose Image > Auto Tone. 

3. Because of #2, I think that when building the action, you just have to choose Insert Menu Item in the Actions panel menu and have it insert Image > Auto Tone. That should apply the defaults you worked out. 

 

If you find it difficult to work out a single set of Clip percentages that works well for all the images you need to process, you might look into batch processing with the Auto feature of Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom instead. That’s a more recent AI-trained method that should be better, but it depends on your images. If that doesn’t work either, you may have to consider a more manual way of setting those clip points.

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 13, 2025

Professor Norman would have been all over this if he was still with us.  He was Bruce fraser's biggest fan.

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 13, 2025

I do not recommend using auto colour corrections if you want the best starting point. Set the white and black points manually using a significant area of visual importance in each image. This is a critical human-based assessment beyond simple auto-algorithms that have no idea of the nature of the actual image content.

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 12, 2025

I've not tried this, but I think you should be able to save a profile in Curves or Levels and use that in the action.  It would be easier to use one of the Auto presets.

 

  • Open a Levels Adjustment layer, and Opt click Auto, which will open up the options panel.
  • The default is Enhance Brightness and Contrast, but experts like Jesus Rameriz (The Photoshop Training Channel) say to use Find Dark and Light Colors.
  • Click to select Find Dark and Light Colors and set how hard you want to click light and dark tones.  The default is fine.
  • click on OK twice.
  • Test to see if running levels goes with this new setting.
  • Add Flattern layers to the end of the action

 

IO have just had visitors arrive so I have to dash, so try, and if it doesn't work, w can ask one of the Scripting experts to see if they can set something up.

 

BTW if you add Save to an action, it will always use the folder you used when creating the Action.  What I do is consider that folder as a temporary location, and move them when done.  If it works, then you can use Image Processor to batch the entire folder of files and check to run your Action inside Image Processor.

 

Good luck.

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 12, 2025

I've just noticed the Save as Defaults at the bottom of the Levels Options panel, so obviously use that.

It's a long time since I worked as a photographer, so I am a bit rusty with batch editing.  There are regular posters here who know how to do it better than me.