Edit Selected Frame from Image Sequence in Photoshop

[danielafort]

I'm working on a project that involves cleaning up dust on frames that were scanned from film. After various experiments we found that Photoshop was the best tool for the job but going through tens of thousands of frames to find the few frames that needed attention was taking far too long. So I had an idea, play the reels through Premiere and open the problem frames with Photoshop. Seems very straight forward, doesn't it?

The frames were scanned to 4K DPX frames which Premiere can easily handle.

Here, I found a dusk speck on the timeline so I did a Match Frame (F) to open it in the source monitor and from there did Edit > Edit Original (command or control E) but when it opened in Photoshop it always opens up the first frame of the image sequence, not the frame that the source monitor is parked on.

Is there a way to open up the frame that the source monitor is parked on in Photoshop?

Note that I do have a work around by setting a 1 frame Image Default Duration in the Timeline Preference then loading the individual frames on the timeline but that isn't nearly as elegant as working with the image sequence.

[Ann Bens]

If it will only give the first frame of a clip

I would make it the first clip by cutting the clip.

If that is possible: never worked with dpx.

[danielafort]

Could you be more specific? Do you mean make a subclip? That doesn't work. Cut the clip on the timeline and match back from there? That doesn't work either. It always opens the first frame of the DPX image sequence in Photoshop.

[Ann Bens]

Ah pity.

[shooternz]

If you did dust removal  in AEFX you could ID the frames in PPro by timecode and use the TC to locate them in  AEFX

A number of PPro >AEFX workflows to achieve this but I would use D.I

[danielafort]

A 20 minute reel has about 28,800 frames and on average only about 400 frames per reel needed attention. It doesn't make sense to keep translating timecode to frame numbers in order to fix the frames. If you are suggesting using AE, sure that's an option but wouldn't that require rendering out a new set of frames? That seems rather inefficient.

My workaround is almost as good as working with image sequences in Premiere but I feel that if you park on a frame and open it for editing in Photoshop it should open the frame you are parked on and not the first frame of the image sequence. If it would open the image sequence in Photoshop I can accept that but the way it currently works seems wrong. Then again maybe I'm missing something?

Here's a screenshot of my workaround.

I set the Timeline Preferences to import still images at a duration of 1 frame and imported the DPX frames individually (not as an image sequence) into the bin called "whole enchilada" then threw all the frames onto a timeline. When I find a dust speck I hit F to match frame to the source monitor then Command E to open that frame up in Photoshop then remove that dust speck in about a second using the Healing Brush.

Now doesn't it make sense that when working with an image sequence it should work this same way instead of always opening up the first frame of the image sequence in Photoshop?

[Meg The Dog]

Import your image sequence, and put it on a timeline (timeline "A").

Create a second (empty) sequence.

Import all your stills with 1 frame duration and place them on this new sequence (timeline "B').

Click the tab for "A" so that the image sequence is playing the program monitor. Move the playhead to the first frame.

From the Project Panel, drag timeline "B" into the source monitor, and make sure the playhead for the source monitor is on the first frame.

Now go to the wrench in the program monitor and choose "Gang Source and Program".

If you now play the image sequence, when you stop it on a frame with a dust speck, the source monitor should advance to the same frame.

Click on the source monitor (or type Shift +2) to select it and type Command or Control + E to edit that frame in Photoshop.

MtD

[danielafort]

Hi Meg The Dog

Opening up a timeline in the source will disable the option to edit that frame in Photoshop so your suggestion doesn't work. In addition, loading up both the source and timeline and ganging them together puts a huge strain on the system.

However, opening up a clip imported as an image sequence uses up less resources but unfortunately will open only the first frame of the image sequence in Photoshop with Command or Control + E, not the clip that playhead is parked on.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record here.

I'm trying my workaround at the studio today and came up with a few more observations. It is very quick and easy to open up an image sequence made up of 31,000 4K uncompressed DPX frames (32.5 MB per frame) but importing all those individual frames and putting them on a timeline takes an excruciating long time. The playback is also better if imported as an image sequence rather than individual frames.

So far it seems that the best solution I've got so far for this particular job is my workaround but I would like to make a feature request to get this working on image sequences. How do I put in a feature request?

[Meg The Dog · Accepted solution]

Here:

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

MtD

[danielafort]

Thanks -- seems like the only "right" answer.