I wonder if anyone remembers my self-testimonial concerning my massive image watermarker? The Dev Log entry covers information about the watermarker and a download link to the application.
In short, this application is a release (NOT SHAREWARE OR FREEWARE) of my wondrous web-based program that watermarks my pictures in one fell swoop. Now that I've added to the watermarker, it accepts a huge amount of arguments and will position text in a variety of locations. The real watermarker code, not included here, has much more flexibility than I am showing with the Windows GUI.
Still, it's a great program--tell it what images you want to use, tell it how you want them watermarked, and let it go to town. It will not overwrite the original images--I'm very particular about that. Instead, it creates a new directory and puts the watermarked images there.
For the rest of this Dev Log article, I will explain how this application fits in with what I have been doing and the process undertaken with all photography projects.
I have been doing some sort of public photography since spring of 2000. Most of my photography centers around the Strong College Picture Project (CSC Picture Project), though I do other shoots for the Bryan School, private individuals, and random stuff for myself.
By now, I have a definite routine after a shoot. In this case, I will explain my routine after shooting something for the CSC Picture Project. Here's the routine:
1) Copy Pictures: I move the pictures from the camera's compact flash card to a directory on my laptop. From there, I make a "pub" directory and copy the pictures once more to that directory. The "pub" directory will contain all edited pictures, with the undesirable ones deleted. The main directory houses my originals and is not modified. Elapsed Time: 2 minutes
2) Rotate: I display the "pub" images as thumbnails and use one of Microsoft's Power Toys to rotate all portrait pictures. Elapsed Time: 1.5 minutes
3) Edit and Delete: I display each picture in Microsoft's Photo Editor--one of the best applications for my speed use. If the picture is not good, I close the application, delete the picture, and move to the next one. If the picture is a keeper, I will edit the picture's gamma and contrast to my satisfaction. Whether or not my LCD screen is off when it comes to brightness I'll never know. Elapsed Time: 6-15 seconds per image; I'm that fast
4) Resize: I then must resize all images. For this, I copy the "pub" images into a "1024" directory. From there, I use yet another of Microsoft's Power Toys to size the images down to 1024x768. Elapsed Time: 1 minute
5) Watermark: This is the crucial step. Before my watermarker, this step normally took 1 1/2 hours per 100 images. I then created a web-based application using VB.Net to watermark the images for me. For the most part, it was hard-coded with very little flexibility. Now... it's extremely flexible and fits nicely in my PhoenixPo.com Utilities -- a set of common classes and such I can use with any application. Elapsed Time: 1 minute for all images
6) Make the Slide Show: Once more, I employ Microsoft's Power Toys--this time the Slide Show Wizard. Once the slide show has been created, I will edit the main page to include my name, an event description, and the image count. I used to use the "advanced layout", but having my users download all thumbnails at one time seemed undesirable. I wonder what I will do in the future? Elapsed Time: 4-8 minutes
7) Publish: This step covers uploading the images and adding the entry to the CSC Picture Project's database. It's not that difficult because I spent some time writing quality code. Elapsed Time: 4 minutes
Total Elapsed Time: 45 minutes It now only takes me a short time to edit, watermark, prepare, and publish the images. It's a good process.
Note: "Kaine" is one of the names I use when programming. Since it’s not all that unique, I can also use "PhoenixPo".
