Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I am trying to solve a problem for a client who is a QI Ultimate user. I have Studio and also the evaluation version of QIU. The following have the same outcomes in both progs.

The source images are Jpegs tagged sRGB. The client produces hundreds a week, all in the same lighting, using a Ricoh CX3. Firstly a colour correction, levels and WB filter is run on the batch to create corrected new files. This works very well at cleaning them up.

However there is a requirement to ALSO produce 1280px smaller derivatives for import into an Access DB. This is where I am having problems.

Using the new, corrected files as input:

1. Resize for email, whether using "convert to sRGB" or not, resizes correctly but produces a significant colour shift toward green. There should be none! The original files were in sRGB and the corrected ones produced by QI batch job and used as input here are in sRGB. "Convert to sRGB" shouldn't be necessary, and it makes no difference - these output files are greenish either way.

However I have tried the same procedure with some Canon 5D2 sRGB files of my own, produced in PhotoshopCS3, and there is then no colour shift, it works fine.

2. If I instead try and resize via a batch filter, creating new files in a subfolder, there is no colour shift (good), but the new files are not resized (bad). The filter stipulates 1280x960, 'Apply' has a green tick, the first image shows as 1280x960 in the title bar of the edit window. Yet when I do "save /Apply the filter to all images in the queue/Create new images (into a selected new folder)" the images created remain at the original size. They are simply copied by the batch process.

To make sure this isn't some anomaly with the original files I have run the same batch filter on a variety of other source images from my own cameras, and resizing never happens.

I have used QI for many years for printing, and am baffled by these apparent misbehaviours. Maybe it's me, but I can't see how. Enlightenment, please!

Try this method.
Place the images into the queue. Right click on the filenames in the queue, and select Convert Image.
Click on Add to or replace exisiting filters and set your new size in the resolution box.
Click DONE.
Next step is to make sure there is no check mark in Profile to Profile conversion and whatever color space is embedded in the images, with stay with the newly created images.
Click OK.
I get them all the same reduced size as long as they start out all the same size.

Fred

If you want to send me one file for testing, I would love to see the color shift.
Fred   wathree.ssz@verizon.net

Thanks Fred. Unfortunately wherever I applied the filter the result was the same here.

After a lot of investigating and trial and error, the problem went away when I deleted the resize filter and recreated it. The new version now resizes all images correctly, and without messing up colour. I don't understand how it could have been corrupted so that my Canon files worked OK but the Ricoh ones didn't, but that does appear to have been the problem.

A bit of a postmortem : the new filter is 2,465 bytes, the old misbehaving one with identical settings is 2,466 bytes.

My method did not create a filter, just applied a change of size during create a new image.
So I don't know what you were doing and where you created a filter, but as long as you are happy.

Fred

Your method only appeared to allow one image to be selected and resized at a time - I couldn't multi-select filenames, and there are a couple of hundred in this batch. I also wanted to apply some USM to the resized images, so it had to be a batch job using a filter.

From my previous message. You can place as many images in the queue as you like.
Qimage will batch re size then all in one operation.
Applying USM at the same time you resize is also done the same way. When you open that ADD to dialogue box, and you change the size, you can also add USM to the entire batch at the same time it resizes.
See attached screen snap.
Are you in the US or Canada?
I would be happy to walk you through on the telephone.

I will be available 941 359 1933 until 8:00 PM EDT.
Fred

Exactly the bit I had trouble with. I could only select and Right Click on one filename at a time. Of course now I've been back and tried again I had no trouble selecting as many as I wanted, or all via Ctrl/A. Probably doing this at 2am didn't help.

I didn't persevere as I thought the better route was to create a filter that did what it was supposed to. This was easy once I came to the conclusion that the broken one might be corrupt and made a new one instead, which worked perfectly.

You do not have to select any, simply right click on the page review or on the queue list below the thumbs and select "Convert".
Convert is one of the batch processes for images in the queue, along with Printing, E-mail/web copies, slide show, Refine raw exposure, etc. etc.
Terry