Tutorial how to use Irfanview 4.25 to rotate, shrink, & rename batch photos

Tutorial how to use Irfanview 4.25 to rotate, shrink, & rename batch photos
(based on the time and date and GPS location of the given photograph)

Assumption: You want to automatically rotate, shrink to 100KB, set to
72dpi, strip out the EXIF data, and rename the new emailable files based on
the EXIF date & EXIF gps coordinates for all photographs in a Windows
folder.

To automatically rotate a batch of photos to the EXIF orientation tag:
* Navigate to your batch of digital photographs in a Windows folder
* Doubleclick on one of the JPEGs to open it up in Irfanview 4.25
* t ... aka Irfanview:File-Thumbnails
* Wait for the Irfanview counter to register all thumbnails (i.e., it may
take some time for the Irfanview counter to register from 1/5000 to
5,000/5,000).
* Control + A ... aka Thumbnail:Options-Select All
* Shift + J ... aka Thumbnail:File-JPG Lossless Operations-Lossless
Rotation with Selected Files
* Start ... aka Thumbnail:Press the Start button
Voila!

To rename based on date & GPS, shrink file size, and set DPI & pixels:
* With desired photos still selected in the Irfanview Thumbnail viewer ...
* b ... aka Thumbnail:File-Start Batch Dialog with Selected Files
* Batch conversion:Press the "Create New Folder" button at top right
* Batch conversion:Name the new folder something like "small pics"
* Batch conversionoubleclick on the newly created "small pics"
* Batch conversion:Press the "Use current look-in directory" button
* Batch conversion:Press the "Start Batch" button
* When done, exit out of the batch dialog and then out of Irfanview
Voila!

All digital photographs in that folder will be rotated properly; they will
be renamed based upon EXIF date & GPS data; and they will be shrunk to
100KB and 640x480 pixel size and 72dpi resolution; and all EXIF/IPTC and
thumbnail data will be removed from the emailable copy of the photograph.

Notes:
* Those are my settings, previously saved by Irfanview; your desired
settings may vary.
* Irfanview 4.25 saves the last 15 rename patterns; so you can have a
variety of desired patterns.
* Obviously EXIF information such as GPS coordinates & orientation must be
saved by your camera; press the E button in Irfanview to view your EXIF
data.
* Recommended batch saved settings are the following:
- Set "Batch conversion - Rename result files"
- Set "JPEG/GIF save options" to "Set file size = 100KB (RIOT Plugin)"
- Set "Batch Conversion" options to "RESIZE"; "Set long side = 640 pixels";
"Set DPI value = 72"; and "Preservec aspect ratio".
- Set "Batch rename settings" to "$N-$E36868(%Y%m%d_%H-%M-%S)$E402-$E404";
this appends the date and GPS coordinates to the original file name.

Further improvements are always welcome!

On Sun, 4 Apr 2010 17:46:08 +0000 (UTC), Elmo wrote:

Tutorial how to use Irfanview 4.25 to rotate, shrink, & rename batch photos
(based on the time and date and GPS location of the given photograph)
Further improvements are always welcome!

I forgot to list a tremendous time-saving setting for this to work with
fewer button presses.

* p ... aka Irfanview:Options-Properties/Setttings-Miscellaneous
Make sure to UNSET the default option "Open Batch dialog in last used batch
folder".

Otherwise, you'll be constantly forced to waste buttons setting the folder
to the current folder.

In summary, the entire process to resize & rename & tag 5,000 files is four
steps to reorientate and four steps to resize, tag, and rename photos:

To orientate (orient?) thousands of photos:
* t
* control + a
* shift j
* "Start"
Then to resize, tag, and rename thousands of photos:
* b
* "Create new folder"
* "Use current look-in directory"
* "Start Batch"

Voila!

Elmo wrote:

Tutorial how to use Irfanview 4.25 to rotate, shrink, & rename batch photos
(based on the time and date and GPS location of the given photograph)

Assumption: You want to automatically rotate, shrink to 100KB, set to
72dpi, strip out the EXIF data, and rename the new emailable files based on
the EXIF date & EXIF gps coordinates for all photographs in a Windows
folder.

That is a lot more than I want to do to my pictures. As not all need
rotating, I do those using IrfanView by hand when checking them out
(Shift-J, etc). Then I use jpegcrop to crop losslessly. I put it first on
my SendTo menu to bring it up with key strokes. Then for reduction I don't
go by byte size, but for a size that fits on a web page. I wrote a program
that reads the image's size and then using an algorithm figures out what to
reduce it to. The reduction is then done by batch using Easy Thumbnails in
command line mode. See:

http://www.fookes.com/downloads.php?product=ezthumbs

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

Elmo wrote:
...
To rename based on date & GPS, shrink file size, and set DPI & pixels:
* With desired photos still selected in the Irfanview Thumbnail viewer ...
* b ... aka Thumbnail:File-Start Batch Dialog with Selected Files
* Batch conversion:Press the "Create New Folder" button at top right
* Batch conversion:Name the new folder something like "small pics"
* Batch conversionoubleclick on the newly created "small pics"
* Batch conversion:Press the "Use current look-in directory" button
* Batch conversion:Press the "Start Batch" button
* When done, exit out of the batch dialog and then out of Irfanview
Voila!

I didn't see any instructions on renaming from exif. OK, I just found
that below.


All digital photographs in that folder will be rotated properly; they will
be renamed based upon EXIF date & GPS data; and they will be shrunk to
100KB and 640x480 pixel size and 72dpi resolution; and all EXIF/IPTC and
thumbnail data will be removed from the emailable copy of the photograph.

Notes:
* Those are my settings, previously saved by Irfanview; your desired
settings may vary.
* Irfanview 4.25 saves the last 15 rename patterns; so you can have a
variety of desired patterns.
* Obviously EXIF information such as GPS coordinates & orientation must be
saved by your camera; press the E button in Irfanview to view your EXIF
data.
* Recommended batch saved settings are the following:
- Set "Batch conversion - Rename result files"
- Set "JPEG/GIF save options" to "Set file size = 100KB (RIOT Plugin)"

I'm not sure this makes sense for most cases, jpeg file size will vary
depending how much detail.


- Set "Batch Conversion" options to "RESIZE"; "Set long side = 640 pixels";
"Set DPI value = 72"; and "Preservec aspect ratio".
- Set "Batch rename settings" to "$N-$E36868(%Y%m%d_%H-%M-%S)$E402-$E404";
this appends the date and GPS coordinates to the original file name.

Ah, OK, I set up something like that in full screen mode to show fl,
shutter, aperture...

Further improvements are always welcome!

I almost never use thumbnail view. Just hit 'B' for batch, and save
settings for various needs. I'm finding irfanview less handy with 12MP
files though I've used it for years and always loved the speed. Also, I
use lightroom these days for most batch work but it's quite a lot slower.

--
Paul Furman
www.edgehill.net
www.baynatives.com

all google groups messages filtered due to spam

On Sun, 04 Apr 2010 12:27:26 -0700, Paul Furman wrote:

- Set "JPEG/GIF save options" to "Set file size = 100KB (RIOT Plugin)"

I'm not sure this makes sense for most cases, jpeg file size will vary
depending how much detail.

Actually, that's the beauty of this setting.

No matter what the JPEG size is, it will set it to 100KB (or whatever you
choose). It's magic.

On Sun, 04 Apr 2010 12:27:26 -0700, Paul Furman wrote:
I didn't see any instructions on renaming from exif.
OK, I just found that below.

Just to be clear (for others), the EXIF information is used for the file
naming based on the pattern below:
- Set "Batch rename settings" to "$N-$E36868(%Y%m%d_%H-%M-%S)$E402-$E404";
this appends the date and GPS coordinates to the original file name.

Which means (AFAIK):
$N = start with the previous name, e.g., "vacation.jpg" ...
$E36868 = use the EXIF date information pattern to follow in parenthesis
%Y%m%d = date format YYYYMMDD
%H%M%S = time format HHMMSS
$E402 = GPS latitude
$E404 = GPS longitude
Where the "_" and "-" are literal characters
_ = literal character

So, the picture originally named "vacation.jpg", taken on 04 Apr 2010 at
12:27:26 automagically is renamed
vacation-20100403_12-27-26_latitude-longitude.jpg

Note that it would be nice to figure out a way to use colons in the
hours:minutes:seconds part; but Windows barfs on colons.

Elmo wrote:
On Sun, 04 Apr 2010 12:27:26 -0700, Paul Furman wrote:

- Set "JPEG/GIF save options" to "Set file size = 100KB (RIOT
Plugin)"

I'm not sure this makes sense for most cases, jpeg file size will
vary depending how much detail.

Actually, that's the beauty of this setting.

No matter what the JPEG size is, it will set it to 100KB (or whatever
you choose). It's magic.

Which is exactly why it makes no sense at all. An image that is sharp and
contains a lot of fine detail will be over-compressed and could potentially
be ruined by forcing a file size on it.

--
Tim

Elmo wrote:

Assumption: You want to automatically rotate, shrink to 100KB, set to
72dpi, strip out the EXIF data, and rename the new emailable files
based on the EXIF date & EXIF gps coordinates for all photographs in
a Windows folder.

Why are you setting the resolution to 72 pixels per inch? If they are to be
emailed and viewed on screen the resolution doesn't matter at all, if they
are to be printed then 72 ppi is way too low.
Despite the common misconception, on screen images don't need to have a
resolution of 72 ppi. The only thing that effects its size and quality on
screen is its size in pixels. The size can be changed if it's incorporated
into a web page by a scaling factor, but it's best to make a copy that is
the correct size (in pixels) to start with, and in either case resolution is
irrelevant. For on screen images, the resolution only comes in to play when
the image is displayed in a page based format, like Word or a desktop
publishing program, where the software makes an inaccurate attempt to show
the virtual piece of paper at the same physical size as it is in the real
world.

--
Tim

On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 10:49:22 +1000, Tim wrote:

Which is exactly why it makes no sense at all. An image that is sharp and
contains a lot of fine detail will be over-compressed and could potentially
be ruined by forcing a file size on it.

I understand your point but I don't understand the mathematics. Apparently
this Irfanview feature uses something called a "RIOT Plugin".

Googling, I find RIOT stands for the "Radical Image Optimization Tool".
http://criosweb.ro/software/RIOT.dll

It looks like GIMP also utilizes the RIOT (http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot)
Radical Image Optimiation Tool (http://registry.gimp.org/node/20778).

I wish there were a Wikeipedia on this RIOT Radical Image Optimization
Tool; but none yet.

So, I guess, the real question, is how well does the RIOT Radical Image
Optimization Tool work in Irfanview batch mode. (works well enough for me)

On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 11:02:22 +1000, Tim wrote:

Assumption: You want to automatically rotate, shrink to 100KB, set to
72dpi, strip out the EXIF data, and rename the new emailable files
Why are you setting the resolution to 72 pixels per inch? If they are to be
emailed and viewed on screen the resolution doesn't matter at all

Good question!

I thought reducing the DPI from whatever it is from the camera down to 72
DPI lowered the file size (in bytes on disk).

Can you clarify the relationship of DPI with bytes on disk?

Assuming two photographs are exactly the same, except one is 72 DPI and the
other is, say, 1,200 DPI, wouldn't one would be vastly larger in file size
(bytes on disk) than the other?

If the answer is Yes, then that's why I recommend 72DPI for emailed photos.
If the answer is No, then ... you're right ... it's a waste of time to set
the DPI in Irfanview Batch Mode.

What is the right answer to recommend to batch shrink common photos to be
emailed?