Hei, good folks!
One of the most productive functions of PhotoShop while converting negs from raw format to tiff is the Fil / Automate / Batch functionality, where you can record and playback conversion steps. Until CP2 stops the sequence, requiring a manual "OK" step.
What can I do, to make steps flow, without this manual interruption?
Cheers,
Arnt R.
Automation - OK button stopping batch step
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C.Oldendorf
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Read these two pages initially:
https://www.colorperfect.com/restoring/ ... orPerfect/
https://www.colorperfect.com/automating ... scripting/
That outlines both the capabilities and the limitations of using ColorPerfect in Photoshop actions. It is especially important to understand that the settings applied in the CP3 base version or CP2 correspond to the plugin’s immediately previous use. With the CP3 Meta version, it is possible to set things up so that a specific meta file is used, but currently it is not possible to change the meta file from the outside. That is, from within an action, off the top of my head, I do not see a way to do that. The Photoshop action would need to be able to change the meta file, because if you record it today and use it three weeks from now, the selected meta file may well have changed within ColorPerfect in the meantime. We could do it by scripting, however, and the script could be called from a Photoshop action, but all of that gets fairly complex fairly quickly, so let’s cover the basics first.
https://www.colorperfect.com/restoring/ ... orPerfect/
https://www.colorperfect.com/automating ... scripting/
That outlines both the capabilities and the limitations of using ColorPerfect in Photoshop actions. It is especially important to understand that the settings applied in the CP3 base version or CP2 correspond to the plugin’s immediately previous use. With the CP3 Meta version, it is possible to set things up so that a specific meta file is used, but currently it is not possible to change the meta file from the outside. That is, from within an action, off the top of my head, I do not see a way to do that. The Photoshop action would need to be able to change the meta file, because if you record it today and use it three weeks from now, the selected meta file may well have changed within ColorPerfect in the meantime. We could do it by scripting, however, and the script could be called from a Photoshop action, but all of that gets fairly complex fairly quickly, so let’s cover the basics first.
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C.Oldendorf
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One additional thought on the issue of problematic borders and automated processing you mentioned by mail:
The actions we provide in the downloadable ColorPerfect action set can themselves be used as steps inside a larger Photoshop action of your own. That makes it possible to build a two-stage workflow for images whose outer areas would otherwise mislead ColorPerfect’s automatic initial assessment.
In practical terms, the custom Photoshop action would first crop the image down to a representative central area, for example by removing roughly 20% from each side. The purpose of that temporary crop is simply to exclude false edge light, dense border fogging, sprocket area, or other extreme outer-image content from the initial analysis.
The next step inside that same custom Photoshop action is not a direct call to ColorPerfect from the Filters menu. Instead, the action calls one of the actions from our downloadable set, namely the one that runs ColorPerfect without the graphical user interface in Basic mode. That first ColorPerfect pass is used only to let the plug-in determine suitable automatic parameters from the cropped and more representative image area.
After that, the custom Photoshop action goes back in Photoshop history to the state before the crop, so the full original image is restored. Then, as a further step within the same custom action, it again does not call ColorPerfect directly from the menu, but instead calls another action from our downloadable set, this time the one using Exact mode.
The result is that the first ColorPerfect call establishes the parameters on the basis of a clean central image area, while the second ColorPerfect call applies exactly those determined parameters to the full uncropped frame. In that way, the problematic borders are prevented from disturbing the automatic analysis, while the final rendering still affects the whole image.
So the downloadable ColorPerfect actions are not only useful on their own. They can also serve as building blocks inside more elaborate Photoshop actions, and in a case like this they can be combined in a fairly elegant way to solve a real-world problem.
What does not work in the ordinary sense is recording a direct call to ColorPerfect from the Filters menu and expecting Photoshop to store the plug-in’s internal settings as part of that action.
That said, I do think true recordability could probably be added by making use of the Meta version’s meta files. Even then, however, it would not be enough merely to set the relevant meta file from the outside. The restoration parameters for the As Optioned step would also need to be made configurable from outside the plug-in. In addition, a robust implementation would probably need to retrieve the current configuration early in the action and restore it again later, so that running the action does not interfere with normal GUI-driven use of ColorPerfect. Otherwise it could very quickly turn into a royal mess, where you think one thing is configured, while in reality the action has changed it behind the scenes. All of that could in principle be handled by JSX scripting, and such a script could then be called from within a Photoshop action, but that has simply not been a priority so far. Still, it would be interesting to look into at some point.
The actions we provide in the downloadable ColorPerfect action set can themselves be used as steps inside a larger Photoshop action of your own. That makes it possible to build a two-stage workflow for images whose outer areas would otherwise mislead ColorPerfect’s automatic initial assessment.
In practical terms, the custom Photoshop action would first crop the image down to a representative central area, for example by removing roughly 20% from each side. The purpose of that temporary crop is simply to exclude false edge light, dense border fogging, sprocket area, or other extreme outer-image content from the initial analysis.
The next step inside that same custom Photoshop action is not a direct call to ColorPerfect from the Filters menu. Instead, the action calls one of the actions from our downloadable set, namely the one that runs ColorPerfect without the graphical user interface in Basic mode. That first ColorPerfect pass is used only to let the plug-in determine suitable automatic parameters from the cropped and more representative image area.
After that, the custom Photoshop action goes back in Photoshop history to the state before the crop, so the full original image is restored. Then, as a further step within the same custom action, it again does not call ColorPerfect directly from the menu, but instead calls another action from our downloadable set, this time the one using Exact mode.
The result is that the first ColorPerfect call establishes the parameters on the basis of a clean central image area, while the second ColorPerfect call applies exactly those determined parameters to the full uncropped frame. In that way, the problematic borders are prevented from disturbing the automatic analysis, while the final rendering still affects the whole image.
So the downloadable ColorPerfect actions are not only useful on their own. They can also serve as building blocks inside more elaborate Photoshop actions, and in a case like this they can be combined in a fairly elegant way to solve a real-world problem.
What does not work in the ordinary sense is recording a direct call to ColorPerfect from the Filters menu and expecting Photoshop to store the plug-in’s internal settings as part of that action.
That said, I do think true recordability could probably be added by making use of the Meta version’s meta files. Even then, however, it would not be enough merely to set the relevant meta file from the outside. The restoration parameters for the As Optioned step would also need to be made configurable from outside the plug-in. In addition, a robust implementation would probably need to retrieve the current configuration early in the action and restore it again later, so that running the action does not interfere with normal GUI-driven use of ColorPerfect. Otherwise it could very quickly turn into a royal mess, where you think one thing is configured, while in reality the action has changed it behind the scenes. All of that could in principle be handled by JSX scripting, and such a script could then be called from within a Photoshop action, but that has simply not been a priority so far. Still, it would be interesting to look into at some point.
One additional thought on the issue of problematic borders and automated processing you mentioned by mail:
...
Thanks for a genuinely well thought out answer, as you say:
"The result is that the first ColorPerfect call establishes the parameters on the basis of a clean central image area, while the second ColorPerfect call applies exactly those determined parameters to the full uncropped frame. In that way, the problematic borders are prevented from disturbing the automatic analysis, while the final rendering still affects the whole image."
Indeed very smart, and a more sustainable solution assuming that all frames should be converted to the best achievable colors, no matter what may be present in the outer areas, such as sprockets etc.
In a longer perspective, perhaps (like in DSLRs etc.) a given area (typically in the middle of the frame) could be defined, as an alternative to the "whole frame" approach?
Cheers.
...
Thanks for a genuinely well thought out answer, as you say:
"The result is that the first ColorPerfect call establishes the parameters on the basis of a clean central image area, while the second ColorPerfect call applies exactly those determined parameters to the full uncropped frame. In that way, the problematic borders are prevented from disturbing the automatic analysis, while the final rendering still affects the whole image."
Indeed very smart, and a more sustainable solution assuming that all frames should be converted to the best achievable colors, no matter what may be present in the outer areas, such as sprockets etc.
In a longer perspective, perhaps (like in DSLRs etc.) a given area (typically in the middle of the frame) could be defined, as an alternative to the "whole frame" approach?
Cheers.
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C.Oldendorf
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No, too messy. The idea of an enforced center-weighted algorithm falls short of what should really be done: implementing proper detection of the outside area and the inside frame for the data gathering that drives the initial guesses for brightness, color balance, and black point. It was never a priority before, just a niche wish some folks mentioned. In 2026, more people seem to want this, so I implemented it properly, and it is in April's CP3 build, which I just finished packaging tonight and have already sent to a handful of people.arr wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:00 am In a longer perspective, perhaps (like in DSLRs etc.) a given area (typically in the middle of the frame) could be defined, as an alternative to the "whole frame" approach?