Can software automatically adjust levels or exposure for a batch of photos?
Asked 6/30/2013
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I have a few hundred images. Some are too dark, while others are close but could still benefit from a levels/exposure adjustment. Is there software that can batch-process them and automatically choose suitable settings for each image, such as setting black and white points from the histogram or using a more advanced auto-enhance approach?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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If all pictures that are to dark are to dark "in the same way" and you've photographed them in raw then you can just create an .xmp file (a little metadata file containing "development settings") and apply it to all photos using any program that can handle raw.
If your photos are in some other you could try IrfanView's batch mode. It has some auto adjust buttons but it also has loads of settings if your images are all "wrong" in the same way.
If you feel familiar with a command line interface and programming then ImageMagick is wonderful for batch image processing.
I know this doesn't really answer you question but bottom line is that there probably isn't any software out there that will do a good job on EVERY picture. So I think your best bet is to group images into sets that require more or less the same processing and then run a batch on each group.
Originally by user20707. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user20707
13y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—some software can batch-apply automatic tonal adjustments, but results vary by image.
If the photos are all underexposed in a similar way, the easiest approach is to apply the same settings to all of them. For RAW files, you can create development settings (such as an XMP sidecar) and sync/apply them across a batch in a RAW editor.
If each image needs a slightly different correction, some programs offer auto-enhance or auto-levels in batch workflows. Examples mentioned were Apple Aperture’s Auto Enhance and IrfanView’s batch mode with auto-adjust options. Command-line tools like ImageMagick can also batch-process images if you’re comfortable scripting.
The main limitation is that no automatic tool will do a great job on every photo. A practical workflow is to group similar images, batch-apply a correction to each group, and then manually fine-tune the best shots.
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