Modified:
Sep 25, 2020
Created:
Sep 19, 2013
Views:
5750
Author:
JH

Working with External Retoucher

ProSelect's workflow is designed such you do any re-touching on your original images BEFORE any final cropping, effects (B&W or Sepia) or actions are applied during Hi-Res Production.

This way, if you are using the same image in multiple products,  you only need to re-touch it once. This is also the reason that we recommend that you import un-cropped images into ProSelect and do any (non-destructive) cropping with ProSelect.

You can easily adopt this workflow to operating with an EXTERNAL retouching service. How this is done depends on how much responsibility you wish to pass on. Here are two options: 

Option 1: Send and get back ordered images

  1. After the viewing, in ProSelect, choose "Album menu -> Original Images -> Copy Ordered Images to..." to get all ordered images into a separate folder. (This will also copy any RAW and sidecar files, if present)
  2. Create a .pdf file of the Production Images Report with thumbnail images (under the File menu in ProSelect 2020r1+). This report lists all ordered images, shows ordered sizes and cropping, as well as any notes saved against these images. (Windows users see this article for how to print to a .pdf file).
  3. Send the above to your Retoucher.
  4. Get back re-touched originals - these can be same file type (jpg, tif, .psd) or different if you don't want to overwrite the originals - and drop them into the same folder as the original job's images (see Note 1).
  5. Launch ProSelect's Hi-Res Production.
  6. Click Reload All Edited. This will find the newest version of each image file and replace the images in the album file with the newly retouched ones. (see Note 2 below).
  7. Run production to produce final sized images ready to send to the lab (see Note 3).

1. Notes on using Copy Ordered Images to...

Copy Ordered Images to...  keeps the link pointing to the original imported folder so you should put the re-touched images back into that folder. In earlier versions of ProSelect this command changes the link to the original image to the destination folder so you should put the re-touched images back into that one instead.

You can always check on where ProSelect expects an image to be located by selecting one of your ordered images and choosing Show Selected Image Info (under the Album Menu) and look for the path to the original image.

2. Reloading Edited Images (ProSelect 2020r1 and newer)

Using ProSelect 2020r1 and newer

After you have added your retouched images back into the same older as the original images, you can tell ProSect about these changes by either:

(a) In the main window, in Thumbnail View when Working with Images, select all your ordered images (or Selected All images if you wish) and choose Reload Selected Edited Images (under Album menu -> Original Images). This will look for the newest version (by last modified date & time) of the image with the same name but either a .jpg, .tif or .psd file type and will replace the image in the album file with this image. If you have simply replaced your original .jpg images with the re-touched ones then these will be reloaded. If your re-touched images are a different type then these will be loaded into ProSelect and used instead during Production.

(b) In the Hi-Res Production window, clicking on ReLoad All Edited will do the same as above. 

Using ProSelect 2015r2 - 2019r2

You can do this either of two ways:

(a) In the main window, in Thumbnail View when Working with Images, select all your ordered images (or Selected All images if you wish) and choose Reload Selected Retouched Images (under Album menu -> Original Images). This will look for the newest version (by last modified date & time) of the image with the same name but either a .jpg, .tif or .psd file type and will replace the image in the album file with this image. If you have simply replaced your original .jpg images with the re-touched ones then these will be reloaded. If your re-touched images are a different type then these will be loaded into ProSelect and used instead during Production.

(b) In the Hi-Res Production window, holding the Alt/Option key down and click on Re-link all images will do the same as above. If you wish to use this workflow method all the time then check the Always Reload when Re-linking option in Preferences -> Importing Images -> Settings -> Production Workflow and you won't need to hold the Alt/Option key down.

3. Notes on Production

If you intend to run ProSelect's Hi-Res production yourself when you get the re-touched images back then make sure that your re-toucher does NOT re-size or crop the images.

As mentioned above, if you wish to preserve the original images, then have your Re-toucher save the final images as .tiff or .psd files (assuming that the originals were .jpg) and add these back into the folder with the original .jpg files.

  

Option 2: Send Ordered Images & ProSelect Album file

This option assumes that the re-toucher has their own ProSelect Pro license and a copy of Photoshop CS6 or newer. If they are one of your employees and only do re-touching for your studio, you are permitted to let them use an extra user added to your studio's ProSelect license.

ProSelect Pro 2016r1 and newer includes an Export Production Package facility (under the Production Menu).  This will create a "Production Package" folder ready to send to an outsourced retouching service. The folder will contain all the original images (and associated RAW files, if selected) that have been ordered and/or added to a book that you have built-in ProSelect.

You also choose to export a special "production album" which is a read-only copy of the ProSelect album already re-linked to the original images in the package folder. When including this copy of the album file, you can choose to have the client's contact details, order prices and any payments made removed from the production album so your studio information is kept confidential.

In the Production Package, you can also choose to export a text-only version of the "Production Images Report" as well as a Production Report in a number of different machine-readable formats and well as the 

For more information about using the Production Package feature see the ProSelect Reference Manual (under Help menu in ProSelect).

In this case:

  1. The re-toucher open the album file and chooses Original Images -> Find all Ordered Images (under the Album menu) and selects one image in the folder of original images that he received. This will update the album file to correctly link to the ordered images folder. Links to the other images will be automatically done at the at the same time provided you have Check for any other missing images in the same folder selected in the window.
  2. The re-toucher uses ProSelect Hi-Res workflow to open each image that needs re-touching (usually in Photoshop but possible with Lightroom), re-touches it and saves it back into same folder. Again, they can use a different type to preserve original files.  ProSelect's Hi-Res production effective gives you a To Do list however you only need to re-touch each image once (even if ordered multiple times). Any retouching notes that you have added to the image will be displayed in the Selected Image Info box in the High-Res Production window as they select each image.
  3. After the images are ready, they run ProSelect's Hi-Res Production to produce final sized images.
  4. Final images are sent back to the photographer or directly to a lab.

More information on the Original images commands, Re-linking files and hi-res Production can be found in the ProSelect Reference Manual (quick access under the Help menu in ProSelect). See the page Processing an Order Manually in the Processing Orders section.

 

More Information

More information on the Original images commands, Re-linking files and Hi-Res Production can be found in the ProSelect Reference Manual (quick access under the Help menu in ProSelect). See the Image Organisation and Workflow sections.

Also see these articles:

Which computer should Production be run on? 

Sharing Data between computers - Overview 


KnowledgeBase Article: Working with External Retoucher