Documenting Processing History

[Nigel Ball]

I've started saving the contents of the History Explorer as a Process Icon as a sort of documentation of how I processed a certain image.

Is this the sensible thing to do and once I've saved the Process Icon is there anything I can actually do with it?

[Niall Saunders]

Hi Nigel,

Fundamentally, yes. If you at least save the HistoryExplorer contents as a ProcessContainer icon, you will save 'all' of the steps associated with the image.

However, you will not have saved any masks that were associated with any of the above steps, nor will you have saved any history associated with those masks.

I tend to find that I now save 'individual processes' which I take the time to suitable annotate, and name. I even hit <PrintScr> every so often as well, and then flip to a spare Workspace and <Ctrl-V> the ScreenCapture thus obtained as a new image, rename that, and save THAT snapshot as a 100%-quality JPG into my 'working folder' - so that I have a feel for 'how' I applied the processes, and in which order.

The bottom line is, in my mind anyway, that until such time as Juan implements a 'Save Project' facility, you really need to be very well organised if you are to have ANY chance of being able to recreate an IDENTICAL workflow. So, I just take my time, and save EVERYTHING (disk space is cheap nowadays) - which helps reinforce in my mind some of the stages that I find out about 'by experimenting'.

And, in any case, it is nice to be able to demonstrate how your beautiful image is extracted from what initially seems to be 'nothing'. Then, naturally, we need a PJSR that will take any pair of images and, on a pixel by pixel basis it will create a range of 'intermediate morphing images' (the number defined by the user) to show the transition from image A to B. Capture all of these morphs as BMPs, for each stage of your processing sequence, run them through something like 'bmp2avi.exe' or even Windoze Movie Maker. and you have a nice 'movie' of the birth of your new baby!!!

I would love to see that for some of our 'Gallery Stunners', with captions telling which process is being run as each Morph takes place.

Any takers?

[Niall Saunders]

once I've saved the Process Icon is there anything I can actually do with it

Sorry Nigel, I meant to address this issue as well - but became carried away with emotional morphing movies!

If you reload the Process Container (it having been saved as a ProcessIcon), then you can double-click it to re-open a displayed list of all the step that were saved from the History Explorer.

You can then drag'n'drop each individual step to the source image, and see the image get modified as per you original workflow. You can also just drag the whole ProcessIcon onto the image, and all the steps will be applied one after the other - the first caveat being that the 'source image' really has to be the 'same image' - otherwise the results will most likely be meaningless, and the second caveat is that all links to applied masks will need to be 'in place' before you start (i.e. appropriately named masks have to be 'available' within the overall PI workspace).

Of course, you can also just save the individual steps out onto the Workspace, as individual Process Icons - and deal with these as you see fit.

You can also copy the 'text' associated with each process step - in PJSR format into the Script Editor, and use the editor to 'flesh out' the process description with (more detailed) comments that you can easily insert. In theory this should allow you to be able to 'build' a PJSR script that will apply ALL the stages, with ALL the required auxiliary images - to TOTALLY replicate your full process, effectively from just a few mouse-clicks.

[Nigel Ball]

Thanks Niall

You seem to be stuck on 1000 posts .....

[Niall Saunders]

Don't worry Nigel - I would be posting at my usual rate if I actually had access to the Internet - my Internet Service Provider has had a problem with their ISP, etc. etc., and the result is NO connection for me since September 9th.

This is being posted via the miracle of Dial-Up modem !!!