NOTE: This feature is available in the Professional and Enterprise versions of both Spectra and myStratus Desktop.

The purpose of the Bulk Image Importer feature is to import images from a single source, such as a camera card, that contains images from multiple sessions and quickly import those images into the correct session. This feature is designed to be used when you have shot a large number of people, such as at a school, dance, or other organization onto the same camera card.  If you are shooting tethered and want to assign the images to the session during your event, use the Group Capture tool. See also: Group Capture 

Bulk Image Importer Overview

Bulk Image Importer is designed to associate images and import them into existing session records. The client and session records should already have been created before you begin the Bulk Image Importer. Perhaps clients were created using the Import Clients utility and the sessions were created using the Bulk Scheduling feature. See also: Importing Clients and Bulk Scheduling. 

The Bulk Image Importer tool is designed to automate many tasks for importing multiple session images from the same camera card or image source, including:

• Previewing images in the source folder.

• Viewing the list of sessions.

• Copy the hi-res or raw files to the appropriate Spectra image folder.

• Rename the image files.

• Create JPG previews of the hi-res images for sales presentations.

• Add metadata keywords to the images.

Many of these tasks are completed behind the scenes, without you ever seeing it! Bulk Image Importer is a very powerful tool that allows you to automate much of your digital workflow, saving you countless hours of manual labor.

Using Bulk Image Importer

Step 1 - Start the Bulk Image Importer

To start the Bulk Image Importer, select Bulk Image Importer from the Tools menu.

Step 2 - Choose Import Settings

When you first start the Bulk Image Importer you will need to set the Import settings. 

Import From - Click the browse button to browse to the folder where the images are located, such as your camera card. Then click OK. The images will begin importing into the Bulk Image Importer image preview. 

1. Copy Images Tab - Choose the following:

   • Copy To - If you are shooting hi-res JPG, choose the "Hi-Res" folder. If you're shooting Raw, choose the "Raw" folder. If you're shooting Raw + JPG, choose both folders and set the file extensions for each in the Only Copy Files with extension box.

   • Rename Options - If you want the images to be renamed when they are copied, choose the Rename All Copies option. Then set the Renumber Copies Starting at box to the starting number. If you want an image prefix, select the Prefix image name with session number box.

     

ATTENTION!  Spectra is not a raw conversion software. If you're capturing only raw images, the software will create a JPEG preview of the image, but it may not be properly white balanced or color corrected.

2. Create Previews Tab - Use this tab to set the options for any JPG previews (used for the sales presentation). If you choose not to create previews, the import will only copy the images. You will then need to manually create preview files.

   • Resize Images - We strongly recommend you choose to resize your preview images. For sales presentations, set the pixel count to 1000-1200, depending on the screen resolution and size of your sales presentation monitor.

   • JPEG Compression - Set the Quality to 80-100 and DPI to 72. The only time you should increase the DPI higher than 72 is when you want to print higher quality proof or contact sheets from the software. In that case do not increase the DPI above 150.

   • Defaults - Set the default Crop if you want the software to pre-crop the preview files. In this case it will center the crop on the image, but the crop can be changed in Digital Workflow or Sales Presentation. By selecting the Auto Rotate Images option, the software will use the camera settings to determine if images should be rotated. Your camera should then be set to auto-rotate when capturing.

   • Adjustments - Choose a preset to apply to each image preview. See also: Adjusting Images in Spectra and myStratus
     
     

3. Metadata Tab - Select options on this tab if you want the software to add metadata keywords to the images as they are captured. The metadata is only added to the preview file's keyword property. There are a number of pre-set values, such as Photographer, Assistant, Session Type, Organization, and Graduation Year.
   
   You can also create your own properties. Click Edit List to edit your metadata options. Then click Add New Category to create a new category. Click on the new item and type in the name. Then click Add New Item to create the keywords for this category. The categories can either allow multiple items, or be set to allow just one by setting the Allow Multi Select option appropriately.

   

4. Click OK to save the Import Options.

Finally, you can choose Advance Session Status, which will automatically advance the session's status to the next status once you select images for that session. You can also choose to Turn On Yearbook Selections, which will allow you to select the Yearbook or the Primary and Secondary images for each session.

Step 3 - Select the List of Sessions

Next, you'll need to select the list of sessions you want to associate your images with. Go to Session Search Criteria. Search by session number, session date, session status, organization, or graduation year. Click Search to find the records. Then double-click the desired session to select it. You can also scan a session bar code to automatically select the appropriate session. 

Once you've searched for the sessions, the number of sessions found and a list of the sessions with basic session information will appear in the Session List area. The sessions are now ready to assign images. 

Step 4 - Import Images by Assigning them to a Session

You are now ready to begin importing images.

• Select an image from the image preview window. If you have the Yearbook Selections turned on, click on the yearbook selection and click the checkbox for Set as Primary for the primary yearbook image, or Set as Secondary, for the secondary yearbook image.

• To select multiple images use the Control key and click or Shift key and click to select a series of images. 

• Then drag the images to the corresponding session from the session list on the right-hand side of the screen. 

Note: While photographing you will need to determine how to identify the session for the images you are shooting, such as the client holding up a card with their name or session number or using a bar code reader to imbed the session number into the image number as you shoot. 

• You will be prompted to confirm the image assignment to the session, click OK to continue.

• The selected images will begin importing into the selected session. The session will be removed from the session list to the Processed Sessions list below. The Bulk Image Importer will also advance the session status at this time if you have selected that option.

• Below the image previews you will see a list of the sessions in-process, displaying the Status and Percent Complete of each session. The Bulk Image Importer will process the images in the background and you can continue to assign images to sessions without waiting for each session to finish. 

• Once you have assigned all of the images to as session, you will see any remaining images in the image preview and any remaining sessions in the session list. 

• The Bulk Image Importer does not remove the images from the source folder. If you select this folder again, all of the images will re-load into the Bulk Image Importer. 

Close the Bulk Image Importer when all of the sessions have completed the import process.