Save time by editing photos in groups

Start by launching a web browser, then click in the Address or Location bar to highlight what’s there. Type www.snipurl.com/9jaso and press Return. Click on the download link for the English version of Photo Filtre and then, if Windows displays a security warning, click the Save button. At the next dialogue box, choose a download destination –­ the Windows Desktop is a good choice ­– and then click Save again. Although powerful –­ and free ­– Photo Filtre is a small file and won’t take long to download.

Double-click on the new Desktop icon and then follow the installation wizard to set up Photo Filtre. Ignore any Windows security warnings, read and accept the licence agreement and all the defaults. When the wizard completes, click the Finish button to start the program. Like most graphics software, Photo Filtre has a palette of image-editing tools down one side and a button bar along the top. Start by clicking the Tools menu and then choosing Automate/Batch from the dropdown menu.

For this Workshop we’re going to be taking a folder of digital photos and making them smaller and more internet-friendly ­– all at once. So first, Photo Filtre needs to know where they are. Find the Source folder part of the dialogue box and then click the folder icons next to it. When the Browse for folder dialogue box opens, use it to find the folder with the photos. Click on it once to select it and then click the OK button to confirm.

Next, choose the Output folder in the same way (if necessary, use the Make New Folder button to create one) and click OK. Back at the main Automate/Batch dialogue box, choose a format for the pictures using the dropdown list (it supports plenty of formats, but we’re sticking with JPEG) and then change the picture names to something that makes more sense: click the Sequence tick box, then highlight the word in the box beneath and type in a name for the pictures –­ ours is Snow In England. Photo Filtre will rename the converted photos and number them automatically.

Next, click the Image tab at the top of the dialogue box and then put a tick in the box next to the Image size option. By default, Photo Filtre will suggest a resolution of 640x480 pixels, which is a good size for small web photos. Leave the other image size options as they are and then click the Frame tick box, choose a colour for the frame from the dropdown colour box, click Outside to set the frame round the photo and leave the width as it is. There are plenty of other options here, but that will do for now.

Click the Action tab at the top and then review the settings in the dialogue box. If you might want to perform the same task on more photos in future then click Save Settings to store the options you’ve chosen. If it’s a one-off like this, then just click the OK button. Photo Filtre will then zip through the photos in the folder, making them smaller, renaming them and adding a border around each before saving the results in the output folder. Here we’ve opened one of the original photos and put the new, smaller-framed version on top. In all, we’ve shrunk 25MB of photos into just 2MB.