Photoshop question

[JoeTheJuggler]

If I've got a PSD file I made that was renamed and modified from an original photo (which file probably exists somewhere on my harddrive), is there a way to find the name of the original file?

I took an original photo of me (from a juggling show), and blocked out the juggling clubs to make a sort of joke image to send to someone else (I put in a hand-drawn cartoon bouquet of flowers). In working on it, I merged the layers so I no longer have the original image with the clubs available in this re-named file.

I'm pretty sure the original photo exists somewhere in the tens of thousands of photos on my hard drive, but with one of those useless camera file names like 0010023.tiff or some such.

I looked in the "file info" on the PSD I have and couldn't find anything there. Barring that, is there any pattern-matching software that could help me search my harddrive for other images that partially match the one I have?

I'm using Mac OSX 10.5.6 and PS 11.0 (from CS4), though the original may be on my older G4 running Tiger and PS 9.0 (from CS2).

I appreciate any help or advice.

 

[Arus808]

once you place an image from another file into a PSD file it looses all the information that was originally contained in the file it came from (namely the EXIF info).

And seeing that you merged other adjustment layers with that layer in which the photo resided, you've definitely lost all the information you need to find out what the original source file (name) was.


there is a weird way to see if you file still has the old EXIF information, but no guarantee:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/s2is/discuss/72157594505201584/

But, it will only work if you worked from the original file that the PSD was created from.

Give it a try. If it doesn't work, then like me, who also have thousands of photos, it'll be a manual search for the original.

 

[WaterBreather]

The answer is quite easy.

What you need to do is place your
head an inch from the screen,
and then move it forward and backward in
a banging motion

this will not fix your problem
but may remind you to keep reliable back-ups in future

;-j

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

there is a weird way to see if you file still has the old EXIF information, but no guarantee:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/s2is/discuss/72157594505201584/

But, it will only work if you worked from the original file that the PSD was created from.

Give it a try. If it doesn't work, then like me, who also have thousands of photos, it'll be a manual search for the original.

Unfortunately this solution is a DOS application.

ETA: But thanks for the direction. I've found a Mac OS exif untrasher that I will try.

ETA: Nope--that's just a utility for recovering photos deleted from a camera's memory card. But I'll keep looking before I resort to a manual search (which I can limit substantially by date anyway).

The answer is quite easy.

What you need to do is place your
head an inch from the screen,
and then move it forward and backward in
a banging motion

this will not fix your problem
but may remind you to keep reliable back-ups in future

;-j

Well that was helpful, WaterBreather. Did you enjoy that?

And obviously you failed to read my post. I have the image in question, so it's not a lost file situation or problem of not having a backup.

 

[WaterBreather]

Unfortunately this solution is a DOS application.


Well that was helpful, WaterBreather. Did you enjoy that?

And obviously you failed to read my post. I have the image in question, so it's not a lost file situation or problem of not having a backup.

heh-heh

yes
I did
thanks for allowing me to have some fun at your expense

the file cannot be found
ergo it is lost

the backup cannot be retrieved
ergo it is not reliable

now

place your head
an inch from the screen ....

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

the backup cannot be retrieved
ergo it is not reliable

False statement.

Thanks for the "help".

May I suggest where you put your head?

 

[WaterBreather]

nowhere near you and your 'photoshop' skills
that fer shore!

now
perhaps you would like to try the simpler solution :

place your head 2 inches from the screen
and...

Please stay on topic and be civil. Thank you.

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: LibraryLady

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

OK, wise guy. Since your time on the JREF forum is surely not going to last long, I'll play along.

I have 4 complete backups of the hard drives in question dating back to the time of the photo in question. So why are you berating me for not having a backup?

What are you, 12 years old?

 

[WaterBreather]

Edited by Tricky: 

Edited for rule 11.

 

[The Man]

If I've got a PSD file I made that was renamed and modified from an original photo (which file probably exists somewhere on my harddrive), is there a way to find the name of the original file?

I took an original photo of me (from a juggling show), and blocked out the juggling clubs to make a sort of joke image to send to someone else (I put in a hand-drawn cartoon bouquet of flowers). In working on it, I merged the layers so I no longer have the original image with the clubs available in this re-named file.

I'm pretty sure the original photo exists somewhere in the tens of thousands of photos on my hard drive, but with one of those useless camera file names like 0010023.tiff or some such.

I looked in the "file info" on the PSD I have and couldn't find anything there. Barring that, is there any pattern-matching software that could help me search my harddrive for other images that partially match the one I have?

I'm using Mac OSX 10.5.6 and PS 11.0 (from CS4), though the original may be on my older G4 running Tiger and PS 9.0 (from CS2).

I appreciate any help or advice.

You may have a recently opened documents folder. Search by date, the system might have created a shortcut in that file for that folder. Also check your internet explorer history (if you have it) it can also show recent directories and files accessed. Also in the Photoshop “File” pull down menu it may show some of the recent files you have opened down at the very bottom.

That’s about all I can think have off hand and may not be applicable depending on the system and software you’re using.

I would recommend creating a working folder and when you find a picture you want to work with you rename it and save a copy to the folder.

Opps, just noticed that your using a Mac, so it may not have the same feature, but give it a try anyway.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Edited by Tricky: 

Edited for response to modded post.

 

[Grizzly Bear]

If I've got a PSD file I made that was renamed and modified from an original photo (which file probably exists somewhere on my harddrive), is there a way to find the name of the original file?

I took an original photo of me (from a juggling show), and blocked out the juggling clubs to make a sort of joke image to send to someone else (I put in a hand-drawn cartoon bouquet of flowers). In working on it, I merged the layers so I no longer have the original image with the clubs available in this re-named file.

I'm pretty sure the original photo exists somewhere in the tens of thousands of photos on my hard drive, but with one of those useless camera file names like 0010023.tiff or some such.

I looked in the "file info" on the PSD I have and couldn't find anything there. Barring that, is there any pattern-matching software that could help me search my harddrive for other images that partially match the one I have?

I'm using Mac OSX 10.5.6 and PS 11.0 (from CS4), though the original may be on my older G4 running Tiger and PS 9.0 (from CS2).

I appreciate any help or advice.

Once it's renamed I don't know of any way to recover the original. Adobe Bridge should have come with your installation of photoshop and it's probably you're best bet at locating it especially since based on your description is a PSD. Try initiating a search of your picture folders using the PSD extension as the key word. It'll narrow your search down to only the photoshop native file formats and bridge will give you a preview of the contents without you having to open them. Also if you recall a general time range when you made the file you should be able to narrow your search even further.

It's still a pretty tedious task but that's the best Idea I can come up with :\

 

[WildCat]

Yeah, that's what I'd do. Arrange the picture files by date, view the files as thumbnails, and you can probably locate it before too long.

 

[listener]

This doesn't help the current situation, but my system is to keep the 4-digit number assigned by the camera. When I modify the file, I just add a name after the 4 digits, and then at any time, I can go through my backup files and find the number or the name. The original file is always raw, and modified files are always tif or jpeg or psd, but the number follows them all. The suggestion to use Bridge is a good one, as you can cover a lot of ground in a short time that way. Good luck with your search!

 

[MortFurd]

Go here and get ImageSeek for your operating system. Go here and get ImageMagick for your operating system. Install ImageMagick**, then install ImageSeek.
Start ImageSeek and give it the picture of you juggling. Point it at your photo collection. Wait for a while. ImageSeek will find all similar photos in your collection. The original should be one of the ones it turns up.

It's been a while since I used ImageSeek, so I can't give you detailed instructions.

** You MUST install ImageMagick else ImageSeek won't be able to read .psd files.

 

[Careyp74]

Joe, when you go to photoshop, is there a way to open recent files? Is the photo in question on the list of recent files?

 

[scissorhands]

Joe, when you go to photoshop, is there a way to open recent files? Is the photo in question on the list of recent files?

I thought about mentioning this before when I saw the OP, but then thought thats too obvious and the OP must have tried that first.

My version of PS shows the last 10 recent files opened.

File - Open recent.

 

[Ashles]

Isn't there metadata stored inside a Photographic image file?

If you knew what date it was taken or on what camera (or something else similar - I forget what is stored) maybe you could run a search for text inside all documents matching that.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

This doesn't help the current situation, but my system is to keep the 4-digit number assigned by the camera. When I modify the file, I just add a name after the 4 digits, and then at any time, I can go through my backup files and find the number or the name. The original file is always raw, and modified files are always tif or jpeg or psd, but the number follows them all. The suggestion to use Bridge is a good one, as you can cover a lot of ground in a short time that way. Good luck with your search!

Thanks.

I think at this point I would spend less time manually searching than I would have renaming every photo I've got as they come in. I frequently get big batches of pictures people have taken of my shows, and I often look at one or two and just copy them into a huge and always growing archive.

Go here and get ImageSeek for your operating system. Go here and get ImageMagick for your operating system. Install ImageMagick**, then install ImageSeek.
Start ImageSeek and give it the picture of you juggling. Point it at your photo collection. Wait for a while. ImageSeek will find all similar photos in your collection. The original should be one of the ones it turns up.

It's been a while since I used ImageSeek, so I can't give you detailed instructions.

** You MUST install ImageMagick else ImageSeek won't be able to read .psd files.

I will check into this--probably tomorrow. This is the kind of thing I was hoping might exist--something that looks for a similar image.

Thanks.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

I thought about mentioning this before when I saw the OP, but then thought thats too obvious and the OP must have tried that first.

My version of PS shows the last 10 recent files opened.

File - Open recent.

You assumed right. This was from several years ago (even several OS installs ago). Even the edited version was on my older G4, which is now mostly retired from daily use.

Isn't there metadata stored inside a Photographic image file?

If you knew what date it was taken or on what camera (or something else similar - I forget what is stored) maybe you could run a search for text inside all documents matching that.

I have learned a bit about this on this thread. Its called the exif data, and unfortunately in the case of the image in question (the modified version of it), the exif data from the original photo is long gone.