Photo Mechanic: Saving Files, and Code Replacement

If you happen to borrow a camera that has different settings than you are used to, here is a way to fix an issue of converting RAW files, assuming your version of Photoshop will not open later versions of Camera Raw.

1. First highlight the image or images

2. Next, hit command+s or choose File>Save Photos as..

3. Choose your location.

4. Viola, you have a .jpg saved from a .CR2

If you really want a copy that is archival and will open up in Camera Raw with any version of Photoshop you will need to convert to DNG (Digital Negative). Click here to get startetd.

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GEICO Insurance company coined a phrase, "so easy a caveman can do it", well Photo Mechanic should have thought of it when talking about code replacements. It sounds tricky but is so way easy even I can show you how it works.

Code replacement is a great tool for sports photographers to use in order to effectively speed time writing captions while maintaining quality control with spelling and identifying players correctly.

1. Open the Text Editor of your choice. I use Text Edit on a Mac with OSX Lion, and for this example that is what will be shown.
2. Change the format of the editor to PLAIN TEXT.
3. Type your code.
4. **VERY IMPORTANT** Hit the tab key not the Spacebar.
5. Type your replacement. Hit return.
6. Repeat steps, 3-5 until all codes needed have replacements.
**NOTE** This seems like a lot of typing for every team but actually I use a site called, http://www.codereplacements.com , and entering basic information it will automatically generate a roster for me to use with code replacements. The guy who started it --Jason O. Watson, is a nice guy and good shooter, it is well worth the money if you shoot a bunch of sports.

7. Save your file. Make sure you save as UTF-8 document. In Lion you will need to go into Text Edit preferences and "Open and Save" tab make sure UTF-8 is selected for "Saving files".

8. Open Photo Mechanic
9. Choose from the "Edit" menu >>>Settings>Set Code Replacements

10. A dialog bog will appear, then choose "Add", and navigate to the file that contains the code replacement data.


Delimeter Character: This character will be the key to initiating the code replacement. By surrounding your code with the delimeter character, for instance; say my code is "uk12", if i wanted to activate the code in my Photo Mechanic field I would type, /uk12/ and automatically the replacement would appear.
11. If for some reason you need to change your codes and or replacements, simply navigate to the .txt file where your code replacement is saved and make your changes but be sure to re-visit step 10 and select "Reload All" to update the changes made to the document.
12. Voila, you're done.