Can my SX260 read jpgs that I've run through PhotoShop and loaded back on to an SDHC card?

[tomkelly]

I'll be using images originally taken with the camera. I'll download and process them with PhotoShop. Then I'll use a card reader to load them back to an SDHC card, which I'll then put in the camera. The question is whether I'll be able to see the altered images on the camera screen.

[cicopo · Accepted solution]

Done right YES. When you take a card with images from the camera & look at it on your computer you'll see a folder called DCIM, and in that folder you'll find one (name varies) with your images. Put the processed images back into that folder & the camera will see them perfectly.

[tomkelly]

Thanks. That what I hoped somebody would say!

What about filenames? If I rename a jpg, will the camera still be able to show it? 

[cicopo]

I don't know the answer to that but suspect it will work. Easy enough to try so that's what I'd do. I've used the method above to transfer photos I've taken of friends while on vacation & then copied them from my camera to my netbook & transfered  copies to the memory cards in their cameras so they had the photos when they got home. I did this for a couple who had a MAC that couldn't read my jump drive so I copied files from My Canon card to the card from their Nikon P & S & they could view them with the camera plus download them as if they took them.

[tomkelly]

Cicopo's method works perfectly. Using a mini-HDMI (camera) to HDMI (TV) cable, the images come out beautifully

There's only one small hitch, and a minor caveat.

On the SX260, large superfine images taken in vertical format are 4000 pixels tall. But after PhotoShopping, the camera does not auto-adjust these images to fit the viewing screen. Instead of a full-screen image, you see a thumbnail and an error message saying that the image is too large. The obvious solution is to re-size "portrait"  format images to a maximum vertical dimension of 3000 pixels.

I started by using Bridge - when you hover the cursor over the thumbnail in Bridge, the image dimensions pop up. Any image over 3000 pixels high  will have to be resized. A more efficient method is to view the files with My Computer using the "Details" option. Right-click on the column header and check the Dimensions box. The second dimension is the vertical. If it's greater than 3000 pixels, that file needs to be re-sized.

The other issue - not that it matters in most cases - is that PhotoShopped images cannot be viewed as groups either on the camera screen or on the TV.  Instead of groups of images, you see only question marks. That makes it tricky to jump around from image to image, so you pretty much need to show them in the same order as they appear on the SD card. That order CAN be changed, by the way, either in Windows Explorer, My Computer or Bridge. 

Once again, thanks to Cicopo for the good advice.

[cicopo]

Well since most of it is working out as needed have you tried lowering the resolution to save card space? Smaller jpg's may still display perfectly on a TV screen (like they do on a good monitor) and allow a lot more images on the card PLUS play faster.

[tomkelly]

Thanks for the tip - that would save a lot of time. When you have to re-size thousands of vertical images, it's a pretty tedious process. I tried to create a batch re-size Action, but my old CS5 version won't re-size proportionately. It wants both axes. Maybe newer versions will batch re-size proportionately.

Filenames

I've tried re-naming images by simply adding an extra letter at the end of the filename, keeping the .jpg extension, of course. That didn't work - the camera doesn't see the re-named images at all.

On the other hand, it will display renamed images if you stick with the standard Canon naming method: IMG_9999.jpg.

Viewing Sequence

Because PhotoShopped images can't be viewed as thumbnails, you can't  zoom to preview. (When you zoom out, all you see are question marks.) And no matter how you arrange the images in Bridge, the camera will only show them in numerical sequence. So if you want to show your images in non-chronological sequence, you have to  rename them in display order, making sure you don't write over an image you want to keep.

Re-sizing Images

To make sure you've re-sized your images to a maximum vertical dimension of no more than 3000 pixels, you can double-check them in Windows Explorer. In Details mode, right-click on the top menu and make sure the "Dimensions" box is checked. The second number is the vertical dimension - in pixels. If you see a larger number than 3000, you need to use another program to re-size that image.