Using a Photoshop Droplet

Hi Guys,

One of the cool features added to the Mirror Me Software is the ability to run an external script using the software. You can run a .exe application in the background just by adding its path to the workflow. A great way of using this feature is creating a Photoshop Droplet and have it applied to the photos you take.

Creating a Droplet is fairly easy, just follow these steps:

1. Open your Photoshop software in an Administrator mode: right-click it and select "Run as administrator".

Make sure to leave Photoshop open in the background while using the Droplet with the software.

2. Create a new action according to the changes you want to apply on your raw photos.

a. Make sure the Actions panel is open. if not, you can click Alt + F9 and it will pop right up!

b. Create a new set by clicking the folder icon:

c. Click the "Create new Action" icon to create a new action and hit the "Record Button" to record the action.

Once you start recording, every command will be saved to this action until you click the stop button.

 In this example, I will apply the  "Oil Paint" filter. The same principle can be applied to your desired effect.

d. Click the "Filter" tab - > "Stylize" -> "Oil Paint".

e. Adjust the filter values to your liking and click "ok".

f. Click "Ctrl + S" to save the changes. You will see the save command added to your action set.

g. Click on the stop recording button.

3. Time to create the Droplet!

a. Click the "File" tab -> "Automate" -> "Create Droplet".

b. Select that Destination in which you want the Droplet to be saved under the "Save Droplet In" option and select "Save and Close" in the "Destination" option on the right side of the window to save the changes and overwrite the photo.

Make sure that you have the right set and action selected.

c. Click "OK" to create your first Droplet!

Before trying it out with the "Mirror Me Software", drag and drop an image on the Droplet icon to make sure your Droplet worked as it should! Open the image to see that the action was indeed applied.

4. Using the Droplet with the "Mirror Me Software" is super easy!

First of all - close PhotoShop and re-open it Not with Administrator mode.*

*If the following process will not work with PhotoShop, not in Administrator mode, try this process with PhotoShop working as Administrator.

a. Open the "Mirror Me Software" and browse to the "Workflow" tab of the preset you want to apply it to.

b. Click "Add State" and select the Type "External Script".

c. Click the [...] button to load your droplet from its destination folder and enable the option "add last raw photo path" to apply it on the last raw photo.

d. Click add State and select the type Feature - > "Reload Raw Photos" and locate it after the "External Script" feature and Before the "Preview feature.

Advanced information & Troubleshooting:

As mentioned above, to test the droplet you created, drag and drop an image file on the Droplet icon. This should open the PhotoShop program and apply the droplet on the photo. Then open the image to see that the action was applied as planned.

A droplet is an .exe file that created in PhotoShop and running by PhotoShop. The use of the "External Script" in the workflow is simply "calling" the droplet .exe file so it will run in the background. Our software does not communicate with PhotoShop not responsible for any actions that are done via PhotoShop.

Sometimes, when a set of actions created are not working when running as an external script, but do work when running directly via PhotoShop, the reason for that might be that one of the actions work differently when running from PhotoShop compared to running via a droplet .exe file that is executed from a different location. If you see that while running the external script, PhotoShop does not finish running the actions of your filter, there might be a problem with one of the actions when the droplet .exe file is called. To check that, you can remove the actions one by one until you find the specific action that causes the droplet not to be applied. That way it will be easier for you to use a different action or to change it so it will allow your custom droplet to run.