Batch Processing in Photoshop: How to Edit 100 Photos in the Time It Takes to Edit One

I’m going to be honest with you: I used to edit product photos one at a time. Fifty photos. Individual adjustments. Each one. I’m not proud of it.

Then I discovered batch processing, and suddenly I had my weekends back. If you’re sitting on a folder of 200 vacation photos that all need the same color correction, or you’re a product photographer who just shot 150 items with identical lighting, batch processing is about to become your best friend.

What Batch Processing Actually Does

Here’s the beautiful part: batch processing lets you record a series of edits—called an “Action”—and apply them to multiple images automatically. Change levels, resize, sharpen, add watermarks, convert color profiles… whatever you can do to one image, Photoshop can do to dozens. Or hundreds. While you make coffee.

Step One: Create Your Action (The Recipe)

Before you can batch process anything, you need to record what you want to do. Think of it like recording a macro for your edits.

Open a sample image that represents your batch. Then go to Window > Actions to open the Actions panel. Click the “Create new action” button (it looks like a blank page) and give it a name—something descriptive like “Brighten + Sharpen” or “Add Watermark.” Hit Record.

Now, perform every edit you want applied to your batch. Adjust curves, tweak saturation, run a filter—whatever. Be methodical, because every click gets recorded. Once you’re done, hit the Stop button in the Actions panel.

Pro tip: Don’t flatten the image or manually save it at the end of your Action. You’ll want Photoshop to handle that automatically during batch processing.

Step Two: Actually Run the Batch

Go to File > Batch. This is where the magic happens.

You’ll see a dialog with several fields:

  • Set & Action: Select the Action you just created
  • Source: Choose “Folder” and navigate to your image folder
  • Destination: Pick where you want the processed images to go (I always create a subfolder called “Processed” to avoid overwriting originals)
  • File Naming: This is crucial. Use the dropdown to set how Exported files are named. I use the original filename + a suffix, so I can tell which images have been processed

Check the “Override Action ‘Save As’ Commands” box—this prevents Photoshop from getting confused about where to save files.

Hit OK, then walk away. Seriously. Get lunch. Check your email. Photoshop will churn through your entire folder while you’re not staring at it.

The Settings That Actually Matter

Suppress Color Profile Warnings: Check this unless you’re obsessive about color management (you probably aren’t).

Stop for Errors: Leave this unchecked if you’re processing 200 images. One corrupted file shouldn’t tank your entire batch.

Log Errors to File: Actually, do enable this one. If something goes wrong, you’ll know which images caused problems.

Real-World Example: Resizing Product Photos

I shoot product photos at 6000×4000px. My client needs web versions at 1200×800px with a watermark. One Action handles all of this:

  1. Image > Image Size (resample to 1200×800)
  2. Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask (because resizing softens details)
  3. File > Place Embedded (add watermark)
  4. File > Export As (save as JPEG at 80% quality)

Boom. 150 photos processed in fifteen minutes. Manually, that’s hours.

The Warning Label

Don’t batch process without testing first. Run your Action on a single test image, check the results carefully, then run the batch. I’ve seen people accidentally apply the wrong Action to 300 photos and… well, that’s a recovery situation.

Also, always work from copies. Always. Your originals should live in a separate folder, untouched.

Batch processing won’t replace your judgment on individual shots that need special attention, but it’ll demolish the tedious, repetitive work. And that’s the real win here.