Photoshop actions are an indispensable part of my workflow. They are very similar to Lightroom presets, which you may be familiar with, but can be far more complex. You can record anything you do in Photoshop, no matter how many steps there are, and then use that action again and again on any image. Photoshop actions allow me to save time and to utilize the vast array of editing techniques I have picked up over the years. With a memory like a sieve, that is invaluable.
In this guide I won’t argue about whether it’s better to use Actions or Presets, but I will show you how you can make the perfect Photoshop actions. Yes, that’s right. Do not click within the layers panel. If you select a layer by clicking in the layers panel, your action will record that you clicked on that layer. Photoshop will then search for that layer every time you run the action. When running the action for a second time, it will select the first instance of the layer and not work correctly. In the photo above, you can see where Photoshop has recorded me clicking on a layer. This is what we want to avoid.
What makes an action effective
The photos show an example action I’ve created for this tutorial. It’s a simple action which creates two curves layers, adjusts them, names them and places them in a group called “Dodge and Burn.” In the first photo, you can see that one step in the action is called “select layer Dodge.” If you were to play this action once it would work just fine. Play it more than once in one document and, on the second time, Photoshop searches for the layer “Dodge” and finds that it exists already.
Use shortkeys to avoid clicking on layers and to move between them. There are certain instances when you can click in the layers panel, but the safest thing to do is avoid it. Head over to Photoshop, create a few layers, and give those a try. The last shortkey is what I use if I want to group multiple layers. These take some getting used to, but the beauty of actions is that they are completely editable. You can make a mistake, hit stop, and delete the last recorded step.
Why actions speed up your workflow
I am so lazy when I work in Photoshop. I don’t like naming things and would certainly not colour code my edits. By creating actions in the correct way, we have the opportunity to do all those things, and to only have to do them once. The best way to create any new adjustment layer, blank layer, mask, group or anything else you would like to do to a layer, is by using the Layer menu. Take the creation of a new Curves layer, as an example. We go to the Layers menu > New Adjustment Layer > Curves.
Up pops this dialogue box that will allow us to name the layer, color code it, change the blend mode, and the opacity. Add stops to give yourself instructions. If you’ve just discovered a difficult technique that you love, you may need a couple extra pieces of info to ensure that you do it correctly. Simple, insert a stop. You can do so by clicking on the down arrow at the top of the Actions panel. Once created, you’ll see the stop appear as a step in your action. You can also edit that text by clicking on the step in the Actions panel.
Think non-linearly when building actions
When creating or editing actions, think non-linearly. The program records a step; that’s all. You can break down any process in Photoshop into steps. Even if those steps were recorded at different moments, they can be rearranged (by dragging the relevant step) and put in the right order or replaced. For example, I recently changed the blend mode I use for Dodge and Burn to Luminosity. Rather than re-record my actions, I hit record while working and changed any old layer to luminosity. If you follow the steps I’ve given here, you’ll have perfect, repeatable actions that won’t interfere with any existing layers.
Integrating actions into your workflow
My workflow differs depending on what I’m editing, but, in general, it goes like this: I use the SLR Lounge Preset System in Lightroom and then move over to Photoshop to add any final touches necessary using my own actions. I love the SLR Lounge Preset System and definitely advise you to check it out if you haven’t already. You can find it here.
A couple of years ago, some Action enthusiast friends of mine expressed their concern that I was pursuing a vapor, a ghost, an insubstantial illusion in my quest to promote Actions in Photoshop on a global scale. In short, they told me I was nuts with a capitol CRAZY. We had met through the Action Xchange an excellent and still hopping online resource for 3rd party freeware actions. Somewhere along the line it came to me that, though a few thousand people were getting into the script exchange, there remained a huge majority of designers that had yet to crack the Actions Code. I set out to change that, and am still working.
Getting started with actions: practical steps
Have you tried actions yet? Perhaps you still have some questions as to what the hype is about, or have no idea what I mean by ‘action’. I can hear the ‘Huh?’ already, so I’ll put it like this. Want your text to look like Melted Gold with a wood grain running along the border of the letter? Something like this might take awhile to work out in Photoshop, but if someone has already turned the process into an action, you can apply this effect to your text with ONE CLICK on the Actions Play Button. Photoshop then creates the effect automatically. Now imagine you have to create the headers for 30 different web pages using this same effect. Without actions you would have to walk through the process 30 times, taking hours or days to complete the task. If you had an Action script, you could be done in as little as 30 minutes, maybe sooner!
Imagine pages of Flaming Fonts jumping off monitors all over the world… that is what actions can do, but this is only a small example. If you are still scratching your head, don’t fret. Don’t worry about hard drive space, as these action files, with the extension .atn, aren’t very large. Usually they range from 7 to 20 k. You may save them anywhere on your computer and load them from there, but it is best for organization purposes to create a sub directory within the Photoshop file tree. Again, this is not vitally important, but it will help you to keep your files in an easy-to-find area.
- Open the Actions Palette in Photoshop. In the upper right hand corner of the palette is a small arrow. Click this to open the Actions Menu. Scroll down until you see “Load Actions”, find your newly saved actions on your system and select them.
- Note: Actions, or .atn files ARE CROSS PLATFORM COMPATIBLE.
- There are 2 modes of the Actions Palette: Button Mode and Edit Mode. We toggle between these two states of the palette from the afore mentioned Actions Menu. Button mode will place a button with the action name inside the palette… simply click on this to play the action, and follow any directions as they appear. Edit Mode displays a collapsible tree of all the commands within the action. Select this mode if you want to see what is happening, what filters and settings are being applied, etc. while the action is running. This is a great learning tool!
To close, I’ll give you a quick example of what actions can do, using an action I created. I hope you have enjoyed this little intro to actions! This tutorial was written by my friend, Al Ward from Actionfx.
Dream it. commands in the active document. only a single command. previously excluded are not executed. To play a single command, select the command, and then Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the Play button in the Actions panel. When you play an action at accelerated speed, the screen may not update as the action executes-files may be opened, modified, saved, and closed without ever appearing on-screen, enabling the action to execute more quickly.
a project. after another action. the action or command to a new location in the Actions panel. mouse button. Select an action or command. from the Actions panel menu. button at the bottom of the Actions panel. the Actions panel. Click OK to complete the deletion. dialog box. panel to delete without displaying a confirmation dialog box. Choose Delete from the Actions panel menu. actions that can be saved to disk and transferred to other computers. Press Ctrl+Alt (Windows) or Command+Option (Mac OS) when you choose the Save Actions command to save the actions in a text file. You can use this file to review or print the contents of an action. you create. Choose Load Actions from the Actions panel menu. create sets of actions and save the sets to disk. and online publishing-and transfer sets to other computers. To create a new set of actions, click the Create New Set button in the Actions panel or choose New Set from the panel menu. If you plan to create a new action and group it in a new set, make sure you create the set first. To move an action to a different set, drag the action to that set. To rename a set of actions, double-click the name of the set in the Actions panel or choose Set Options from the Actions panel menu. To replace all actions in the Actions panel with a new set, choose Replace Actions from the Actions panel menu. The Replace Actions command replaces all sets of actions in the current document.
Photoshop is a tool of the trade. If you are a photographer you spend time in Photoshop on a daily basis. One of the keys to faster post processing and template editing is knowing how to create an action. You know, those little timesavers with just a click of the mouse can save you so much time over the course of the day. We all use them, whether they are purchased actions or steps that we always take when we are working with an image. Turn those everyday steps into an action and reclaim a few minutes in your day. For example create an action to automatically resize your images and sharpen them for your blog. I am going to show you just how to do that in my video tutorial!
Before you can start you need to know what the maximum width is for your blog images. Usually it is 900 pixels wide OR less. Begin with an image you have ready to post to your blog, my example will use Grace photo card template. Name your action and if you would like to assign it a function key you can do that here. Begin processing the image. Finally I went to the filters menu. I choose sharpen and selected unsharp mask. Angie Sandy is the owner and graphic designer behind Photo Card Boutique. Living in Loveland, Colorado she relishes in her life as a wife, mother of three, laundry lady, personal cook and all around American girl. Together with her husband and girls they raise a small herd of cattle and enjoy their 4H lamb projects. Photo Card Boutique is the creative outlet for this one time web designer turned freelance graphic designer. She loves connecting with others in the photography industry, feel free to add her as a friend.
With practice, you’ll be able to craft powerful, repeatable workflows that save time and maintain consistency across many images. Remember to save your actions in well-organized folders, and consider using sets to group related actions for different projects. The flexibility of editing after recording a step means you can fine-tune any action without re-recording from scratch.