Photoshop Actions

Using Shortcuts with Photoshop "Actions" 

Use photoshop actions to condense a sequence of process into one keystroke

Here’s simple and useful example, making a crop to selection action :

1.     Create a new image (Ctrl+N), any size.

2.     Press M to select the “MORQUEE” selection tool and make a selection.

3.     In the menubar, Click on “Window à Actions”.

When the pallet appears, you should click the menu arrow at the top-right and choose “DOCK THE PALTTE WELL”.

Its more convenient to keep the pallets you use most often there. Newer versions have a slightly different system but the idea is the same. 

4.     At the bottom of the actions palette, click the folder icon to make a new set and giveit a name, then click ok.

 5.   Beside the folder icon, click “create new action”

6.   Give the action a name, select the set you just created and choose a function key.

The function key will be shortcut that runs the action in future.

7.      Press Record, (photoshop is now recording any processes you use.)

8.      In the menu bar, clicl imageàcrop.

9.      Press ctrl+D to deselect.

10.   In the actions palette, press the stop button to end the recording.

Now, every time you press F2 when  something is selected, Photoshop will crop the image to that selection if you have nothing selected, it wont  do anything.

Note:

I selected an area before I started recording so that the new action  was a “crop to selection”. If I had started recording and then made the selection it would have recorded that as part of the action.

That means that if I was working on a different sized file in future, I could make a selection and then run the action but it would ignore my selection and apply the old, recorded selection and crop to that.

Always make sure that if you record an action that effects, or is affected by, the image size that your units are set to Percentages instead of pixels. This means the action will play relative to the size of the image.

 example: one of my actions is ‘half-size’.

If I had a 100 x 100 pixel image and I recorded an action to shrink it by going to imageà’image size’ and choosing 50x50pixel, from then on that action would make every image 50 x 50 pixels but by choosing percent instead of pixels in the image size dialogue, it means the action shrinks the image by 50 percent.

It seems preety obvious but keep it in mind when creating more complicated actions.(when you have your rulers visible(Ctrl+R) right –click the ruler and choose ‘Percent’).

When you choose the function button for your new action, there are tick boxes for shift and control beside it.

Just for example, here’s a few of the actions I use:

Desaturate – Ads a new white layer to the top of the layers palette, renames it ‘monochrome’ and sets the blend mode to ‘hue’ so I can check that an image is working well tonally.

Duplicate selected layers(S) – ‘Ctrl+J’ duplicates a single layer but it doesn’t work when you have multiple layers selected. This action uses Layer > Duplicate Layers for when it’s all getting a bit messy

Mirror image – a good way to check proportions and perspective

Rotate image 90Degree CounterCloclwise

Rotate image 90Degree Clockwise

Copy Paste To New – copies the selected area, creates a new image the size of the selection and pastes it.

The usefulness of actions like these depends on what kind of painting you do. I do a lot of quick concept paintings for composition ideas and color story- boards etc. so my actions are based on that kind of work pay attention to what process you use most and often and whick ones requires the most keystrokes so you can spend more time painting and less time fiddling around with menus.

You can also include other existing actions in a new action.

Example: You could create a new action that adds a desaturate layer, then flattens the image, then rotates the canvas 90degree and then mirrors it. You would just create a new action, press F2, F3, F4 etc. and then stop recording.

If you save all your actions into one set, you can copy it from: C:\Programe Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Presets\Photoshop actions and then paste it into the same folder on another computer. In Photoshop, click the menu arrow at the top of the actions palette and choose ‘’