Getting Started with Actions

Mention actions to many Photoshop users and they either don't know what an action is, think actions are only useful for major projects, or they tried making one and had a "bad experience." We'll attempt to dispel any fears as we look at creating an action.

What exactly is an action? Simply, it's a recorded series of operations in Photoshop that, once recorded, can be applied to another image (or series of images) by pressing the Play button. An action can have one step or hundreds of steps. You can record an action that's completely automatic or one that pauses for your input along the way. Actions stored in the Actions palette are accessible with any document and can be saved and shared with other users. Here's an example of a simple automatic action.

First, open the image you want to start with. (Remember, the action can be applied later to any image.)

STEP 1

In the Actions palette, use the pop-up menu (top right-facing arrow) and choose New Set. This will create a folder where you'll store your actions. Then return to the pop-up menu and choose New Action. Name the action "special effect" and click the Record button (you can assign a Function key shortcut if you like).

STEP 2

Press Command-J (PC: Control-J) to duplicate the Background layer. (Look in the Actions palette and you'll see "Layer Via Copy.")

STEP 3

From the Filter menu, choose Stylize>Glowing Edges and click OK to use the default settings.

STEP 4

In the Layers palette, lower the Opacity of the copied layer to 25%.

STEP 5

In the Actions palette, click on the Stop Recording button (the black square). Your action should look like this.

That's it! You've recorded your fi rst action. Now, open a different image file. In the Actions palette, click on the Special Effect action and then click the Play button. Very quickly your second image will have the same effect applied.

Interactive Action

Now, let's make this same action interactive instead of automatic. In the Actions palette, look to the left of the Glowing Edges filter step and you'll see an empty box. Click on that box to turn on the modal control. The next time you run the action, it will pause at the filter step, allowing you to enter the settings that you want. When you click OK, the remainder of the action will run automatically. You can make any step interactive in an action if it has an empty box beside it.

Also, note the checkmarks beside each step, which mean that the step is included in the action. At any time you can leave out a step by simply clicking on the checkmark to remove it. When you run the action, that step will be skipped.

Now, here's an example with a few more steps. Create a new action called photo border and start recording, using the following action steps:

1. Duplicate the Background layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Control-J).
2. From the Image menu, choose Canvas Size. Check Relative, add 1 inch to the Width and Height, and click OK.
3. Use Free Transform to rotate the duplicated layer slightly (Edit>Free Transform, then using the curved double-arrow cursor, rotate the image slightly).
4. Press Enter to effect the transform.
5. Click on the Add a Layer Style pop-up menu in the Layers palette and choose Drop Shadow. In the Layer Style dialog, add a Stroke and click OK.
6. Hold down Command (PC: Control) and click on the Create a New Layer button to add a new layer below the current layer.
7. Use Edit>Fill and select White from the pop-up menu to fill the layer with white. Click OK to close the dialog.
8. File>Save As a layered PSD.
9. Stop recording.

Your action should look like this. Remember, you can now toggle on the modal controls beside the steps for Canvas Size, Transform, or Set Layer Styles... (our drop shadow and stroke) if you want to vary the effect.

Now it's time for you to try a few actions on your own. Next issue, we'll see how to take an action and apply it to multiple images.

Before

After

Courtesy of Layers magazine.