Photoshop Actions can be a photographer’s best friend. From reducing the time and effort it takes to post-process an image to making it look manifolds better, Photoshop Actions are a must-have in your toolbox. And that’s not all. Once you get the hang of working with Photoshop Actions, you can also create them to be sold to other photographers and make some sweet money on the side. How cool is that! Here’s taking a look at why you absolutely need Photoshop Actions
Automate your work
Think of Photoshop Actions like your own set of oompa loompas. These do the work that you have taught it to do by recording the steps (if you are using one that you yourself created) and do it in the perfect way possible. When you’re using a Photoshop Action that takes care of all the basic steps that you usually take to enhance an image, you automate the entire procedure for every image, every time. This comes particularly handy when you need to work on something urgent or when you are swarmed with work and don’t have the bandwidth to give each click the same amount of time. Photoshop Actions are a sure shot way to get your post-processing bang on without compromising on the quality and in just a few clicks.Cuts down on time drastically
Photoshop is essentially used to enhance an image. When you shoot something and fall in love with, there’s always ways to make it better using post-processing. You’d be hard-pressed to find a photographer – expert and novice alike – who doesn’t resort to post-processing to enhance their images. Having said that, post-processing is a lot of work. You’d have to sit for hours to enhance one single image. Photoshop Actions can do this in a matter of seconds. Since the entire process is automatic, and the steps don’t just happen one after the other but simultaneously, you will end up saving a lot of time, probably three-fourth of what it would have originally taken you had you done it from scratch.Enhances your images, the professional way
Post-processing is all about enhancing a click, taking something good and making it better. And for that you already have tons of Photoshop Actions options available that will completely revamp a photo for the better. Most of the Photoshop Actions that you buy online are created by pros with years of experience or with tons of talent or both. So when you use these Photoshop Actions on your images, it’s like you are hiring the pros to do the post-processing for you. Your images are enhanced in the best way it can be and you end up with stunning shots without breaking a sweat.Learning opportunity
Not only do you put a pro’s hard work into making your images better, but you also get to learn from them without paying a hefty fee for their webinar or buying the tutorial or e-book. You get to understand what are the steps that are to be taken to transform an image a certain way How do you get that diffused glow or that vintage feel, how do pros do post-processing, and above all how can you personally get better at it. Additionally, when you create Photoshop Actions yourself, that again is a great learning opportunity. Experience is the best teacher and as you record every step, create every Action, you get better and better at your task because you learn so much along the way.How to create amazing Photoshop Actions yourself
If you are one of those photographers who feel a little like a cheat (you shouldn’t actually) when using readily available Photoshop Actions created by pros, the best option would be to create these yourself. Plus, these are a great way to earn a good side income as there’s tremendous demand for Photoshop Actions given the rise of so many photographers and the expansion of the photography industry in itself.Don’t be afraid of it
You’d be surprised to know how many good photographers with great Photoshop prowess shy away from creating Photoshop Actions because they fear they’d goof up. They are afraid that they would do a lousy job, and then they are afraid that they will get the steps all wrong, and then they are afraid that no one would like their work. All of these fears are justified, it’s something that comes to anyone looking to do something different. But mostly you’d either end up with an awesome Photoshop Action that would sell like hot cakes (fingers crossed!) or it would be a great learning experience. And this isn’t one of those whatever-happens-for-the-best crap, it’s actually true. Do not be afraid of trying something new, and if it’s related to something you are passionate about, then it’s better to do it and fail – even if it is failing miserably – than let the fear keep you from not trying at all. And hey, even if it comes out looking horrible, you can trash it, no one would know!Understand the basics
There are tons of tutorial that guide you on how to create Photoshop Actions. Actions are pretty easy to create once you get the basics sorted like understanding the basic commands on the palette, the brushes, etc. This wouldn’t be difficult if you are already well-versed with Photoshop. Then you can work on individual tutorials for different types of editing – do you want to create Actions specifically for retouching or do you want to create an oil paint image Action or how about a 3D image Action that’s all the rage now? Once you decide on what type of actions you want to create, you can then individually source the basics and advanced tutorial on it. Here’s a great bundle of resources for different types of Actions that you can learn and put to use.Some things to keep in mind when creating Photoshop Actions
- Your steps are not recorded in real time. When you record, it is each step that is taken into account not the time frame for each. A lot of people panic when creating Photoshop Actions because they think that their mistakes would end up making a mess of the entire process. That’s not the case, even though the controls might look like that of a recording device, it does not record every moment like a normal recording device does.
- Your steps should be non-specific or it would return an error. If you select a layer that does not exist on the work you are doing, your Action would jumble up and show an error. When you have to switch between the layers you are working on, use the keyboard shortcut and make the changes to the layer in the layer style dialog box to register it on the step being recorded.
- You can press the ‘Stop’ button as many times as you want and this wouldn’t make lose out on work done so far. You can always start again from where you last left. Photoshop Actions are compatible across platforms so you create an Action in one version and it should ideally run in any other version too. However, a caveat to that is when you are using a Photoshop Action created in a newer version of Photoshop on an older version, then the Action mightn’t work simply because that particular version might not support certain features.
- Test a lot. The idea of creating a Photoshop Action for commercial purpose is for it to be versatile enough to be applied on almost every image irrespective of the resolution and other characteristics. Keep testing multiple times till it works perfectly fine on all the images.
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