Action is translated as "action". Briefly, the essence of the action is this: these are operations or editing functions that are recorded in a sequence (in a macro). There are ready-made operations built into the program to perform tasks that occur very often. Some leave them the same or change them, adapting them to their needs, while others create their own operations. But how to use actions in Photoshop and why are they needed at all?

Example of using an action

The family celebrates a birthday, the guy and girl go boating, the bride and groom go to Paris. Such wonderful moments leave no less wonderful photographs. Nowadays, many people want to post pictures on social networks, but there are some difficulties, for example, the size of the photo is too large.

Most often, actions are used to create posters. One of similar examples can be seen in the photo below.

How do I open the Action Palette?

Pay attention to whether the action palette is visible in the program. If not, press the Alt and F9 keys together to make the panel visible. Or “Windows” - “Actions” (Window - Operations).

This palette is used to record operations, play them back, edit or delete them, and you can also save and load operation files.

The palette of actions shown in the photo below, what does it contain?

These are operation sets. You can see what they are called and what teams they consist of. Look at the triangles - if you click on them, a list appears. If there is a checkmark, then this command is enabled. If a square is visible, then this is a dialog box.

Buttons below:

1. Stop button - stops recording.
2. "Record" - the recording begins.
3. Teams lose.
4. Create a new operation set.
5. Creation of new teams.
6. The last button is "delete".

Using ready-made actions

How to use an action in Photoshop if you already have one? First you need to upload a photo for which a particular effect is desired. The effect can be applied to a specific layer or to some element, then it must be selected in advance.

Now select the set that interests you, click triangle, or click the “Run” button in the palette.

Where can I get action games?

You can find various action games on the Internet, both paid and free. IN social networks There are groups where people share various Photoshop items with each other: brushes, actions, textures, and so on. Actions can also be found in torrents and on resources entirely dedicated to Photoshop. Plus, you can do the actions yourself.

How to add them?

Let's say that you found an action that you really liked, downloaded it, and the question arose: how to add an action to Photoshop?

It is worth noting that the palette already has some operations that are built into the program. They can be transferred to another disk, computer, or shared with friends.

There are two adding methods:

1. Through the program itself. To do this, you need to find an item in the operation menu called “Load operations”.

Find the action you need, click the "Download" button.

2. The second method is by dragging files into a folder. In Explorer or through the Total Commander program (or any other in a convenient way) you need to find the following path - C:\ProgramFiles\Adobe\Photoshop\Presets\Photoshop Actions.

The found file is moved there. All actions have a file extension *.atn.

Creating an action

Now you know what actions are in Photoshop. How to create and use them?

To create an action, in the "Operations" palette, click "Create a new set of actions."

Next, you need to name the set in some way, click the button to create a new operation and name it too. It also indicates what the command will work with: some area or a layer. Click "Record". The program records everything you do; if you need to correct something, it is better to stop recording.

In the first stages, it is best for each operation to have some comments or necessary requirements. The "Insert Stop" command, which can be selected from the "Operations" palette, will help with this. Just don't forget to check the "Allow continuation" box.

Creating an action using an example

First you need to select the photo you want to process.

• Next, click “Operations”, “Create a set”, write a name, click “Create operation” and name it too. The program itself will begin to record your actions.
• Ctrl+J - Duplicates the existing layer.
• It needs to be desaturated - Shift+Ctrl+U and duplicated again.
• Using the Ctrl+I key combination, the color is inverted. Now select the layer blending mode "Background Dodge".
• Find "Filter", select "Other", click "Minimum" and "OK".

• After this, all visible layers need to be combined, the resulting layer should be placed on top so that the remaining layers are at the bottom. This can be done using the combination Shift+Alt+Ctrl+E.
• Select the blending mode "Multiply".
• The opacity decreases, the optimal is 50%, but you can choose another one.
• You have a black and white drawing, in this case you can add a stop where they write, for example: add color?
• Next you need pho new layer. It should be copied, moved on top of the other layers, and then the blending mode should be changed to “Color,” and then the opacity should be changed to 50%.

If you have correctly followed all the steps that tell you how to use actions in Photoshop CS6, then you will get a photo similar to the one below.

It is important to know that if you create such a drawing from a portrait, then replace one command, where the “Minimum” operation is. This command makes small details clear, but they are not needed on the face. It is replaced by the following:

Find "Filter" in the menu, go down to "Blur", select "Gaussian Blur". Set the radius to 12 pixels; you can change it later.

I want to save my set

You will need the palette menu where the Save Actions command is located. Select a name and location where it will be saved, click "Save".

Important! It is not possible to save individual operations, only a set! If you like one operation and want to keep it, you will have to create a special set for it.

Using Actions

Knowing now what functions you can use actions in Photoshop for, you can use them in two ways:

1. Hot keys are very convenient. You can bind an action to hotkey. You open the photo you need, press a key, and that’s it - the process is started.

2. If you have a lot of photos, then open “File”, find “Automation”, after which you can do batch processing or dropplates. Don't forget to indicate the folder where you take the photos from, where you save them, and the action you use. Leave the photos to the action, let him process them, and you go about your business.

It happens that there are a bunch of photographs, they are almost identical, but they need to be processed. If you sit and work with each one, it will take a lot of time. It is for such cases that batch processing exists. We have already indicated how to open it above, or look at the photo below.

It is imperative that where it says “Source”, select a folder, you must check the box “Ignore commands “Open””, otherwise the program will open many photos. Specify the folder where the photos will be saved, check the box “Ignore commands” Save as". Next, indicate the name of the document, as well as the required extension, which can be selected from the list. You can put any name, for example, if you are taking photographs for a wedding, you can name it accordingly - “Wedding Album”. After this, the program will automatically assign names - “Wedding Album1”, “Wedding Album2” and so on.

Droplet and its creation

Find "Automation", the "Create droplet" command, then select the location where you save it. Name it, select the action, then select the location where the saving will take place, click "OK". You will see the droplet in the folder you specified. Next, just take the photos, drag them to the shortcut, and the droplet will run your photos through the action itself.

Now the question of how to use actions in Photoshop no longer seems difficult to you. But there are some tips from the experts.

When you create your action, you need to name not only the layers, but also the channels. In this case, the names must be in Latin to avoid an error. For more information about errors, see the appropriate section below.

Let's say you saved a value for the action when you recorded it. But when the action starts executing, the value may not be appropriate. To prevent this from happening, click the square next to the operation name, which will open a dialog box where you can enter values ​​when appropriate for this command.

Problems

The most common problem The problem is that an action that can be successfully executed on one computer does not want to be executed on a second computer in any way. The fact is that when a new layer (channel or path) is created, the program assigns a name to it automatically. Naturally, in Russian the layer will be called that way in all Russian-language versions of the program. But in English it’s Layer. It's the same with other languages. That is, if your friend has (for example) German Photoshop version, an action with Russian layer names will not suit him. Therefore, it is very important to name everything in Latin.

It happens that you took an image. You read how to add an action to Photoshop, wrote it down, executed it, took another image, performed the same action, but it didn’t want to work. What's the problem? For example, there is a command: select layer 1. But the image may already have such a layer, the action will create another layer (number 2), and the command will not be able to select the correct layer. You can record in a macro the creation of a new layer and its renaming, and do the same with channels.

In conclusion

Action is very convenient; you can work with photos using actions for different actions. The main thing is that they are universal. And even if you created the action yourself, you can give it to your friend.

In this tutorial I will tell you how to install action in photoshop. This and many others photoshop lessons you can find in the section Photoshop for beginners .

First of all, let's figure out what an Action is - this is a ready-made set of commands, when launched over open photo manipulations are carried out, which ultimately leads to one or another result. To make it more clear what we are talking about, let's try to launch an action, which is already installed by default in the Photoshop program. The window with actions can be enabled in the menu "Window -> Operations" (Window -> Actions) or through the combination "Alt + F9".

A new palette will open. Where by default there will be a set of operations that are supplied by Adobe along with the program. There is a folder "Default Operations" in which the actions are listed. At the bottom of the palette there are special buttons for recording your own action, creating folders, creating steps and deleting.

Using these actions we can process a photo. For example, let's use the Quadrant Colors action. Open the photo, click on the action and at the bottom of the palette click on the Play icon. Changes will occur and we will receive a finished processed image. By the way, many steps have manual control, so don’t be alarmed if a window pops up asking you to specify parameters.

If you now look at the “History” palette, you will notice that lines with actions have appeared there. The action in this case starts a sequence of actions that leads to the final result.

If you click on the arrow to the left of the operation name, you can open the steps that will be performed on the photo. Here you can adjust each step to suit yourself, add a new step or remove it.

Through this palette you can record your own actions or upload third-party ones. As for third-party ones, they have the extension *.atn

Actions are located on the computer at the address: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC\Presets\Actions. It is into this folder that you can immediately copy new files. But this is not always convenient, so we will install it through the program itself. In the operations palette, click on the special icon in the upper right corner and go to the “Load operations” item.

Have you ever thought about how to speed up your work in Photoshop? If yes, then you will be interested in learning about action games.

Actions will help you quickly create various effects, from processing photos to creating 3D texts.

In this introductory lesson you will learn how to download, configure and use actions.

Lesson materials:

Step 1 - Loading the Action

Before you learn how to create your own set of actions in Photoshop, try using a ready-made action to understand what effect and how quickly you can achieve. Follow the Photoshop Actions link and download any of the free actions. For reference purposes, for this tutorial I'll be using a set of actions called "Instant Hipster".

When you download an action, you receive an ATN or ZXP file (or both of these files). The difference between these files is that:

ATN files - load the action directly into Photoshop;

ZXP files - load the action through the Adobe Extension manager.

Step 2 - How to use the ATN file

Once you have downloaded the action, find the ATN file and double click on it.

Open a window in Photoshop Operations(Actions panel) for this go to Window > Operations(Window > Actions).

If you have difficulty loading an action automatically, you can add it manually. To do this, you need to click on the mini arrow in the upper right corner of the action panel - select " in the submenu Load operations" (Load Actions) - select the folder with the unzipped action.

Step 3 - How to use the ZXP file

ZXP type files are not always included in the archive. But if such a file is still in the folder with the action, then it can be installed through Adobe Extension Manager.

Adobe Extension Manager is very useful when working with several addons, as they will all be available to you in one place.

The main problem encountered by users who first encountered Adobe Extension Manager is that they cannot find installed operations. The solution is very simple - you first need to add actions (actions) in Photoshop through the panel Operations(Actions).

Step 4 - Be careful when working

Not all Photoshop actions are safe to use!

Before running a ready-made set of operations, save the original image file separately. Many actions will fill your history with so many operations that you will not be able to undo them and return to the original document. There are also actions that include such an operation as - Merging layers, which also makes returning to the original image impossible.

Step 5 - Playing a Set of Actions

Using actions is easy! To start an operation, select it in the list and click the button Perform active operation(Play). After launching the set of actions, you will see on the monitor how Photoshop performs a series of specified operations, let it work a little, and you're done!

The image below shows the result of the Instagram effect operation. Everything was done in one click!

Some actions, for example Quick Skin Retouching, require additional actions during their application. Directly in the above action, the program prompts you to work on the layer mask.

Typically, in these action sets, there are pop-up windows that give you hints about what to do next.

Step 6 - Using Button Mode

You can switch the Operations window control to " In the form of buttons" (Button Mode). To do this, click on the mini triangle in the upper right corner of the panel and select the desired item.

The Actions panel contains many additional actions that you can customize. Below is a graph to help you get your bearings a little.

Translator's note:

1. Enable (disable) element(Include Command ). You can check the box to mark operations that you want to enable or disable.
2. Set (Cancel) Dialog Box(Modal Control). The icon indicates whether a dialog box will pop up. They can also be turned on and off.
3. Expand (collapse) set operation(Expand Action ). Arrow for expanding (collapsing) the actions specified in the operation.
4. Buttons(Buttons). From left to right: stop recording an operation, start recording an operation, play back an operation, create a new group, create a new operation, delete an operation.
5. Mode "In the form of buttons" (Button Mode). Changing the appearance of the action panel.
6. Additional options action playback(Playback Options).
7. Possible actions with operations(Allow Tool Recording). Functions for recording, deleting and other actions with operations.
8. List installed actions (Action List)

And in conclusion:

Action - wonderful Photoshop tool, which can be successfully used by both masters and beginners.

Spend some time on this functionality and experiment with various ready-made sets of operations that you can find on many paid and free Internet resources!

Today you will learn how to properly use actions at work Adobe program Photoshop . First, let's figure out what action is? Actions are essentially a set of sequential operations recorded in one set. Let's take a look at an example of how the action works. At the beginning, you create a document, write text or insert an image, then open a window with actions, select from the list what you want to do, cover for DVD disc or 3D box and press the start button, after which all the necessary operations are carried out sequentially. In a few seconds you will receive a ready-made version of what you wanted to achieve. And you didn't make any effort.

Of course, you can create your own actions. Let's say in your work you often use reflection for text, first let's create new document, let's write any text. Then open the Actions window, click on the button to create a new action, give it a name and click on the record button, then start sequentially mirroring the text, after finishing, click the stop button. All actions we have taken are recorded sequentially. Now you can experience your action. To do this, let’s again take a blank document, write the text, select our only one hundred created action, press start, and voila, the reflection of the text is done by itself, and you watch and enjoy the result.

Let's look at another example of creating an action.

1. Let's take any picture. I took this one:

2. Opening the window Actions and click on the small triangle in the upper right corner:

3. Select from the list of actions the one we need. If you want to add a new action, click on the button Load and specify the path to your action. I chose the 3D box creation action. So, you have chosen an action, it usually consists of two steps, you simply select Step 1 and press start:

4. Here's what I got:

5. Now I'll paste our initial image onto this box and write some text:

6. You probably already noticed a vertical line in the figure. This will be the bend of the box. Those. in front we will have a knight, and on the side there will be the inscription Play Station 3. After that, go to step 2 - Step 2, and press the button start. While performing the operation, look at the layers panel, layers are created there, something changes. This is something you don't have to do yourself. At the end of the session, you will see something like this:

How impressive is that? I hope I explained clearly how it works. Use actions and you will save a lot of time.

Hello everyone, dear friends! I thought about it and decided that we would stop messing around. It's time to get down to business. And today I would like to continue doing photoshop, namely action. Remember we already talked about? Then let's move on. Since we have studied the theory, it’s time to move on to practice.

And just today we will learn how to use actions in Photoshop. You need to know this, since this function will be very useful for those who do routine work, or for those who do not want or do not know how to process a photo in any special way. Are you ready? Then let's go!

I will tell you how to create and load actions in the following lessons, and today I will show you how to do everything using built-in operations. So get out your Photoshop.

Standard operation

As a result, you will receive an already processed image, that is, an imitation of a wooden frame has appeared around the picture. What would take you at least 10 minutes to do is done in just a few seconds and a couple of clicks. Great, right?

But sometimes it happens that you need to process several or many photographs in the same way. What then to do in this case? It's simple!

Working with Multiple Images

Very often you need to fit many files into the same style. Batch processing is used for this. I’ll say right away that there is absolutely nothing complicated here, so crack your fingers and go ahead!

Batch Processing

After this, all these images will open to us in an already processed version. All that remains is to preserve them. This feature greatly simplifies all this routine work.

By the way, you can do all this mess completely automatically, so that not only automatic actions are performed, but also the resulting images are saved themselves. But I’ll better talk about this in my upcoming articles, when I look at specific examples.

Droplet

And of course, I can’t help but consider such a wonderful way as working with droplets. A droplet is a small program you create that is created in Photoshop and works through it. We can say that this is a saved action settings file. Let's better see all this in practice, using the same "Sepia".

Now let's try it out. To do this, close your Photoshop and go to the folder where you saved the resulting file. It will be in the form of an arrow. Now you need to take all the photos that you want to batch process, hold down the left mouse button and transfer directly to this icon.

After this, Photoshop itself will open, and your images will be immediately loaded and processed. Cool stuff too. Moreover, you can always carry this file with you and open it on any other computer.

But if you are not yet very well versed in Photoshop, then I recommend that you take a look excellent video course on this topic. It tells everything in detail, and there is no confusion, everything is just to the point. And the main thing is that everything is told in simple and understandable human language.

Well, that seems to be all I wanted to tell you about the direct use of actions. I hope you liked the article and found it useful. If this is the case, then do not forget to subscribe to my blog updates, then you will definitely be aware of all the most interesting things. Well, I'm waiting for you again on the pages of my blog. Good luck to you. Bye bye!

Best regards, Dmitry Kostin

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