Welcome to part two of our introductory look into Photoshop actions. Last time we covered the basics of what an action is, how to run one, and how to make one. Today we’ll start with a look at a few more features within the Actions Palette in Photoshop.

Once again, the Actions Palette is located up under the Window menu across the top of the program. If it isn’t already open, pull it up and bring up a list of some actions. You’ll notice two little check box-like things next to each action name that we didn’t discuss last time. The left box toggles a particular action on or off. Alternatively, clicking the arrow next to an action’s name shows all the steps contained within and you can toggle individual steps on or off as desired.

The right check box toggles dialogues on or off. Turning dialogues on will pop up any prompts required as Photoshop runs through an action. This will require user input to run through an action; you will have to hit okay at each dialogue window that appears. This is handy if you want to make slight deviations from an action’s default behavior or simply want to see what a particular action is doing. Leaving this box unchecked will not display dialogues and Photoshop will run the selected action on autopilot.

Also in the Actions Palette, if you expand a particular action to view its contents, you may select individual steps and delete them as needed. This is especially useful if you make a mistake while recording and want to remove the unwanted step; simply hitting undo while recording an action will result in the action recording the undo command.

One of the most exciting things about actions is the ability to download user created actions and load them into Photoshop. A simple Google search for actions will return thousands of results, some good, some bad. When you’ve found an action that you want to try, download it to a convenient place on your computer. Open Photoshop and pull up your Actions Palette once again. The upper right of the palette will have a drop down menu with the option to “Load Actions.” Simply navigate to where you saved the new action(s), select them, and they will appear in the palette ready for use.

Finally, actions can be applied to a whole group of photos by tapping into Photoshop’s batch processing capabilities. The batch feature is accessed under the File menu under the Automate heading. Select Batch and the batch processing window appears. From here you can select a desired action and specify how Photoshop should deal with saving the newly processed files. Let it go, grab a sandwich, and come back to a completed group of photos.

This concludes our look into actions in Photoshop. Hit the comments on either article with questions and start exploring the potential with these powerful tools.

Time: May 20, 2009 from 7pm to 9pm
Location: SLC Main Library Conference room ‘C’
Organized By: Doug Sims – Simspix

Event Description:
Doug Sims will be presenting a workshop for the SLC Photo Club.
This will be held at the SLC City Library in Conference room ‘C’ from 7-9PM

The workshop will cover aspects of slow, high speed photography. We will explore ways of capturing high speed imagery by freezing motion with flash instead of high shutter speeds. Most exposures will be 4-5 seconds but will freeze motion of water drops and bursting balloons. I will try to allot a short amount of time at the end of the workshop for participants to try a few shots. A pdf file will be available for practicing some of the techniques that you have learned. The water drop/splash techniques can be captured with simple things you will find around your home and any external flash.

If you went to a similar presentation that I did for the SLC Photo club last year, this is similar in some respects but will offer new and enlightening (pun intended) information.

Ever wish you could record a set of Photoshop commands and repeat them at a later time? Welcome to the world of Photoshop actions. So what is an action?

An action is a recorded set of image editing commands that can be performed at a later time without having to re-enter each change manually. Actions can provide a handy way for editors to speed up commonly used tasks and are compatible with the Batch function in Photoshop (allowing you to automatically apply commands to hundreds of images with only a few keystrokes).

Like most features in Photoshop, actions have their own palette within the program. Palettes are located along the right side of the Photoshop interface, but their configuration will change from user to user. Thankfully all palettes are located within the Window menu located on the top of the program. Remember, if you ever lose a palette you can ALWAYS find it in that handy Window menu.

Selecting “Action” out of the Window menu will open up the Action Palette if it is not already out.  With it you will see folders with actions grouped into them. Folders are simply a way to organize actions as you see fit. You should see a folder named Default Actions that are included in the program when you install it. An action will have a little arrow to the left of its name that when clicked will display, or hide, all the commands contained within. To run an action simply highlight its name and either double click or select the Play button from the bottom of the palette. Feel free to try to some of the default actions out and get a feel for how they work, but the real power here is the ability to make your own.

Making a new action is a straightforward process: begin by selecting the new icon from bottom of the palette (the one that looks like a little sheet of paper). A command box will immediately open allowing you to name the action, organize it into one of the folders, and optionally assign the action to a keystroke. When you’ve configured this box how you want hit the Record button and your shiny new action will be created. You’ll see your new action highlighted in the palette and the red record button active along the bottom of the palette.

Now its time to enter some commands. These can be whatever you want, contrast adjustments, color tweaks, sizing changes, etc. Since your new action is currently recording, anything you do in Photoshop is going to be logged into the action. Start with something simple, maybe only a command or two to get an idea of how this process works. When you’ve done your editing hit the stop button next to that red record button along the bottom of the Actions palette. Your action is no longer recording and you are ready to test it out. Open a new image and highlight your action and press the play button. The same commands you just recorded will be applied to this new image exactly as you performed them the first time. Cool huh?

By now you should start to see the potential for how you can tap into the power of Actions in Photoshop. Tune in next time for a look into more advanced features of actions.

Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Look no further, the “Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire will be enjoying its fourth year, May 8,9, 10, and 15, 16, 17, 2009 from 10 AM to 6:30 PM, at Millcreek Hollow, located at 3105 West Pioneer Road in the beautiful village of Marriott-Slaterville, only 25 minutes north west of Salt Lake City.

The Festival will be featuring full contact jousting by the extraordnary Knights of Mayhem, world champions at the heavy joust, whose hard hitting and unstaged exploits have dazzled thousands across the United States and Canada. Also appearing will be the astonishing Shauna Burns, the legendary Royal Magick, the incredible vocal talents of the Lady of the Lake, the amazing Yom al Had Band, home town favorites Gypsy Magik, the delightful Puppet Mania, the inimitable Cranachan and the comedic exploits of the Outlaws. Dozens of other outstanding performers and musicians will be on hand to revel and entertain patrons!

The gate will open at 10 AM daily and close at 6:30 PM allowing ample time for patrons to truly enjoy the sights and sounds of the renaissance as well as a sprinkling of fantasy!”

These days I use Lightroom for the majority of my editing, only taking photos into Photoshop for things like portrait retouching or more complicated spot fixing. But I’ve underestimated the power of Lightroom’s Clone and Heal tools. Helen Bradley writes: “When you have an image which needs some spot fixing before printing you can often do the work in Lightroom and avoid the necessity of a round trip to Photoshop. Lightroom has both a Clone and a Heal tool available for fixing blemishes and removing problems such as spots caused by dust on your camera’s sensor. Continue reading Fixing Blemishes in Lightroom.

Photo by Ben Kuhns

“Long long ago, Black-and-White ruled the Earth.

Frosty white highlights frolicked with rich black shadows in the Meadows of Grayscale, and it was good.

Then came Digital, whose dingy whites and muddy grays nearly drove Black-and-White to extinction.

But now, like wild-eyed scientists cloning a mammoth, we’ve found the best ways to convert digital color photos into the REALhonest-to-goodness-that-looks-like-Ansel-Adams-took-it Black-and-White. NOT the pale washwater grays and off-white whites you get with “Convert to grayscale”. And we’re going to show you how.” Continue reading Converting Digital Color Photos to Glorious Black-and-White.

via Photojojo

I realize this is different from what we generally offer on the Pixels blog, but I thought it was too cool to not share. “Going back to the old days where digital was not even heard of and 35mm might have been a related kin of the .45 mm. Yet they took pictures. They did is using Camera Obscura (Dark Chamber).

The basic pinhole is a really simple – it is a shoe box with a small hole on one end and a sheet of sketching paper on the other end. In fact is it so simple that some scientists speculate that it was the first evolutionary step for the (infinitely complex) human eye.

Photo by Nick

Starting Small

You can start small with a pinhole camera the size of a match box. Nice, but small.

A lightly bigger (and digital) version was introduced by Rich Legg as a great science project for his (now featured on twilight add) daughter.

Taking It To The Next Level

But… can this concept be taken to the next level? You bet!

How about a meter by meter big pinhole camera? Piece of cake – provided you can find film big enough. Just use that crate you got in the basement. What?!!? No film? Ok forget about film. Just use sketching paper (which you can capture digitally – see Rich’s project just a second ago).

How about a room sized pinhole camera? (Yea, really, see the image on the top of this post by Nick ).

No Biggy.

1. Get A Room.
OK, if I had a penny for each time I heard that, I’d be 2 penny richer. But seriously – you will need a room. Here is what you should look for:

• Room with nice view – preferably to a sunny location
• It would be nice if the room was square.
• It is best of the wall opposite from the window is kinda empty – or at least if you could take anything off this wall.

2. Get Some Blanket, gaffers tape and foil.

Photo by Sarah Murray

Once you are in the room, turn on the light and start light proofing the room. The room should “see” no light from the outside.

This is most easily done by gaffertaping the foil on windows and door cracks. The nice thing about gaffers tape is that is goes down without a fight, so when you are tearing down the setup no residue is left.

3. Make A Hole
This is why it is called pinhole. Make a hole about 1-2 cm in diameter in the foil that covers the window-with-a-view.

4. Look Behind You
You should see the street view on the wall behind you. All you need to do now is to take a shot of the image on the wall.”

(And yes, there’s a Flickr group for this)

via DIY Photography

Photo by raspberrytart

“Develop your skills as a photographer with Joey and Jarum Foote,  local professional photographers. Learn how to use proper lighting (natural light when possible), framing, and other photography techniques to enhance the quality of your photographs. Open to all levels of experience and any type of camera. Bring your camera.

Taught by Joey and Jarum Foote
Hosted by Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District”

Location:
8215 South 1300 West
West Jordan, UT

When:
Saturday, May 2 from 10:00am – 12:00pm

Call 877-728-3420 for more information.

“This is a photo club meeting reminder for Saturday May 2nd from 3-5 pm at the Main Library on 400 S 200 E  in  *Conf. Room L-1.

Does anyone have a projector that they can bring? If so, we can maybe share a few photoshop or lightroom tips for fun! If you have one, please let me know asap. Updates on a projector and Photoshop tips will be posted in the forums here: http://slcphoto.com/forums/index.php?topic=174.0

Please bring your cameras, if the weather is good (not raining) around that time, we may go for a little photo walk down town.” — Renee Lee

“Working with Photoshop can be quite time consuming for both beginners and advanced users.Once you’ve worked with it for a while, you begin to find that you’re constantly going back and forth between the same menu items or palette buttons. If you’re anything like me, you’re switching tools so often that most of your time spent in Photoshop isn’t even on the photo — it’s messing with the vast array of editing tools. Fortunately there’s a way to help streamline your Photoshop workflow.

Keyboard commands, or shortcuts, are simply a way to bypass a few mouse clicks when doing tool changes or tool property adjustments.They’re a little awkward and cumbersome at first, but once you pick up a couple of commands on the keyboard you’ll never go back. The whole idea is that while one hand is running the mouse, the other hand might as well be doing something too. This method of working with Photoshop can really decrease your time spent on the computer and give you more time to get behind the camera.

The following are 18 of my most commonly used shortcuts, broken out into three groups: simple, intermediate, and advanced.The simple commands are pretty easy to pull off, and they’re heavily used. The advanced commands take a little coordination, and I don’t use them quite as often. The intermediate commands are somewhere between the two. Again, these are MY most used Photoshop shortcuts. I’m also only showing the commands for Photoshop CS3 (thought CS2 should be almost identical) on a PC (sorry Mac users). So if you want to learn more about this topic, read to the bottom of the article for additional resources.” Continue reading 18 Exceptionally Useful Photoshop Shortcuts.