Action! (or, Recording macros in Photoshop CS6)
Many years ago I had a word processing company in College Station, Texas, called Just Your Type. My main source of clients were students at Texas A&M University, so the name Just Your Type was a double entendre.
When Windows 3.1 hit the market, it brought along Visual Basic and macros. Ah, macros. They saved me so much time and allowed me to do so much more that my gross income that year tripled. The IRS was extremely happy.
Macros are still around and go by various names now, including scripts and actions.
Recently I discovered how to sharpen pictures (to my satisfaction) in Adobe Photoshop CS6. Since I want to do it to every picture, I decided it was time to see where Photoshop’s macros are. I found them under Actions.
Here is how to create a Action macro in Photoshop CS6, and we’ll set one up using the sharpening technique that I like. When you have an option, accept the default option for our purpose here.
Make sure your Actions Panel is open. Use ALT + F9 or click on Window, Actions.
Open the picture you want to sharpen.
Make sure your Layers Panel is open. Use F7 or click on Window, Layers. You should have a Layers Panel showing, something like this:
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Click on Create New Action. It’s the icon second from the right at the bottom of your Actions Panel:
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Give your Action a name and a keyboard shortcut. I named mine Sharpen photo and gave it a keyboard shortcut of CTRL + Shift + F4:
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Click on Record in the popup window. Everything you do from here on out is recorded so that you can play it back in the future, saving you a lot of time. Look at the bottom of your Actions Panel and you should see a red dot, basically meaning, “CAUTION! You are recording!”
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Duplicate the layer — CTRL + J or click on Layer, Duplicate layer. Accept the default options and click on OK. Your Layers Panel now looks like this:
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Add a Layer Mask. Click on Layer, Layer Mask, Reveal All. Your Layers Panel now looks like this:
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Click on Filter, Other, High Pass… Your defaults in the pop-up window should be Preview checked and Radius 10 pixels. Click on OK. Your Layers Panel now looks like this:
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In your Layers Panel (see picture above), click on Normal and choose Hard Light.
In your Actions Panel, click on the square next to the red dot. That is your Stop playing/recording icon:
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That’s it! Save your work.
If you want to delete the Action and do it again, just for practice, click hold on the name of your Action and drag it to the little trash can, the far right icon at the bottom of the Actions Panel.
Next time you want to apply sharpening to a photo, simply open the photo and then hit CTRL + Shift + F4. Your Action macro will runn and then you can save your beautiful new picture.
Now that you know how to do this, you’ll have better pictures for your blog and more time to LIKE and Comment in my blog!…………….lol
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Posted on July 17, 2012, in Adobe, Digital photo editing, How I Did It and tagged adobe photoshop cs6 actions, adobe photoshop cs6 macros, adobe photoshop cs6 tutorial. Bookmark the permalink. 13 Comments.
And don’t pretend that didn’t bore the pants off Miss Zoey – jolly useful for the rest of us though
Yep. Pretty bored. She moseyed on over to the printer and started grooming.
Zoey and I are busy sleeping. On the other hand, this is just the sort of information I need (sorry if that sounds spammy!) Russel, you really are extraordinary!
Very interesting article, fantastic tutorial. Wow Zoey the cool cat word a special stamp
You have very creative idea my friend. Amazing
This is
This is WAY over my head… Look at this, I could barely get my comment typed in here ….Some of us have no clue to how the car works, we just want to drive it… Always glad for my Computer Guy….
Wow that is some info in there mate, will have to reread this and call back many times over I think, you have certainly put some effort into this post
Cheers
Aussie Emu
Great post Russel. I love photoshops action feature. For weddings I’ve set up an action that sharpens, adjusts contrast, applies a couple of filters, resizes and then saves the image to a seperate folder. I set up a batch function and go to bed, and when I wake up the magical photoshop pixies have edited several hundred photos for me.
Hey, Ian. Sounds like you need a dog so you can take the dog for a walk instead of going to bed………lol
good blog.
Thanks for sharing..good n useful information….thanks for visiting my posts
I only wish I had CS6. I only have CS2. Your photos are great and your lessons is eazy to follow. I’m not sure when I’ll be back in the san Diego area. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving me all the likes.
I don’t have CS6 either; Adobe has it……..lol
I actually have CS6 through their subscription service. It’s $19.99 a month.
I was able to determine using an Excel spreadsheet that if I bought a copy and then upgraded every 18 months, I would spend a heck of a lot more money than if I simply subscribed.
Of course, I don’t own it, like you do with CS2. However, if I ever decide to quit subscribing and buy, all the money that I have saved by subscribing will pay for buying the latest version and several years worth of Cinco de Mayo margaritas!