Cam and Cheese

Actions are a very useful Adobe Photoshop feature that allows you to apply the same set of functions to an image at the touch of a button.

Actions are a very useful tool that you can use on your pictures. If you have an effect that you constantly use and is more than a few steps long, creating an action for it is a very efficient way to get your work done. Note that actions can be done in batches so you can apply this action to a hundreds of images quickly! But I will save that for another tutorial. Let's create an action first.

First of all, Actions basically record EVERY step that you do in Adobe Photoshop (until you press stop). So before recording your action make sure you know exactly what you are doing, and don't screw up when you are recording or else it will apply that screw up whenever you use the action.

Also note that this action applies exactly what is in the action to your image so minor adjustment and tweaking may be needed afterwards. For example I use actions for resizing images for this site and applying water marks. But depending on if my image is portrait or landscape I have to create and apply a different action.

So in my example I will just create a basic action to change the image size from its original 10MP size to just 800 pixels wide for my site.

1. Open Adobe Photoshop
2. Open up an image that you want to edit.
3. Open the Actions window if it is not open yet. Click Window > Actions or press Ctrl+F9
   
   
   
4. Their should already be some default Actions there.
   
   
   
5. Create your own click the second to last button on the right called Create New Action.
   
   
   
6. Another window will appear. Here name your Action, the set (folder), and you can assign your Action to some short cut keys.
   
   
   
7. Once you are done, press Record and it will begin recording your action.

Action for Resizing Width to 800 Pixels

1. In the main menu click Image > Image Size and a window will appear
2. Under Pixel Dimensions change the width to 800. Make sure the drop down is pixels. Make sure scale styles, and constrain proportions is checked off so the image doesn't get skewed. Click OK
   
   
3. You are done resizing. Just click the Stop button in the Actions Window.

That is all. You can create any action you want to make your life a lot easier.