hi guys welcome or welcome back thanks so much for
joining me today we're going to create actions in photoshop
just like always if you haven't already please do press the subscribe button and hit the bell
icon the bell icon i'll help you because it gives you notification every single time
i upload a video i upload every week and sometimes more than that if i feel like it
so yeah like i said basically we're going to make some actions actions are amazing
because basically they just help your life to be easier and more straightforward
i've got open at the moment photoshop on a macbook pro this is a 16 inch macbook pro so
i don't have any of my normal actions over here apart from some luminosity masks if your photoshop
looks different to mine over here with things in different places and it doesn't look like this
don't worry go ahead and watch the video that i'm going to link above that will help you just
basically set up your workspace so that it looks pretty much exactly the same as this there might
be some background noise in this video and that is because there is currently a eight week old puppy
in the background eating a kong so things could get rowdy i'm gonna try and whiz through this
as quickly as possible though so basically i've just opened up an image and rotated it
did a little bit of fixing in the blank spaces there but this picture actually was taken by dan
on his first ever solo shoot out okay so the first action that we're gonna create basically
switches this layer into a smart object with the camera raw filter applied on it so it's just one
of my actions that i tend to use all of the time at this stage just to get me through that little
chunk of the workflow if you're not sure about why you would be doing that go ahead and watch
the full edit video that is linked above which does include that as a specific step so the first
thing that we need to get familiar with really is this section over here so within the actions i
as you guys will know have mine set up to show as button mode this is button mode kind of like
multi-colored buttons that look like this so to make this into a situation where we can make
actions all we need to do is go ahead into the four little lines up there and where you're in
this section and it says button mode just click that to make it not button mode if your actions
look like this as standard then don't worry because basically you are just in the right place
now within the default action set you can make a new folder if you want to i just kind of keep mine
in the same place but you can then go ahead and click on where you want to file this new action
and then click the little plus icon down at the bottom that then brings up this window which
pops up saying new action action name and for me i just call this particular action camera raw filter
step i mean like it's just keep it simple so you can choose the set that this is going to
sit in there you can put on a function key and you can also give it a color i'm just going to
color these as violet for today just because it makes it easier to see and then we click
record now one thing that's really really important at this point is don't click on layers
if you click on a layer at any point from this point onwards it records the layer name
and then if that layer name doesn't exist the action will not run you'll have error messages
things will go really really strange so as soon as you set up this and set it to record you then
basically need to not click on layers everything else needs to be done either using keyboard
shortcuts or ideally the menus that you can see on the screen so the first thing that we need to do
to make a smart object layer for me in my workflow is to duplicate it so i'm going
to use the keyboard shortcuts in this case to create a duplication which is command
and j you'll notice that as soon as i've done that it's recorded that step we've done layer via copy
on this particular layer over here then the next thing that i do is i make the uppermost layer a
smart object to do that i'm just going to right click and then i'm going to choose convert to
smart object that will record that here as a step so with that step successfully achieved in there
we have converted this layer to a smart object i'm then going to go ahead and apply a camera
raw filter to it so i'm going to go filter and then i'm going to go camera raw filter from the
list here camera raw has then obviously opened i don't want to make any changes to this at all so
i'm just going to click ok and camera raw filter has been applied to this particular layer here
that's all i want to do for this action which is super simple and straightforward so i'm happy
with that now i'm gonna press stop with that stopped i can then go ahead and click on layers
delete stuff and it won't record anything in there that's absolutely fine because when we
switch over into button mode now magically camera raw filter step exists as an action so with the
layer that you want to make into a smart object with that camera raw filter on it
selected all you need to do then is just click on your newly created action and the action will run
so the action has ran just like you guys can see here so you've got basically all
the things we just did but we can go ahead double click into camera raw filter and then
continue with our edit so in this case my edit really is gonna probably be just
to tweak some colours going on in here so mainly the greens and the yellows so i'm gonna tweak
around with those a little bit and then i'm gonna obviously as normal apply my double radials
okay so with those adjustments done i'm gonna click ok that will commit the changes down and
my adjustments are now visible on the screen so the next action that i want to go ahead and
make remember going through the three dots and switching it back off of button mode
the next action that i want to go ahead and make is actually going to be a basic light radial so
a movable colour if you're not sure what those are go ahead and look at the video that will be
linked above and for that basically all i'm going to do is set a new action again pressing that plus
i'm gonna do light radial base and then i'm gonna put that into the violet section again and click
record so with that now recording remember we can't click on layers so we just need to use
our menu so i'm going to go down here i'm going to choose gradient just like we normally do i'm
going to switch it to a radial i'm going to make the size of it much bigger and then i'm going to
go into the colors and just tweak it to where i would usually set the colors which is around about
there for me most of the time i'm going to click ok on that i'm going to select the blend
mode there and i'm going to set it to screen i'm going to drop it down to around about 80 percent
so with those things done i'm pretty happy with that i'm going to press stop and then i'm going to
delete the layer that we've just made there switch back to button mode i'm going to go ahead and
make a mask if you don't know how to make masks again i'm going to just you know link everything
above so i'm going to put that link above now i'm going to go ahead and make a mask and meet
you back in a sec so with our mask created then the next step for me is to run the action which
is to do the light radial base which we've just created that will pop that over the image i then
drag my mask that i've created up and adjust the opacity to suit so in this case i'm going to go
ahead and mask out the log as well so let's go ahead and just do a very quick hand mask
okay then i'm going to make a new action for the next step in the workflow and that action is going
to be a vignette so i've pressed the plus i'm going to do a vignette base if i can type and select
that into the violet category click record and then i'm going to go ahead and add a new solid
colour layer i'm going to drop that into black i might put it as a really dark brown actually
this stage click ok on that and then basically that is it for that action but what i will do is
drop it into multiply and bring the opacity down a little bit so with that then it done i'm going to
click stop switch that back to button mode delete that layer and then run the vignette base again
grab hold of the mask nice big soft brush 100 percent black two on the dog connect it with light source
which to be fair is up at the top drop it to 30 percent opacity and break into that vignette a little bit
so we've gone from there to there with three actions and a little bit of masking i'm not
particularly happy with on the screen i think i'll drop that into lighten blend mode and
bring that down a little bit more on that light radial i might bring it over the dog
as well a little bit just to make it a little bit more soft
yeah pretty good okay i'll continue on with my edit i'll meet you back in a sec so here's where
we ended up guys nice and straightforward so the main things to be aware of when you create actions
are number one do not click on layers make sure that you're clicking on the right thing
number two do be specific in what you are selecting and what you are trying to achieve
and number three have a plan on where you want to go when you've done it make sure that you go
ahead and remove it and test the action because it's really useful to do so the main thing though
don't click on specific layers that's kind of the biggest thing that i can suggest you can if
you want to go ahead and group actions and title them so when you're going through on your after
you press record you can then go ahead and group things give them a name whilst you're recording
and then things can be a little bit easier to manage but again clicking on layers is really
risky so just be careful what you're going for if you haven't already please do go ahead and
press the subscribe button and obviously click the bell icon go ahead and find us over on
instagram that would be really really great and i will see you all again really really really soon