Whenever you perform a repetitive task in Photoshop, you can save yourself time and effort by using actions.
Similar to macros in programs like Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, Photoshop actions are recorded steps that you perform on an image; these steps can be saved and replayed on another image at a later date.
Photoshop records the steps as you perform them and stores the steps for you. You tell Photoshop when to start and stop recording. You can then replay the action at any time, on the current image or any other image. The action does everything you recorded just as if you were executing the commands yourself, and it does them much faster than you could do yourself.
Installing Actions into PSE 8:
I found a tutorial that explains in such detail I couldn’t have written it better myself at Texas Chicks Blogs and Pics.
Some sites I would recommend for finding actions would be: For photography Coffee Tea Photography, Design Mag, Creative Nerds and Maggie Holmes, The Ultimate Collection of Useful Photoshop Actions can be found here, time saving Photoshop actions can be found here, and also some creative actions at Deviant Art and Filmstrip Action and Atomic Cupcake has some of my favorite actions.. Creating a cube can be found here and here. Create a box here. Lastly, most shapes can be turned into 3d here. So as you can se if you Google any action that you may want to use, you’ll find one out there already.
There you have shortcuts to make scrapbooking and photo editing even easier with these time saving actions.
Please post some actions you’ve found or created.
