Tutorial Tuesday: How to Create Photoshop Actions and Shortcuts
Welcome to this Tutorial Tuesday about How to Create Photoshop Actions and Shortcuts. Creating your own photoshop actions and shortcuts is an easy way to speed up your photo editing workflow, so you have more time to do the things you love most!
Creating Shortcuts and Actions by Rebecca KayneCreating Photoshop Shortcuts
I don’t know about you, but I have a long list of actions I have created or purchased throughout my years as a photographer. While my list of actions is long, the number of actions I consistently use is probably fewer than a dozen. Scrolling through the list of actions to get to the ones I want to use often takes longer than actually using the action. This is where photoshop shortcut keys come in handy!
While keys available differ slightly between Windows and Mac computers, the basic idea is the same. First, go to the action you would like to create a shortcut for. Next, double right click the action. An action options box will pop up, allowing you to change the action’s name (if you’d like). Just below the name is a section titled “function key”. Here you’ll select the function key you want to assign the action to, as well as whether you want to push an extra button at the same time for the action to play. This allows you to keep function keys assigned to their current shortcuts, or to make more shortcuts options.
Assign the shortcut keys you’d like for the action, and then click OK. If your new shortcut is going to override a previously installed shortcut, you’ll get a warning box. Make sure you’re ok with the change- if not, go assign a different shortcut combination.
Once your shortcut is created, it will show up in symbols next to your action (to remind you of the shortcut keys when you forget). Next time you want to play that action, just press your shortcut keys (at the same time) and it will automatically play. No more need to scroll through your actions for the ones you use consistently.
In order to help me remember my shortcut keys, I keep my main ones all as F keys coupled with Command. Then I have them arranged in a way I’ll remember (my eye action is F2 because we have two eyes, then F3 is teeth… etc). You’ll find that if you edit a lot you’ll memorize your shortcuts and it’ll make editing a breeze!
Making Photoshop Actions
Making your own photoshop actions is so simple, and can save amazing amounts of time. I’ll often create photoshop actions for specific galleries I’m editing- if I want my gallery to be consistent and I’m doing one particular edit over and over in photoshop, I’ll make it an action and label it the baby’s name (or the family’s name). Then once I’ve finished the gallery I’ll delete the action.
To create a photoshop action, you’ll make sure your photo is set to the very beginning of your editing steps. Check to see that your photo is labeled Background (not layer 1, 2 or 3). And that optimally you don’t have any other layers open.
On your actions panel, click on the box with the plus sign inside it to create your new action. You’ll need to name your action here, and decide what action folder to place it in. I like to assign my new actions to the folder at the bottom of my actions list, just so they’re easier to find.
Once you’ve named your action and chosen its location, you’ll hit the red record button (the dot) and begin taking the editing steps you want included in the action. When you’ve finished all of the steps you’d like in your action, hit the stop button (the white square). I like to do this BEFORE I flatten any layers that were created. This allows me to make slight adjustments after playing the action (such as to opacity or masking).
Your new action is created! Go ahead and play it on a new photo and make sure it works the way you’d like.
That’s all for this week!
Let me know if you have any questions or comments on this Tuesday Tutorial, or if there’s something in particular you’d like me to teach in coming weeks. In the meantime, check out some of my other blog posts below.
