How to use Photoshop Actions

Load your Actions into Photoshop:
Open your version of Adobe Photoshop. In the Actions Palette (if you don’t see it, go to the WINDOWS tab and select ACTIONS) there is a small arrow in the top right corner. Click on it and select LOAD ACTIONS. Now find the folder you saved your Actions in and double-click on the one you would like to load (my Actions are generally in a folder called Photoshop on my Desktop). The Actions you selected should now appear in your actions palette.

Use your Actions:
When you purchase actions, they generally come in a set of several actions related to each other in some way. All of the actions from the set you just loaded into Photoshop are now ready to use. First, you open an image. If the image is layered, make sure the correct layer is selected in the layers palette. Typically, you want to apply the action to the image itself, so make sure BACKGROUND is selected. Then you click on one of the actions from your set. At the bottom of your Actions Palette there is a triangle, similar to the PLAY button you see on music players. Click on it. Your action should now run! When it is done, click on the new folder or layer above your Background layer and adjust its opacity to your taste.

Choose the right Action for your image:
Each Action affects an image in a different way and not every Action will work with every picture (well, it’ll work, but it won’t always get fantastic results). Before choosing an action I look at the image I am working on very closely. What colors are most prominent in the image? Which colors do I want to enhance? Does the image already have vibrant colors or is it rather dull? Depending on how I answer these questions I choose the Actions I want to try out.

Let’s go through this process with an example.

This image right here is SOOC (straight out of camera; no editing done yet). The most prominent colors seem to be the pink of the girl’s sweater, the blue of her pants, the green in the background, and maybe the light colors of her hair and skin. To me the background seems boring, because the green color is very dull, so that is definitely something I would like to enhance. So I want to pick an Action that affects all of these colors.

DREAMY, an action I recently created, seems to do just that. Here is what the image looks like after that action is applied:

It definitely enhanced the green, pink, and the girl’s skin and hair colors. Personally, for this image I would prefer a less dreamy (ha!) and hazy edit, though. So another action that jumps out at me would be GREEN LANTERN. Let’s see how that turns out:

Now I don’t know how you feel, but this action pretty much nailed what I wanted to do with the image. A couple of more little tweaks here and there, maybe brighten it up a bit, and I’ll be done with the edit!

Please Note: This part of the process is really just a guideline. Feel free to test out any Action on any image. You can even use more than one Action and see how they work together at different opacities. The results might be amazing!

Customize your new Actions:

While most of my Actions brighten the image up a little bit, it depends on each image how much light, for example, has to be added. You can tweak each aspect of your Action by clicking on the newly created folder or layer above your Background in the Layers Palette. If it is a layer, just adjust the opacity or use a separate action or your own steps to brighten/darken (in this case). If it is a folder, click on the little triangle in between the folder and eye symbols. The folder now opens and reveals its content. Each layer should be nicely labeled. Find the one that affects the aspect you’d like to tweak (Lighten, in our case), and change the opacity until it works for your image. You can play around with any of the layers and see how they affect your image.