Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
Can anyone write a tutorial on how to do 1 or both of the above?
Would be nice to share such things with each other!
Would be nice to share such things with each other!
Sharing lightroom presets and Photoshop actions
- Thread starter Hamish Gill
- Start date
Paul Lange
Moderator
I believe that one person just copy's their actons from the Actions folder and the other just pastes them in to theirs.
Larry Bolch
Well-Known Member
Don't know about Lightroom, but in Photoshop, select the folder with the actions on the actions palette, click on the little triangle for the menu and choose Save Actions. The recipient then copies the file into the appropriate folder and clicks on Load Actions.
I use actions a lot! However, it is often just to say resize a folder full of images to a specific web-size, bring up the scanner. I have one that with a keystroke purges clipboard and history to free of memory, for example. Quite the opposite of anything creative—just to automate otherwise boring and repetitive tasks. I create and delete them as needed and none are documented.
Just looking at the list on this machine—not my primary graphics machine—I see nothing of general interest unless you happen to have a Fuji W1 stereo camera and want to quickly make anaglyphs.
I use actions a lot! However, it is often just to say resize a folder full of images to a specific web-size, bring up the scanner. I have one that with a keystroke purges clipboard and history to free of memory, for example. Quite the opposite of anything creative—just to automate otherwise boring and repetitive tasks. I create and delete them as needed and none are documented.
Just looking at the list on this machine—not my primary graphics machine—I see nothing of general interest unless you happen to have a Fuji W1 stereo camera and want to quickly make anaglyphs.
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
Yeah, i have only really just discovered them and that was for converting a while load of green icons to red for a website we are building .. Not exactly suitable for photography... But I can see how they would be ...
They are the sort of equiv of lightroom presets are they or have I missed something?
They are the sort of equiv of lightroom presets are they or have I missed something?
Larry Bolch
Well-Known Member
Actions are like macros or scripts. You go through the steps with the record icon pressed and it will make a record of each of your gestures. The advantage is that you only have to do the steps once, and then they can be applied to function keys for the future. As an example, I have one that protects highlight detail while opening up shadow and mid-tone detail. The steps are,
Select image window.
Under the Select menu choose Colour Range.
When the requester opens, use the drop-down menu and chose "Highlights"
Click on the Invert box and OK. (This selects everything in the image but the highlights.)
Feather the edge of the selection.
Copy and paste. (This creates a layer of everything in the image but the highlights.)
Set the layer mode to "Screen".
Stop.
Once the action has run, use the proportional gadget to dial in the amount of dodging you want, manually. I have this assigned to Ctrl+Shift+F8. I use it often enough that it is permanent in the list. It saves a whole lot of mousing about. It is specially good since often highlight detail in digital images is so precious.
If you have seen my photo-aquatints, once the photo is prepared there are about 60 steps that never vary prior to the final fine tuning. An action does this without forgetting a step or getting bored will it does it. Actions can call other actions. In this action, I have no need for Undo, since it goes through every step. Therefore I call the purge memory action between every major step, speeding things up considerably.
http://www.larry-bolch.com/Aquatints/
They can be duplicated and edited. If you do an action to reduce an image to 600×800, you can edit a duplicate to do 1280×1024 for example. I did my initial anaglyph action for use with red/cyan glasses, then did a duplicate edited to green/magenta.
Best yet, under File->Automate->Batch... you can have Photoshop apply the action to a whole folder of images. Again, thinking web, it could take the originals and resize them to thumbs, then go through again resizing them to fit into pages and at the same time add your copyright, put a border around them—whatever.
Since they are so quick and easy to make, they are worthwhile even if only used on a single batch once.
Select image window.
Under the Select menu choose Colour Range.
When the requester opens, use the drop-down menu and chose "Highlights"
Click on the Invert box and OK. (This selects everything in the image but the highlights.)
Feather the edge of the selection.
Copy and paste. (This creates a layer of everything in the image but the highlights.)
Set the layer mode to "Screen".
Stop.
Once the action has run, use the proportional gadget to dial in the amount of dodging you want, manually. I have this assigned to Ctrl+Shift+F8. I use it often enough that it is permanent in the list. It saves a whole lot of mousing about. It is specially good since often highlight detail in digital images is so precious.
If you have seen my photo-aquatints, once the photo is prepared there are about 60 steps that never vary prior to the final fine tuning. An action does this without forgetting a step or getting bored will it does it. Actions can call other actions. In this action, I have no need for Undo, since it goes through every step. Therefore I call the purge memory action between every major step, speeding things up considerably.
http://www.larry-bolch.com/Aquatints/
They can be duplicated and edited. If you do an action to reduce an image to 600×800, you can edit a duplicate to do 1280×1024 for example. I did my initial anaglyph action for use with red/cyan glasses, then did a duplicate edited to green/magenta.
Best yet, under File->Automate->Batch... you can have Photoshop apply the action to a whole folder of images. Again, thinking web, it could take the originals and resize them to thumbs, then go through again resizing them to fit into pages and at the same time add your copyright, put a border around them—whatever.
Since they are so quick and easy to make, they are worthwhile even if only used on a single batch once.
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
Interesting stuff... An entire feature of Photoshop that until recently has completely escaped me!
So they are similar to lightrooms presets, but with lightrooms workflow and "import"/"export" way of working obviously lightroom doesn't need all the batch processing in quite the same way as that's sort of what it's doing as standard!
Right, so just to work out how to share lightroom presets ... It can't be that difficult ... It's lightroom, nothing is!
I'll look at it tomorrow!
Would be nice to have a set of downloads from the forum for people to try out I think ... I'd have no issue making a few presets for people to play with ... Anyone else interested in contributing?
So they are similar to lightrooms presets, but with lightrooms workflow and "import"/"export" way of working obviously lightroom doesn't need all the batch processing in quite the same way as that's sort of what it's doing as standard!
Right, so just to work out how to share lightroom presets ... It can't be that difficult ... It's lightroom, nothing is!
I'll look at it tomorrow!
Would be nice to have a set of downloads from the forum for people to try out I think ... I'd have no issue making a few presets for people to play with ... Anyone else interested in contributing?
Pete Askew
Admin
Hi Hamish,
You'll probably find this useful:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/3.0/Using/WS2A36C507-E076-4b14-AAC3-87852595D175.html
The other useful thing about PS Actions is that you can apply them en-batch from Bridge. Quite useful if you have a lot of images you want, say, in a range of sizes etc. And of course you can apply raw adjustments etc to a whole load of raw files from Bridge using ACR in a similar way to Syncing images in LR.
You'll probably find this useful:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/3.0/Using/WS2A36C507-E076-4b14-AAC3-87852595D175.html
The other useful thing about PS Actions is that you can apply them en-batch from Bridge. Quite useful if you have a lot of images you want, say, in a range of sizes etc. And of course you can apply raw adjustments etc to a whole load of raw files from Bridge using ACR in a similar way to Syncing images in LR.
Not an action or preset, however it's just as useful, Image Processor is a handy script for resizing and saving different file types all at once and you can run an action with it too, it's been in Photoshop since CS.
File - Scripts - Image Processor, you can also run it from Bridge.
Joan
File - Scripts - Image Processor, you can also run it from Bridge.
Joan
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
Cheers Joan ... photoshop is still a massive learning curve for me ... one that has been massivly stunted since lightroom came on the scene ... although i now you photoshop for graphics related stuff for work ... logo's and the like ... so im getting back into it a bit more now
there is just SO much of it ... but at least now i dont open it with the feeling of dread it used to give me!
there is just SO much of it ... but at least now i dont open it with the feeling of dread it used to give me!
Tim Pindar
Well-Known Member
Exactly the same for me, Hamish. Lightroom has stopped me using PSE much.
And I never did properly get the hang of using layers...! it was always hit and miss exactly what happened. Same with trying to select just parts of a photo.
And I never did properly get the hang of using layers...! it was always hit and miss exactly what happened. Same with trying to select just parts of a photo.
Larry Bolch
Well-Known Member
Opening Photoshop for the first time is somewhat like hauling home a huge tool-chest from the hardware store, with every slot full of a tool or accessory. What must be realized is that no matter the project, only a few of those tools will be actually used. You learn to use a socket wrench—not the whole tool-chest—and a socket wrench is simple, straight forward and almost intuitive to use.
All the tools in Photoshop are interactive. Pull a slider and watch what it does. If you don't like what it did, you not only can undo it, but you can go up to 20 steps back in history and undo.
While one might use only a small set of tools on a regular basis, the rest of the tool-kit is still there. Looking through the filter menu, I noticed Polar Coordinates and was baffled why anyone would find a use for it. Years later, I got a fisheye lens, and discovered it would let one transform a fisheye shot into a panorama!
http://www.larry-bolch.com/ephemeral/panoramas/
Give yourself some leisure time to just play. Try stuff. Everything you learn will build confidence and extend your knowledge. There is some really fun stuff in there. Do caricatures with the Liquify filter. I greatly amused my geek friends with a bunch of stuff done with the Vanishing Point filter.
http://www.larry-bolch.com/ephemeral/vanishing_point/
When something becomes an amusement, learning is so much easier. Play.
Larry Bolch
Well-Known Member
Layers and layer masks are extremely well implemented in Photoshop and far easier to use than say Paint Shop Pro. They are the most powerful tool in Photoshop and once you have a basic understanding are very easy to use. Some examples–
I shoot under mixed light a lot. I can open a RAW file in Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) and do a perfect white balance for one of the light sources, then open it in Photoshop, where it becomes the background layer. Again I open it and correct for another light source, open it in Photoshop and paste it as the top layer. Now at leisure, I can paint in a mask to blend the two perfectly. If there are more light sources, I merge these layers and bring in the next light source and blend.
Shooting in a room with uneven lighting some people may be perfectly exposed and others very underexposed. Start with the perfectly exposed as the background layer. Adjust the brightness for those just slightly under exposed and layer it on top. Use the layer mask to open up the one properly exposed. Merge and repeat as necessary. In essence dodging and burning, but with a high degree of control.
Group shot of a wedding party. Put the camera on a tripod and shoot continuous for a couple of seconds. In every shot there may be someone blinking, ducking behind someone in front or with a nasty expression. Start with the best shot, and then start replacing faces from other exposures, brushing in layer masks. Recent versions of Photoshop have an Auto Align feature that makes blending seamless.
Shooting on a day with a hazy sky, the sky is bright and the earth is dark in comparison. With layers, one can optimize the ground, but in so doing completely blow out the sky. Simply re-open the file in ACR, use the HSL tab to intensify the bit of blue in the sky, set the contrast to retain full detail and layer it with the foreground. Better than shooting with a Polaroid filter.
Photographing a "Woman of a Certain Age" open a very sharp image as a background layer. Open another with the Clarity slider pulled down to the point that it is kind to the wrinkles. Layer it, and use the mask to reveal sharp eyebrows, hair, lips etc., and now you have a friend for life.
Shot under conditions that yielded delicate highlight detail with dark mid-tones and shadows. Brighten the shadows and blow all the highlight detail away. Instead, go to the Select menu->Colour Range and from the drop-down menu select Highlights. Click the Inverse check box and hit OK. This selects everything BUT the highlights, protecting them. Copy the selection and do a paste—it will automatically become a layer. Set the layer mode to "Screen". Shadow and mid-tone detail will be dramatically revealed. If too dramatic, use the proportional gadget in the layer palette to set just the right amount.
Where to start? A long time back, I did a tutorial aimed at first-time users. It only assumes the ability to open an image in Photoshop and does not require RAW. Work through it, actually doing each instance in Photoshop using your own images and you will be amazed at how easy layer basics can be.
http://www.larry-bolch.com/mask-intro/
There are three examples, which should give an understanding and feel for how layers work—a foundation for going beyond.
Tim Pindar
Well-Known Member
Thanks Larry for taking the time with such a detailed explanation - I'll give the tutorial a try.
Tim Pindar
Well-Known Member
One annoyance is that - as a PS Elements user - when you return from Elements to Lightroom and make any further adjustments you can't go back and redo the PS work. This isn't the case in the full Photoshop I believe.
Pete Askew
Admin
No Tim, it's just the same. Unfortunately.
If you want to tweak / change what you did in PS you can locate the -edit version of the file and open that in PS and the layers etc will all be there. When you re-fresh the image in LR those changes will be reflected in the version in the catalog. But, if you make changes in LR after the first PS edit you won't see them if you open the file directly in PS again (as they are stored with the catalog and not the file), and so in some cases it might make the second PS edit a bit tricky. My guess is that this should be the same for Elements as well. You do need to have maximize compatibility 'ticked' in PS and SmartObjects are flattened but it does give you a chance to make some alterations to edits.
If you want to tweak / change what you did in PS you can locate the -edit version of the file and open that in PS and the layers etc will all be there. When you re-fresh the image in LR those changes will be reflected in the version in the catalog. But, if you make changes in LR after the first PS edit you won't see them if you open the file directly in PS again (as they are stored with the catalog and not the file), and so in some cases it might make the second PS edit a bit tricky. My guess is that this should be the same for Elements as well. You do need to have maximize compatibility 'ticked' in PS and SmartObjects are flattened but it does give you a chance to make some alterations to edits.
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Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
Yeah, layers man, madness how confusing they are to start with ....
The good thing with using it for graphics is that I have had to get used to shape layers ... That's helped a lot in understanding how they react with each other ... But to start with even the idea that they were literally layers ... As in thing stacked in layers completely escaped me ... The benefits of working with to people with degrees in various ideas of design are vast, I can tell you!
Pete Askew
Admin
But great once you work them out. Multiple adjustment layers give a huge degree of control and the ability to add masks to each and control their opacity and blending modes is a key to control.
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
Opening Photoshop for the first time is somewhat like hauling home a huge tool-chest from the hardware store, with every slot full of a tool or accessory. What must be realized is that no matter the project, only a few of those tools will be actually used. You learn to use a socket wrench—not the whole tool-chest—and a socket wrench is simple, straight forward and almost intuitive to use.
All the tools in Photoshop are interactive. Pull a slider and watch what it does. If you don't like what it did, you not only can undo it, but you can go up to 20 steps back in history and undo.
While one might use only a small set of tools on a regular basis, the rest of the tool-kit is still there. Looking through the filter menu, I noticed Polar Coordinates and was baffled why anyone would find a use for it. Years later, I got a fisheye lens, and discovered it would let one transform a fisheye shot into a panorama!
http://www.larry-bolch.com/ephemeral/panoramas/
Give yourself some leisure time to just play. Try stuff. Everything you learn will build confidence and extend your knowledge. There is some really fun stuff in there. Do caricatures with the Liquify filter. I greatly amused my geek friends with a bunch of stuff done with the Vanishing Point filter.
http://www.larry-bolch.com/ephemeral/vanishing_point/
When something becomes an amusement, learning is so much easier. Play.
Indeed, and the benefits of having a job that involves such software ... I can explore these things in work and leisure time ... In fact, a good deal of my day I can blur that line between work and leisure quite nicely ... [smug]
cheers Larry, I often mean to mention how much I appriciate the time you take to post such involved responses here!
Larry Bolch
Well-Known Member
Indeed, and the benefits of having a job that involves such software ... I can explore these things in work and leisure time ... In fact, a good deal of my day I can blur that line between work and leisure quite nicely ... [smug]
cheers Larry, I often mean to mention how much I appriciate the time you take to post such involved responses here!
I have read a lot of forums over the years, and it is my feeling that when I post, I am not just answering a specific question for one person. "Use f/16." might be a correct answer, but it gives no insight why. The "why?" is the important answer—it explains both the photographic solution and the thought process that lead there. Anything less is just chat.
By fully answering the original poster, everyone in the forum has access to this bit of experience. Furthermore, anyone with any photographic experience knows that there can be many solutions to the problem and while "Use f/16" might work, knowing the thought process might lead to "use f/5.6 on a shorter lens, and you will get a much more dramatic shot with the same DOF."—or many other answers.
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
Well, it's greatly appreciated Larry! I run the place and I can't often find the time to post such in-depth comments!!
