Using Actions and Batch in Photoshop CS

[MartinBabies]

Using Actions and Batch in Photoshop CS
Level: Intermediate+
By Rabieshund

When you start to get good with Photoshop, you will want to be able to work as quick as possible.
In this tutorial I will show you how to use both Actions and Batch, so I will combine them. Our goal will be to convert four images - of the same size - to black and white, sharpen them and save them in a different folder - all in one action!

Okay, so we need four images. Let's take some uninteresting, uninspiring ones with my compact digital camera! Taken for the purpose of this tutorial - I promise!
These are the images we will be using:









I will put them in a folder called Images.

Let's begin. What we're going to do now is to record an Action. When recording an action you do everything that you want your action to consist off. Like, in this case, converting to black and white, resizing and sharpening.

1. Open up one of the images in your Images folder. I'll open up the first one called PICT7495.jpg.
2. Go to Window > Actions to open up the Actions window. There will be a list of actions, but you can ignore them in this tutorial.
3. Create a new action at the bottom of the window. Name it Action 1 or whatever. It doesn't really matter as long as you can remember what the action does.
4. Now, with the image open, click in the Record button (the round one), if it didn't activate itself after creating the action.
5. Now hit CTRL+Shift+U to desaturate the image. You can see that the action you just did pops up under Action 1 in the Actions window.
6. Go to Image > Image Size and resize the image to something like 340x255 px. It will also pop up under Action 1.
7. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask and sharpen the image. I used 160% at 0,3 px radius.
8. Go to File > Save as and save it in a new folder. I created a sub folder called Resized images. This will also be seen under Action 1.
9. Now that we have completed the four steps, click the Stop button in the Actions window.

You will now be able to use this action on any image. You can try opening another image, select the action in the Action window and click the Play button, just to see how it works.

With that part done, let's continue with the Batch part. When using a Batch, the program processes more than one image at once. When combining Actions and Batch, you can change the color, contrast, image size, whatever of all the images in a folder. It is very handy when you for example need to resize all images for a web gallery or something similar.

1. Go to File > Automate > Batch.
2. I used these settings:



As you can see I chose my Images folder as the Source folder and Resized images as my destination folder.
I checked Suppress Color Profile Warnings because if you are working with different color settings, there will be a pop-up between every image asking about it. So to get rid of that pop-up, we check that option.
Under File Naming I didn't change anything. But if you like you can change how Photoshop will name your file. However it MUST end with "Extension", as it tells the program which file extension it is.

3. Hit OK to start processing the images.
4. Now we have a folder with edited versions of the base photos. All of them are desaturated, 340x255 px and sharpened.





There you have it.

Please note!
If you are using Photoshop CS2, there is a script for this under File > Scripts > Image Processor. If you just want to resize your images, then it's a quicker way to get it done, but if you are using Actions, it's pretty much the same thing. Batch is a bit better though as it gives you more options.


Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
Martin

[Jeff]

I've known about actions but the batch part was new to me. Very useful, thanks.

[MartinBabies]

Yeah, combined they are very powerful! Thanks.

[mannos]

V nice
might be usefull for converting lots of files or sumit

[MartinBabies]

Yes, like when importing images from your digital camera and stuff.

[dragoneye]

Hey cool! That'll be usefull! ^^ YAY!

[Killer]

Oh wtf! I JUST finished manually converting like 50 images into black & white and adding a border ><

[Arvind]

Nice Tutorial. Thanks