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Creating a Hot-key Photoshop Action
A short tutorial on how to create and record an "Action" in Adobe Photoshop.
Available only in the full version of PhotoShop, the Actions palette was first introduced in version 4.0. An Action is a macro recording/editing/playback feature which lets you capture specific commands and sequences of events that you might frequently use in PhotoShop.
For example, Nikon D1 and Canon D30 pictures often need some consistent basic color corrections, such as described in the D1 Colors and D30 Colors articles located in this site. By recording an Action, you can simply and quickly batch process a group of images, or take a quick look at the effect of the correction with a simple keystroke.
Click on "Create
new action". Type in the label
of your choice. (I picked "D30 Color
Correction") Choose any function
key from the drop-down choices. This will give you
a one stroke hot-key to play the action. Then click on the
"Record" button. The first step is
shown at left. Follow this with the other
adjustment. Click on "OK" when
you've finished both selective color adjustment
steps. That's it.
Your new Action is
in place, permanently recorded for ease of
use. To "play" the
action, you can simply hit the hot-key (function
key) chosen, or go to the Actions tab and click on
the play arrow. (The right arrow
symbol.) I prefer the
hot-key (in this example the F12 key), because it's
so fast & easy to use.
You'll find the Actions section next to the History
tab. (As shown.)
A "New Action" information box will pop
up.
Go through the selective color adjustment
procedures outlined in the first section.
Now click on the "Stop playing/recording" button as
shown at left.