Photoshop Actions
Want to speed up photo workflows? A Photoshop action can save you time and effort when it comes to processing multiple images at the same time. In this series, you’ll learn how to use Photoshop Actions and find professional examples to use in your own design work.
Use an action to create a specific filter or style or just about anything else that you can do in Photoshop. “Record” the process and use it repeatedly. Don’t want to create your own? There are plenty of great options out there ready to download.
Latest Photoshop Action Articles
6 Jun 2024
30+ Best Wedding Photoshop Actions & Effects
Adding stylish effects to wedding photos (such as retro, rustic, and moody filters) is a popular trend these days. One of the easiest ways to add this type of effect to your photos is with these—our picks of the best wedding Photoshop actions!
Whether you’re trying to improve your own wedding photos before uploading them to social media and your wedding website or you’re a freelance designer/photographer working on a whole bunch of wedding photo albums, these Photoshop actions will definitely come in handy.
In this post, we’re featuring a collection of the best wedding Photoshop actions you can use to instantly optimize your photos to make them look extra special (and a summary of the most popular wedding photo effect styles).
5 Jun 2024
35+ Best Comic Book Style Photoshop Actions (+ Pop Art Actions)
Drawing comic book-style pop art can be quite a difficult process, even for experienced graphic designers.
But that’s okay because as a designer you don’t have to be good at everything. You just need to work smarter and find ways to get things done faster. Like learning to use Photoshop actions.
With Photoshop comic book effects and pop art actions, you can instantly give your graphics, photos, and artworks a comic book look and feel.
Today, we bring you some of the best pop art and comic book Photoshop actions you can use to achieve that goal. These actions are easy to use and work perfectly with all kinds of design projects. Grab a few actions from the list and start experimenting.
3 Jun 2024
35+ Photo to Pencil Actions for Photoshop (Sketch + Drawing Effects)
Turning your photos into artworks or drawings used to be an expensive and time-consuming task. Back in the day, you had to hire an artist to get the job done.
Thanks to Photoshop, this task now only takes just a few mouse clicks. With the help of Photoshop actions, you can easily transform your photos into pencil sketches or realistic drawings in a matter of seconds.
Today, we bring you some of the easy-to-use Photoshop pencil sketch effects and actions for quickly turning your photos and graphics into works of art.
We included both high-quality premium Photoshop actions as well as a few free items. Be sure to download them all.
30 May 2024
35+ Best Photoshop HDR Effects, Actions & Filters (HDR in Photoshop)
HDR (high dynamic range) imaging is a technique professional photographers use to give a vivid and enhanced look to photos. This technique is very hard to replicate but thanks to Photoshop actions now you can give an HDR look to your own photos with just one click.
In this collection, we feature various types of HDR effects you can use to enhance your ordinary photos to make them look like they were shot with an expensive DSLR.
There are HDR filters and actions for improving portraits, landscape photos, cityscape photos, sports photos, and much more.
Be sure to download them all below.
What Is a Photoshop Action?
A Photoshop action is a “recorded” command that you can use later to perform tasks in the popular editing software. Using actions can help you tap into creative techniques, cutting edge post-processing styles and beautiful effects.
Here’s how Photoshop describes it:
An action is a series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files—menu commands, panel options, tool actions, and so on. For example, you can create an action that changes the size of an image, applies an effect to the image, and then saves the file in the desired format.
Actions can include steps that let you perform tasks that cannot be recorded (for example, using a painting tool). Actions can also include modal controls that let you enter values in a dialog box while playing an action.
5 Places to Find Photoshop Actions
While you can create your own Photoshop actions, there is an abundance of them available from third parties, with paid and free options. The nice thing about downloading a Photoshop action is that it can help you get comfortable with this design technique if you haven’t used it before.
Here are five places to find Photoshop actions for your projects:
- Envato Elements has a huge library of Photoshop actions that are all available to subscribers at no extra cost.
- Fix the Photo has a good collection of actions for portrait touch-ups that are all free to use.
- Shutter Pulse has an extensive library of Photoshop actions, most of which are designed for photos of people with easy to see previews.
- Creative Market includes a library of nearly 300 actions in .psd format that you can purchase one at a time for as little as a few bucks.
- Creative Tacos has a collection of several hundred Photoshop actions that are grouped by category for easy search and filtering.
How to Add an Action to Photoshop
Adding an action to Photoshop is easier than you might think. Once you add an action it is part of your Photoshop library and available to use over and over again.
Here’s how you do it:
- Download and unzip the action file.
- Open Photoshop and navigate to Window, then Actions. The Actions Panel will open. (The placement often defaults to the top right.)
- From the menu, select Load Actions, navigate to the saved, unzipped action and select it. The file you want to install ends with .atn. Many downloadable actions also include readme or instruction files that are not installed.
- The action is ready for use.
